History of the Johnstown flood ... With full accounts also of the destruction on the Susquehanna and Juniata rivers, and the Bald Eagle Creek
Johnson, Willis Fletcher, 1857-1931
1 ^— £ ••• T"f WHICH RESERVOIR ^f i *3*i 1 "i ^ferWte**-*^/ >JW s_ 2^V' -^ *sv^^ i • n 1 1 kV-p- * . \ * *T. .yf.. ^ \v' - . ' tl" IK<NP&: 'JH mx//Tw> //i I *««>.*'. <«^ 0^ S^ MAP OF THE DELUGED CONEMAUGH DISTRICT. HISTORY OF THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD. INCLUDING ALL THE FEARFUL RECORD; THE BREAKING OF THE SOUTH FORK DAM; THE SWEEPING OUT OF THK CONEMAUGH VALLEY; THE OVER- THROW OF JOHNSTOWN; THE MASSING OF THE WRECK AT THE RAILROAD BRIDGE; ESCAPES, RESCUES, SEARCHES FOR SURVIVORS AND THE DEAD; RELIEF ORGANIZATIONS, STUPENDOUS CHARI- TIES, ETC., ETC. WITH FULL ACCOUNTS ALSO OF THB DESTRUCTION ON THE SUSQUEHANNA AND JUNIATA HVERS, AND THB BALD EAGLE CREEK. WILLIS FLETCHER JOHNSON. ILLUSTRATED. EDGEWOOD PUBLISHING CO., 1889. Copyright, 1 889, by WILLIS FLETCHER JOHNSON. PREFACE. The summer of 1889 will ever be memorable for its appalling disasters by flood and flame. In that period fell the heaviest blow of the nineteenth century — a blow scarcely paralleled in the histories of civilized lands. Central Pennsylvania, a centre of industry, thrift and comfort, was desolated by floods unprecedented in the records of the great waters. On both sides of the Alle- ghenies these ravages were felt in terrific power, but on the western slope their terrors were infinitely multiplied by the bursting of the South Fork Reservoir, letting out millions of tons of water, which, rushing madly down the rapid descent of the Conemaugh Valley, washed out all its busy villages and Hurled itself in a deadly torrent on the happy borough of Johnstown. The frightful aggravations which followed the coming of this torrent have waked the deepest sympathies of this nation and of the world, and the history is demanded in permanent form, for those of the present day, and for the generation to come. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. The Conemaugh Valley in Springtime — Johnstown and its Suburbs — Founded a Hundred Years ago — The Cambria Iron Works — His- tory of a Famous Industry — American Manufacturing Enterprise Exemplified — Making Bessemer Steel — Social and Educational Features — The Busiest City of its Size in the State, 15 CHAPTER II. Conemaugh Lake — Remains of an Old-time Canal System — Used for the Pleasure of Sportsmen — The Hunting and Fishing Club — Popular Distrust Growing into Indifference — The Old Cry of " Wolf ! " — Building a Dam of Straw and Mud — Neglect Ripening into Fitness for a Catastrophe, 31 CHAPTER III. Dawning of the Fatal Day — Darkness and Rain — Rumors of Evil — The Warning Voice Unheeded— A Whirlwind of Watery Death — Fate of a Faithful Telegrapher — What an Eye-Witness Saw — A Solid Wall of Water Rushing Down the Valley, 42 CHAPTER IV. The Pathway of the Torrent — Human Beings Swept away like ' Chaff— The Twilight of Terror— The Wreck of East Conemaugh — Annihilation of Woodvale — Locomotives Tossed about like • Cockle-shells by the mighty Maelstrom, 51 CHAPTER V. "Johnstown is Annihilated" — Appearance of the Wreck — An Awful Sabbath Spectacle — A Sea of Mud and Corpses — The City in a Gigantic Whirlpool — Strange Tokens of the P'ury of the Flood — Scene from the Bridge — Sixty Acres of Debris — A Carnival of Slaughter, 66 Viii CONTENTS. CHAPTER VI. Pictures of the Flood Drawn by Eye-witnesses — A Score of Loco- motives Swallowed up — Railroad Cars Swept away — Engineers who would not Abandon their Posts — Awful Scenes from a Car Window — A Race for Life — Victims of the Flood, 8l CHAPTER VII. Some Heroes of the Flood — The Ride of Collins Graves at Williams- burg Recalled— John G. Parke's Heroic Warning — Gallant Self- sacrifice of Daniel Peyton — Mrs. Ogle, the Intrepid Telegraph Operator — Wholesale Life Saving by Miss Nina Speck, 97 CHAPTER VIII. Stories of Suffering — A Family Swept away at a Stroke — Beside a Sister's Corpse — A Bride Driven Mad — The Unidentified Dead — Courage in the Face of Death — Thanking God his Child had not Suffered— One Saved out of a Household of Thirteen — Five Saved out of Fifty-Five, 108 CHAPTER IX. Stories of Railroad Men and Travelers who were in the Midst of the Catastrophe — A Train's Race with the Wave — Houses Crushed like Egcshells — Re'icsof ihe Dead in the Tree tops — A Night of Horrors — Fire and Flood Commingled — Lives Lost for the Sake of a Pair of Shoes, , 119 CHAPTER X. Scenes in a House of Refuge — Stealing from the Dead — A Thousand Bodies seen Passing over the Bridge — " Kill us, or Rescue us ! " — Thrilling Escapes and Agonizing Losses — Children Born amid the Flood — A Night in Alma Hall — Saved through Fear, 13 CHAPTER XI. The Flight to the Mountains — Saving a Mother and her Babe — The Hillsides Black wiih Refugees — An Engineer's Story — How the Dam gave away — Great Trees Snapped off like Pipe-stems by the Torrent, 147 CONTENTS. IX CHAPTER XII. A Desperate Voyage — Scenes like those after a Great Battle — Mother and Babe Dead together — Praying as they Drifted to Destruction — Children Telling the Story of Deaih — Significant Greetings between Friends — Prepared for any News, 154 CHAPTER XIII. Salutations in the City of the Dead — Crowds at the Morgues — End- less Trains of Wngons with Ghastly Freight — Registering the Sur- vivors— Minds Unsettled