Steuben County, Indiana - Chapter 3: Early History, 1885 (part 2 of 2)

His blacksmith shop had been driven against the addition, which was joined to the lower eaves of our house, working it off. For one moment we all waited in breathless silence, then the house began to plunge over, and as the lights went out I saw my husband jump out of the door, and caught a glimpse of his mother flying with the bed over the stairway. So I sprang to prevent her from going below. I heard her head strike! She, groaning, fell with the bed through the stairway, but the bedstead having high posts stopped, and 1 clung hold of a foot post, while Mrs. Brace got hold of a side-rail, and her husband grasped the other foot post. I called to Jonathan to cling tight to the bedstead. He said, " Yes, mamma;" that was the last I heard from him. The house was immediately broken to pieces in such a manner as to free us from timbers, and we three went plungintf down stream clinging to the bedstead. After being twice immersed, as I again rose to the surface, struggling to keep my hold on the bedpost, it seemed that the waves or something else took me with force and set me across the foot-board, I still clinging to the post. I was no more plunged under water, but kept that position till I stopped the bedstead. Some to whom I have related the circumstances have said that doubtless an angel placed me on that foot-board, and guided my course down that crooked stream, through the woods and past the rocky bluffs. And, truly, it would seem almost impossible for one to be carried by a raging torrent, tilled with the debris of mills and other buildings, together with fences and torn up trees, down a winding stream, along whose banks, in places, were perpendicular rocks of fifty feet and more in height, also woods to pass through; yet 1 was not scratched or bruised from coming in contact with either. My bonnet, which I had tied so snugly on my head, was suddenly snatched off by the limbs of a tree. We had not gone half a mile down the stream before Mr. Brace was dashed against the rocks or trees, I could not see which in the thick darkness. His poor wife hearing him groan called to him, sajing, *' Calvin, are yju gmeV Bat we were rapidly carried on, leaving him in his death struggle. The next day his body was found, two miles below, a little way from the stream, his skull broken, one foot ofi" and his oat torn from him. Our poor old mother lay near him terribly bruised, and her clothes mostly torn off. A Norwegian by the name of Dueland had a farm two miles below our place. His house was built on the flat, near the hill. He had a flourishing cornfield between his house and the creek; the rocks were torn from the blufis and thrown over his land for twenty rods square, but, fortunately, a heavy body of timber stood just above his house which prevented the fiood-wood from coming against it. My course was directly over those rocks, and then through that piece of timber.

As we passed Mr. Dueland's house I saw a light at their window, and called to Mrs. Brace, telling her there was a house, for I could see the light; but the darkness was so intense I could see no house, and supposed the light must be at some distance the other side of the creek; yet I was so near that Mrs. Dueland, who was in the chamber, heard me speak to Mrs. B., and she called to her husband, telling him that somebody was passing, for she heard a woman's voice. Mr. Dueland was below, standing in water up to his waist, holding the door from bursting in. * I heard Mrs. Brace's voice in prayer, as we floated down the stream, but it grew faint, and soon after we had passed Mr. Dueland's it ceased and she gave me no answer when I called to her, so I supposed she was gone and I was left alone. Four miles below our place a little stream called Trout Run emptied into the main stream from the west, and I was carried on my bedstead across this stream and beside a piece of timber which grew on the left bank of the creek.

There the bottom lands widen out, extending forty rods between the bluffs, so I went on more gently, and in passing under a tree felt a limb strike my head; reaching up, I grasped the limb with one hand while I held the bedpost to the body of the tree. My bedstead swung around to the lower side, and directly the floodwood that was following down lodged against the upper side of the tree, so that I climbed upon it, and remained there till daylight. The rain had ceased, and a chilling wind came across the water. Being exhausted, I felt inclined to sleep, but feared to do so lest I fall into the water, so 1 stood on my feet, and exercised what I could to get warm, holding on to the limbs of the tree. The morning was foggy ; no sun appeared to warm the atmosphere or cheer the gloom.

The cattle that had fled to the hills to escape the flood were seeking their way homeward, bellowing as if in fear of the still foaming waters. I, too, felt anxious to return, hoping that I might find my husband yet alive, flattering myself that he might reach some floating timber when he jumped from thai upper door, and so have reached the hill ; if so, I knew that he would be nearly distracted till he should learn the fate of his family. I knew not how far down the stream I had been carried, nor how long I might have to wait for some one to find me. I could not stay here in suspense; I must get to the hill and go far enough back to shun the ravine. But how should I get to the hill, which was separated from me by twenty rods of water? A board lay on the floodwood where I had rested and I resolved to try to raft myself across to the hill, if I could find a pole long enough for the purpose. But through the mercy of a kind providence I found none, for I should probably have been drowned in the undertaking. On the right hand, between me and the creek, were woods filled with flood material, among which I saw drowned animals, and one poor creature struggling to liberate itself from the logs which confined it. With anxiety I looked for some of my own dear friends but found none. Some of ray neighbors in hunting for the lost reached the place at sunset, and found Mrs. Brace; she was on her knees, and her hands clenched in the grass, a few rods below ray bedstead; doubtless she was alive when I stopped at the tree, and was soon after knocked off by the floodwood.

With much effort I succeeded in climbing from one pile of flood-wood to another, until I got out of the \^ ater, and soon after reached Trout Run, which was swollen to a river, with a swift cur- rent. 1 tollowed up the bank till I came to a tree that had fallen across the stream, and lay two or three feet above the water. I was enabled to cross over with steady nerve, and soon after was glad to find a road which I supposed would lead me out to the house of Mr. English, which was one and a half miles from my desolated home. With them I resolved to seek shelter. But I had not traveled far when I observed the fresh tracks of a company of wolves that had gone that way since the rain. I followed on for a mile or 80 when, seeing a dark ravine in front of me and fearing I might meet the wolves , I left the road and climbed a hill to my rio-ht where there were only tall grass and weeds, hoping that I might see a house and find some one to assist me. On I traveled, from one hill to another, till noon, sometimes feeling so exhausted that it seemed I could go no further. Then I stopped and asked the Lord for strength and guidance, and in mercy he enabled me to pursue my way to a Norwegian's cabin. Although my labor and fatigue had been so great I was still shivering with cold; while the women prepared me warm refreshments, the man went and called a neighbor who could talk English. They were surprised to learn of the disaster as there had been no uncommon rain there. The two men took an ax and accompanied me through the woods to Mr. English's. His wife met me saying, " My dear lamb, I did not look f jr you to come alive." To my grief I then learned that Mr. Wisel had not been seen. He must have been drowned. They also told me that Mr. Wellington, who lived half a mile below us, was swept away with all his family and buildings. Their house, after going a few rods, broke up, the roof and chamber floor settling together. On raising the roof, Mrs. Wellington was found with her little grandson, Charley Gage, in her arms; they were in bed, looking as if in a sweet sleep. They had come to their death without any warning. Mr. Wellington had arisen and dressed himself His body was found in the timber where I had lodged. He was buried under the drifted sand only one boot sticking out in sight. They were from New Hampshire. The next day the remains of our poor old mother were brought to me. With tlie assistance of a few neighbors I had just got her laid out when Cyrus Weilington called to see me; he was at work from home at the time of the freshet and so escaped being drowned with the rest of the family. It was decided to take the bodies as fast as they were found to the school-house to be kept until the burial. With sadness, Cyrus told me that his mother and Charley had not been laid out, but were at