St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1892-06-23
TUESDAYS FLOOD.
VISITED BY THE WORST FRESHET
SINCE 1860.
The Railroads and the Scale Company
Suffer the Worst.

not know until Tuesday morn
ing that this vicinity had been visited
by the heaviest showers for many
years, and that the rivers were the
highest since the memorable flood of
1869. Railroad traffic was paralyzed
all Tuesday morning, and it will
take several days to remedy the
damage of the storm. The most
serious loss in St. Johnsbury was at
FAIRBANKS SCALE WORKS.
Sleeper's river, which is usually
calm and quiet, rose early Tuesday
morning to the highest point ever
known, and before O'Clock it had
overfowed its banks all through
Fairbanks village. 1t was at its
greatest height at this time, and fell
rapidly through the morning.
The watchmen saw the river rising
and at 4 O'Clock started out to wake
some of the people in the village and
officers of the corporation. By 4.3O
the river had filled its banks and was
flooding the Easements of the houses
opposite the lumber yard, as we'll as
sweeping down stream quantities Of
lumber The first obstacle to stop
the onward rush of the debris and
lumber was the covered railroad
bridge leading from the scale works
fo tho 1,1,, Tho I,-,I
could not long stand such a terrible
strain and about 4.3O it fell with a
mighty crash into the turbulent
waters and was swept down the
stream towards the iron highway
bridge. Just beyond this are two scale
storehouses built across the river.
When the railroad bridge started the
few who were there expected to see
it sweep everything before it and en-
tail a loss of thousands of dollars up
on the corporation. Fortunately
the railroad bridge struck first the
stone wall on the east side of Sleep
er's river and when the bridge struck
the iron bridge the latter structure
held. The iron bridge was moved
down stream nearly six feet, and fears
were entertained that this bridge and
the storehouses might be swept
away. Great piles of lumber con-
tinued to be swept down upon the
railroad bridge, but workmen work
ed faithfully to prevent any jam that
would cause any more damage.
The storehouse on the west side
of the river had a portion of it's
foundation wall washed away and
the first floor also gave way in
places. Some boxes of scales fell in
to the water, but were rescued be-
fore the current swept them down
the stream.
Col. Franklin Fairbanks, president
of the corporation, arrived just after
the railroad bridge fell and super
intended the work of keeping the
lumber from causing a jam and re-
moving the scales from the store
| houses.
Just about six o'clock the bridge
OClWCCH lllO lHdCulHS SuOp anu the
foundry was swept away and lodged
in the bend of the river few rods
down the stream. The railroad
bridge at the lower end of the foun-
dry was held by car of pig iron
and the bridge at the OK barn was
tied and kept in its place by a force
of men directed by 6. w. Story
Had the latter bridge been swept
away everything below it would
probably have gone. The covered
bridge leading to the blacksmith
shop was unsafe in the height of the
food and at one time it looked a if
this would be swept away. The water
forced its way into the boiler room
and weakened the brick wall which
stood on the river bank just below
the dam. The blacksmith shop was
flooded with two feet of water,
while the machine shop had foot of
water in it. At the foundry there
was at least two feet of water and
mud and number of TASKS were
swept down the stream.
Aside from the removal of the two
bridges the scale company report |
little loss. Both the bridges, how
ever, are well preserved and will be
taken down and replaced on their
original foundations. The shops |
that were flooded with water were
cleaned up before Tuesday noon and
the company started up their factory |
on Wednesday morning. Their loss
will not exceed $500. Tuesday |
morning at six O'Clock no one dared |
to predict the result, but the rapid |
fall of the river prevented the loss
which was imminent at that time.
The company's loss in 1869 was
estimated by the CALEDoNIAN at
$4,000. This weeks freshet, there
fore, caused little loss as compared
with the memorable food of 1869.