1843.] HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY. 365 



Nineteen human beings lost their lives by drowning. To 

 persons who cannot bring their minds to realize the almost 

 instantaneous rise in the water, this number may appear large, 

 but it is really almost miraculous, tliat under tlie circumstances, 

 so small a number should have perished. Ilair-breadth escapes, 

 and rescues from perilous situations, were numerous. Had the 

 inundation occurred at midnight, when most persons are wrapped 

 in shnnber, the destruction of human life would have been 

 dreadful indeed. Such a calamity can only be contemplated 

 with feelings of horror. 



Seven lives were lost on Darby Creek. When the stone bridge 

 at Darby yielded to the torrent, two young men — Russell K. 

 Flounders and Josiah Bunting, jr., were standing upon it. Both 

 perished. At the cotton factory of D. & C. Kelly, on the Dela- 

 ware County Turnpike five lives were lost. Michael Nolan and 

 his family, consisting of his wife, five children and a young 

 woman named Susan Dowlan, occupied a small frame tenement 

 immediately below the western wall of the bridge. Before any 

 immediate danger from the rise of water was apprehended, 

 Michael and his eldest son had left the house with the view of 

 making arrangements for the removal of the family. There was no 

 water about the house when the father and son started, yet upon 

 their attempt to return, after an absence of five minutes, it was 

 not in the power of any one to reach the dwelling, much less to 

 render the inmates any assistance. The wing-walls of the bridge 

 soon gave way, and shortly after this the house was swept from 

 its foundations, became a complete wreck, and all the inmates 

 perished, except Susan Dowlan, who accidentally caught the 

 branches of a tree, and at length obtained a foothold on a pro- 

 jecting knot, where she supported herself till the water had suflB- 

 ciently abated to allow her to be rescued. At Garrett's Factory 

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

 time, placed in the utmost jeopardy. Their retreat from land 

 was wholly cut ofi" by the sudden rise in the water — the houses 

 they occupied were completely wrecked and large portions of 

 them carried away, and they had nothing left to afford them the 

 least security but the tottering remains of the ruins of their 

 dwellings, which, fortunately, withstood the torrent. 



No lives were lost on Crum Creek. 



On Ridley Creek five individuals perished, a father and his 

 four children. George Ilargraves, his wife, four children and a 

 brother, named William, occupied a central dwelling in a long 

 stone building at Samuel Bancroft's factory, in Nether Provi- 

 dence. The family delayed making their escape till it was too 

 late, but retreated into the second story. The flood soon rushed 

 through the building and carried away the two middle dwellings, 



