Grand Rapids Flood
February 1838
That of the river freshet of February, 1838,
is usually remarked upon by all old settlers as
not only the earliest but the greatest. The ice
broke suddenly and began to move at midday down
the rapids, but gorged on the islands and solid
ice at the foot, creating a jam, by which the
waters were set back over all the lowlands of
the town. On Huron street the river was from ten
to twelve feet deep. The families of
John Almy
and Abel Page
were in the houses of the fur trade station
there, and were reached and taken out of the
upper story windows in a boat paddled across
through a rift in the floating ice from the side
of Prospect Hill a little north of Lyon street.
H.P. Bridge & Co. had a shanty boarding house
between Canal street and the river, a little
below Bridge street, which was swept away by the
flood. A man in a sleigh with one or two women,
drove a team to the old red warehouse, between
Waterloo street and the river, near where the
Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad passes. They
had scarcely entered the store when the water
rose so that they were compelled to wade to the
sleigh and drive off in a hurry.
History of the City of Grand Rapids,
Michigan, 1891, pages 172-173
 History of the
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