Floodwaters Sweep Through Union City

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).

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.

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.

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Mill Creek flood of August 3rd, 1915

The Mill Creek is a 19-mile long tributary of Lake Erie in Erie County. It flows from Millcreek Township through the city of Erie, into Presque Isle Bay.

Much of the creek in the city has been channeled into the Mill Creek Tube, which was constructed after the Mill Creek Flood. Mill Creek begins in extreme eastern Millcreek Township and travels westward until it is joined by a couple of smaller tributary streams. From there, it roughly follows Glenwood Park Avenue northward until the creek is diverted underground.

The creek passes through the middle of the Erie Zoo, where several bridges span the creek. One of the bridges is designed to act as a drift catcher, preventing large debris from entering the tube further downstream. The drift catcher is also used by the zoo's train to cross over the Mill Creek.

At 30th Street, the Mill Creek is diverted underground, for over 2 miles through the Mill Creek Tube and passes underneath downtown Erie. The creek reappears above ground on the northern side of the Bay-front Parkway before emptying into Presque Isle Bay, at the eastern end of the bay, near South Pier.

The Mill Creek had a history of overflowing its banks, with one happening in 1893; however, the worst such flood occurred on August 03, 1915. After a series of storms produced over 5.77 inches of rain in 13 hours, saturated soil on the banks collapsed, carrying numerous small outbuildings into the creek. The resulting debris obstructed a culvert under 26th Street, producing a reservoir extending for four city blocks. Attempts to clear the blockage, involving the use of dynamite, failed.

Around 8:30 PM, the culvert gave way, releasing the pent up floodwaters into downtown Erie. The flood traveled through the city at 25 miles per hour, leaving a path of destruction 3 miles long and 6 blocks wide. In all, 225 houses were damaged or destroyed, along with over 300 other buildings, resulting in 36 to more than 40 fatalities.

After the culvert gave away, a wall of water reached and tore through the city, around 8:45 PM, lifting houses from their foundations, ripping pavement from streets and knocking trains and streetcars off their tracks. The flood left several hundred families homeless, but it wasn't until dawn arrived the next day on August 04 that stunned Erie residents really caught their first glimpses of the scope of destruction: Streets clogged with mud, remnants of houses and barns, twisted and smashed automobiles, broken machinery, tree trunks, clothing, cattle and chicken carcasses, and human remains.

Later that day, Erie Mayor W.J. Stern issued a citywide proclamation, part of which read: "A catastrophe, the worst in the City of Erie, causing a loss of life and property, which, at this hour, it is impossible to estimate, has befallen us.'' Stern urged Erie residents unaffected by the floodwaters to "respond to the appeals for help by liberal contributions of money, clothing and shelter.” Stern asked that contributors send checks or bring cash to the Mayor's Office, and clothing and food to rooms at the Associated Charities Building in the 100 block of East Fifth Street. That same day, the Erie Daily Times launched a relief fund for flood victims with a $100 donation, proclaiming "Let your pocketbook speak your sympathy.''

On August 03, a succession of storms had unleashed 5.77 inches of rain in the Erie area between 3 PM and 9 PM. Four inches of rain fell between 4 and 7 PM. All of that water was funneled from the Mill Creek watershed into Mill Creek, which flowed through central Erie. As its waters rose, Mill Creek overflowed its banks into farmlands and yards in the Glenwood Hills area. Saturated soil along the creek's banks collapsed, sending trees, barns, chicken coops, outhouses and other structures into the rapidly rising Mill Creek. Debris collected near a culvert at 26th and State streets. Soon, a reservoir formed that extended south for several blocks. Police and firefighters unsuccessfully tried to clear the dam with dynamite. At about 8:45 PM, the culvert broke and a wall of water, estimated in newspaper accounts as high as 25 feet, tore through the central city, moving in a northeasterly direction toward Presque Isle Bay. Written accounts estimate the floodwaters' path of destruction at four blocks to six blocks wide and nearly 3 miles long.

The wave knocked trains and street cars off their tracks. During the height of the flood, every available firefighter and police officer frantically worked to save lives in the stricken areas. Men, women, and children were taken from endangered buildings by rope, ladders, and pieces of lumber thrown together. Erie Fire Chief John McMahon, and firefighter John Donovan, lost their lives in the flood. Donovan, 25 years of age, died the night of the flood while trying to save McMahon. McMahon, 58 years of age, contracted typhoid pneumonia from exposure and died at his West Fourth Street home on August 20, a little more than two weeks after the flood.

McMahon was directing a group of firefighters and had just handed the last occupant of a house at East 23rd and French streets — a blind woman — through a window to another firefighter, according to newspaper accounts, when raging floodwaters lifted the house from its foundation and toppled it into the rushing current. McMahon and three firefighters, including Donovan, were carried on the house's roof for four blocks before it struck a large pile of debris and disintegrated near East 19th and French streets. The four men were tossed into the debris-filled torrent. McMahon was rescued from under a 20-foot pile of debris after a woman heard his cries for help and notified rescuers she believed someone was trapped in the wreckage. A police officer discovered Donovan's body washed up in a pile of debris. Donovan's feet were sticking out of the debris and he had a tight hold with one hand of a tree limb. McMahon, badly bruised and cut, was confined to his bed for a week before he contracted typhoid pneumonia, according to published reports. Erie newspapers published daily reports updating his deteriorating condition. McMahon died at 6:15 AM on August 20.

