The Strange Story of Harper's Ferry, with Legends of the Surrounding CountryBarry, Joseph
History
The Strange Story of Harper's Ferry, with Legends of the Surrounding Country
Barry, Joseph
Harpers Ferry (W. Va.) -- History; Harpers Ferry (W. Va.) -- History -- John Brown's Raid, 1859
Friday evening, they tried to induce her to accompany them, but in vain.
Either not considering the flood dangerous or being from age and
infirmities, apathetic about the result, she refused to leave the house
and there was no time to be lost in arguing the case with her, as the
other inmates had barely a few minutes in which to make their own
escape. Soon after the house was swept away and with it, of course, the
hapless old lady. Strangely enough, her body was found some weeks
afterward about thirty miles down the Potomac, near the mouth of Seneca
creek, and within a few paces of the residence of one of her relations.
The corpse was recognized by means of a ring with Mrs. Carrol's name
engraved on it which was on one of the fingers, and the remains were
forwarded to Harper's Ferry for interment. Several persons were drowned
whose names cannot be gathered now, and, indeed, it is probable that the
loss of life was much more extensive than is generally supposed, as it
is known that the upper islands are always occupied by stragglers and
obscure people, of whom little note is taken in the neighborhood, and
the chances are that many of such temporary residents were lost of whom
no account was given and about whom no questions were asked.
A remarkable occurrence took place in connection with this flood which,
though, of course, accidental, was a very strange coincidence. The
Reverend N. C. Brackett, county superintendent of free schools, had
convened the teachers' association and had secured the services of
Professor Kidd, a well known itinerant lecturer on elocution, to give
instruction to them on this important branch of education. On Friday
evening, before any apprehension was felt from the river, he was holding
forth in the public school house, on Shenandoah street. He remarked on
the faulty construction of school houses in general through that region
as being a serious drawback on the comfort and advancement of pupils,
and he turned the attention of his audience to the building in which
they were, as being about the worst-planned of any he had seen. Warming
with his subject, he expressed a wish that some convulsion of the
elements would take place for the special purpose of destroying this
house, so that another might be erected on a better plan. This wish,
thoughtlessly or playfully uttered, was, strangely enough, gratified
that very night. The river rose beyond all usual bounds and before 9
o'clock, not a vestige of the obnoxious school house remained. Professor
Kidd, with his own eyes, witnessed the consummation of his desires, but
whether Heaven was moved by the Professor's eloquence or the thing would
have happened anyway, is a question which the writer will not undertake
to decide.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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