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Johnstown Flood OFFICIAL HISTORY OF THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD BY FRANK CONNELLY AND GEORGE C. JENKS. ILLUSTRATED. PITTSBURG: JOURNALIST PUBLISHING COMPANY, PRESS BUILDING, '79 FIFTH AVENUE. 1889, Copyright, 1889, by FRANK CONNELLY and GEORGE C. JENKS. ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE, PREFACE. IN presenting this, the first connected history of the Johnstown flood, we have only to say that the details have been carefully collected, the facts verified ,vherP.ver possible, and the story told without embe ,H.-' ment. No pen can do justice to the scene'.-' 1n the Conem·augh Valley during and imm, . :ately after the flood. We have been conte1i"c t'l tell of the calamity as it ,vas, and if ther::- . a lack in description, the reader may rest ~ .sured that at least w·e have not essayed th, ; ,:1possible task of exaggerating the horrors. The silver . ·,tag to the cloud of death was the readinee -: : · ~h which everybody sprang for­ ward to the 1·elief of the suffering thousands. In paying tribute to the world's generosity the only pleai,ure to be found in compiling this book-a ,vork eminently painful in itself-,vas ex­ perienced by THE AUTHORS. V CONTENTS. BOOK I. CHAPTER I. PAGE BuRSTI~G OF THE SouTH-FORK DAM • • • 9 CHAPTER II. THE BURNING DEBRIS AT THE BRIDGE • • • • • • 24 CHAPTER III. TIIE ,VRECK OF THE DAY EXPRESS ..... 31 CHAPTER IV. THE FATE OF THE HOTELS • • • • • • • 41 CHAPTER V. THE LAKE BEFORE AND AFTER . • • • • . 43 CHAPTER VI. THE IDENTIFIED DEAD . • • • • • • • 50 CHAPTER VII. THE FINANCIAL LOSSES-HISTORY OF CAMBRIA !RON-WORKS • 68 CHAPTER VIII. REORGANIZATION OF JOHNSTOWN • • • • • • • • 79 CHAPTER IX. THE HISTORY OF JOHNSTOWN • • • • • . • • • 86 vii ... Vlll CONTENTS. BOOK II. CHAPTER I. PAGE CONDITION OF THE SURVIVORS AFTER THE FLOOD-HAIR-BREADTH ESCAPES, ETC•• . 93 CHAPTER II. How ON.E EvrL-DOER WAS DRIVEN TO BIS DEATH-RELIC-HUNTERS A.ND SIGHT-SEERS • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 106 CHAPTER III. ESTABLISHMENT OF MORGUES AND HOW THEY WERE CONDUCTED •• 110 CHAPTER IV. PATHETIC SCENES IN THE CEMETERIES ON THE HILL-SIDES WHERE "UNKNOWNS" WERE LAID TO REST • • • • • • • • • • 114 CHAPTER V. THE RIDE OF DANIEL PEYTON, THE HERO OF THE CONEMAUGH • • 116 CHAPTER VI. THE ROLL-CALL AT THE GAUTIER MILL-THE REMNANT OF AN ARMY OF WORKMEN • • • • • • • • • • • • • . • . • • • . 119 CHAPTER VII. THE CHURCHES OF J OBNSTOWN • • • • . 124 CHAPTER VIII. REBUILDING IN THE TOWN AND ON THE RAILROADS • • • • • • • 126 BOOK III. CHAPTER I. FORMATION AND ,v ORK OF THE PITTSBURG RELIEF COMMITTEE • • 130 CHAPTER II. TRIALS OF THE RELIEF COMMITTEES EARLY ON THE SCENE • • . 150 . CONTENTS. IX CHAPTER III. PAGE Te:E AMERICUS REPUBLICAN CLUB OF PITTSBURG . 154 CHAPTER IV. THE SECRET SOCIETIES AND WHAT THEY ACCOMPLISHED • • • • • 170 CHAPTER V. HEROIC WORK OF THE UNDERTAKERS AND EMBALMERS ••.•• 175 CHAPTER VI. THE RED CROSS SOCIETY • • • • • • • . 178 CHAPTER VII. NEWSPAPER CORRESPONDENTS-How THEY WORKED-AND LIVED •• 181 CHAPTER VIII. THE MEN FOR THE EMERGENCY • • . • • • • . • • . 189 CHAPTER IX. WORK OF THa VOLUNTEER PHYSICIANS • . • • • . 197 BOOK IV. CHAPTER I. ADJUTANT-GENERAL HASTINGS'S FIRST VISIT TO JOHNSTOWN-A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 202 CHAPTER II. THE FOURTEENTH REGIMENT AND WHAT IT ACCOMPLISHED AT JOHNS- TOWN • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 208 CHAPTER III. How THE MONEY WAS RAISED AND APPORTIONED BY THE STATE • 211 X CONTENTS. CHAPTER IV. PAGE TUE STATE TAKES CHARGE OF JOHNSTOWN ••• • 215 CHAPTER V. CLEA nI:SG Aw A y THE DEBRIS • . • • • • . ,, . .. 222 CHAPTER VI. THE .MEarn1ms OF THE STATE COMMISSION • • • • • • • • • • • 226 CHA.PTER VII. How TH:;; STATE DISTRIBUTED THE MONEY • • • • • • . • • • • 234 CHAPTER VIII. J Oli~STOW~ A ~foNTll AFTER THE FLOOD • • . • • • • • • • • • 239 LI ST OF I LL U ST R AT I O N S. P.\.GE CONEMAUGH FALLS BEFORE THE FLOOD 9 A SCENE IN WO0DVALE. • 18 THE STO:SE BRIDGE • • • • • 30 CONEMAUGH LAKE BEFORE THE FLOOD (FROM CLAr.KE COTTAGE) • 42 CA::\IBRIA !RON COMPANY. • • 6S RUINS OF A SOAP-WORKS. • • • • 74 RESIDENCE OF JA.)IES MCMILLAN 86 RESIDENCE OF COLONEL CAl\IPBELL . 10)) JOHNSTOWN CLUB-HOUSE • 116 RUINS OF OPERA-HOUSE. 131 A FREAK OF THE FLOOD 140 A DE::\IOLISIIED CHAIR FACTORY 158 .ADJUTANT-GENERAL D. H. HASTINGS • 170 A CAl\lP SCENE-MORNING ABLUTIONS 187 J Al\IES B. SCOTT • • • 208 WILLIAM MCCREERY 212 S. S. MARYIN • • • . 