Collection Name
Collection Name
About
About
Williamsport
Floods and canal repairs
Media Items
Media Items
Media Items
ItemID
wcco063
IDEntry
5796
Rights
Public domain
Date
1889-06-06
Collection Location
Hagerstown, Maryland
Coverage
Maryland, 1824-1938
Body
The Chair Factory after the 1889 flood.
The DeFrehn Chair Factory made multiple wooden chair styles and was located on the berm side of the canal above the Conococheague Aqueduct in Williamsport. The factory paid the canal for water rents in order to power the machines used to create the chairs. In 1889, a flood destroyed the factory along with a good portion of the canal. The cost to rebuild and recover from the flood was too expensive and the owners decided to move the operation to Johnstown, PA then Hornerstown, PA.
Notes
Mile 99.72
From the collection of John Frye
From The Flood at Home, Hagerstown Mail, June 6, 1889.
The most serious feature of the great disaster is the wrecking of the canal, which not only destroys a large amount of property belonging to our people, but throws numbers of them out of employment and deprives them of their means of livelihood.