The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1874-05-20

I dcad from thIS burial began at noon
At Skinnersillc the first bodies were
, picked up, dug out from the mud OF
taken with difficulty from overloaded
, ruins. All through the valley tho
work went on till night, and then
men with lanters seeking their dead
stood guard At Ilaydenvilc forty
bodies were gathered by night; al
) Leeds, forty-live There had been
in the afternoon gangs of plunderers
promptly turned to workers by nc
stinted threats; the people were ready
to brain them with the first stone.
There were fewer dead at Florence
and Northampton-Onc hundred and
fortycin all-and many more are GER
talnly buried in the mud and rubbish
that ill the valley with black heaps
$, from. Williamsburgh to Northamp-
ton. A man on horseback gave warn
ing through the upper half of the
valley, Tut some would not hear and
some turned to their houses and to
the great factory for safety. One
man, at the Haydenville factory, saw
ed his life by sticking to the house,
but he was a marvellous exception
He ran into a closet that stood against
the great chimney of the factory. and
when the factory was crushed the
chimney stood and his closet stuck to
it like lantern against wall, with
him waving his arm for help out of
a breach be had made in its walls
But man and a girl who ran out at
the roar OF the waters to run back for
haven OF safety, went down under
the building. At Williamsburgh a
factory and twenty seven houses were
blotted out; at HaydenviIlc factory,
gas house, a cotton mill, a bank
and one hundred dwellings,; at Leeds
button factory and twenty-five
buildings; at Skinnerville every house
Is gone except Mr. Skinner's own
Such houses as we here set down as
gone" are utterly vanished and dis
trlbuted in shreds-not a piece six
feet lOng-over miles of country
The Licking Water river, as they
call it, has been a sea and is now a
trickling stream lost in miles of mud.
The lake, hemmed in by defective
masonry up among Goshen hills, has
done its work terribly.
1t appears that serious doubts as
to the safety of the reservoir had
been entertained ever since it was
built. nine years ago, though less the
last year or two than in its early his
tory. The gatekeeper has several
times expressed fears to bis employ
crs, calling special attention once to
the point where the break occurred,
but the examiners always reported
everything safe. The direct cause of
the disaster, beside the general weak
ness of the dam, must remain a sub
ject fspeculation. Perhaps as sat
isfactory theory as any is the one
advanced by 4 man familiar with
the case. that frosts had started the
earth so that the water had found nu-
merous little courses through it, |
which finally carried of the first mass
Of earth Saturday morning and at
once precipitated the catastrophe.
NEW YORK, May IA SIN spec
lal from Northampton, Mass, SAYS:
just below Leeds, on what was a pret- |
ty lawn called Warmers flats a vast
amonnt Of debris was collected. A
hundred men with OK teams and |
horses to move the heavy timbers.
began work early in the morning.
In the first half hour five bodies we're
found, and before noon thirty were
unburled from that SPOT. The oper-
atives from Williamsburg, whose lost
ones had not been recovered. crowded |
the little carpenter shop into which
the bodies were carried, and all
were recognized, although some were
so disfigured as to be almost past
recognition. In the string of vehicles
every few rods We're wagons contain
ing one, two and some times four
coflined bodies en- route to the ceme-
terry, for in the universal bereave-
ment intcrment followed swiftly after
the recovery ofthe bodies, and funeral
services, excepting in few instances
were dispensed with. At Hayden
vile the bodies were laid out in the
Congregational church. Lying side
by side were mother and her chill
dren; near them a mother and her
married daughter and her two infant
children. The dead of those whom
the food had lett destitute were
buried at the expense of the town.
The dead of Williamsburg num-
Der fifty-seven. The town hall was
thick with the uncOfiined bodies, prin-
cipally of women and children The
were closed and pastors and
people devoted their whole tine t.
the care of the dead, which were re-
moved to the receiving vault of the
cemetry as rapidly as the burial
facilities permitted.
One poor fellow worked alone for
an hour around the wreck of his own
house, which was carried away half a
mile from its place. He lifted up the
boards and timbers very carfuIly,
peering inside them so anxiously that
a throng soon assembled around to
watch his movements. I'm hunt
ing my wife," he said, when ques-
toned; "she was in the house when
the flood came and she must be near
it now" Those who tried to help
him were scarcely able to do so be-
cause he would have each board
lifted as carefully as though the body
lay below. He worked late into the
afternoon before he learned that her
body was among those found on
Warmers flats.