Gazette Of The United States, & Philadelphia Daily Advertiser

The Gazette.

PHILADELPHIA THURSDAY EVENING, AUGUST 31.

Further particulars of the damage occasioned by the heavy rains of last week

It is agreed to have been the heaviest fall of rain almost ever remembered in this neighbourhood—carrying away the mill-dam of John Shoemaker, near the Old York road, and entirely sweeping away the bridge on the said road, just below his mill,—swelling the creek to such a depth at the usual place of fording, as to render a passage impracticable without going a considerable distance down the creek. It also threw down the mill-dam of col. Miles's grist mill, and destroyed the bridge near his seat, besides other considerable damage.

These losses are, however, trifling, in comparison with that of Oliver Wilson and wife, who to their great affliction, have been bereft of an only son, an active and promising lad about 14 years of age: he was the morning after the rain, assisting in collecting the rails, and to replace the fence carried away by the flood; in doing which getting his clothes wet, he was desired to go to the house to get some dry ones, with which it was thought he had complied; but at noon the family were much alarmed on his being missing:—a diligent search through the neighbourhood now took place, but no discovery made till about sun-down, when, to the inexpressible grief of his parents, his body was found in a deep hole just below the new stone bridge, (on the old York road above Miles Town) which sustained considerable damage by the foundation being undermined and part of the arch fallen in. It is supposed the unfortunate lad never rose, as his body was found under a rock in the cavity: this is the more probable, as two men were working at a small distance on the other side the bridge, and within hearing, without the least knowledge of this awful event. His remains were interred in Friends' burying ground, at Abington, on the 28th inst. attended by a very numerous body of friends and weeping relatives.