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Not within the memory of our oldest inhabitants were such incessant rain
storms recalled as swept our country in 1919. The local weather
official, H B. Mason, reported that practically a
normal year's rainfall fell within the space of three months, with
unusually heavy rains the remainder of the year. Some idea of the
enormous loss sustained everywhere may be gathered from the following
taken in part from one of the county newspapers issued in August.
"Death rode the flood of
Wednesday night and Thursday morning, one young man losing his life
on account of it. The victim was John Brown,
fireman on a work train which ran into an unsuspected washout about
a mile west of Denton about seven o'clock on Thursday morning. This
work train was on its way to repair a cut in a road near Hobbs and
was traveling at a good rate of speed. When the danger spot was
close at hand Engineer Julian Bryan saw
it, told the fireman, and jumped. Brown remained
and in a moment was killed. The engine went through the trestle,
the tender falling on it. The caboose also left the track and fell
into the swollen stream.
For months the big rains had been coming, but it was on Wednesday
last that the floods descended--fell as they had not fallen for many
years. The rain of Wednesday and Wednesday night was the heaviest,
according to some of our citizens who remember well, since the
celebrated downpour of June, 1862, when all the mill dams in the
county were swept away. All agree that it was terrific in its
volume and in the damage that was done. On nearly every farm in
Caroline County heavy loss has been sustained in crops injured.
The county suffers much in the havoc wrought to road and
bridges in many sections. One of the greatest losses was that near
the Boyce mills, on the road from Greensboro to Delaware. The roads
engineer says the cost of a new bridge here will be from $6,000 to
$8,000. There are many bridges damaged, some very badly, and there
are scores of washouts along the public roads.
The floods left the road in a bad way at Faulkner's bridge,
near Federalsburg. In Tuckahoe Neck Pipe bridge is carried away,
and at the Sparklin or Elben mill the road is impassable on account
of a big cut. There is also a bad washout at Mason's bridge, on the
headwaters of the Tuckahoe River. At Bunker Hill branch, north of
Denton, on the west side of Choptank River, the big pipe has been
swept away.
The tremendous fall of water inundated a vast area in the
vicinity of Adamsville, Delaware, the Marshy Hope stream, the
headwaters of the Northwest Fork River being spread over many
hundreds of acres of land under cultivation. At the point of the
M.D. & V. railroad bridge the waters were several hundred feet wide
and so deep over the structure and the track adjacent for a long
distance on each side that Engineer Polk, of the road, said Thursday
night that there was then no immediate prospect of making repairs at
the point where the wreck occurred, because a wrecking train with
the big derrick could not pass over the road. The flood would have
to be allowed to subside. Two washouts are to be repaired, one near
Hobbs and the other between Denton and Tuckahoe Station. Train
service will likely be resumed on Monday.
From 20 to 30 feet of
the dam of Williston mill--that portion from the State road to the
mill--was washed out, causing the shutting down of business and
involving the owner, Mr. Willard C. Todd, in a
considerable loss, and the manager, Mr. C. E. Abbott,
in considerable trouble.
The dam at C.
C. Deen's mill, Fowling Creek, was carried away
Wednesday evening, and there was a great flood about the mill
house. A thousand bushels of wheat, 500 bushels of corn and 50
bushels of meal were overrun and badly damaged.
Cornfields and tomato fields suffered great injury from the
heavy wind and rains. Tomatoes especially are hurt. The prospect
is that the pack will be the smallest in many years. A dispatch
from Federalsburg on Thursday said that place experienced the worst
storm in its history. The Main street was a foot deep in water in
some places. A number of merchants had to move stock and other
things to save them. Boats were propelled about the streets in this
Venice of Caroline. There was an eighty-foot washout on the
Cambridge and Seaford road and passenger and freight trains were
stopped.
Owners of traction
engines are warned by Engineer Waldorf that
many of the bridges may be in unsafe condition, and caution should
be exercised in going over them. Autos should travel slowly and
drivers should be exceedingly careful."
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