The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1874-05-22
DREADFUL CALAMITY.
Three Villages i'm massachusetts Swept
Away-One Hundred Lives Lost.


BosToy, Mass, May 16.-Three great water
reservoirs, situated in Hampshire county, West
ern Massachusetts,, along the line of the New
Haven and Northampton railroad, burst this
morning. completely sweeping away the three
manufacturing villages of Leeds, Haydenville
and Williamsburgh. Scarcely building is
left standing. At last accounts 100 lives had
been lost.
The reservoirs were used to supply the
streams in that vicinity in dry seasons, but
the heavy rains last night burst them. They
were situated three. eight and ten miles, re-
spectively, from Haydenville.
Not house is standing in Williamsburgh.
At this writing the waters are subsiding. Tho
destruction of property is not less than S10,-
000 900.
The villages affected by the disaster are
Williamsburgh. Haydenville Leeds and
Florence. located on Mill river, a tributary to
the Connecticut, running into the latter at
Northampton.
The mills on the stream have all been carried
away, and included brass-works, button-hole
factories, silk and cotton mills, brush fac
tories. agricultural implements, and basket
factories, etc, besides saw and grist mills
The manufacturing capital invested along
Mill river is estimated at So zoo, 0O0 and the
immediate damage affected Is "a, 000, 900.
The valuation of Williamsburgh, farming
personal and the number of dwelling houses
in both Willamsburgh and Haydensville,
which is a settlement in that town. was about
500.
LATER.
New HAVEN, Conn, May IA 2i-inch pipe
in the town of Great Ashield reservoir, above
Williamsburgh, Mass, had been leaking for
weeks, and some people had shaken their
l.. o,,J Iva do no Of lad 10
or it might break. 1t did break yesterday
morning. The masonry around the outlet
gave way. and then all in a minute, as if a
piece had been bitten ont of the dam, a great
wall of water seemed to spring up into the air
and lead out into the sink below.
The standing joke of Mill river valley,
" Look out the dam is broken" was proved
no Joke at last. The torrent was upon
Williamsburgh in ten minutes, and sent its
spray above trees 60 feet high. 1t crunched one
house like paper, and killed a woman and her
two children then another, and another. Il
swept away the woolen-mlls, and rushed on
at the rate of 20 miles all hour. As it came
raging down the valley, it dug up houses and
swallowed them in an instant, leaving no
trace and tree-butts and great stones came
down with the flood The mountain of water,
roaring like thunderstorm of hail, reached
Skinnervile and lifted the silk mills upon its
shoulder before shredding them into bits
At Haydenville it swept away the factory in
a moment. At Leeds it came down, a wall of
water faced by an abattis Of timbers, trees,
and iron boilers, which struck the village in
full front.
There was All hour and half of food, and
then ebb. and Ut noon those who had escaped
came back in crowds to see the ruin. 1t was
an awful sight Houses were crumpled like
twisted paper, trees stripped of their bark
and limbs even when their roots chung to the
soil.
The beautiful valley is a waste Of mud and
muddy water laden with distorted and strange
shapes Great boilers have been carried hun
dreds of yards, and left crushed together and
buried.
The loss Of life is now set at 40, and the
loss Of property at -, 900, 600.
The gate-keeper of the reservoir says he has
lived in constant expectation OF a break, and
has often called the attention of his superiors
to it's unsafe condition. The accident has
caused great apprehension among the resi-
dents along the west branch of Mill river, OF
which the Goshen reservoir is the head, and
which Joins the east branch at Williamsburgh.
1t is in all respects similar to the Williams
burgh reservoir.
To-day. petition unanimously signed was
sent to the company owning 1t. asking to have
it emptied at once and the dam strengthened.
Popular apprehension ran so high that citizens
threatened to take the matter into their own
hands and break the dam. The company
promised to do what is necessary at once.