by the Tragedy — Horrible Fragments of Humanity Scattered through Piles of Rubbish, l6l CHAPTER XIV. Recognizing the Dead — Food and Clothing for Destitute Survivors — Looking for the Lost — The Bereaved Burying their Dead — Drowned Close by a Place of Safety — A Heroic Editor — One who would not be Comforted, 171 CHAPTER XV. A Bird'seye View of the Ruined City — Conspicuous Features of the Disaster — The Railroad Lines — Stones and Iron Tossed about like Driftwood — An Army Officer's Valuable Services in Restor- ing and Maintaining Order, 179 CHAPTER XVI. Clearing a Road up the Creek — Fantastic Forms of Ruin — An Aban- doned Locomotive with no Rail to Run on — Iron Beams Bent like Willow Twigs — Night in the Valley — Scenes and Sounds of an Inferno 188 CHAPTER XVII. Sights that Greeted Visitors — Wreckage Along the Valley — Ruins of the Cambria Iron Works — A Carnival of Drink — Violence and Robbery — Camping on the Hillsides — Rich and Pcor alike Benefit, 198 CHAPTER XVIII. The First Train Load of Anxious Seekers — Hoping against Hope — Many Instances of Heroism — Victims Seen Drifting down beyond the Reach of Help — Unavailing Efforts to Rescue the Prey of the Flood, 207 X CONTENTS. CHAPTER XIX. Newspaper Correspondents Making their Way in — The Railroads Helpless — Hiring a Special Train — Making Desperate Sj>ecd— First faces of the Flood — Through to Johnstown at Last, .... 216 CHAPTER XX. The Work of the Reporters — Strange Chronicles of Heroism and of Woe — Deadly Work of the Telegraph Wires — A Baby's Strange Voyage — Prayer wonderfully Answered — Steam against Torrent, 228 CHAPTER XXI. Human Ghouls and Vampires on the Scene — A Short Shrift for Marauders — Vigilance Committees Enforcing Order — Plunderers of the Dead Relentlessly Dispatched — Outbursts of Righteous Indig- nation, 238 CHAPTER XXII. The Cry for Help and (he Nation's Answer — President Harrison's Eloquent and Effective Appeal — Governor Beaver's Message— A Proclamation by the Governor of New York— Action of the Com- missioner of Pensions — Help from over the Sea, 249 CHAPTER XXIII. The American Heart and Purse Opened Wide — A Flood of Gold against the Flood of Water — Contributions from every Part of the Country, in Sums Large and Small, 265 CHAPTER XXIV. Benefactions of Philadelphia — Organization of Charity — Train loads of Food and Clothing — Generous spirit of Convicts in the Peni- tentiary—Contributions from over the Sea — Queen Victoria's sym- pathy— Letter from Florence Nightingale, 281 CHAPTER XXV. Raising a Great Relief Fund in New York — Where the Money came from — Churches, Theatres and Prisons join in the good work — More than One Hundred Thousand Dollars a Day — A few Names from the Great Roll of Honor, 292 CONTENTS. Xi CHAPTER XXVI. FAG. Breaking up the Ruins and Burying the Dead — Innumerable Funerals — The Use of Dynamic — The Holocaust at the Bridge — The Cam- bria Iron Woiks — Pulling out Trees with Locomotives, 299 CHAPTER XXVII. Caring for Ihe Sufferers — Noble Work of Miss Clara Barton and the Red Cross Society— A Peep into a Hospital — Finding Homes for the Or- phans— Johnstown Generous in itsWoe — A Benevolent Eating House, 309 CHAPTER XXVIII. Recovering from the Blow — The Voice of the Locomotive Heard again — Scenes Day by Day amid the Ruins and at the Morgue — Sirange Salvage from the Flood — A Family of Little Children, . . 319 CHAPTER XXIX. The City Filled with Life Again — Work and Bustle on Every Hand — Railroad Trains Coming In— Pathetic Meetings of Friends — Per- sistent Use of Dynamite to Break Up the Masses of Wreckage — The Daily Record of Work Amid the Dead, 341 CHAPTER XXX. Scenes at the Relief Stations — The Grand Army of the Republic in Command — Imposing Scenes at the Railroad Station — Cars Loaded with Goods for the Relief of the Destitute, 353 CHAPTER XXXI. General Hastings' Headquarters — Duties of the Military Staff — A Flood of Telegrams of Inquiry Pouring In — Getting the Post-office to Work Again — Wholesale Embalming — The Morgue in the Pres- byterian Church — The Record of the Unknown Dead — A Com- memorative Newspaper Club, 358 CHAPTER XXXII. A Cross between a Military and a Mining Camp — Work of the Army Engineers — Equipping Constables — Pressure on the Telegraph Lines — Photographers not Encouraged — Sight-seers Turned Away- Strange Uses for Coffins, 370 CHAPTER XXXIII. Sunday Amid the Ruins — Services in One Church and in the Open Air — The Miracle at the Church of the Immaculate Conception — Few Women and Children Seen — Disastrous Work of Dynamite— A Happy Family in the Wreck, 378 Xli CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXXIV. Plans for the Future of Johnstown — The City to be Rebuilt on a Finer Scale than Ever Before — A Real Estate Boom Looked For — En- larging the Conemaugh — Views of Capitalists, .... ..... 387 CHAPTER XXXV. Well-known People who Narrowly Escaped the Flood— Mrs. Hal- ford's Experience — Mrs. Childs Storm bound— Tales Related by Travelers — A Theatrical Company's Plight, .......... 393 CHAPTER XXXVI. The Ubiquitous Reporter Getting There — Desperate Traveling through a Storm-swept Country — Special Trains and Special Teams — Climb- ing Across the Mountains — Rest for the Weary in a Hay Mow, . . 