The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1874-05-20
DEATH AND DESTRUCTION,
-Four Massachusetts Villages OlGter-
atpd in an Hour.

HAYDENyILLE, MASS, May 10
The large reservoir, about four miles
north of this place, burst about eight
o'clock this morning and the water
rushed down the hills carrying every
thing before it. The flood struck the
southeastern portion Of Williamsburg,
village two miles north of this
place, carrying away large number
of dwellings, and sweeping along to
Skinnersville, it demolished SINNERS
large silk mills, and his boarding and
dwelling houses Continuing on, the
water struck the large brass manufac-
tory of Hayden, Gere & Co., sweep
ingit away in an instant. Large
stones and machinery were swept
through the main streets at fearful
rate, and well-built houses were in
stantly crushed, not giving the in
mates a moments warning. The flood
caught the village of Leeds, where a
large number OF shops, dwellings,
&c, were swept away.
New HAVEN, Conn, May IA
twenty-four inch pipe in the dam of
the Great Ashfeld reservoir above
Williamsburg, Mass, had been leak
ing for weeks, and some people had
shaken their heads and said the dam
must be attended to or it might break.
1t did break Yesterday morning the
masonry around this outlet gave way,
and then, all in a minute, as if piece
had been bitten cut of the dam, a
great wall of water seemed to spring
up into the air and leap 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 Will
liamsburg in ten minutes, and sent
its spray above trees sixty feet high.
1t crunched one house like paper, and
killed a woman and her two children
then another and another swept the
woolen mills and rushed on at the
rate Of twenty miles an hour. As it
came raging down the valley it dug
up houses and swallowed them in an
instant, leaving no trace. Tree-butts
and great stones came down with the
flood. The mountain of W ater, roar
ing like a thunder storm Of hail, reach
ed Skinnersville and lifted the silk
mills upon its shoulders before shred
ding them into bits. At Haydenville
it swept away the factory in mo-
ment. At Leeds it came down a
wall of water, forced by an abattis Of
timbers, trees and iron boilers, which
struck the village in full front. There
was an hour and half of food, and
then ebb, and q. noon those who had
escaped came back in crowds to see
the ruin. 1t is an awful sight.
Houses are twisted like crumpled
paper, trees stripped of their bark ana
limbs, even when their roots have
clung to the soil. The beautiful val
lcy,is awaste of mud and muddy
water laden with distorted and
strange shapes. Great boilers have
been carried hundreds of yards and
left crushed together and buried. a
man was picked up from tree upon
which he had ridden six miles on the
torrent, cheering and waiving' his
coat. The poor fellows mind was
gone. No less than eight cases Cf
insanity followed among those who
have lost their relatives and friends
by this terrible calamity, and three
were committed to the asylum in
Northampton, Everything was ground
fine. When the food was past, the
timbers were in tootbpicks; and scraps
of iron, bricks, great stones newly
become boulders, and here and there
a corpse or a piece of corpse. All
the windings of the valley were fill
ed with the debris. A terrible pie
ture Of waste and death in the most
beautiful valley of Massachusetts,!
The gracious work of saving the