View of the Wreck.
Each visitor to the scene of the great disaster witnessed sights and
received impressions different from all others. The following graphic
account will thrill every reader:
The most exaggerative imagination cannot too strongly picture the awful
harvest of death, the wreck which accompanied that terrible deluge last
Friday afternoon. I succeeded in crossing from the north side of the
Little Conemaugh, a short distance above the point, to the sandy muddy
desert strewn with remnants of the buildings and personal property of
those who know not their loss.
It is almost an impossibility to gain access to the region, and it was
accomplished only after much difficulty in crossing the swiftly running
stream.
Standing at a point in this abode of thousands of dead the work of the
great flood can be more adequately measured than from any one place in
the devastated region. Here I first realized the appalling loss of life
and the terrible destruction of property.
It was about ten o'clock when the waters of Stony Creek rose, overflowed
their banks and what is known as the "flats," which includes the entire
business portion of the city of Johnstown. The Little Conemaugh was
running high at the same time, and it had also overreached the limit of
its banks. The water of both streams soon submerged the lower portion of
the town. Up to this time there was no intimation that a terrible
disaster was imminent. The water poured into the cellars of the houses
in the lower districts and rose several inches in the streets, but as
that had occurred before the people took no alarm.
Shortly after twelve o'clock the first drowning occurred. This was not
because of the deluge, it was simply the carelessness of the victim, who
was a driver for the Cambria Iron Company, in stepping into a cellar
which had been filled with water. The water continued to rise, and at
twelve o'clock had reached that part of the city about a block from the
point between Stony Creek and the Little Conemaugh.
Topography of the Place.
The topography of Johnstown is almost precisely like that of Pittsburgh,
only in a diminished degree. Stony Creek comes in from the mountains on
the northeast, and the Little Conemaugh comes in from the northwest,
forming the Conemaugh at Johnstown, precisely as the Allegheny and
Monongahela form the Ohio at Pittsburgh. On the west side of Stony Creek
are mountains rising to a great height, and almost perpendicularly from
the water. On the north side of the Conemaugh River mountains equally as
high as those on Stony Creek confine that river to its course. The hills
in Johnstown start nearly a half mile from the business section of the
city. This leaves a territory between the two rivers of about four
hundred acres. This was covered by costly buildings, factories and other
important manufactories.
When the waters of South Fork and Little Conemaugh broke over their
banks into that portion of the city known as the "flats," the business
community turned its attention to putting endangered merchandise in a
place of safety.
First Alarm.
In the homes of the people the women began gathering household articles
of any kind that may have been in the cellar. Little attention was paid
to the water beyond this.
Looking from the "flats" at Johnstown toward and following the
Pennsylvania Railroad tracks, which wind along the Little Conemaugh, the
village of Woodville stands, or did stand, within sight of the "flats,"
and is really a continuation of the city at this point.
The mountains on the south side of the Little Conemaugh rise here and
form a narrow valley where Woodville was located. Next joining this,
without any perceptible break in the houses, was the town of East
Conemaugh. The extreme eastern limit of East Conemaugh is about a mile
and a half from Johnstown "flats."
A Narrow Chasm.
The valley narrows as it reaches eastward, and in a narrow chasm three
miles from Johnstown "flats" is the little settlement of Mineral Point.
A few of the houses have found a place on the mountain side out of
harm's way, and so they still stand.
At East Conemaugh there is located a roundhouse of the Pennsylvania
Railroad, for the housing of locomotives used to assist trains over the
mountains. The inhabitants of this place were all employees of the
Pennsylvania and the Gautier Steel Works, of the Cambria Iron Company.
The inhabitants numbered about 1,500 people. Like East Conemaugh, 2,000
or 2,500 people, who lived at Woodville, were employees of the same
corporation and the woolen mills located there.
Just below Woodville the mountains upon the south bank of the Conemaugh
disappear and form the commencement of the Johnstown "flats." The
Gautier Steel Works of the Cambria Iron Company are located at this
point, on the south bank. The Pennsylvania Railroad traverses the
opposite bank, and makes a long curve from this point up to East
Conemaugh.
