The Hickman courier., 1874-05-23
A FRIGHTFUL DELUGE-
Mills and Villages swept AVvay-Over
Two Hundred Persons Killed
Drowned.

Mills and Villages swept Away Owe
Two Hundred Persons Killed
or Drowned.
The large reservoir seven miles nortl
of Haydenville, Mass, burst about
eight o'clock on the morning of the
/ 10Th, and the water came rushing down
! the hills, carrying everything before it.
! The flood struck the south eastern por
/ ton OF Williamsburg, n village two
/ miles north of Haydenville, carrying
away large number of dwellings,. As
It came raging down the valley, it dug
up the houses and swallowed them in an
instant, leaving no trace. Tree butts
| and great stones came down with the
flood. The mountain of water. roaring
like n thunderstorm of hail, reached
Skinnerviie and lifted the silk mills
upon its shoulders before shredding
them into bits. At Lreds it came down
a wall of water faced by an abbattis of
timber, trees, and iron boilers, which
struck the village In the full front. At
first no water was visible, but a seem
ing wall of driftwood, about thirty feet
high and several hundred feet in width,
was seen sweeping down the valley at
the rate of twenty miles an hour.
AN AWFUL SIGHT.
There was an hour and a-half of food,
and then ebb; aud at noon those who
had escaped came back IN crowds TO see
tie ruins. 1t is an awful sight. Houses
ale twisted like crumpled paper. Trees
are stripped of their bark and limbs,
even where 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 bes2 carried hundreds of yards
and left cEsshed and buried. A man
was picked from tree upon which he
had ridden six miles on the torrent.
cheering and waving his coat The
poor fellows mind was gone. No less
than eight cases of insanity followed
'hrse eTs 9mqjsssa tra .l5 8 tie aEfB8h fB8ha
fine. When the food was past, the tim
bers were in toothpicks and scraps OF
iron. bricks and great stones nearly be-
came boulders, and here and there
corpse OF q piece of corpse. All the
windings ot he valley were fillet with
the debris, a terrible picture of waste
and death in the most beautiful valley
of Massachusetts,.
SAVING THE DEAD.
The gracious work of saving the dead,
fsom this burial, began at noon st Skin
Nrville. The first bodies were picked
up, dug out from the mud, or taken
with difficulty from the overloaded
ruins. all through the valley till night
and then men with lanterns, seeking
their dead, stood guard. AT Hay
denville forty bodies were gathered
by night and at Leeds, forty five.
There were fewer dead at Florence and
Northampton. There were one hun
dred and forty in all, though many more
are certainly buried in the mud and
rubbish that fill the valley with black
heaps from williamsburg TO Northamp-
ton.
ESTIMATES OF THE DEAD.
The latest figures of the loss of life
by the Williamsburg reservoir make the
total number 14g, divided as follows be-
tween the ur PLACES: Williamsburg,
81 Skinnerville, 4 Leeds, 40; Hay
denville, 35. OF those at Williamsburg
forty four were women AM children at
SkinDerville two at Haydenville twen-
ty-four, and at Leeds thirty nine. These
figures only represent persons whose
loss is positively known, though the
bodies OF all are not yet recovered.
Bodies are constantly found, and IN
some cases those of persons who We're
not supposed to be lost so that 1t
seems perfectly fair to say that the total
loss of life will exceed $50, If indeed 1t
does not more nearly approach 200.
LOSSES AGGREGATrNG TWO MILLIONS.
1t is utterly impossible as yet to give
detailed estimates of losses; aside from
the buildings destroyed and damaged,
ridges have been carried away, roads
ruined, and hundreds of acres of mead
| ow lands rendered almost valueless.
| The total loss must far exceed one mil
! lion dollars, and will probably come
nearer two millions.
CAUSE THE eAr.srRopuH-
1t appears that serious doubts as tc
| the safety of the reservoir have beer
entertained ever since it was built, nine
years ago, though less the last year o.
two than in its early history. The di
| rect cause of the disaster, aside from
the general weakness of the dam, mus
remain a subject of speculation. Per
haps as satisfactory a theory as any i
one advanced by man familiar witt
the case, that the frosts had started th
earth so the water had found nufnerou
little courses through it, which fnall.
carried the first mass of earth Saturda
morning, and at once precipitated tn
, CaCtStEOpuG.
NARROW ESCAPES.
There were many narrow escapes.
butcher named Michael Hernigan wa
caught, horse, wagon and all, and cal
ried along until he managed to get int
the top of tree, and thus escaped
Thomas Finnessy was carried some tw
; miles, floating on some timber, until b
finally escaped. Ira Dunning was
like manner carried over half mile
Chas. Brady, after riding in imminer
peril for a mile, escaped to tree. ID
! johnson warned his wife in season
: permit her to escape in safety but
trying to save his three children he wf
} caught in the flood, and they all for
perished, in sight of the agonized Wi
and mother.
, THE DISASTER INCREASING IN PRoPol
TIoNS.
! The search for dead bodies has bee
going on all day in Mill Run Vale
, and will be continued for several da,
and perhaps even weeks. The meadow
are so deeply covered With debris th
! it is feared many dead bodies have Y
been undiscovered. A number ha'
been recovered to-day, and it is no
Thought that the estimate of 200 liv
lost NAV fall even below the actu
truth. The extent of the disaster ]
creases rather than diminishes, and
! as yet impossible to give reliable es
} mate of the loss OF life and property.