[Pennsylvania County Histories]

f Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2018 with funding from This project is made possible by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services as administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education through the Office of Commonwealth Libraries https://arohive.org/details/pennsylvaniaooun18unse '/■ r. 1 . ■; * W:. ■. V / \ mm o A B B P^g^ B C • C D D E Page Page Page uv w w XYZ bird's-eive: vibw G VA ?es«rvoir NINEVEH From Nineveh to the Lake. .jl:^/SpUTH FORK .VIADUCT V„ fS.9 InaMSTowM. J*. Frorp per30i)al Sfcel'cb^s ai)d. Surveys of bl)p Ppipipsylvapia R. R., by perrpi^îop. -A_XjEX. Y. XjEE, Architect and Civil Engineer, PITTSBURGH, PA. BRIDGE No.s'^'VgW “'■■^{Goncl - Viaduct Butlermill J.Unget^ SyAij'f By. Trump’* Caf-^ ^Carnp Cooemaugh rcTioN /O o ^ ^ ' ... ^!yup.^/««M4 •SANGTOLLOV^, COOPERSttAtc . Sonc ERl/ftANfJl, lAUGH \ Ru Ins of loundhouse/ Imohreulville CAMBRIA Cn 'sum iVl\ERHI LL Overhead Sridjê Western Res^rvoi millviue Cambria -Iron Works 'J# H OW N A DAMS M:uKBoeK I No .15 SEVEim-1 WAITHSHED SOUTH FORK DAM PfTTSBURGH, p/ Copyright 1889 8v years back, caused u greater loss of life, ?Ttf ioHnsitowiv but the destructiou of property was slight in comparison with that of Johns¬ town and its vacinity. For eighteen hun¬ dred years Pompeii and Hevculancum have been favorite references as instances of unparalleled disasters in the annals (d the world; hut it was shown by an iirti- cle in the New Y’ork World, some days FRIDAY', JULY" 5, 1889. ago, that the Conemaugh valley’s whelm¬ ing tide that broke from the accursed dam wrought greater ruin than tlu- ashes and THE GREAT CALAMITY! lava of Vesuvius—that the Conemaugh water avalanche was more startling and VASTNKSS OF THE DISASTER ruinous to life and property than the ava¬ NOT COMPREHENDED. lanche of red-hot lava that poured upon, those cities with their teii thousand in¬ Unparalleled Destruction of Eife and Prop- habitants. , erty_Four Thousand People Drowned But what of the scene itself — the and Millions of Property Swept Away^ sweeping away' of strongly-built houses, Our îsasterl How tell of it, bow por- the engulfing of hundreds upon hundreds ■i''i tray it, or even bow can it be faintly de- —the thousands of men, women and chil¬ ' , scribed? Whose mind can comprehend dren who were hurled with an irresistible , “ it, and whose vivid imaeination can paint force into tlie swtdliug flood to be crushed ;■?' it? The pen is not yet made to write up or drowned. Their cries of anguish could ' its general features, much less to put the not be heard amid the deafening roar of .' fearful details on paper;' nor has the the angry water, or if heard by those in .brush been manufactured to place it on their immediate vicinity fell upon ears of Wcanvass. In some iemote age when addi- others as lielpless as themselves—the dis¬ ^tional aids and facilities for petformiiig play' of pent-up energies being utterly :2;8Uch a work, or when some one with mi¬ deaf to the wails of the feeble and the im¬ raculous genius for describing unparal- precations of the strong. ^'led marvels shall be born, the story Never can we forget the trying ordeal of •fhnstown’s destruction may Ijechroni. that sorrowful Friday afternoon and cled. But until then the full horrors of night. Little did we think when prepar¬ the kinetic energies of the Pittsburgh ing for Saturday morning’s issue, that the sporting club-lake on the south branch of matter being set up then would fail to be (' the Conemaugh creek, will remain unde- put upon the press. Though the rise in scribed. both the Conemaugh and Stonycreek was Already many able pens from all sec¬ backing the ivater up Washington street tions of the country have been called into and closing around the Democr.vt ofiice, -.requisition in an effort to give to the oul- and causing a suspension of traflic and ■. side world some idea of the fate of the travel, not for one moment did anyone in (Jonemaugh valley, but with all that has the office or press room dream of any been so well written the half has not been more serious damage to the town other told. In trying to grasp the magnitude of than that occasioned by former overflows. th.e mighty death-dealing and property- Remembering the flood of two years ago, destroying wave that struck the towns we thought at four o’clock the water lying on the banks of the little stream, on would soon recede, hence gave very, little the ill-fated Friday afternoon of May 31, thought to it. one is confronted with