On January 23 of 1788 Lydia Hollingsworth was traveling on a horse drawn sleigh with her fiancé David Lewis through Marple and Haverford townships in Delaware County Pennsylvania. She drowned in a failed attempt to cross flooded Darby Creek. Her body was found the next day. David Lewis, a young lady and the driver survived. According to sources they were traveling to the home of Joshua Humphrey in Newton Pennsylvania. Lydia buried at Friends' graveyard reportedly had 1700 persons attend her funeral.
Unrelated sources suggest that the weather in January of 1788 was very cold with snow. According to an 1891 article in the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography outlining state weather records from 1644 to 1835, snow had fallen in Philadelphia January 28. At the same time, the temperatures were cold and that led to creeks and rivers to freeze over. But while the travelers were making their trip, the weather warmed and and instead of snow falling rain began dropping from the skies on Jan. 30. While making the trek back to Philadelphia the creeks were swollen. As the group looked for a way to cross the Darby Creek, they approached what was described as the road near Coopertown. The area seems to be around where Marple Road crosses Darby Creek near Darby Creek Road. According to George Smith’s History of Delaware County from 1862, when the group approached the ford they were warned not to cross and that a temporary bridge had been built nearby. “They drove to the bridge, but the water was rushing over it, and the driver refused to proceed; whereupon Lewis took the lines, and missing the bridge, plunged the whole party into the flood,”
Poem attached is believed to be peroid, author unknown.
Unrelated sources suggest that the weather in January of 1788 was very cold with snow. According to an 1891 article in the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography outlining state weather records from 1644 to 1835, snow had fallen in Philadelphia January 28. At the same time, the temperatures were cold and that led to creeks and rivers to freeze over. But while the travelers were making their trip, the weather warmed and and instead of snow falling rain began dropping from the skies on Jan. 30. While making the trek back to Philadelphia the creeks were swollen. As the group looked for a way to cross the Darby Creek, they approached what was described as the road near Coopertown. The area seems to be around where Marple Road crosses Darby Creek near Darby Creek Road. According to George Smith’s History of Delaware County from 1862, when the group approached the ford they were warned not to cross and that a temporary bridge had been built nearby. “They drove to the bridge, but the water was rushing over it, and the driver refused to proceed; whereupon Lewis took the lines, and missing the bridge, plunged the whole party into the flood,”
Poem attached is believed to be peroid, author unknown.
On January 23 of 1788 Lydia Hollingsworth was traveling on a horse drawn sleigh with her fiancé David Lewis through Marple and Haverford townships in Delaware County Pennsylvania. She drowned in a failed attempt to cross flooded Darby Creek. Her body was found the next day. David Lewis, a young lady and the driver survived. According to sources they were traveling to the home of Joshua Humphrey in Newton Pennsylvania. Lydia buried at Friends' graveyard reportedly had 1700 persons attend her funeral.
Unrelated sources suggest that the weather in January of 1788 was very cold with snow. According to an 1891 article in the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography outlining state weather records from 1644 to 1835, snow had fallen in Philadelphia January 28. At the same time, the temperatures were cold and that led to creeks and rivers to freeze over. But while the travelers were making their trip, the weather warmed and and instead of snow falling rain began dropping from the skies on Jan. 30. While making the trek back to Philadelphia the creeks were swollen. As the group looked for a way to cross the Darby Creek, they approached what was described as the road near Coopertown. The area seems to be around where Marple Road crosses Darby Creek near Darby Creek Road. According to George Smith’s History of Delaware County from 1862, when the group approached the ford they were warned not to cross and that a temporary bridge had been built nearby. “They drove to the bridge, but the water was rushing over it, and the driver refused to proceed; whereupon Lewis took the lines, and missing the bridge, plunged the whole party into the flood,”
Poem attached is believed to be peroid, author unknown.
Unrelated sources suggest that the weather in January of 1788 was very cold with snow. According to an 1891 article in the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography outlining state weather records from 1644 to 1835, snow had fallen in Philadelphia January 28. At the same time, the temperatures were cold and that led to creeks and rivers to freeze over. But while the travelers were making their trip, the weather warmed and and instead of snow falling rain began dropping from the skies on Jan. 30. While making the trek back to Philadelphia the creeks were swollen. As the group looked for a way to cross the Darby Creek, they approached what was described as the road near Coopertown. The area seems to be around where Marple Road crosses Darby Creek near Darby Creek Road. According to George Smith’s History of Delaware County from 1862, when the group approached the ford they were warned not to cross and that a temporary bridge had been built nearby. “They drove to the bridge, but the water was rushing over it, and the driver refused to proceed; whereupon Lewis took the lines, and missing the bridge, plunged the whole party into the flood,”
Poem attached is believed to be peroid, author unknown.
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