Large iron safes washed away in 1868 flood

Two iron safes weighing a ton were swept downstream during the 1868 flood. Following the next large flood in 1889, there were hopes that the safes containing gold, cash and company books could be found. Excerpt is from the Baltimore Sun, June 3, 1889 newspaper.



“The Patapsco was washed for itself at many points a new current… and exposed many places never before visible. Many people hereabouts have been led to hope that one or both of the iron safes which were swept down the stream in the great flood of 1868 would be brought to light and their contents of gold, lost to the world for twenty-one years, recovered.

In 1868 a portion of the storehouse of Joseph H. Leishear, on Baltimore county side [Oella] of the river, was swept away, and with it his iron safe weighing 2200 pounds, containing all his books and papers, besides $650 in gold coin and several hundred dollars in currency. In the summer of 1868 the storehouse of George G. Bradley, on the on the Howard county side [Ellicott City] of the river, cash carried away, and in it, too, was a large safe containing valuables.”

Baltimore Sun Jun 3 1889
Picture of safe from the Smithsonian. Picture on Early Office Museum web site HERE

More blog posts
1868 flood HERE
Floods HERE

©2023 Patricia Bixler Reber
Forgotten history of Ellicott City & Howard County MD