1843.] HISTORY OF Delaware county. 3G7 



flood and drowned. Near the same place Mr. William G. Flower 

 was suhjectc'd to imminent peril. Mr. F. was on the meadow 

 when the flood came down in a wave, (represented by spectators 

 as being from three to lour feet high,) and swept him away. He 

 was carried from his path into an old mill-race, where he suc- 

 ceeded in reaching a grape vine, and by means of that, a tree. 

 But the tree Avas soon uprooted and borne away. After a short 

 period of extreme j)eril, during which he was several times over- 

 whelmed with trees, timber, &c., carried along with frightful 

 velocity, he succeeded in catching the branches of another tree, 

 when, almost exhausted, he reached a place of safety. 



No lives were lost at Chester, though numbers were placed 

 in extreme danger by remaining in a dwelling adjoining the 

 eastern abutment of the bridge — the western abutment and the 

 bridge having been carried away, and a fearful current passing 

 between the eastern abutment and the town, Mr. Jonathan 

 Dutton was placed in a situation of great jeopardy. While en- 

 deavoring to secure some property in his mill from being damaged 

 by the flood, he was surprised by the sudden rise in the water to 

 an alarming height. He retreated from story to story till he 

 reached the upper one. His situation soon became more awfully 

 perilous, for the mill began to yield to the force of the torrent. 

 His position becoming desperate, he leaped from a window of the 

 mill and with great exertion reached the shore. 



John Rhoads, a resident of Pennsgrove, (now Glen Riddle) 

 with his daughters, Hannah and Jane, and a granddaughter, 

 were carried away in their dwelling and drowned. Mary Jane 

 McGuigan, with her only child at her breast, in another dwelling 

 at the same place, perished in the same manner. 



The new stone cotton factory at Knowlton, 7(5 by 36 feet, 

 well stored with machinery, was carried aAvay, but fortunately 

 none of the operatives were in the building. There are many 

 other interesting facts and circumstances connected with this 

 unprecedented and disastrous flood, described in the report of 

 the Committee of the Institute, but our allotted space will not 

 permit us to notice them. 



The County Commissioners stood aghast at the almost uni- 

 versal damage or destruction of the County bridges, and scarcely 

 knew where to commence the work of rebuilding and repairs. 

 The Legislature was applied to for an exemption of the County 

 from State tax for one year, which application was ungenerously 

 refused. Loans were resorted to ; and it became a matter of 

 astonishment in what a short time both public and private da- 

 mage was repaired, and almost everything restored to its former, 

 or even to a better condition. The recuperative energies of no 

 community were ever more severely taxed, and it was only by 



