THE FLOOD OF 1843. 75 



and her infant, and that of the little girl from Manayunk, 

 have not yet been found. "^^ 



The occupants of the other houses which were carried off, 

 escaped early, some of them by wading the current which 

 swept around their dwellings at imminent hazard, as it rose 

 with fearful rapidity. 



In Pennsgrove, a house occupied by Samuel Riddle, stand- 

 ing very near the four tenements of John Rhoads which were 

 carried away, became a resort for several females, as a place 

 of safety. These, with the resident inmates, all females, 

 (Mr. Riddle himself being at the factory,) were, during a 

 long time in a very perilous situation. A survey of the 

 present ruined condition of this house cannot but cause a 

 shudder, with the fact in view, that here were twelve or thir- 

 teen young women in an upper storj' without a chance of 

 escape, while every thing around them had been washed 

 away. Full in their view, house after house had swept by, 

 and amidst the roar of troubled waters, the crash of falling 

 timbers, and the shrieks of the perishing Rhoads famih', here 

 they were with no other reasonable expectation but immediate 

 death. Some of these females manifested a firmness and 

 resignation of rare character ; and after they had, on bended 

 knees, with their hands clasped in each other's, committed 

 themselves body and soul to Him who controls the winds and 

 " taketh up the waters as a little thing," they waited with 

 true Christian fortitude in momentary expectation of a 

 water}' grave. 



But the frail building which they occupied was not des- 

 tined to fall. A large tree bent over to protect an exposed 



*The body of the little girl has been found since the manuscript of 

 this report was placed in the hands of the publisher. The heavy rain 

 which occurred on the 17th of January', caused a freshet in the creek 

 which removed a deposit of earth made by the flood of the 5tli of 

 August, a short distance from the place where the houses of Mr. Rhoads 

 had stood, and exposed the remains of this child. They were identified 

 by the clothing. 



