Jacob Mann Drowning
Linn
County, Iowa
July
5, 1851
The Mann Disaster
A notable freshet occurred July 5, 1851, on
Big Creek. The day was hot and sultry, and the
night threatening. During the hours of darkness,
a storm of terrific violence and suddenness
burst over a limited territory adjacent to the
creek. There must have been an instantaneous
falling of a water-spout to have accomplished so
appalling a calamity. It was upon Big Creek that
Jacob Mann, the first settler of the county,
located in 1837. Subsequently, he erected a
little mill upon the banks of the stream, for
his claim was made solely for that purpose. He
cared nothing for farming lands, and was too
great a lover of ease to feel the need of
industry or thrift. His mill was constructed
after his own ideas of such things, which were
neither correct nor ingenious enough to be
worthy of special mention. The mill was built
several years after his advent into the county.
The fall of water on the night in question was
so marked as to endanger the little mill
property, and Mann hastened over to it, against
the advice of his daughter, who stood upon the
shore. Mann declared that if the mill went into
the flood, he would go, too. The creek continued
to rise, and soon shut off communication with
the shore. In an almost incredibly short space
of time the torrent increased the flow of the
little creek to the dimensions of a river, and
in the sweeping waters the mill, with its
proprietor, was carried far down the course.
Several days elapsed before the body of the
drowned man was recovered.
In this connection, although it is not strictly
in order, let it be stated that the Mann family
ultimately scattered. Some remain on or near the
site of the mill, while the younger
members--some of them the children of the
daughter, "Sall"--moved toward the west,
following the instincts of the old man and their
own nomadic disposition.
The History of Linn County, Iowa,
Containing a History of the County, its Cities,
Town, &t., a Biographical Directory of its
Citizens, War Record of its Volunteers in the
Late Rebellion, General and Local Statistics,
1878
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