Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1870-02-21
Son have stock of beef and pork and other

water in the cellar of the johnson House is
from four to Ave feet deep. The ice dealers
will lose heavily. The ice is gone and broken
up in several places above the old ice jam Of
last January. Below this JAM up to O'Clock
the ice was good, and large force of men
was trying to save some of it. n. O. Mitch
ell had 40 men at work all day putting in ice.
The Gardiner bridge moved at one time some
three or four feet down river; one pier near
the bridge was swept away. The ice piled up
in huge masses against the bridge, and at
one time it was thought to be unsafe.
The river has fallen some IA inches and if
the jam holds the ice and bridge will be saved.
At the Knickerbocker houses the water was
up to the railroad track and around the houses
about foot deep, but th' y stood the flood all
right The streets have been crowded and
the Western Union Telegraph Office was filled
to the utermOst with anxious citizens waiting
to hear from the up-river stations. The
roads leading to South Gardiner, Pittston and
Hallowell are all flooded SO as to render pass
ing impossible.
The telegraph wires up river are all down,
and the intelligence from that section is
mostly CLEANED from private sources. At
Scion, damage to considerable extent was
done to mills and dams on the Fall brook.
The bridges at Madison and Norridgewock,
across the Kennebec, have been swept away.
The freshet piled the ice up so that it was in
in many places four or five feet thick, COM
pletely cleaning out almost everything from
Arson to Augusta.
There has been no material damage done at
Skowhegan. Ice jammed below Somerset
Mills Saturday night and piled in huge
masses with logs on the shore and islands.
The damage sustained at Kendall's Mills was
light. About noon Saturday, water under
mined the culvert on the p. & X. r. II. above
and 80 feet deep, was washed out. Superin-
tendent Lincoln was soon informed of the
trouble, and Immediately sent a train with TIM
Der sleepers and 80 men to Waterville to re-
pair it. These men worked all night in con-
junction with crew furnished by Supt Noyes
of the Maine Central. 1t took about 1000
sleepers to repair the damage. Passengers
for Skowhegan stopped at Waterville all night,
those going east on the M. c. r. r. connect
ed near thebreak with the NJ. c. r. R., which
stopped for them there. The roads are side
by side at the break. As this train passed up
the river it seemed one vast field of broken
ice. The ice piled up on the shore like a
sea wall, crushing fences and forests and
leaving huge bouldors of ice upon the ada
cent lands.
The damage up the Sandy river must have
been very great. 1t is probable that the
bridges over the river are swept away! The
damage to the numbering interest must be
great. The loss of the bridges at Madison
and Norridgewock will be most severely felt
by the public. The water at Norridgewock
was five feet higher than during the October
freshet sick woman in house on the
south side was taken across on raft.
The bridge at Seven Mile brook has been
jammed up stream by the ice, and small
bridge near this on the railroad line has been
carried away.
The greatest loss by the storm and freshet
will fall upon the Portland and kennebec
Co. 1t will require at least three months to
rebuild their bridge at this place, while the
inconvenience and expense of transmitting
freight and passengers will be loss to the
company that cannot be estimated. At the
present time it is thought that the damage to
the company by the freshet will not fall short
of 100000.
The principal damage by the freshet ap-
pears to be confined to the Kennebec, although
our telegraphic dispatches tonight may show
disaster elsewhere.
The water in the river at this city continued
stationary until dark, when it gradually fell.
As we close our report, at midnight, the water
has fallen about two feet. 4 gentleman from
Vassalboro, informs us that at that place
there are acres of ice yet to come down. If
this jam comes in body, the bridge at this
place will have another severe trial of its
strength. Ice was coming down in large
quantities up to midnight, indicating that a
portion of the jam had given way.
Yesterday was indeed a day of trial to our
citizens. The scenes witnessed had their
parallel on the Sabbath when the great con-
fagration swept through our business street.
The loss of property in the stores was but
secondary consideration compared with the
great anxiety felt for the safety of the dam
and bridge. The extent of the freshet is with
out parallel in the history of this section.
The water rose about twenty-five feet, reach
ing point three feet higher than the great
freshet of 1882. From the steam-mill of the
Kennebec Land & Lumber company for two
miles down the river, there is perfect jam Of
ice and logs and broken fragments of bridges
and buildings. Should this remain and wear
away gradually, no further damage need be
apprchended by our down. river neighbors ;
but if on the contrary this vast mass should
move m body, its pathway will be marked
by ruin. We wait in suspense for what this
day may bring forth.
STERLING ARTICLE.-Nature's Hair Restor-
,t;,s Co claar grant efficient in restorin