Timely Warning to Escape.
At what is known as the point where Stony Creek and the Little Conemaugh
form the Conemaugh the mountains followed by Stony Creek take an abrupt
turn northward, and the waters of the Little Conemaugh flow into the
Conemaugh at right angles with these mountains.
A few hundred feet below this point the Pennsylvania Railroad bridge
crosses the Conemaugh River. The bridge is a massive stone structure.
From the east end of the bridge there is a heavy fill of from thirty to
forty feet high to Johnstown Station, a distance of a quarter of a mile.
Within a few feet of the station a wagon bridge crosses the Little
Conemaugh, five hundred feet above the point connecting the "flats" and
the country upon the north side of the river.
The Cambria Iron Company's Bessemer department lies along the north bank
of the Conemaugh, commencing at the fill, and extends for over two miles
down the Conemaugh River upon its northern bank.
Below the Cambria Iron Company's property is Millville Borough, and on
the hill back of Millville Borough is Minersville properly--the Second
ward of Millville Borough.
The First ward of Millville was washed away completely.
While the damage from a pecuniary sense was large, the loss of life was
quite small, inasmuch as the people had timely warning to escape.
Below the Pennsylvania Railroad Bridge at Johnstown, upon the south bank
of the Conemaugh, was the large settlement of Cambria. It had a
population of some five thousand people. At Cambria the mountain
retreats for several hundred feet, leaving a level of two or three
hundred acres in extent. Just below the bridge the Conemaugh River makes
a wide curve around this level. About eight or nine hundred houses stood
upon this level.
Below Cambria stands Morrellville, a place about equal in size to
Cambria.
From this description of the location of Johnstown and neighboring
settlements the course of the waters may be better understood when
described. It was about ten minutes to three o'clock Friday afternoon
when Mr. West, of the local office of the Pennsylvania Railroad at
Johnstown, received a dispatch from the South Fork station, advising him
to notify the inhabitants that the big dam in the South Fork, above the
city, was about to break. He at once despatched couriers to various
parts of the city, and a small section was notified of the impending
danger. The messenger was answered with,
"We will wait until we see the water."
Others called "Chestnuts!" and not one in fifty of the people who
received the warning gave heed to it.
The Debris of Three Towns.
With the waters standing several inches deep in the streets of the
"flats" of the city the deluge from South Fork Lake, burst the dam and
rushed full upon Johnstown shortly after five o'clock on Friday
afternoon the last day of May.
First it swept the houses from Mineral Point down into East Conemaugh.
When the flood reached East Conemaugh the town was wiped out. This mass
of debris was borne on to Johnstown, reinforced by the material of three
towns.
The Gautier steel department of the Cambria Iron Company was the first
property attacked in the city proper. Huge rolls, furnaces and all the
machinery in the great mills, costing $6,000,000, were swept away in a
moment, and to-day there is not the slightest evidence that the mill
ever stood there.
Swept From the Roofs.
Westward from this point the flood swept over the flats. The houses, as
soon as the water reached them, were lifted from their foundation and
hurled against their neighbors'. The people who at the first crash of
their property managed to reach the roof or some other floating material
were carried on until their frail support was driven against the next
obstruction, when they went down in the crash together.
The portion of the "flats" submerged is bounded by Clinton street to the
Little Conemaugh River, to the point at Stony Creek, then back to
Clinton street by way of Bedford.
This region has an area of one mile square, shaped like a heart, and in
this district there are not more than a dozen buildings that are not
total wrecks.
Ten per cent. of this district is so covered with mud, stones, rocks and
other material, where costly buildings once stood, that it will require
excavating from eight to twenty feet to reach the streets of the city.
Remnants of the City.
Of the houses standing there is the Methodist church, the club house,
James McMillen's residence, the Morrell mansion, Dr. Lohman's house and
the First ward school building.
The Fourth ward school house and the Cambria Iron Works' general office
building are the only buildings standing on the north side of the river
from the Pennsylvania Railroad bridge to the limits of the "flats."