402 CHAPTER XXXVH. The Reporter's Life at Johnstown — Nothing to Eat, but Much to Do — Kindly Remembrances of a Kindly Friend — Driven from Bed by Rats — Three Hours of Sleep in Seventy-two — A Picturesque Group, 410 CHAPTER XXXVIII. Williamsporl's Great Losses — Flooded with Thirty-four Feet of Water — Hundreds of Millions of Feet of Lumber Swept Away — Loss of Life — Incidents of Rescue and of Death — The Story of Garret Crouse and his Gray Horse, ................ 421 CHAPTER XXXIX. The Juniata Valley Ravaged by the Storm — Losses at Tyrone, Hunt- ingdon and Lewistown — Destruction at Lock Haven — A Baby's Voyage Down Stream — Romantic Story of a Wedding, ..... 435 CHAPTER XL. The Floods along the Potomac — The National Capital Submerged — A Terrible Record in Maryland — Gettysburg a Sufferer — Tidings of Devastation from Many Points in Several States, ....... \\\ LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. rAGE MAP OF THE DELUGED CONEMAUGH DISTRICT, i JOHNSTOWN AS LEFT BY THE FLOOD, 19 RUINS OF JOHNSTOWN VIEWED FROM PROSPECT HILL, 37 GENERAL VIEW OF THE RUINS, LOOKING UP STONY CREEK, ... 55 RUINS, SHOWING THE PATH OF THE FLOOD, 73 TYPICAL SCENE IN JOHNSTOWN, 91 JOHNSTOWN— VIEW CORNER OF MAIN AND CLINTON STREETS, . . 109 VIEW ON CLINTON STREET, JOHNSTOWN, 127 MAIN AND CLINTON STREETS, LOOKING SOUTHWEST, 145 RUINS, CORNER OF CLINTON AND MAIN STREETS, 163 RUINS, FROM SITE OF THE HULBURT HOUSE, iSl THE DEBRIS ABOVE THE PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD BRIDGE, . . . 199 RUINS OF THE CAMBRIA IRON WORKS, 217 RUINS OF THE CAMBRIA IRON COMPANY'S STORE, . 235 THIRD STREET, WILLIAMSPORT, PA., DURING THE FLOOD, .... 253 WRECK OF THE IRON BRIDGE AT WILLIAMSPORT, PA., 271 WRECK OF THE LUMBER YARDS AT WILLIAMSPORT, PA., 289 xiii XIV LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 250,000,000 FEET OF LOGS AFLOAT IN THE SUSQUEHANNA ..... 307 LAST TRAINS IN AND OUT OF HARRISBURG, ......... 325 COLUMBIA, TA., UNDER THE FLOOD, .............. 343 PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE AT SIXTH STREET, WASHINGTON, D. C, . 361 SEVENTH STREET, WASHINGTON, D. C., IN THE FLOOD ...... 379 FOURTEENTH STREET, WASHINGTON, D. C., IN THE FLOOD, . . . 307 THE FLOOD IN WASHINGTON, D. C, OPPOSITE HARRIS'S THEATRE, . 415 CHAPTER I. Springtime in the mountains. Graceful slopes and frowning precipices robed in darkest green of hemlock and spruce. Open fields here and there verdant with young grass and springing grain, or moist and brown beneath the plow for the plant- ing time. Hedgerow and underwood fragrant with honeysuckle and wild blackberry bloom ; violets and geraniums purpling the forest floor. Conemaugh creek and Stony creek dash and plunge and foam along their rocky channels to where they unite their waters and form the Cone- maugh river, hastening down to the Ohio, to the Mississippi, to the Mexican Gulf. Trout and pick- erel and bass flash their bronze and silver armor in the sparkling shallows of the streams and in the sombre and placid depths of the lake up yonder behind the old mud dam. Along the val- ley of the Conemaugh are ranged villages, towns, cities : Conemaugh, Johnstown, Cambria, Sang Hollow, Nineveh, and others, happy and prosper- 15 I 6 THE JOHNS TO WN FL 0 OD. ous. Conemaugh, nestles at the very foot of the Alleghenies ; all railroad trains eastward bound stop there to catch their breath before beginning the long climb up to Altoona. Sang Hollow nestles by the river amid almost tropical luxuri- ance of vegetation ; yon little wooded islet in mid- stream a favorite haunt of fishermen. Nineveh is rich in bog iron and coal, and the whirr of the mill-wheel is heard. Johnstown, between the two creeks at their junction, is the queen city of the valley. On either side the creek, and beyond, the steep mountain sides ; behind, the narrow valley reaching twenty miles back to the lake ; before, the Conemaugh river just beginning its romantic course. Broken hillsides streaked with torrents encompass it. Just a century ago was Johnstown founded by one Joseph Johns, a German settler. Before then its beauteous site was occupied by an Indian village, Kickenapawling. Below this was the head of navigation on the Conemaugh. Hither came the wagoners of the Alleghenies, with huge wains piled high with merchandise from seaboard cities, and placed it on flat-bottomed boats and started it down the river- way to the western mar- kets. The merchandise came up from Philadel- phia and Baltimore by river, too ; up the Susque- hanna and Juniata, to the eastern foot-hills, and there was a great portage from the Juniata to the Conemaugh; the Kittanning Trail, then the Franks THE JOHNS TO WN PL 0 OD. 1 7 town Turnpike. Later came the great trunk rail- road whose express trains now go roaring down the valley. Johnstown is — nay, Johnstown was ! — a busy and industrious place. The people of the town were the employees of the Cambria Iron and Steel Company, their families, and small storekeepers. There was not one rich man in the town. Three- quarters of the 28,000 people lived in small frame tenement houses on the flats by the river around the works of the Cambria Company. The Cam- bria Company owns almost all the land, and the business and professional men and the superin- tendents of the company live on the hills away up from the creeks. The creeks become the Cone- maugh river right at the end of the town, near where the big stone Pennsylvania Railroad bridge crosses the river. The borough of Johnstown was on the south bank of Conemaugh creek, and the east bank of Stony creek, right in