Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1874-06-04
Incidents of the Massachusetts Flood.
THE WARMING.

When the gate keeper, George Cheney,
discovered the threatening danger, and
saw that the complete breaking away of
the reservoir was only question OF min
utes, he rushed up to his house and told
his father he was going to the village to
warn the people. Together they hurried
to the barn, few rods below, and while
Cheney was throwing bride upon his
horse his father cut him a stick. Leap
ing upon his horses back and applying
vigorously his, lash he rode at topmost
speed down the road that sklrted the
streams back to Williamsburg, covering
the three miles, he thinks, III fifteen min
utes. 1t was then about half-past seven
O'CLOCK. Driving to the house OF Mr.. Spell
man, who had general charge OF the reser-
volr, he summoned that gentleman from his
breakfast table to startle him with The
reservoir is going" Spellman could not
at hrst credit the statement. He thought
the man little scared" and to his
startling announcement replied, No, it
can't be possible" But Cheney quickly
told him about the giving way Of the
eafth, and the streams OF water rushing
through, and soon convinced him that the
danger was most imminent. The first
duty was to warn the people further down
ed, and Spellman directed him to go to
the livery-stable, where again precious
| moments were lost in convincing the in
| creduious people that the messengers
story could be true.
Another hero of the occasion is Collins
Graves, milkman, who was at the liv-
| ery-stable when Cheney was trying to
| get some one to spread the news below.
1t the dam is breaking" said Graves,
after listening to Cheeney's fragmentary
| story, "the folks must know it." And,
lashing his fleet horse into a run, he
dashed away toward Haydenville, shout
| ing, "The reservoir is right here. Run!
It's all you can do"
1t was now quarter of eight o'clock,
and meanwhile Belcher and Cheney had
rung the bell of theCOngregatiOnal Church
to further warn the village folk.
On went horse and driver, spreading
| the alarm, Graves shouting all the way.
He made directly for the manufacturing
establishments, for" said he, " the peo-
pie could hear it, but the roar of the fac
tories would drown any warning for the
| operatives"
At SkinnerviIle the messenger was
| five minutes ahead of the coming
torrent, but at Haydenville they had
but two minutes to spread the
alarm. There the famous ride, which
will be sung in story and told to the
credit of Collins Graves around the fire
sides of Williamsburg forever, as the sal
| walton of many hundred lives, ended at
the hotel
Horse and rider were both exhausted,
and here another herald took up the It'd
| ings. Graves could hear the thunder Of
the coming flood, but not fully appreciat-
ing its extent he turned to go back to
Williamsburg. At the "dugway" the
disaster which he had predicted burst
upon his sight, and he had just time to
turn off on a bank near Capt Kingsley's
when it crashed past him. Indeed, he
was not twenty seconds too soon, and as
it was he had almost despaired of reach
ing a place of safety, and had even
| thought of abandoning his tired steed to
it's fate.
Graves is a Williamsburg boy, and has
pleasant home on the hill, out of all
danger of floods.
A REMARKABLE ESCAPE.
The story of the marvellous escape Of
young Dunning at Leeds is so interesting
that it is worth giving in detail. When
| the alarm was given he was at work in
| the spool-room of the NOnotuck silk
works, and, rushing out of the mill, his
| first thought, of course, was for his family.
He found that his father, wife and three
| children had all left the house. He shout
| &c to them to run for their lives, at the
same time pointing to them what direc-
| ton to take. His wife and children
| obeyed him and were saved; but his
| father, an old man of seventy-eight,
thinking that something might be got out
of the house before the flood reached it,
went back. In dashed the son after him,
| begging him to leave the doomed build
| ing. While raising one of the windows
| the floor gave way beneath their feet, and
| his father disappeared from his sight.
The young man had just time to Chamber
out of the window, and as the house tipped
over crawled up its side to the roof just as
| the building broke up, leaving him but a
| fragment to cling to for his life, and on
he went sailing down that awful flood in
| full sight of wife and children, who, as they
| looked on IN terror and agony, expected
mOmentarily to see him sink beneath the
surging mass. In a few seconds his trail
raft was crushed like an eggshell, but his
| presence of mind never deserted him. lie
Jumped for another, and when that was
gone for yet another. He was fastening
down with the current at terrific speed,
and, intent on the fearful task he had in
hand, never once thought of the dams to-
ward which he was Fastening. The first
one is reached in the awful crash and jam.
He is hurled seemingly twenty feet IN the
air, to come down and be submerged for
the first time far beneath the waves. AS
he came to the surface again and clasped
another piece of driftwOOd he realized
with an intensity unimaginable by those
whose lives have never been lmperlled
that another and higher dam was but
short distance below, and that he had alb
sOlutely no hope for life unless he es-
capped from the flood before that point
was reached, but fortunately the swollen
mass of water and debris at that moment
surged toward shore, and seIZlng an OPP
pOrtunity which seemed to be proYlden-
TALLY presented he clambered across
some broken roots, which served him as
| bridge, and with leap again had
foothold on the earth The feelings OF
man who, like him, had scarcely hope
of life, on finding himself escaped from
the jaws of death cannot be depicted.
Only cool and intrepid man could have
passed through that experience, ana pos
sibly Mr.. Dunning could not but Tor his
experiences before as a raftsman IN Can
adian waters. He had been swept half
mile down the river and was utterly eX-
hausted by the immense strain on mind
and body, nerve and muscle, yet as he lay
on the bank for a moment to get his
breath he could not suppress a smile at
the appearance of man VINO escaped
from the flood near the sme place by
IL Al he nj q IaTna frao