t)« THE FLOOD OF 1 843. 



ceetled iu reaching ihe tree just in time to save her from 

 yielding her position, and consequently her life, from exhaus- 

 tion. Securing the rope to her body, and by the assistance of 

 Messrs. Cunningham and Heller, he was enabled to rescue 

 her from a watery grave. Thus it will be seen that Susan 

 Dowlan owes her life to a combination of circumstances 

 which the most inventive imagination could scarcely have 

 pictured to subserve the purposes of fiction. 



At Garrett's factory, also occupied by D. & C. Kelly, 

 three families, numbering sixteen individuals, were, for a long 

 time placed in the utmost jeopardy. Their retreat to the land 

 was wholly cut off by the sudden rise in the water. The 

 houses they occupied were completely wrecked, and large por- 

 tions of them carried away. They had nothing left but their 

 tottering ruins to afford them the least security. These fortu- 

 nately withstood the force of the current, though every indi- 

 vidual had given up all hopes of surviving that dreadful 

 night. 



Xo lives were lost on Crum creek, nor are the Committee 

 aware that any persons were rescued from situations of great 

 peril upon that stream. 



Un Ridley creek five lives were lost — a father and his four 

 children. George Hargraves, his wife and four children, 

 resided at the factory of Samuel Bancroft. A long stone 

 building which had been converted into four dwellings, stood 

 in a very exposed situation between the factory ami the steep 

 acclivity on the west side of the creek. One of the middle 

 dwellings was occupied by George Hargraves, his wife and 

 five children, and William Hargraves, the brother of (leorge. 

 The other middle house was occupied by Thomas W'ardel 

 Brown, his wife and child. In endeavoring to secure the pro- 

 perty in the basement of their dwellings, these persons 

 delayed making their escape until all chance of doing so was 

 gone, so sudden was the rise in the water at this jilace. They 

 retreated to the second story oi their house, and occupied one 

 of the bed rooms — the water continuinij to rise with fearful 