the fork. It had only about a third of the population of the place. It had never been incorporated with the surrounding villages, as the Cambria Company, which owned most of the villages and only part of Johnstown, did not wish to have them consolidated into one city. Conemaugh was the largest village on the creek between the lake and Johnstown. It is often 1 8 THE JOHNSTO WN FLOOD. spoken of as part of Johnstown, though its rail- road station is two or three miles up the creek from the Johnstown station. The streets of the two towns run into each other, and the space between the two stations is well built up along the creek. Part of the Cambria Iron and Steel Company's works are at Conemaugh, and five or six thou- sand of the workingmen and their families lived there. The business was done in Johnstown borough, where almost all the stores of Johns- town city were. The works of the Cambria Company were strung along from here down into Johnstown proper. They were slightly isolated to prevent a fire in one spreading to the others, and because there was not much flat land to build on. The Pennsylvania road runs along the river, and the works were built beside it. Between Conemaugh and Johnstown borough was a string of tenements along the river which was called Woodvale. Possibly 3000 workmen lived in them. They were slightly built of wood, many of them without cellars or stone foundations. There were some substantially built houses in the borough at the fork. Here the flats widen out somewhat, and they had been still further increased in extent by the Cambria Company, which filled up part of the creek beds witfy refuse and the ashes from their works. This narrowed the beds. THE JO HNS TO WN FL OOD. 21 of the creeks. The made land was not far above the water at ordinary times. Even during the ordinary spring floods the waters rose so high that it flowed into the cellars of the tenements, and at times into the works. The natural land was occupied by the business part of the town, where the stores were and the storekeepers had their residences. The borough had a population of about 9000. On the north bank of the river were a third as many more people living in tene- ments built and owned by the Cambria Company. Further down, below the junction of the two creeks, along both banks of the Conemaugh river, were about 4000 employees of the Cam- bria Company and their families. The place where they lived was called Cambria or Cambria City. All these villages and boroughs made up what is .known as the city of Johnstown. The Cambria Company employed about 4000 men in its works and mines. Besides these were some railroad shops, planing mills, flour mills, several banks and newspapers. Only the men employed by the Cambria Company and their families lived on the flats and made ground. The Cambria Company owned all this land, and made it a rule not to sell it, but to lease it. The com- pany put rows of two-story frame tenements close together, on their land close to the works, the cheaper class of tenements in solid blocks, to 2 2 THE JOHNSTO VVN FL OOD. cheapen their construction. The better tenements were separate buildings, with two families to the house. The tenements rented for from $5 to $15 a month, and cost possibly, on the average, $500 to build. They were all of wood, many of them without cellars, and were built as cheaply as pos- sible. The timbers were mostly pine, light and inflammable. It was not an uncommon thing for a fire to break out and to burn one or two rows of tenements. But the different rows were not closely bunched, but were sprinkled around in patches near the separate works, and it was cheaper for the company to rebuild occasionally than to put up brick houses. Besides owning the flats, the Cambria Company owned the surrounding hills. In one of the hills is limestone, in another coal, and there is iron ore not far away. The company has narrow-gauge roads running from its mines down to the works. The city was at the foot of these three hills, which meet in a double V shape. Conemaugh creek flowing down one and Stony creek flowing down the other. The hills are not so far distant that a man with a rifle on any one could not shoot to either of the others. They are several hundred feet high and so steep that roads run up them by a series of zigzag grades. Few people live on these hills except on a small rise of ground across the river from Johnstown. In some places the THE JO HNS TO WN FL OOD. 2$ company has leased the land for dwelling houses, but it retains the ownership of the land and of the coal, iron and limestone in it. The flats having o all been occupied, the company in recent years had put up some tenements of a better class on the north bank of the river, higher up than the flood reached. The business part of the town also was higher up than the works and the tene- ments of the company. In normal times the river is but a few hundred feet wide. The bottom is stony. The current is so fast that there is little deposit along the bank. It is navigable at no time, though in the spring a good canoeist might go down it if he could steer clear of the rocks. In the summer the volume of water diminishes so much that a boy with a pair of rubber boots on can wade across without get- ting his feet wet, and there have been times when a good jumper could cross the river on the dry stones. Below Johnstown, after Stony creek has joined