Seth of Colorado - James Otis |
God was good to us, inasmuch as the lives of Mr. and Mrs. Middleton and the children were spared. Fortunately our dwelling was not in the track of that mad flood; but it was three days before the creek had subsided so that I could cross over to seek them, or they come in search of me.
During this time, while we on one side were waiting for news of our friends on the other, and they in turn were eager to hear about our fate, every person had a theory of his own to air as to the cause of this sudden onrush of the waters. Some claimed it must have been a waterspout, and others believed that we had been visited by a cloud-burst, but later it was learned that all this ruin was the result of a storm of rain and hail on the Divide, which had raged almost continuously for four or five days, and, having filled up all the water-courses above us, had burst through the barriers of earth until Denver was overwhelmed.
As at the time of the fire, our people of Denver came together once more to lay plans for the rebuilding of the city; but for four long, weary years it seemed as if the hand of God was laid so heavily upon us that we must fall exhausted beneath the punishment, unable longer to battle against adverse circumstances.