Huntington advertiser. [volume] (Huntington, W. Va.) 1874-1921, 1874-05-21
Tho Broken Dam Massachusetts
Awful Calamity Terrible Pic
turo OF Dissolution aud Death.

New HAVEN, CoNN., Nay lS.-A twen-
ty-iour inch pipe om the dam OF tie great
Ashtield reservoir, above Williamsburg,
Mass, had been leaking for weeks, and
some people had 5, AIKEN their heads, and
said. The dam must he ajteHded to, or it
might trcaA." 1t dd hgca,, Yesterday
morning. Tie masonry around this out
LET cave way. and "a ID, al IA minute, a.
If nee, had becu bitten cut Of tic dam,
\ Great wall Of water seemed u spring up
int Il ar ard leap cat into tte sink be-
low. Tie standing joke Of ~. 6-vGr
Valley. Look out, tie dam Is broken :.
na- pr we'd NO joke at last.
Tie t.rrcat was upon Williamsburg IN
ten minutes, and sent It's spray above SIX
~ feet high. It crunched one house Ike
n,pcr. and killed woman and her two
children. another and another, swept the
WOODEN mills aud rushed on at TIE rate OF
twenty miles an hour. The mountain OF
water, roaring like i thunderstorm OF
hail, reached Skinneryille and lifted tie
,ill< mills upon Its shoulders before spread
ing them into bits.
At Vaudeville, il swept away the fac
tory in a moment Vt Leeds 1t came
down. wall If water faced by and abat-
It's If timbers, trees and iron boilers, which
strucE the town in full front. Houses are
twisted like crumbled paper. Trees strip
ped of their bark and limbs, even when
their roots have chung 10 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 crush
ed together and buried.
At Skinnerville the first bodies were
pjcked up-dug out from the mud. or Ia
| ken with difficulty from overloaded ruins
At Vaudeville forty bndieS were gath
cred bv night; at Leeds forty five.
There were fewer dead at Florence and
Northampton-one hundred and forty in
all. and many more are certainly buried
in the mud and rubbish that fill the yal.
lev with black heaps from Williamsburg
| To- Northampton.
LoSsEs.-ln williamsburg the loss i.
$4,000: at Skinnerville Sl43,0O0; at
havdenville $4,000; at Leeds 81 5000
at Florence $1,000; ut Northampton
$1,000.
The damage to the town Of Williams
burg by the loss Of bridges, great destruc'
ton Of roads, and complete ruin Of the
best meadow lands, is at present incalcu.
bic. but il is such As seriously to cripple
| the town.
Three iron bridges were carried away
in the village OF Williamsburg; one
wooden and two iron bridges in the vii
lace Of Leeds, and in the village Of Flor
cree one irrn and two wooden bridges
we're swept sway.
At Williamsburg factory and twenty
seven houses were b'otted cut. At Hay
denville a factory, gas-house, a cotton
mill, bank and one hundred dwellings
/ Vt Leeds, button factory and twenty
five buildings. At Skinnerville every
house is gone except Mr.. SINNERS own
Such houses as are set down as gone are
utterly vanished and distributed IN shreds
not a piece over six feet long over
miles of country.
The Licking " alter River, as they call it
here. has been a sea, and is now a irickling
stream, lost in miles OF mud The lake
!. hemmed in by miles OF mud The lal {
hemmed in BY defective masonry up
among the Goshen hills has done Its work
terribly.