The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1869-10-11


The Lewiston Journal has an interesting re.
port of the freshet on Swift river, tributary
of the Androscoggin, and the dividing line be-
tween Rumford and Mexico, showing a rise of
thirty-six feet in twelve houls. The improve
menis of the Lewiston Steam Mill Companv.
for numbering operations, were destroyed, and
their large dam swept away. Scores of inter-
vale farms were covered several feet deep with
sand, and scores of houses and barns were de-
molished, the people barely escaping with their
lives to the mountains with their children in
their arms The farmers living on the river are
impoverished and homeless. In some districts
it will be almost impractieable for the people
to bear the expense of rebuilding highways.
shorn as they are of bridges and culverts and
filed with trees and wrecks. Hundreds of
people have visited the localities where this
desolation has been wrought and all who have
witnessed it agree that language cannot exag-
gerate the desolation and ruin.
Two lumbermen, who came from Roxbury
Tuesday, tell the following incident:
Just then they reached house around which
the water had risen and which it threatened to
sweep off Its occupants were an old lady and
an old man named Cannon. Just as they
were trying to get some means of saving them
neighbours boy ran up and said Mr. Taylor's
family were perishing in the waters Rushing
thither they barely had time by wading to
their neck and swimming to get the Taylors
out of their home, which was half full of
water. Haley took q girl of 10 years under
one arm and boy of II years under the other,
carried them fifteen rods through from five TO
six feet OF water, and landed them safely on
the highland. They choked with water.the
girl being at times wholly under the torrent
but both were saved. So rapid was the rise
that houses were surrounded with water before
the people were aware of it. Having rescued
this family the gallant lumbermen hurried
back for the old lady Cannon and her hus-
band. Despite the surrounding danger the
lumbermen found the old man trying to save
his crops, and two boys were picking up
pumpkins in four feet of water. He expestu-
lated with them for hazarding their lives tor
such paltry considerations, showing them to
was, however. irascible and doggedly deter
mined to save his corn.
"Where are you going?" said Haley, as the
old man began wading towards the corn field.
"Going after my corn,' said the heart. broken
old man.
"Going to hill" shouted Haley.
"Come back here or you'll be lost"
This ungentle retOrt to Cannon that it
might after all prove that' his life was all
CANNON" brought Cannon to his senses, and
pOc Wis uduutu ulIu dCTOSS Lue uctpoDluS
interval which could not he waded Both his
rescuers clasped the pole; Cannon chung tena-
ciOusly to the watery end, and was drawn
dripping as wharf rat and exhausted to terra
| irma. Meanwhile the old lady was up to her
hips in water, and no way apparently to get
across the intervening deeps. One of the lum-
bermen managed to swim where she was and
the other ran for pole.
Before he returned the water had risen sc
| that it was up to her arms. Sweeping near
| them were wrecks of barns, crops and shivered
| trees. 1t was dangerous spot to spend many
moments time. Looking around him for 'an
| idea" the lumberman found that the only way
| of safety was to flee to the trees. Near by him
was tall tree wAOse trunk was already swim
| ming in water, but was SO situated that ht
| thought it would not wash off. He told the
| old lady his plans and wading to the point il
| question, boosted" her up into the tree, bio
her climb to safe height, and he would return
to her rescue as soon as the waters had subsid
| ed. The lumberman found that his own chance
| was pretty small. The prospect was fOrebod
ing, but girding himself well. and being {
| good swimmer, he made out through the flood
He swan he thinks about sixty rods before hi
| could find land and get into an Old barn where
he slowed himself away. Here he spent th'
night.
| AS soon as the waters had subsidized suffi
| GENTLY, the people, aware of Mrs Gammoni
| critical situation, returned to the rescue. Thu
| old lady, almost fore-score years, had stood he
| temptestuous hours in the tree with a nerve
and bravery that did her credit. She hat
| climbed the tree as high as she dared, and ye
| the water had risen so rapidly at one time tina
the waves spattered into her face, and sh'
| awaited death as her only fate. But soon tn,
water began to subside, and after an incarcera
| ton of hours, surrounded by terrors which W,
cannot describe, the old lady was rescued un
| harmed, except by the thorough drenchins
| she received. When rescued she was in three
| feet of water!
| The water in Hanover pond rose six niche
in twenty-five minutes, Although the pond ii
but mile from the Androscoggin river, it il
| 500 feet above its level.
For miles between Hanover and Bethel, thu
water was up to the road on either side thu
| river, the water spreading out like a lake ant
| completely covering the broad intervales. A
| Newry Corner the bridge over Bear River wa
carried off, and shoe shop went down tn
river. In Rumford every bridge in town, excep
the Ellis river bridg &c, which is very HIGH wa
swept away. In Andover three large bridge
over the Ellis river were carried away, and tn,
town has suffered greatly from washed ou
roads.