the Conemaugh creek, the volume of water increases, but the Conemaugh throughout its whole length is nothing but a mountain stream, dry in the summer and roaring in the spring. It runs down into the Kiskiminitas river and into the Allegheny river, and then on to Pittsburgh. It is over 100 miles from Johnstown to Pittsburgh fol- lowing the windings of the river, twice as far as the straight line. 24 THE JOHNSTO WN FL OOD. Johnstown was one of the busiest towns of its size in the State. Its tonnage over the Pennsyl- vania and Baltimore and Ohio roads was larger than the tonnage of many cities three times its size. The Iron and Steel Company is one of the largest iron and steel corporations in the world. It had its main rolling mills, Bessemer steel works, and wire works at Johnstown, though it also has works in other places, and owns ore and coal mines and leases in the South, in Michigan, and in Spain, besides its Pennsylvania works. It had in Johnstown and the surrounding villages 4000 or 5000 men usually at work. In flush times it has employed more than 6000. So important was the town from a railroad point of view that the Balti- more and Ohio ran a branch from Rockwood, on its main line to Pittsburgh, up to Johnstown, forty- five miles. It was one of the main freight stations on the Pennsylvania road, though the passenger business was so small in proportion that some ex- press trains do not stop there. The Pennsylvania road recently put up a large brick station, which was one of the few brick buildings on the flats. Some of the Cambria Company's offices were also of brick, and there "was a brick lodging house for young men in the employ of the company. The Pennsylvania road had repair shops there, which employed a few hundred men, and the Baltimore and Ohio branch had some smaller shops. THE JOHNSTO WN FL OOD. 2$ Johnstown had several Catholic and Presbyte- rian, Methodist, Baptist, and Lutheran churches. It had several daily and weekly papers. The chief were the Tribune, the Democrat, and the Freie Presse. The Cambria Iron Works, the great industry of Johnstown, originated in a few widely separated charcoal furnaces built by pioneer iron workers in the early years of the century. As early as 1803 General Arthur St. Clair engaged in the iron business, and erected the Hermitage furnace about sixteen miles from the present site of Johnstown. In 1809 the working of ores was begun near Johnstown. These were primitive furnaces, where charcoal was the only fuel employed, and the raw material and product were transported entirely on wagons, but they marked the beginning of the manufacture of iron in this country. The Cambria Iron Company was chartered under the general law in 1852, for the operation of four old-fashioned charcoal furnaces in and near Johnstown, which was then a village of 1300 in- habitants, to which the Pennsylvania railroad had just been extended. In 1853 the construction of four coke furnaces was begun, but it was two years before the first was finished. England was then shipping rails into this country under a low duty, and the iron industry here was struggling for existence. The company at Johnstown was 2 6 THE JOHNSTO WN FLOOD. aided by a number of Philadelphia merchants, but was unable to continue in business, and suspended in 1854. At a meeting of the creditors in Phila- delphia soon afterward a committee was appointed, with Daniel J. Morrell as Chairman, to visit the works at Johnstown and recommend the best means, if any, to save themselves from loss. In his report, Mr. Morrell strongly urged the Phila- delphia creditors to invest more money and con- tinue the business. They did so, and Matthew Newkirk was made President of the company. The company again failed in 1855, an<^ Mr. Mor- rell then associated a number of gentlemen with him, and formed the firm of Wood, Morrell & Co., leasing the works for seven years. The year 1856 was one of great financial depression, and 1857 was worse, and, as a further discouragement, the large furnace was destroyed by fire in June, 1857. In one week, however, the works were in operation again, and a brick building was soon constructed. When the war came, and with it the Morrill tariff of 1861, a broader field was opened up, and in 1862 the present company was formed. The years following the close of the war brought about an unprecedented revival in railroad build- ing. In 1864 there were but 33,908 miles of rail- road in the United States, while in 1874 there were 72,741 miles, or more than double. There was a great demand for English steel rails, which ad- THE JOHNSTO VVN FLOOD. 