Flooding was a problem in Erie county during the nineteenth century, long before the Mill Creek flood of 1915 in the following century.
The flood that took place in Oil Creek, June 5, 1892, was caused, as before in the past, by the breaking of a dam. Oil Creek, a tributary of the Allegheny River in Venango and Crawford counties, did vast damage at Titusville and Oil City, and led to much loss of life. The floods of 1892 extended all over the northwestern part of the State; and being due to heavy and long continued rains, were particularly disastrous at Union City, in Erie county, and Irvineton, in Warren county. The tracks of the Philadelphia and Erie Railroad was badly cut up between Corry and LeBoeuf Station, numerous bridges were injured or destroyed, and portions of the lowlands in the borough were overflowed, inflicting immense damage.
The Borough of Union City was a prosperous wood products manufacturing community. Haniel Clark's and Sherwood and Dunmeyer's mills exploited the water power of the south branch of French Creek, which is a tributary of the Allegheny River as well. Several dams dotted the length of French Creek as it snaked westward into Union City from the City of Corry. But the over-dammed French Creek, with its exposed banks, was highly vulnerable to flood. Catastrophe struck in early June 1892. Within hours, two torrential rainstorms deluged Northwestern Pennsylvania. The succession of heavy rains swelled French Creek, sending the raging waters over its treeless banks and on a path of destruction.
Seventy-five people died from flood and fire in Titusville, which lost a third of its businesses and residences (Union City Times, June 9, 1892). While none died in Union City, the flood damage in 1892 was extensive. Ordinarily, wrote the Union City Times, "French Creek is as significant a stream as ever meandered in pastoral significance." But after the second deluge hit Union City, " ‘laments the Times,’ the stream turned into a crushing monster." (Union City Times, June 2, 1892).
First, Dunmeyer's Dam broke, sweeping heavy water into Clark's Pond. Then Clark's Dam gave way and a wall of logs, lumber, and debris formed a dam against the Philadelphia and Erie Railroad's new double-track iron bridge. The Philadelphia and Erie Railroad's abutment created a channel for the raging water, which coursed down Willow and Crooked Street, swirling and churning against Church's Mill Dam, then crashing into the High Street Bridge and hurling it a thousand feet downstream. While the Main Street Bridge survived, it was seriously weakened. Several businesses along Main Street were destroyed, forcing the Union City Times to pronounce the disaster "a serious blow to our thriving town, which has been prospering so nicely for the past few years and has justly earned the reputation for being the busiest and pleasantest and most hospitable little city to be found in this great Commonwealth" (Union City Times, June 5, 1892).
The storm damage to Union City and the surrounding countryside equaled that to the damage in the Borough. French Creek swept many horses, cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry into its surging waters where they drowned. As well as losing their stock, farmers faced the losses of their crops as the flood waters washed out and ruined their crops. The loss was estimated to reach several hundred thousand dollars.
The storms begun, June 4, on a Saturday, the morning was a bright and pleasant after a stormy week. Then in the early afternoon a huge black cloud appeared on the southeastern horizon and soon a matching cloud appeared. The two storm clouds swept toward each other and soon lightning displays lit up the sky and thunder rumbled in the backdrop. The storm broke its full fury over Union City about three o’clock in the afternoon. Thunder and lightning roared and flashed in concert and rain fell in sheets. The storm lasted for about an hour and then the sky grew bright again. This was only the calm before the second storm.
The clouds began to roll around again about five o’clock that evening, the thunder and lightning grew more intense and the rain hung over the Borough. The storm lasted until nearly seven o’clock. By this time all of the little streams in Union City and the surrounding area had grown to overflowing their banks and they poured into the valleys and lowlands. At about eight thirty, the third and the most severe storm crashed over Union City and raged for two hours. By this time, the rain and wind and moving water had transformed Union City into a devastated, flooded landscape.
Then Clark’s dam gave away to a solid wall of water that rushed down French Creek’s narrow channel. The logs, lumber, and debris escaping from Clark’s Mill Pond formed a dam at the new double track iron bridge that the Philadelphia and Erie Railroad built just east of their depot. The dammed water carved a new channel and came surging down the railroad and lowlands on the north side of the track.
Early in the evening, the Philadelphia & Erie work train was ordered out and ran east about half a mile to try to strengthen the iron bridge near Steenrod’s Mill, roaring French Creek had taken out the bridge and carried it away. The workmen then boarded the train and started to return to the depot in Union City. When they were within 600 feet of the depot, they discovered that another bridge had been washed away. The train stood stranded on the track, while the surging waters on each side of the road bed washed away everything in its path. Rescuers brought the workmen back to Union City in boats. The loss to the Philadelphia & Erie Railroad Company totaled thousands of dollars.