The Pennsylvania Railroad, from its station in Johnstown City nearly to
Wilmore, a distance of seven miles, had a magnificent road bed of solid
rock. From East Conemaugh to the point in Johnstown opposite the Gautier
Steel Works, this road bed, ballast and all are gone. Only a few rails
may occasionally be seen in the river below.
Freaks of the Flood.
When the crash came in Johnstown the houses were crushed as easily by
the huge mass as so many buildings of sand, making much the same sound
as if a pencil were drawn over the slats of a shutter. Houses were torn
from their foundations and torn to pieces before their occupants
realized their danger. Hundreds of these people were crushed to death,
while others were rescued by heroic men; but the lives of the majority
were prolonged a few minutes, when they met a more horrible death
further down the stream.
There is a narrow strip extending from the club house to the point
which, in some singular manner, escaped the mass of filling that was
distributed on the flats. This strip is about 200 feet wide, 300 long
and from 3 to 20 feet deep. What queer turn the flood took to thus spare
this section, when the surrounding territory was covered with mud,
stones and other material, is a mystery. It is, however, one of the
remarkable turns of the flood.
The German Catholic Church is standing, but is in an exceedingly shaky
condition and may fall at any minute. This and Dr. Lohman's residence
are the only buildings on the plot standing between Main street, Clinton
street, Railroad street and the Little Conemaugh.
The destruction of life in this district was too awful to contemplate.
It is estimated that not more than one thousand people escaped with
their lives, and it is believed that there were fully five thousand
persons remaining in the district when the flood came down. The flood
wiped out the "flat" with the exception of the buildings noted. The
water was twenty feet high here and hurled acres upon acres of houses
against the Pennsylvania Railroad bridge which held it and dammed the
water up until it was forty feet high. The mass accumulated until the
weight became so great that it broke through the fill east of the bridge
and the debris started out of the temporary reservoir with an awful
rush.
It was something near five o'clock when the fill broke. The water rushed
across the Cambria flats and swept every house away with the exception
of a portion of a brewery. There is nothing else standing in this
district which resembles a house.
The Johnstown Post Office Building, with all the office money and
stamps, was carried away in the flood. The Postmaster himself escaped
with great difficulty.
The dam broke in the centre at three o'clock on Friday afternoon, and
at four o'clock it was dry. That great body of water passed out in one
hour. Park & Van Buren, who are building a new draining system at the
lake, tried to avert the disaster by digging a sluiceway on one side to
ease the pressure on the dam. They had about forty men at work and did
all they could, but without avail. The water passed over the dam about a
foot above its top, beginning at about half-past two. Whatever happened
in the way of a cloud burst took place during the night. There had been
but little rain up to dark. When the workmen woke in the morning the
lake was very full and was rising at the rate of a foot an hour. It kept
on rising until at two o'clock it first began breaking over the dam and
undermining it. Men were sent three or four times during the day to warn
people below of their danger.
The Break Two Hundred Feet Wide.
When the final break came, at three o'clock, there was a sound like
tremendous and continued peals of thunder; rocks, trees and earth were
shot up into mid-air in great columns, and then the wave started down
the ravine. A farmer, who escaped, said that the water did not come down
like a wave, but jumped on his house and beat it to fragments in an
instant. He was safe upon the hillside, but his wife and two children
were killed. At the present time the lake looks like a cross between the
crater of a volcano and a huge mud puddle with stumps of trees and rocks
scattered over it. There is a small stream of muddy water running
through the centre of the lake site. The dam was seventy feet high and
the break is about two hundred feet wide, and there is but a small
portion of the dam left on either side. No damage was done to any of the
buildings belonging to the club. The whole south fork is swept, with not
a tree standing. There are but one or two small streams showing here and
there in the lake. A great many of the workmen carried off baskets full
of fish caught in the mud.
Three Millions Indemnity.
It is reported that the Sportsman's Association, which owned the South
Fork dam, was required to file an indemnity bond of $3,000,000 before
their charter was issued. When the bill granting them these privileges
was before the Legislature the representatives from Cambria and Blair
counties vigorously opposed its passage and only gave way, it is said,
upon condition that such an indemnifying bond was filed. This bond was
to be filed with the prothonotary of Cambria county.
