John Eliot Bowen, a journalist and the translator of Carmen Sylva’s
“Songs of Toil,” who was for a number of years connected with _The
Independent_, was born in Brooklyn, New York, June 8, 1858, and
died in the same city, January 3, 1890.
The bursting of the dam upon the south fork of the Conemaugh River took
place on the afternoon of May 31, 1889. It is stated that sixteen
million tons of water were precipitated down the Conemaugh valley upon
Johnston, Conemaugh, and various smaller towns. A conservative estimate
of the loss of life gives it as three thousand, though some reports
place it as high as five thousand.
The name of the hero who rode in front of the flood, giving the alarm,
was Daniel Peyton, or Periton. The following poem, by an anonymous hand,
pays tribute to the rider’s bravery and self-sacrifice.