2 7 vanced to $170 per ton. Congress imposed a duty of $28 a ton on foreign rails, and encour- aged American manufacturers to go into the busi- ness. The Cambria Company began the erection of Bessemer steel works in 1869, and sold the first steel rails in 1871, at $104 a ton. The company had 700 dwelling-houses, rented to employees. The works and rolling mills of the company were situated upon what was originally a river flat, where the valley of the Conemaugh expanded somewhat, just below Johnstown, and now part of Millville. The Johnstown furnaces, Nos. i, 2V 3 and 4, formed one complete plant, with stacks 75 feet high and 16 feet in diameter at the base. Steam was generated in forty boilers fired by furnace gas, for eight vertical, direct-acting blowing engines. Nos. 5 and 6 blast furnaces formed together a second plant, with stacks 75 feet high and 19 feet in diameter. The Bessemer plant was the sixth started in the United States (July, 1871). The main building was 102 feet in width by 165 feet in length. The cupolas were six in number. Blast was supplied from eight Baker rotary pressure blowers, driven by engines 16x24 inches at 110 revolutions per minute. The Bessemer works were supplied with steam by a battery of twenty-one tubular boilers. The best average, although not the very highest work done in the Bessemer department, was 103 heats 28 THE JOHNSTO WN FLOOD. of Sy£ tons each for each twenty-four hours. The best weekly record reached 4847 tons of ingots, and the best monthly record 20,304 tons. The best daily output was 900 tons of ingots. All grades of steel were made in the converters, from the softest wire and bridge stock to spring stock. The open-hearth building, i2ox 155 feet, contain- ing three Pernot revolving hearth furnaces of fif- teen tons capacity each, supplied with natural gas. The rolling mill was 100 feet in width by 1900 feet in length, and contained a 24-inch train of two stands of three-high rolls, and a ten-ton trav- eling crane for changing rolls. The product of the mill was 80,000 pounds per turn. The bolt and nut works produced 1000 kegs of finished track bolts per month, besides machine bolts. The capacity of the axle shop was 100 finished steel axles per day. The " Gautier steel depart- ment" consisted of a brick building 200 x 50 feet, where the wire was annealed, drawn and finished ; a brick warehouse 373x43 feet, many shops, offices, etc. ; the barb-wire mill, 50 x 250 feet, where the celebrated Cambria link barb wire was made, and the main merchant mill, 725 x 250 feet. These mills produced wire, shafting, springs, plough- shares, rake and harrow teeth, and other kinds of agricultural implement steel. In 1887 they pro- duced 50,000 tons of this material, which was marketed mainly in the Western States. Grouped THE JOHNSTO WN FL OOD. 2 Q with the principal mills thus described were the foundries, pattern and other shops, draughting offices and time offices, etc., all- structures of a firm and substantial character. The company operated about thirty-five miles of railroad tracks, employing in this service twenty- four locomotives, and owned 1500 cars. To the large bodies of mountain land connected with the old charcoal furnaces additions have been made of ores and coking coals, and the company now owns in fee simple 54,423 acres of mineral lands. It has 600 beehive coke ovens in the Connellsville district, and the coal producing capacity of the mines in Pennsylvania owned by the company is 815,000 tons per year. In continuation of the policy of Daniel J. Mor- rell, the Cambria Iron Company has done a great deal for its employees. The Cambria Library was erected by the Iron Company and presented to the town. The building was 43 x 68*/£ feet, and con- tained a library of 6914 volumes. It contained a large and valuable collection of reports of the United States and the State, and it is feared that they have been greatly damaged. The Cambria Mutual Benefit Association is composed of em- ployees of the company, and is supported by it. The employees receive benefits when sick or injured, and in case of death their families are provided for. The Board of Directors of this association 30 THE JOHNSTO WN FLOOD. also controls the Cambria Hospital, which was erected by the Iron Company in 1866, on Prospect Hill, in the northern part of the town. The com- pany also maintained a club house, and a store which was patronized by others, as well as by its employees. CHAPTER II. Twenty miles up Conemaugh creek, beyond the workingmen's villages of South Fork and Mineral Point, was Conemaugh lake. It was a part of the old and long disused Pennsylvania Canal system. At the head of Conemaugh creek, back among the hills, three hundred feet or more above the level of Johnstown streets, was a small, natural lake. When the canal was building, the engineers took this lake to supply the western division of the canal which ran from there to Pitts- burgh. The Eastern division ended at Hollidays- burgh east of the summit of the Alleghanies, where there was a similar reservoir. Between the two was the old Portage road, one of the first railroads constructed in the State. The canal was abandoned some years ago, as the Pennsylvania road destroyed its traffic. The Pennsylvania Company got a grant of the canal from the State. Some years after the canal was abandoned the Hollidaysburgh reservoir was torn down, the 3* 3 2 THE JOHNSTO WN FLOOD. water gradually escaping into the Frankstown branch of the Juniata river. The people of the neighborhood objected to the existence of the reservoir after the canal was abandoned, as little attc ntion was paid to the structure, and the farmers in the valley below feared that the dam would break and drown them. The water was all let out of that reservoir about three years ago. The dam above Johnstown greatly increased the small natural lake there. It was a pleasant drive from Johnstown to the reservoir. Boating and fishing parties often went out there. Near the reservoir is Cresson, a summer resort owned by the Pennsylvania road. Excursion parties are made up in the summer time by the Pennsylvania Company, and special trains are run for them from various points to Cresson. A club called