The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1874-05-22
Great Disaster in Massachusetts,
Bursting of a Reseryeir-Destru
tiOn of several Villages and Appail-
ing Loss Of Life.

ing Loss of Life.
New HAVEN, CoSS, May IA
twenty -four inch pipe IN the dam OF the
great Ashfield reservoir, above Williams
burg, Massachusetts, had been leaking
for weeks, and some people had shaken
their heads and said that the dam must
be attended to or il might break 1t did
break yesterday morning. The mason
~ around the outlet gave way, and then,
all in a minme, as if piece had been
bitten out of the dam, great wall of
water seemed to spring mp into the air and
leap out into the sink below. The
standing joke of Mill River Valley,
"LOok ont, the dam is. broken" proved
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 kill
ed a woman and her two children. Then
another and another; swept the wooden
mills and rushed on at the rate of twen-
ty miles an hour. As it came raging
down the valley it dug up houses and
swallowed them in an instant, leaving
no trace Tree belts and great stones
came down with the flood. The noun
tain of water, roaring like a thunder
storm of hail, reached Skinnerville and
lifted the silk mills upon its shoulders
before shredding them into bits. At
Haydenville it swept away the factory
! in a moment.
| At Leeds it came down wall of wa
Ter faced by an abatis OF. timbers, trees
and iron boilers, which struck the viii
lage in full front
There was an hour and a halfof flood,
and then an ebb, and at noon those who
had escaped came back in crowds to
see the ruin. 1t is an awful sight.
| Houses are twisted like crumpled paper,
trees stripped of their bark, and limbs
even, when their roots have clung to the
soil. The beautiful valley is a waste OF
mud and muddy water, laden with dis
torted and strange shapes. Great boil
ers 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 on the
torrent, cheering and waving his coat
The poor fellows mind was gone. Nc
less than eight cases of insanity follow
ed among those who have lost relatives
and friends by this terrible calamity
and three were committed TO the asylum
in Northampton. Everything wa
ground fine When the food was pas
the timbers were in toothpicks, anC
scraps of iron, bricks, great stones near
ly become powders, and here and Their
corpse, or piece of a corpse.
All the windings of the valley wer
filled with the debris; terrible pictur
of waste and death in the midst of tn
most beautiful valley in Massachusetts
The gracious work of saving the dear
from this burial began at noon at Skin
nerville. The first bodies picked a
were dug out from mud or taken witt
difficulty from the overloaded ruins. Al
, through the valley, the work went on til
night, and then men with lanterns seek
ing their dead stood guard. At Hay
denville forty bodies were gathered b
night; at Leeds forty-five- There ha
been in the afternoon gangs of plundel
ers promptly turned to workers by n
stinted threats. The people were read
: to brain them with the first stone. TheI
we're fewer dead at Florence and North
= ampton, one hundred and forty in al
: and many more are certainly buried
:. the mud and rubbish that fill the vale
r with black heaps from Williamson
to Northampton.
st A man on horseback gave warnir
a through the upper half of the valle.
G but some would not hear, and some turl
e ed to their houses and to the great ia
IT tories for safety. One man at the Ha..
le denville factory saved his life by sticl
lie ing to the house, but he was a marvelo'
K exception. He ran into closet TIL
l. stood against the great chimney of
re factory, and when the factory was crus
r ed the chimney stood, and his clos
ID stuck to it like lantern against wa
n with him, waving his arm for help, o
es of breach he made in its walls. B
e, a man and girl who ran out at the ro
MS of the waters, ran back for haven
ct safety, and went down under the bull
In ing. At Williamsburgh, factory al
st twenty-seven houses were blotted out;
ct Haydenville, factory, gas-house,
OF cotton mill, bank, and one hundr
of dwellings; at Leeds button factory a
ne twenty-five buildings; at Skinnersvi
es every house is gone except Mr.. Skinne
it own. Such houses as are here set do
is as "gone," are utterly vanished or d
IN. tributed in shreds, not a piece over {
lst feet long over miles of country rema
n ing. The Licking Water River"
is they call it, has been sea- and is now
eet trickling stream, lost in miles of mi
ch The lake, hemmed in bs defective n
int sonry up among the Goshen hills,
ew done its work terribly.
len SPRINGFIELD, Mass, May III
un latest figures of the loss of life by
nd breaking of the Williamsburgh Res
rv- voir, make total of one hundred g
at forty-four, divided as follows betw'
'ri- the three places; Williamsburg,
ed Leeds, 40; Haydenville, S5. These
to ures only represent persons whose
ter is positively known, though the boo
of all are not yet recovered. Boo
Iall are constantly being found, and in sc
reet cases those of persons who were not g
! of posed to be lost, so that it seems perft
is ly safe to say that the total loss of
its will exceed one hundred and fifty, if
sses deed it does not more nearly appro
Icts two hundred.
ow. The following is general estimate
he'd losses by places:
ion In Williamscurg-W. II. Avon
lal- Touring mill swept away, $4,000; H.