228 JAMES S. :McKEAN . • • • • • • • • • . • • • • • • • • • • • • 240 XI CONEMAUGH FALLS BEFORE THE FLOOD. HISTORY OF THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD. BOOK I. NARRATIVE OF THE FLOOD-ITS CAREER FROM SOUTH FORK TO THE ALLEGHENY-THE SCENE AT JOHNSTOWN -THE CONEMAUGH VALLEY A VAST MAELSTROM-WRECK OF THE DAY EXPRESS-SOUTH FORK BEFORE AND AFTER -THE FIRE-JOHNSTOWN ARISING FROM ITS BED OF WOE, ETC., ETC. CHAPTER I. BURSTING OF THE SOUTH-FORK DAM. SINCE that early period in the world's history when the Flood which Noah- and his family survived first gave token to the sons of men of the terrible possibili­ ties hidden in a naturally peaceful element, the human race has from time to time been awfully impressed with the power of water when in its savage moods. The original Flood, although it almost entirely de­ populated the earth, has probably been exceeded by others since in the number of fatalities. - The world was young in the days of Noah, and we have no means of knowing how many human beings lay drowned beneath the waste of waters when the Ark rested 9 10 HISTORY OF upon Mount Ararat. .It is hardly likely, however, that there ,vere more than have on several occasions b_een killed in China, when the great Hoang-Ho has overflowed and inundated thousands of square miles of territory, with a loss of life, at one time, of seven hundred and fifty thousand. Nay, Holland, with its record of four hundred thousand people drowned when the dykes gave way, has doubtless seen greater havoc from water, in point of numbers, than was visited upon the earth in the Flood of Holy Writ. Coming down to our own times and country, we have had several disastrous floods, the worst, until that at J ohnstow·n, being the carrying away of the silk­ mills at Mill River, Massachusetts, by the bursting of a reservoir, and the drowning of s_everal hundred girls and men, some years since. When the world heard of that calamity, it ,vas horror-stricken. It thought noth­ ing more terrible of that nature could ever be told; but, in vie,v of the Johnstown flood, the trouble at Mill River was of a very ordinary kind. Great disasters can only be measured by comparison, and it is thus that we can say there has never been such a whole­ sale loss of life at one time, from any cause, in any civilized country, within the last few centuries, as that at Johnstown, on Friday, May 31, 1889. Johnstown lies in a narrow valley at the foot of the Allegheny Mountains. It is situated on a point of land between the Conen1augh River and Stony Creek, with a precipitous hill on one side and a gentle slope on the other. Before the flood it was a busy, thriving plaee, with a population of thirty thousand. It was one of the principal points between Philadel­ phia and Pittsburg, and w·as gaining in commercial importance from year to year. Its only trouble was THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD. 11 the ever-present fear of floods from the great water­ sheds of the mountains above the city; but, as people can get used to anything, the residents of Johnstown thought but little·· about this peril, taking an occasional inundation as a matter of course, and sweeping out the water from their basements and yards as com­ posedly as they performed any other ordinary, every­ day duty. There was the dam at South-Fork Lake, a few miles above the city, it is true, and it was thoroughly understood that, should it ever give way, a torrent of water would sweep down the Conemaugh Valley ,vith a force that must inevit~bly carry all be­ fore it. But it never had burst; it had been there for seventeen years, and the people of Johnstown were not to be frightened by a remote possibility. There had been alarms at intervals of the breaking c,f the dam, but these alarms had all proven baseless, and a warning of that kind now had but little effect upon even the most timid residents of the city. At last the day came ·when the warnings were real­ ized, and the fair valley was converted into a seething caldron, in ·which five thousand human beings ,vere shut out from the world forever. It had been raining almost continuously for a week. All the mountain streams, that usually trickled peace­ fully through the verdure in silvery threads, had be­ come wide, muddy torrents. There were roaring wr.~ .a·falls where there had been small rills trickling almost noiselessly. down the hill-sides, and rapid whirlpools had taken the place of rock-strewn shal­ lows. The face of nature ,vas completely changed, and instead of smiling benignantly, as was its wont, was corrugated with a dark frown that meant mischief. The South-Fork Lake, ordinarily placid as a sheet of 12 HISTORY OF glass, was rolling up waves and dashing over the dam with a vindictive haste that boded the disaster so soon to follow. Trees bent before the tempest, and, drop­ ping their leafy crests, wept as they whispered to Mother Earth of the coming horror. Boulders and loose logs tumbled headlong down the mountains to herald the approach of the destroyer. And still the rain came down without ceasing and seemed to de­ clare doggedly that the time had come for general destruction in the Valley of the Conemaugh. Already the houses in Johnstown and the villages in its vicinity were flooded in their lower stories.
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