the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club was organ- ized some years ago, and got the use of the lake from the Pennsylvania Company. Most of the members of the club live in Pittsburgh, and are prominent iron and coal men. Besides them there are some of the officials of the Pennsylvania road among the members. They increased the size of the dam until it was not far from a hundred feet in height, and its entire length, from side to side at the top, was not far from nine hundred feet. This increased the size of the lake to three miles in length and a mile and a quarter in width. It THE JOHNS TO WN FL 00 D. 33 was an irregular oval in shape. The volume of water in it depended on the time of the year. Some of the people of Johnstown had thought for years that the dam might break, but they did not think that its breaking would do more than flood the flats and damage the works of the Cam- bria Company. When the Hunting and Fishing Club bought the site of the old reservoir a section of 1 50 feet had been washed out of the middle. This was rebuilt at an expense of $17,000 and the work was thought to be very strong. At the base it was 380 feet thick and gradually tapered until at the top it was about 35 feet thick. It was con- sidered amply secure, and such faith had the mem- bers of the club in its stability that the top of the dam was utilized as a driveway. It took two years to complete the work, men being engaged from '79 to '8 1. While it was under process of con- struction the residents of Johnstown expressed some fears as to the solidity of the work, and requested that it be examined by experts. An engineer of the Cambria Iron Works, secured through Mr. Morrell, of that institution, one pro- vided by Mr. Pitcairn, of the Pennsylvania Rail- road, and Nathan McDowell, chosen by the club itself, made a thorough examination. They pro- nounced the structure perfectly safe, but suggested some precautionary measures as to the stopping 3 4 THE JOHNSTOWN FL O OD. of leaks, that were faithfully carried out. The members of the club themselves discovered that the sewer that carried away the surplus or over- flow from the lake was not large enough in times of storm. So five feet of solid rock were cut away in order to increase the mouth of the lake. Usually the surface of the water was 15 feet below the top of the dam, and never in recent years did it rise to more than eight feet. In 1881, when work was going on, a sudden rise occurred, and then the water threatened to do what it did on this occasion. The workmen hastened to the scene and piled debris of all sorts on the top and thus prevented a washout. For more than a year there had been fears of a disaster. The foundations of the dam at South Fork were considered shaky early in 1888, and many increasing leakages were reported from time to time. "We were afraid of that lake," said a gentle- man who had lived in Johnstown for years ; " We were afraid of that lake seven years ago. No one could see the immense height to which that artificial dam had been built without fearing the tremendous power of the water behind it. The dam must have had a sheer height of 100 feet, thus forcing the water that high above its natural bed, and making a lake at least three miles long and a mile wide, out of what could scarcely be THE JOHNS TO WN FL OOD. 35 called a pond. I doubt if there is a man or woman in Johnstown who at some time or other had not feared and spoken of the terrible disaster that has now come. " People wondered, and asked why the dam was not strengthened, as it certainly had become weak ; but nothing was done, and by and by they talked less and less about it, as nothing happened, though now and then some would shake their heads as if conscious the fearful day would come some time when their worst fears would be tran- scended by the horror of the actual occurrence." There is not a shadow of doubt but that the citizens of Cambria County frequently complained, and that at the time the dam was constructed a vigorous effort was made to put a stop to the work. It is true that the leader in this movement was not a citizen of Johnstown, but he was and is a large mine owner in Cambria County. His mine ad- joins the reservoir property. He was frequently on the spot, and his own engineer inspected the work. He says the embankment was principally of shale and clay, and that straw was used to stop the leaking of water while the work was going on. He called on the sheriff of Cambria County and told him it was his duty to apply to the court for an injunction. The sheriff promised to give the matter his attention, but, instead of going before court, went to the Cambria Company for consul- 36 THE JOHNSTO WN FLOOD. tation. An employee was sent up to make an in- spection, and as his report was favorable to the res- ervoir work the sheriff went no further. But the gentleman referred to said that he had not failed to make public his protest at the time and to re- new it frequently. This recommendation for an injunction and protest were spoken of by citizens of Altoona as a hackneyed subject. Confirmation has certainly been had at South Fork, Conemaugh, Millvale and Johnstown. The rumor of an expected break was prevalent at these places, but citizens remarked that the rumor was a familiar incident of the annual freshets. It was the old classic story of " Wolf, wolf." They gave up the first floors to the water and retired up- stairs to wait until the river should recede, as they had done often before, scouting the oft-told story of the breaking of the reservoir. An interesting story, involving the construction and history of the Conemaugh lake dam, was related by J. B. Montgomery, who formerly lived in West- ern Pennsylvania, and is now well known in the West as a railroad contractor. " The dam," said he, " was built about thirty-five years ago by the State of Pennsylvania, as a feeder for the western division of the Pennsylvania Canal. The plans ' and specifications for the dam were furnished by the Chief Engineer of the State. I am not sure, but it is my impression, that Colonel William Mil- THE JOHNSTO WN FLOOD. 