The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1874-06-06
MISCELLANY.
ANOTHER TERRIBLE DISASTER.

Bursting of Reservoir in Western
undated-OVer One Hundred and |
Fifty Lives LOst-Great Destruction
of PrOperty-A Scene of Horror and
DesOlatiOn.
NEW HAVEN, CONN, May ia twenty
four inch pipe in the dam of the great ASH |
field Reservoir, above Williamsburg, Mass,
had been leaking for some weeks, and some
people had shaken their heads and said the
dam must be attended to or it might break.
1t did break Yesterday morning. The ma
sonry around this outlet gave way, and then
all in minute, as if a piece had been bitten
out of the dam, a great wall of water seemed
to spring UP into the air and leap out into the
sink below. The standing joke of Mill River
Valley,
"LooK oUT-THE DAM is BR0KENS"
was proven no joke at last The torrent was
upon Williamsburg in ten minutes, and sent
its spray above trees sixty feet high. 1t
crunched one house like paper and killed a
woman and her two children, then another
and another, swept the woolen mills, and
rushed on at the rate oftwenty miles an hour.
As it came raging down the valley it dug up
houses and swallowed them in an instant
Logs and great stones came down with the
food The mountain of water, roaring like a
thunderstorm of hail reached Skinnerville le and
lifted the silk mills upon its shoulders before
shredding them into bits. AT Haydenyiile 1t
Leeds it came down, wall of water faced by
an abattis of timber, trees, and iron boilers,
which struck the village in full front. There
was an hour and half Of flood, then ebb, and
at noon those who had escaped came back In
crowds to see the ruin.
1T WAS AN AWFUL SIGHT.
Houses were twisted like crumpled paper,
trees stripped of their bark and limbs, even
where the roots have clung to the soil. The
beautiful valley is waste of mud and muddy
water laden with distorted and strange
shapes. Great boilers have been carried
hundreds of yards and left crushed together,
and buried, A man was picked up from
tree upon which he had ridden six miles in
the current, cheering and waving his coat
The poor fellows mind was gone. No less
than
EIGHT CASES OF INSANITY
followed among those who have lost resi-
dences and friends by this terrible calamity,
and three were committed to the asylum at
Northampton.
When the flood was past the timbers were
in tooth-picks, and scraps of iron, bricks,
great stones, and here and there corpse or a
Windings of the valley were filled with the
debris-a terrible picture of waste and death
in the most beautiful valley of Massachusetts.
The gracious work of
SAVING THE DEAD
from this burial began at noon. AT SKINNER.
willie the first bodies picked up were dug oul
from the mud, or taken with difflcuIty from
overloaded ruins. All through the valley
che work went on till night, and then men
with lanterns sought the dead, and others
stood guard. At Haydenyllle forty bodies
were gathered by night. At Leeds torty-nVe
There had been in the afternoon gangs o.
plunderers promptly turned to workers 61
no stinted threats. The people were Teaa.
to brain them with the first stone. Iher'
were fewer dead at Florence and Northamp
ton-140 in all. Many more are certalnl,
buried in the mud and rubbish that I'LL tn
valley with black heaps, from Williamsburg
to Northampton. A man on horseback CAV
warning through the upper half OF tne va
lev, but some would not hear, ana som
tIirned to their houses ard to the great rae
tories for safety. One man at the Hayden
vile factory
SAVED HIS LIFE
. by sticking to the house, but he was MAJ
velous exception. He ran into closet Una
stood against the great chimney OF tne iaese
ry, and when the factory was crashed I'd
chimney stood, and his closet stuck to 1t iik
a lantern against wall, with him waving n
arm for help out of a breach he made In II
walls, But man and girl who ran out .
the roar of the waters and then ran PACK !, Io
haven of safety, went down under the puii'
ing.
houses were blotted out. At Haydenvlile
factory. a gas-house, cotton mill, bank an
one hundred dwellings. At Leeds a puste
factory and twenty-five buildings. AT SKI
nerville every house is gone, except VI
SINNERS own. Such houses as are mere s. s.
down as gone, are utterly vanished and dl
tributed-not piece over six feet long 10
found. The Licking Water River, as the
call it, has been a sea, and is nova trlckIlI
stream lost in miles of mud. Tne lax
hemmed in by defective masonry, up amor
the Goshen hills, has done its work terrfbt
SPRINGFIELD, MASS, May 1.-THE late
figures of the loss of life by the breaking
the williamsburg Reservoir make the TOT
number one hundred and forty-four, dlvld'
as follows between the three places: w
liamsburg, so; Leeds, 49,; Haydenvllie, !
These figures only represent persons VINO
loss is positively known, though the bodies
all are not yet recovered. Bodies are co
stantly being found, and in some cases tho
of persons who were not supposed to be lo
SO that it seems perfectly safe to say that t
total loss of life viii exceed 100, If it does
more nearly approach 200.
The following are the lists for each viiiae
of persons known to be missing
At Williamsburg-Mrs. Kingston, 5. Ba
left NoIa r. Collyer, w. j. Hitchcock, W
III. Adams; Widow VIM. Snow, Willie i
Ion, Mrs. VIM. Carter, r. j. Lonchone, Ml
E, e. Chandler and daughter May, Jeremi
Ward Widow Electa knight, Ms. Patrl