Daniel TRACY
1728 Death

In the freshet of February, 1727, four of the town bridges were swept away, and among them was this which crossed the Shetucket.

The rebuilding of this bridge in 1728 was marked by a mournful casualty. It was the 28th of June. A large party of the inhabitants had assembled to assist in raising the bridge, which was 20 feet high and about 250 feet in length. Just as they were putting together the upper work, a principal piece of timber which lay in the foundation of this upper work, being spliced, gave way at the joint, and falling, tripped up the dependent frame, which with its own weight careened and overset, breaking down the pillars on which it rested. One hundred feet of the bridge fell, with forty men on it. The water was very low, and the people were precipitated upon the rocks in all directions. No one escaped without bruises and contusions ; twenty were severely wounded, and two killed. These two were Jonathan Gale of Canterbury, nineteen years of age, the only son of a widowed mother, who was killed instantly, — "a very hopeful youth, the darling of the family," — and Mr. Daniel Tracy, son of Lieut. Thomas Tracy, and one of the last survivors of the old stock that came from Saybrook, who died the next day of his mortal wounds.

History of Norwich, Connecticut: From Its Possession by the Indians to the Year 1866 Author Frances Manwaring Caulkins Publisher By H.P. Haven, 1874

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