39 nor Roberts held the office at the time. Colonel Roberts was one of the most famous engineers in the country. He died several years ago in Chili. The contractors for the construction of the darn were General J. K. Moorhead and Judge H. B. Packer, of Williamsport, a brother of Governor Packer. General Moorhead had built many dams before this on the rivers of Pennsylvania, and his work was always known to be of the very best. In this case, however, all that he had to do was to build the dam according to the specifications fur- nished by the State. The dam was built of stone and wood throughout, and was of particularly solid construction. There is no significance in the discovery of straw and dirt among the ruins of the dam. Both are freely used when dams are being built, to stop the numerous leaks. " The dam had three waste-gates at the bottom, so arranged that they could be raised when there was too much water in the lake, and permit -the escape of the surplus. These gates were in big stone arches, through which the water passed to the canal when the lake was used as a feeder. "In 1859 the Pennsylvania Railroad Company purchased the canal from the State, and the clam and lake went into the possession of that company. Shortly afterward the Pennsylvania Company abandoned the western division of the canal, and the dam became useless as a feeder. For twenty- 3 4O THE JOHNSTOWN PLOOD. five years the lake was used only as a fish-pond, and the dam and the gates were forgotten. Five years ago the lake was leased to a number of Pittsburgh men, who stocked it with bass, trout, and other game fish. I have heard it said that the waste-gates had not been opened for a great many years. If this is so, no wonder the dam broke. Naturally the fishermen did not want to open the gates after the lake was stocked, for the fish would have run out. A sluiceway should have been built on the side of the dam, so that when the water reached a certain height the surplus could escape. The dam was not built with the intention that the water should flow over the top of it under any circumstances, and if allowed to escape in that way the water was bound to undermine it in a short time. With a dam the height of this the pressure of a quantity of water great enough to overflow it must be something tremendous. " If it is true that the waste-gates were never opened after the Pittsburgh men had leased the lake, the explanation of the-^ bursting of the dam is to be found right there. It may be that the dam had not been looked after and strengthened of late years, and it was undoubtedly weakened in the period of twenty-five years during which the lake was not used. After the construction of the dam the lake was called the Western Reservoir. The south fork of the Conemaugh, which fed the THE JOHNS TO WN FL OOD. 4 1 4ake, is a little stream not over ten feet wide, but even when there were no unusual storms it carried enough water to fill the lake full within a year, showing how important it was that the gates should be opened occasionally to run off the surplus." Mr. Montgomery was one of a party of engi- neers who inspected the dam when it was leased by the Pennsylvania Company, five years ago. It then needed repairs, but was in a perfectly safe condition if the water was not allowed to flow over it. CHAPTER III. Friday, May 3ist, 1889. The day before had been a solemn holiday. In every village veterans of the War for the Union had gathered ; in every cemetery flowers had been strewn upon the grave- mounds of the heroic dead. Now the people were resuming the every-day toil. The weather was rainy. It had been wet for some days. Stony Creek and Conemaugh were turbid and noisy. The little South Fork, which ran into the upper end of the lake, was swollen into a raging tor- rent. The lake was higher than usual ; higher than ever. But the valley below lay in fancied security, and all the varied activities of life pur- sued their wonted round. Friday, May 3ist, 1889. Record that awful date in characters of funereal hue. It was a dark and stormy day, and amid the darkness and the storm the angel of death spread his wings over the fated valley, unseen, unknown. Midday comes. Disquieting rumors rush down the val- ley. There is a roar of an approaching storm — 42 THE JOHNS TO WN FL OOD. 43 approaching doom ! The water swiftly rises. A horseman thunders down the valley: "To the hills, for God's sake ! To the hills, for your lives ! " They stare at him as at a madman, and their hesitating feet linger in the valley of the shadow of death, and the shadow swiftly darkens, and the everlasting hills veil their faces with rain and mist before the scene that greets them. 