Father Boyle, of Ebensburg, said the records at the county seat had no
trace of such a bond. He found the record of the charter, but nothing
about the bond. As the association is known to be composed of very
wealthy people, there is much talk here of their being compelled to pay
at least a part of the damages.
The Rain Did It.
It begins to dawn on us that the catastrophe was brought about not
merely by the bursting of the dam of the old canal reservoir, but by a
rainfall exceeding in depth and area all previously recorded phenomena
of the kind. The whole drainage basin of the Kiskiminetas, and more
particularly that of the Conemaugh, was affected. An area of probably
more than 600 square miles poured its precipitation through the narrow
valley in which Johnstown and associate villages are located. It is easy
to see how, with a rainfall similar to that which caused the Butcher Run
disaster of a few years ago, fully from thirty to fifty times as much
water became destructive. The whole of the water of the lake would pass
Suspension Bridge at Pittsburgh inside of from seven to ten minutes,
while the gorge at Johnstown, narrowed by the activity of mines for
generations past, was clearly insufficient to allow a free course for
Stony Creek alone, which is a stream heading away up in Somerset county,
twenty-five or thirty miles south of Johnstown. That the rainfall of the
entire Allegheny Mountain system was unprecedented is clearly
demonstrated to any one who has watched the Allegheny and Monongahela
rivers for the past three days, and this view may serve to correct the
impression in the public mind that would localize the causes of the
widespread disaster to the bursting of any single dam.
Danger Was Anticipated.
Charles Parke, of Philadelphia, the civil engineer in the employ of the
South Fork Fishing Club, in company with George C. Wilson, ex-United
States District Attorney, and several other members of the club, reached
Johnstown and brought with them the first batch of authoritative news
from Conemaugh Lake, the bursting of which, it is universally conceded,
caused the disaster.
Mr. Parke was at first averse to talking, and seemed more interested in
informing his friends in the Quaker City that he was still in the land
of the living. On being pressed he denied most emphatically that the dam
had burst, and proceeded to explain that he first commenced to
anticipate danger on Friday morning, when the water in the lake
commenced to rise at a rapid rate. Immediately he turned his force of
twenty-five Italians to opening an extra waste sluiceway in addition to
the one that had always answered before.
The five members of the club on hand all worked like horses, but their
efforts were in vain, and at three o'clock the supporting wall gave way
with a sound that seemed like distant thunder and the work was done.
The Governor's Appeal.
HARRISBURG, Pa., June 3, 1886.--The Governor issued the following:--
"COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA, }
"EXECUTIVE CHAMBER, }
"HARRISBURG, Pa., June 3, 1889. }
"TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES:--
"The Executive of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has refrained
hitherto from making any appeal to the people for their benefactions, in
order that he might receive definite and reliable information from the
centres of disaster during the late floods, which have been
unprecedented in the history of the State or nation. Communication by
wire has been established with Johnstown to-day. The civil authorities
are in control, the Adjutant General of the State cooperating with them;
order has been restored and is likely to continue. Newspaper reports as
to the loss of life and property have not been exaggerated.
"The valley of the Conemaugh, which is peculiar, has been swept from one
end to the other as with the besom of destruction. It contained a
population of forty thousand to fifty thousand people, living for the
most part along the banks of a small river confined within narrow
limits. The most conservative estimates place the loss of life at 5,000
human beings, and of property at twenty-five millions. [The reader will
understand that this and previous estimates were the first and were far
too small.] Whole towns have been utterly destroyed. Not a vestige
remains. In the more substantial towns the better buildings, to a
certain extent, remain, but in a damaged condition. Those who are least
able to bear it have suffered the loss of everything.
"The most pressing needs, so far as food is concerned, have been
supplied. Shoes and clothing of all sorts for men, women and children
are greatly needed. Money is also urgently required to remove the
debris, bury the dead, and care temporarily for the widows and orphans
and for the homeless generally. Other localities have suffered to some
extent in the same way, but not in the same degree.