McMahon had joined the Erie Fire Department in May 1885 and was appointed chief in October 1893. After becoming chief, he adopted new department rules and regulations. His men were required to wear uniforms, and McMahon later introduced rules requiring firefighters to pass rigid physical and mental exams before they could be appointed. During McMahon's tenure, new fire houses were built, new engines were purchased and improved fire alarm boxes with key protectors were installed. McMahon also was responsible for creating the Erie Fire Relief Association, which provided help to injured firefighters and their families, and to families of firefighters killed in the line of duty. Several hundred attended McMahon's funeral at St. Patrick Catholic Church. It was one of the largest funerals in Erie history. McMahon is buried in Trinity Cemetery.

Rescuers and relief workers faced a grisly task in the flood's immediate aftermath. Bodies were washed into Presque Isle Bay. Others were found buried under debris. Four members of the Higgins family, who lived at East Seventh and Holland streets, perished in the flood: John Higgins; his wife, Winifred; and their children, Marian, age 1, and James, age 14. As the floodwaters intensified, the family refused to leave their home because Marian was ill. Rescuers found the girl clasped in the arms of her dead mother.

Six people who died in the Mill Creek flood are buried in Erie Cemetery. Only three of those six flood victims have tombstones at their grave site. One of the victims is Margaret Ruess, who was 68 years old, when she died in the flood. She lived in the 2300 block of French Street. The current carried Ruess five blocks from her home. Her mutilated body was found at daybreak, in a store on the northwest corner of 18th and French streets. Her clothes were torn from her body, which was crushed almost beyond recognition. The day after the flood, state Health Department sanitary guards were dispatched to Erie from Harrisburg to oversee relief efforts. For days after the flood, police, militia and naval guards patrolled the city's stricken areas.

The flood's heaviest path of destruction was from 26th Street, north to Second Street, and from State Street, east to German Street. Conservative estimates, according to newspaper reports, placed total citywide property damage at between $3 million and $5 million, in 1915 dollars. Some of the city's worst-hit areas included French Street, from East 26th to East Ninth streets, and east to Holland and German streets, where authorities found a two-block-wide mass of debris. Numerous State Street businesses, including every business from 19th to Seventh streets, received flood damage. Most stores had windows smashed, partitions damaged and stock destroyed.

City officials estimated about $175,000 of damage to State Street businesses, according to newspaper reports. The pavement on State Street from 14th to 19th streets was ripped from its base and huge chunks of road debris were carried away. Some high-profile, flood-stricken businesses in the State Street and downtown area included the Boston Store, Warner Brothers, Isaac Baker & Son, Osborne-Newman, F.S. Bond and Trask, Prescott & Richard. Lovell Manufacturing sustained an estimated $100,000 in damage. The Jarecki Manufacturing Company and Foundry was in its path, suffering $50,000 worth of damage. East 13th Street, west to French Street was under a foot of mud and rock. Sidewalks and streets from 26th Street, north to Second Street were buried under mud and gravel in depths of 6 inches to 3 feet.

Residents could not use the flood-ravaged section of the city for more than a month. Two weeks after the flood, the city, county, state and township authorities met at Erie City Hall to discuss possible solutions to prevent another catastrophe. In response, city engineers began to work on a flood-prevention system. The answer would eventually be the construction of a 2.3-miles-long reinforced concrete tube that would carry Mill Creek under Erie to Presque Isle Bay, emptying near today's Erie Waste Water Treatment Plant. Construction of the $1.9 million project began in 1918, and was completed in 1923. The tunnel was built by Metz & Roth Co. Inc. The original contract called for the tube to be constructed in 22 months. The construction of the Mill Creek tube was completed under Erie Mayor Kitts (1916 – 1924), who is credited with successfully seeing that the project was completed.

The Mill Creek Tube is a 22-foot wide, 19-foot tall, and 12,280-foot long, reinforced concrete tube that carries the Mill Creek under the city of Erie. It begins on the southern side of West 30th Street, passes under the City of Erie, and terminates on the northern side of the Bay-front Parkway. The tube contains over 70,000 barrels, or 13,600 short tons of cement and drops 200 feet overs its total length.

As the tube is large enough for a Jeep or a pickup to ride through — and turn around in, it is occasionally the site of water rescues when people have been swept into it when the creek is high, and have become stranded. One such rescue occurred on July 26, 2007, after three teenagers were caught up in the swiftly moving Mill Creek. One was rescued by firefighters near the mouth of the tube, another near 26th Street, and one traversed the entire tube before being rescued.

Situated about a 1 mile upstream of the tube is a drift catcher used to stop large debris from reaching the tube. The catcher is 209 feet long and 18 feet high. It was built at the same time as the construction of the tube. The catcher was modified in 1965 to accommodate the Erie Zoo's miniature railroad. It underwent a $476,800 restoration from May to August 2010 to seal cracks, repair deteriorating concrete and inspect one of the bridge's retaining walls. So far, the system seems to have worked. There has not been another major flood in the city since 1915.

10th Street, between French and Holland Streets.

18th and French Streets.

14th and French Streets.

328 East 4th Street.

East 26th Street car overturned at 18th and French Streets.

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