Disaster Averted

Plenty of rain fell in Mantua Township 120 years ago this week. This did not deter vacationers from enjoying the amusement park at Alcyon Lake. The beginning of summer meant crowds eager to swim, boat, ride the log flume, or otherwise attempt to beat the heat. The lake, larger than ever behind a new dam built by the park's owners, was invitingly cool.

The park had grown up around the Pitman Grove, in those days part of Mantua Township still. The Grove was a popular religious camp meeting; a place for people to come and renew (or find) their faith away from the heat and bustle of the city. Founded over twenty years before, the Grove had grown rapidly, for two key reasons: a new railroad, which made it convenient for Philadelphians to participate, and Alcyon Lake, which provided an important water supply.

The lake which attracted the camp meeting which in turn attracted the amusement park was the result of a dam built across a creek years before to power a sawmill. The creek was the Chestnut Branch--the same creek that gives its name to our township's park these days. Over the spillway of the dam at Alcyon Lake it flowed, as it still does, under Lambs Road near today's Total Turf facilities. It passed among the disused marl pits through what is now Ceres Park, then under a bridge at the Barnsboro-Glassboro turnpike--our Barnsboro's Main Street. Here the creek powered a sawmill owned by George Tyler before passing under what we call today Tylers Mill Road.

Chestnut Branch goes on through Sewell and joins the Mantua Creek in Mantua, but the part of the creek described above is the setting for a dramatic story from a dozen decades past in which foresight on the part of a few saved lives and prevented an accident from turning into a tragedy.

Early in the morning of the 19th two local farmhands were examining the new dam at Alcyon. They were concerned that all the recent rain might cause trouble with the structure. What they found alarmed them: the face of the dam was bulging outward. Quickly they sounded the alarm, warning people away from the immediate area. Their thoughts turned downstream, mentally tracing a potential path of destruction. Nobody lived in the floodplain of the creek, but the workers at Tyler's sawmill would be at work already, and certainly in harm's way.

Philadelphia Times article courtesy of
Newspapers.com

Mounting horses, the two galloped toward Tyler's mill. They likely followed Lambs Road up to the corner where the Pitman Methodist Church now stands, then raced up the muddy turnpike toward Barnsboro. They arrived in time to warn the handful of mill workers. One of the workers opened the sluice gates to allow the flood waters to flow through when they came, and they all sought shelter on higher ground.

Back at the lake, the dam had already given way. A roaring wall of water ten feet high was unleashed. The noise of it carried for miles. The flood destroyed three bridges, and caused major damage at the amusement park as attractions, piers, etc. were sucked down the lake and ruined. But it could have been much worse. Nobody was killed. In fact, no one was even injured. The floodwaters spread out after Tyler's mill and did no damage further downstream. 

My hat goes off to the two unnamed Mantua Township heroes who had the wit to recognize a dangerous situation and took the initiative to act.

1901 Topographic map courtesy of US Geological Survey

If you want to know more about this story, or if you know anything that can help us identify the two heroes, please come visit the Museum or leave us a message. We will be open this Saturday from 10 AM until Noon.