"Late advices seem to indicate that there is great loss of life and
destruction of property along the west branch of the Susquehanna and in
localities from which we can get no definite information. What does
come, however, is of the most appalling character, and it is expected
that the details will add new horrors to the situation.
Generous Responses.
"The responses from within and without the State have been most generous
and cheering. North and South, East and West, from the United States and
from England, there comes the same hearty, generous response of sympathy
and help. The President, Governors of States, Mayors of cities, and
individuals and communities, private and municipal corporations, seem to
vie with each other in their expressions of sympathy and in their
contributions of substantial aid. But, gratifying as these responses
are, there is no danger of their exceeding the necessities of the
situation.
Organized Distribution.
"A careful organization has been made upon the ground for the
distribution of whatever assistance is furnished. The Adjutant General
of the State is there as the representative of the State authorities and
giving personal attention, in connection with the Chief Burgess of
Johnstown and a committee of relief to the distribution of the help
which is furnished.
"A large force will be employed at once to remove the debris and bury
the dead, so as to avoid disease and epidemic.
"The people of the Commonwealth and others whose unselfish generosity
is hereby heartily appreciated and acknowledged may be assured that
their contributions will be made to bring their benefactions to the
immediate and direct relief of those for whose benefit they are
intended.
"JAMES A. BEAVER.
"By the Governor, CHARLES W. STONE, Secretary
of the Commonwealth."
Alive to the Situation.
The Masonic Relief Committee which went from Pittsburgh to Johnstown
telegraphed President Harrison, urging the appointment of a national
commission to take charge of sanitary affairs at the scene of the
disaster. It was urged that the presence of so many decaying corpses
would breed a pestilence there, besides polluting the water of the
streams affecting all the country between Pittsburgh and New Orleans.
The disasters in Pennsylvania were the subject of a conference at the
White House between the President, General Noble, the Secretary of the
Interior, and Surgeon General Hamilton. The particular topic which
engaged their attention was the possibility of the pollution of the
water-supply of towns along the Conemaugh river by the many dead bodies
floating down the stream.
The President was desirous that this new source of danger should be cut
off, if any measures which could be taken by the government could
accomplish it. It was suggested that the decomposition of so much human
flesh and the settling of the decomposing fragments into the bed of the
stream might make the water so foul as to breed disease and scatter
death in a new form among the surviving dwellers in the valley.
Not Afraid of a Plague.
Surgeon General Hamilton expressed the opinion that the danger was not
so great as might be supposed. There would be no pollution from those
bodies taken from the river before decomposition set in, and the force
of the freshet would tend to clear the river bed of any impurities in it
rather than make new deposits. The argument which had the most weight,
however, with the President was the efficiency of the local authorities.
Pennsylvania has a State Board of Health and is a State with ample means
at her disposal, both in money and men, and if there is any danger of
this sort her local officials were able to deal with it. This was
practically the decision of the conference. The gentlemen will meet
again, if necessary, and stand ready to render every assistance which
the situation calls for, but they will leave the control of the matter
with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania until it appears that she is
unable to cope with it.
Governor Beaver to the President.
The following telegram was received by President Harrison from Governor
Beaver, who made his way from York to Harrisburg:--
"HARRISBURG, Pa., June 3, 1889.
"To the PRESIDENT, Washington:--
"The Sheriff of Cambria county says everything is quiet and that he can
control the situation without the aid of troops. The people are fairly
housed and good order prevails. The supply of food so far is equal to
the demand, but supplies of food and clothing are still greatly needed.
"Conservative estimates place the loss of life at from five thousand to
ten thousand, and loss of property at from $25,000,000 to $40,000,000.
The people are at work heroically, and will have a large force to-morrow
clearing away the debris.
"The sympathies of the world are freely expressed. One telegram from
England gives $1,000. I will issue a general appeal to the public
to-night. Help comes from all quarters. Its universality greatly
encourages our people. I will communicate with you promptly if anything
unusual occurs.
"JAMES A. BEAVER."