The New Hampshire Gazette

DISTRESSING.

LITCHFIELD, (CONN.) MAY 2.

The heavy rains, which fell on Sunday the 29th ult. and the evening preceding, produced a flood, destructive of much property in many places, and in some instances ruinous to the sufferers. Fortunately the damage in this town was but trifling; except the loss of several bridges, and injury done the roads, its sweeping ravages were not in any considerable degree experienced. General Sedgwick, of Cornwall, lost a grist-mill and sustained various other losses. in the whole to several hundred pounds amount. But the sorest and most cutting stroke of all is in comparison with which the distressing loss of property bears no estimate, that at Esopus-kill, (N. Y.) 7 miles above the town, the whole family of Mr. Chauncey Avery, consisting of his wife and seven children, were in one awful moment swept off by the freshet, and drowned; Five of the children were sons, the other two daughters; the eldest aged 11 years, the youngest 8 months. Seven of the bodies were taken up the next day. The house, the family inhabited, stood upon a neck of land which projected into the Creek: the flood was so impetuous, from the rapid and surprising swell, that the water almost instantly was forced into a new channel, and inundated the house and every thing with it; rendering hopeless and impracticable the saving of life or property. We also learn, that the same flood carried away two elegant bridges, on the Catskill turnpike, leading to the Susquehannah settlements.