Jonathan Child House

Jonathan and Emily Child owned the house that once stood on this foundation. With partner John McCreight, Jonathan Child bought Virginius Island from Abraham Herr after the Civil War and moved here with his family in 1867. Three years later, on September 30, a violent flood trapped his family in the house. Emily Child wrote that late on Friday the water began rising rapidly, and within two hours every escape route was cut off, forcing the family to remain inside the crumbling walls as water seethed and dashed around them. Two bridges linking the island to the mainland, a wooden bridge near the house and the railroad bridge, were torn to fragments and carried away. The Child family survived the flood, but 42 others died, and with reports that the water rose six feet in four minutes, the only industrial building left standing after the deluge was the cotton/flour mill.

Harpers Ferry, West Virginia · United States