the inadequacy of But at about five minutes before four an words to do anything like justice to the alarm was sounded, and running to a subject. The vastness of the disaster is window in the east end of the building really too great for a finite mind to grasp. we were appalled at what our eyes be¬ ' ■ Has it ever had an equal? In the held. A huge wave, seemingly almost as United States certainly never; in the high as the surrounding hills was rolling world’s history, since the days of Tloah, down upon us—surging, foaming, roaring possibly, yes. At most it can be sately and filled with buildings, wrecks,of build¬ said it is only rivaled by one or two ca- ings, large ti’Pte, and logs;- witli scores ■‘’■ophies in human history. The over- and scores of men, women and children e Yellow river, in China, a few |i;i - ' T'~'' A clingiiig"to wreck^^matteras they were * -ffl were swept down the river, sonuj lodged swiftly aud ruthlessly carried along. against Uie stODf btifljxf*. otlinrs buried Above us, below us, around us we saw beueHth a mass of rnbhi.sli, and still oth¬ building after building torn in the twin¬ ers covered up in tlie siiud. kle of an eye from thtir foundations and flow the heart sickens in calling up falling in cn-ushed masses in some instau- some of the many familiar names of t’ne ; ces, and in other cases tumbling forward, town. (Janied to their unlooked-for and : backward, then turned on their sides and untimely end we mi.ss them on every I anon whisked with the velocity of lightn- hand. Some of tlie noblest of earth have j ing upside down, and hundreds hurled to been ruthlessly nmnhered among tlie I death in a moment, and others carried hated reservoir’s victims. I along amid the wreck of matter down A.s to details, we have ludtlier the heart toward the stone bridge. Then when the nor the will to add any to this article. ^ current changed, houses, parts of houses, We can only say, at this time, with the ! stables and wrecks of stables, shops, of- data at hand, that the number of the dead ! flees, cars in countless numbers were will not fall much below lour tliousami: I tumbling, twisting, creaking on every aud the property destvoj'ed may run from I side of us. South Fork, Mineral Point twenty to twenty-five millions. ' East Conemaugh, Franklin, Woodvale, Conemaugh borough, the upper and lower j THK STONK lUllUGi:. ends of .Tolmstownliad by this time con- tributed to the mass of matter and the i It Certainly Saved Many Lives. hundreds of unwilling floaters that were On that fatefi.l Friday afternoon g j surging all through Washington and DKMuciiAT reportei was at woik in the Franklin streets. Ever and auou the 13. ^ line of his duty in Cambria and Millville j <&0. depot building, in which the Dhmo- boroughs, and when the waters of tlie CKAT was published, would tremble and reservoir struck this place, was on t!ie I shake from top to boltom as logs, trees, river bank at the Peunsylvania Railroad j and buildings would strike it. Station. From the point on Prospect liili ; Fearful as was the scene of the whole to which he fled, he had the best possible I night, it was not until daylight of Satur- cliance to note the ell'ect of the .stone ' day did we comprehend, and then only i bridge on.the waters, and as there seems measiireably, the e.xtent of the wide¬ to be much diversity of opinion on tliis spread devastation. Where was Johns¬ Sdhject, his conclusions are Jieie given : town? Where, Washington street? Where, Had it been an iron bridge, or had the Franklin street? Where was Coneman-li bridge given way with the first rush of borough? Where. Woodvale? A lew ' the waters, all the hotises that were wrecked buildings stood on the .snnili end I floated from their moorings would have of hraukhn, and .some straggling ones been drawn into the current and carried could be seeu along the l.illside hi' Coue- with great force tlirougli the opening J maugh; but of Woodvale nothing but the tVhen the second heavy wave ctiiiie, tl^ wreck of the flouring mill and woolen fac. water would have been drawn off some-J tory \\as left; and as to Washington what, and it would not have been forced- street it was completely wiped out. save quite so high up across the town. Bed¬ the wrecks of the B. & O. building and ford and Levergood streets, and part of the Company stoic. the lower side of Jackson street would I Ubere stood Imndieds of dwellings, i probably have escaped from total de¬ with well-detined streets and alleys, now struction.

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