The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1874-05-28

Skinnerville every house Is gone except
Mr.. SINNERS own. Such houses as are
here Get down ~ "gone" are utterly
vanished and distributed in shreds, not .
piece over six feet long, over miles of
country. The LickingWater River, !"
a. they call 1t, has been sea, and is now
. trickling stream lost in miles of mud.
Thelake, hemmed up by defective masonry
among the Goshen hills, has done its
work terribly.
SrRMsTRLD, Mass, May 16,
The flood came without the sliehtest
warning save heavy rumbling, not un-
like thunder or the sound of q heavy
train passing over . covered railroad
bridge. Almost in q moment the torrents
swept successfully through the villages
of Skinnerville, WILLIAMSBURG. HAYDEN
vile and Leeds, the three irstnsmed
hamlets being about three-quarters of q
mile apart, and the latter about two miles
below Haydenville. u
To those who saw the terrible volume
approaching it looked in the distance as
if q terrible fire was sweeping across the
country. The spray or foam had the ap-
pearance Of heavy black smoke, and the
deception was 90 complete that in the
village of Haydenville the ire-bells were
ringing for q few minutes before the
devastating flood struck the town.
The loss to the industrial enterprise in
the vicinity may be safely reckoned at
not less than million and half of dol.
lars, and many of the manufactures de.
stroyed will probably never be replaced;
in fact, all of the villages inundated may
be said to be literally destroyed. All the
large factories and very many small ones
are completely wiped out of existence.
Large brick and stone mills crumbled
like so many piles of sand, and small
wooden dwellings were no more to the
surging current than 90 many toy steam
boats would be in the surging waters of
Niagara River. The scene was most hor-
rible and frightful, and made even the
strongest men 60 frantic with fear.
Women tainted in the streets and were
borne away by the relentless current. So
sudden was the inundation that many lost
their presence of mind and rushed wildly
from points of safety into very death
itself. Others who remained to save
loved and dear ones were themselves lost,
One painful case was that of DR.. E. N.
johnson, of Williamsburg, who seized
his two children and, in company with
his wife, started for q high prominence
just outside the village. He became ex-
hausted and stopped for q moment to
rest; the flood came before he could get
away, and all were lost, his wife prefer.
ring to share his death rather than aban-
don the ones she SO dearly loved. There
were swept away.
Whom tho rovnorfov 1aE& <l,o ~no-~
rible disaster tonight there were hundreds
of weeping men, women and children
going frantically up and down in the
wake of the flood, seeking for missing
relatives and friends. The water had
greatly receded, and by tomorrow it viii
nearly disappear altogether. In fact, it
first inundation before there was q per.
ceptible and rapid fall, which has con.
tinued ever since.
The latest figures of the loss of life
make . total Of IA, divided a. follows
between the three places: williamsburg,
co. Leeds, 40; Haydenville, IS. These
figures only represent persons whose loss
is positively known, though the bodies OF
all are not yet recovered. Bodies are
constantly being found, and in some
cases those of persons who were not sup.
posed to be lost, 80 that it seems perfectly
safe to say that the total loss of life will
exceed $50, if, indeed, it does not more
nearly approach 200.
INCIDENTS.
NORTHAMPTON, Mass, May Is.
The sweeping away of four generations
in one family was among the uncommon
incidents of the flood at Leeds, as follows
Mrs. Dunlea, woman nearly eighty
years of age; her daughter, Mrs. Robert
Fitzgerald, aged forty-fve years; Mrs
Fitzgerald's son, youth of twenty.one
and four young children of the same
woman, and, finally, the two little children
OF John Clancy, grandchildren Of Mrs
Fitzgerald and greatgrandchildren Of
Mrs. Dunlea. Mrs. Clancy, by the way
died q year ago of consumption, so that
Clancy is now bereft of his whole family.
+, As marvellous an experience as any
Wanted was that of the women of Select
man Quigley's family, who were cleaning
up their breakfasttable when the water
burst In at the cellar door. Mrs. Quigley,
her two handsome, sprightly daughters
and q sch0Olma'am visiting them
rushed upstairs to the second story Of
the L part in which they were, and thence
watched the tremendous spectacle. They
had hardly reached their harborage when
the front part of the house was wrenched
off as swiftly and easily a. one would
tear paper, and the floor CAPPED wide
beneath them with the fierce strain
They saw the great brick mill
tremble and collapse like child's
house of blocks. and the chane