The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1874-06-04
THE MILL RIVER DISASTER.
THE TORRENT.


torn into bits. Quick and terrible work!
Williamsburg. Skinnerville, Haydenville,
Leeds, pleasant little towns, with white
cottages arranged in straight row and
rectangles, and with wide spread Of
green meadows to the south and west;
little feudal hamlets, whose people were
almost owned by one man, generally he
for whom each village was named; busy
little places, with plenty of factories, plenty
of bustling life and hard work: pretty.
cIusUered villages, cllnglng each around
some tall chimney, all standing on the
broad flats, with hills of more and more
gentle slope, down and down the valley,
not hemming them in, but making way
for them from out the bold mountains
above. Such was the valley before the
storm of water, loosed by the neglect of
the great men of the valley, fell upon 1t
and turned the flats into deserts and the
gentle hills into the barriers of such
deluge as Massachusetts, had never seen
before. At Williamsburg the torrent was
as deep as it was wide, but here it reached
the plain and spread into a flood. The
flood went straight down the valley. 1t
attacked sSkinnerville, not with water
merely, but with the bones of Williams.
burg, great timbers and tree holes, and
the stones which it lifted and whirled
along. 1t attacked Haydenville with
weapons caught up from both vii
lagos above, and was here q torrent
is q sudden bend eastward, and q
narrowing in the old stream.bed just above
the first dam. The food, thus for q mo-
ment contracted, raised into a wall in its
very front the spoils of the bridges,
houses, orchards it had swept away. It
hurled before it a great boiler, picked up
at Skinnerville, and descended headlong
on this third village. 1t made sieve OF
the brick factory, tore out another boiler,
laid hold of two great iron safes, and add.
ed these to its weapons; piled house
upon housetop, drove two houses into one,
cut one house into two, splintered others,
turned an island meadow into aydesert Of
sand, smooth az q billiard table, except
where strewn with tree-trunks and stones,
and carried sixty bodies on toward Leeds.
Leeds it struck on the northwestern cor.
ner and broke for itself straight path
through till it landed thirty dead in
twisted mass of rubbish against the hill
below Warmers flats The loss of life was
terrible, but undoubtedly far less than it
would have been but for Milkman Collins
Graves, who carried the news of the flood
just breathing space ahead of the food
from Williamsburg through Skinnerville
to Haydenville.
Is it any wonder that all this ruin
should be q Mecca of sightseers day after
day? They were mostly in carriages yes
terday, and, as every turnpike bridge in
the valley was gone and the roads were
chaos, long prOcessiOns-a wagon with
collins at every rod-formed on both sides
the fords.-Cor. N. y. World.
HOW THE ALARM WAS GIVEN.
When he discovered that the wall of
the dam was crumbling away, and its
utter downfall was only . question of
minutes, George Cheney, the gate-keeper,
rushed to his house and told his father he
was going to the village to warn the PEG.
pie. Together they hurried to the barn, .
few rods below, and while Cheney was
throwing bride on his horse his father
cut him stick. Leaping on his horses
back and plying vigorously his lash he
rode at t0pmOst speed down the road that
carries the stream to Williamsburg, GOV.
ering the three miles, he thinks, in fifteen
minutes. It was then about 7:3O q. m.
Driving to the house of Mr.. Spell.
man, who had general charge of
the reservoir, he summoned that
gentleman to startle him with, "The
reservoir is going!" Speliman could not
at first credit the statement and thought
Cheney little scared, and to his startling
announcement replied, mo; it can't be
posslblew But Cheney quietly told him
about the giving away of the earth and
the stream of water rushing through, and
soon convinced him that the danger was
most imminent. The first duty was to
warn the people further down the stream.
Cheney's horse was exhausted and Spell.
man directed him to 60 to the livery.
stable, where again precious moments
were lost in convincing incredulous peo-
pie that the messengers story could be
true. Finally horse was made ready
and . fresh man got of to notify the
jewellers further down the stream.
Another hero Of the occasion 10 Collins
Graves, . milkman, who was Ct the
livery stable in when Cheney, was trying
to get some one to spread the news below.
Ill the dam is breaking" said Graves,
after listening to Cheney's ffagmentazy
story, sthe folks must know it," and
fishing his deet horse into run he dashed