Photo from eBay This photo shows high water in Youngsville in March 1913. If you can’t place it, the photo appears to be of the Brokenstraw Creek in Youngsville, taken from the west bank looking east.

A photo of a fully-constructed Kinzua Dam with no discharge comes to mind.

This photo that I found on eBay and dated March 1913 was another.

If you can’t place it, the photo appears to be of the Brokenstraw Creek in Youngsville, taken from the west back

looking back toward downtown, if you will.

Photo from the Warren Mail The vast majority of the March 27, 1913 edition of the Warren Mail was dedicated to coverage of recent flooding that “with the exception of the hills, not a section of the county” escaped some effect.

This exact photo can’t be replicated – regardless of flood conditions – because the bridge rises above the embankment now. I think we can see why.

Every waterway in Warren County – the Brokenstraw included – appears to have flooded that spring.

And a survey of the reporting on the incident indicates that, as bad as the photo looks, other places in the county were hit harder.

The Warren Mail dubbed that spring flood season the “Worst Flood in History of Warren County.”

The report described an “immense lake two miles long” on Warren’s west end and conditions were considered “serious.”

Unsurprisingly given the photo, the sub-headline included “BRIDGES IN DANGER.”

“Driven from their homes by the flood, scores of residents on the flats spent the night on the streets or in the homes of more fortunate friends,” the paper reported. “Many pitiable scenes were enacted.”

It wasn’t scientific data that backed up the claim of the worst flood ever. It was anecdotal.

“W. H. Muzzy, father of Mrs. U.S. Rogers, who has lived in Warren county practically 80 years states that the present high water is the highest of his recollection,” the paper reported. “Dispatches from various parts of the county are to the effect that all the lowlands are inundated and the property loss is heavy.”

“At Rogertown, near Glade, the residents are marooned and can only move with the aid of boats,” the paper reported. (Rogertown can best be described as the area in the first mile of Rt. 59 leaving Warren). “It is reported that the mill dam at Columbus went out Tuesday night, flooding the village.”

“Even the oldest residents fail to recollect the time when the Conewango has been higher than now,” the report continued. “Many cottages have been washed away, besides the untold damage to residences and on the farms along the river. At the confluence of that stream with the Allegheny in this city, the waters spread out over a vast area and formed a lake the like of which has never before been seen in this city. Cellars were filled to the top and in many homes the first floors were inundated.

“With the exception of the hills, not a section of the county has escaped without feeling some effect of the devastation flooded.”

Based on reports of the incident, the worst of the flooding appears to have been in Warren.

“Hundreds of families in the low-lying districts have been compelled to move their household goods from the first to the second floors and not a few have moved out entirely,” the paper reported. “On the South Side, there was little sleep last night in many homes; cellars were already full and many were preparing for even higher water.”

The flooding attracted gawkers as “hundreds of persons visited the flooded districts to behold sights that have not been seen or known here for many years. The shoe dealers did an immense business in the sale of high top rubber boots, the stocks being entirely exhausted.”

The west end seems to have been hit the hardest.

“The river left its bank and spread practically over the entire western part of the city,” the Mail reported. “At daybreak today there was a grave danger that the levee at Eddy street giving away and should this occur the raging water would cut its course directly through the thickly settled part of the West End and would damage that could not be estimated and probably would result in loss of life.”

Anyone with a boat suddenly had work to do.

“Boys are engaged in ferrying persons from the streets to their homes in the West End and grocery men have been obliged to resort to the ferry for delivery of provisions,” the Mail reported. “Every boat that can be engaged is busy making trips through the flooded territory. If the river rises to any extent this afternoon it is feared the electric plant will be forced to suspend. This city would in this contingency, be left largely in darkness.”

Price gouging was discouraged, though, where the boats were concerned.

“It is understood that the authorities will attempt to suppress the exacting of money from residents by boat owners. To charge victims of the storm money in rendering assistance is not approved by, nor will it be tolerated by the authorities.”

Several downtown buildings – the city building, the army and several churches were open to the public and a relief committee was established as it was “thought that many will be homeless by tonight.”

What looks like an editorial was published the next week (the Mail was a weekly paper) as the waters were receding.

“It has been many years since we have been called upon to witness such a disastrous catastrophe as the recent flood which occurred the latter part of last and the first part of this month,” the editors wrote.

Remarkably, I couldn’t find any mention of loss of life in the county. Though there were reports in the Mail of death due to the flooding elsewhere.

“(T)here stands out in bold relief the other side, not pathetic, but the great sacrifice and endurance of the American hero who risked life and limb that others might have saved, and it is to such heroes as these that a greater loss of life was not sustained,” the Mail claimed.

“Then, too, there are flood stricken towns of Meadville, Greenville, Franklin, Warren, Titusville and thousands of other towns and cities who suffered great loss also, but even so, took their stand with those who were free from the flood’s ravages and contributed to those less fortunate and who had loss their all. It proves conclusively that the American people rally as one great and mighty band to the relief of their stricken brothers and sisters in the time of need and danger.”