Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1874-06-04
THE uILL RIVER DIsAsrRR.


The I'LL Nlv LIN OAS9AOA kAns
THE TORRENT.
In An hour and . half from the begin.
ming the last house had been upset OF
torn into bits. Quick and terrible work
williamsburg, Skinnerville, Haydenyille,
Leeds, pleasant little towns, with white
cottages arranged In straight row and
rectafples, and with q wide spread OF
green meadows to the south and west
| little fcudal hamlets, whose people were
almost owned by one man, generally he
for whom each village was named; busy
| little places, with plenty of factosies, plenty
of busting life and hard work; pretty,
clustered villages, clinging each around
some tall chimney, all standing on the
broad fats, 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 II
and turned the fats into deserts and the
gentle hills into the barriers Of such q
deluge as Massachusetts had never seen
before. At Williamsburg the torrent was
as deep as 1t was wide, but here it reached
the plain and spread into a food. The
food went straight down the valley. II
attacked Skinneryille, not with water
merely, but with the bones of Williams
burg, great timbers and tree-boles, and
the stones which it lifted and whirled
along. 1t attacked Haydenville with
weapons caught up from both vii.
lagos above, and was here torrent
thick with dead bodies. Here there
is sudden bend eastward, and q
narrowing in the old stream-bed just above
the first dam. The flood, thus for mo-
ment contracted, raised into a wall in its
very front the spoils Of the bridges,
houses, orchards it had swept away. 1t
hurled before it great boiler, picked up
at Skinnerville, and descended headlOn g
on this third village. 1t made a 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 desert of
sand, smooth as billiard table, except
where strewn with tree-trunks and stones,
and carried sixty bodies on toward Leeds.
Leeds il struck on the northwestern cor
ner and broke for itself straight path
through till it landed thirty dead in a
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 flood
from Williamsburg through Skinnerville
to Haydenville.
T. hot all L.,
should be 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. ~. 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 peo-
pie. Together they hurried to the barn, a
few rods below, and while Cheney was
throwing bride on his horse his father
cut him a stick. Leaping on his horses
back and plying vigorously his lash he
rode at topmost speed down the road that
carries the stream TO Williamsburg, GOV.
ering the three miles, he thinks, in fifteen
minutes. 1t was then about 1880 a. 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 goingp Spellman could not
at first credit the statement, and thought
Cheney little scared, and to his startling
announcement replied, "No; it can't be
posslble" 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
Cheneys 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 a horse was made ready
and fresh man got off 10 notify the
jewellers further down the stream.
Another hero of the occasion Is Collins
Graves, milkman, who was at the
iivCAJ otuUiS WhCh SiSbCyy was
to get some one to spread the news below.
al the dam is breaking" said Graves,
after listening to Cheney's fragmentary
story, "the folks must know it," and
flashing his fleet horse into run he dashed
away toward Haydenvilie, shouting,
"The reservoir Is right here. Run! It's
all you can dow 1t was now quarter to
eight, and meanwhile Belcher and Cheney
had rung the bell of the Congregational
Church to further warn the village folks.
On went horse and driver, spreading the
alarm, shouting all the way. He made
directly for the manufacturing establish
ments, for, said he, "The people could
hear II, but the roar of the factories would
drown any warning for the oper-
atives." At Skinnerville, the pair
were Ave minutes ahead of the
coming torrent but at Haydenville
they had but two minutes in which
TO spread the alarm. Here the famous
ride, which will be sung in story and told
to the credit OF Collins Graves around the
firesides of williamsburg forever, as the
salvation OF many hundreds OF lives,
ended at the hotel. The horse and rider
were both exhausted, and here another
herald took up the tidings. Graves could
hear the thunder of the coming food, hut
not fully approaching its extent he turned
T.