It was now 11:00 o’clock in the evening, and the sky overhead was still black and threatening even though the force of the storm had died down a little. The water rushing down Willow and Crooked (Market) streets filled the cellars and flooded the lower floors of the houses and businesses along the streets. The water undermined foundations and swirl away loose property as it moved along.
At 11:05 that evening water covered the floors of the electric light plant on Crooked Street and the engineer shut down the entire plant. Darkness settled over Union City, but several hundred Union City citizens and Rescuers were undeterred. They lit all of the lanterns they could find and continued their mission of saving property and lives. Many residents of Willow Street were rescued from their homes and many rowed away from them in boats. Rescue parties worked all night long and into the morning dawned of a cloudless sky and bright sun.
Some of the folks on the high ground were not aware of what damage the storms had done to their town until they ventured out and about town. The principal business streets were clogged with wreckage and the entire distance of Waterford and Willow streets and East High Street were littered with debris.
The Deamer Block collapsed into a pile of ruins, with a crash that could be heard many blocks away. When the building fell it also took the end of the two story frame building that Mr. Tansey and Mr. Warner owned. A billiard room occupied the first floor of the building, and C.A. Law’s merchant tailoring firm, the second floor. Mr. Law managed to get most of his goods out of the building before it collapsed, but the owner of the billiard room managed to salvage only a few articles. The billiard tables were twisted out of shape and wrecked.
The flood waters undermined the foundation under the south wall of the Keystone Block and about one-third of the wall fell out. The Johnson House Hotel was located in the Keystone Block and guests who had gone to bed the night before, sleeping through the storm, were awakened early and told about their danger. They hastily fled to higher and drier ground.
Goodnough’s Jewelry Store occupied a one story frame building, located between the Odd Fellows Block and the Post Office. The flood waters carved a new channel down Crooked Street to the rear of the Odd Fellow’s Block to the mill race on the north side of the Post Office Building. Shortly after eleven o’clock the Goodnough Block collapsed into the water. Rescuers managed to remove all of the goods, except for a big safe, before the water carried the building away.
At half past five o’clock in the following morning of Sunday on June 5, the rampaging water of French Creek carried away the High Street Bridge. The bridge collapsed with a horridness crash and ended up at the bend of the creek nearly one thousand feet below High Street, where the day before it had spanned French Creek. The twisted and broken iron tangled into a mass, and the stone abutment that the Borough of Union City had built a few years ago, for more than two thousand dollars, lay piled up at the bottom of the French Creek.
The walls underneath the rear of the Post Office Building gave way and the waters in Main Street had receded enough to permit people to pick their way over the debris and mail, which filled the street from the Main Street Bridge, north to Waterford Street.
The Cooper Planning Mill, located on the south bank of Little French Creek and the east side of Main Street, was occupied by Mr. Loomis and Mr. Middleton as a planning mill and sash, door, and blind factory. For several hours many workmen carried out and removed finished work, tools, and light materials from the building in support of the ongoing rescue and salvage efforts. At twenty minutes past eleven o’clock the workmen finished. Just then about one-half of the big two story frame building collapsed and fell into the rushing, roaring torrent, twenty feet below. The building was so completely wrecked that it passed under the Main Street Bridge without harming it.
The Union City Times estimated that the damage to city property including streets and bridges would reach $30,000 while the individual losses would approach $75,000.
The flood provoked a serious reassessment of the use of French Creek for water power. At the same time, the disaster sparked interest in public improvements in general. For example, while such mills as Clark's continued to exploit French Creek for water power, Clark did so by employing pumps, not millrace-turned turbines. Indeed, after 1892, the town launched a campaign to outlaw all dams on French Creek. The borough paid Dunmeyer $500 to abandon his dam and millrace (Union City Borough Minutes, July 5, 1892).
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| Borough of Union City (1892) |
On June 4 and 5, 1892, storms and French Creek flooding demolished buildings and scattered wreckage throughout the Borough. The Union City Times estimated that the damage to city property including streets and bridges would reach $30,000 while the individual losses would approach $75,000.
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| French Creek Floodwaters Swept through Union City. This is a photograph that was taken at South Main Street, from the Penn Central Railroad tracks, looking South. |