Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1874-05-28

piece of corpse.
All the windings OF the valley were
filled with the debris, making a terrible
picture of waste and death in the most
beautiful valley of Massachusetts.
The gracious work of saving the dead
for burial began at noon at Skinnerville.
The first bodies were picked up, dug out
from mud, or taken with difficulty from
overloaded ruins. All through the valley
the work went on till night, and then
men with lanterns, seeking their dead,
stood guard. AT Haydenville forty bodies
were gathered by night; at Leeds, forty.
five There had been, in the AFTERNOON,
gangs of plunderers, who were promptly
turned TO workers by no stinted threats;
The people We're ready to brain them with
the first stone. There were fewer dead at
Florence and Northampton. There have
been found l40 in all, and many more are
certainly buried in the mud and rubbish
that ill the valley with black heaps from
Williamsburg to Northampton.
a man on horseback gave warning
through the upper half of the valley, but
some would not hear, and some turned to
their houses and to the great factories for
safety. One man at Haydenville factory
saved 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 a
lantern against wall, with him moving
his arms for help out of breach he made
in It's brickwork; but man and girl who
ran out at the roar of the waters, to run
back for haven of safety, went down
under the building.
AT Williamsburg factory and twenty
seven houses were blotted out; at Hay den-
vile factory, a gas-house, cotton MILL
a bank and 100 dwellings; at Leeds but
ton factory and rs buildings at Skinner
vile every house Is gone except Mr..
SINNERS own. Such houses as are here
set down as gone" are utterly vanished
and distributed in shreds, not piece
over six feet long, over miles of country.
The Licking Water River" as they call
it, has been a sea, and is now trickling
stream lost in miles of mud. The lake,
hemmed up by defective masonry among
the Goshen hills, has done its work
terribly.
SPRINGFIELD, Mass, May 16.
The flood came without the slightest
warning save heavy rumbling, not un-
like thunder or the sound of heavy
train passing over a covered railroad
bridge. Almost in a moment the torrents
swept successfully through the villages
Of Skinnerville, Williamsburg, Hayden
vile and Leeds, the three tirst-named
hamlets being about three-quarters of a
mile apart, and the latter about two miles
below Haydenville.
To those who saw the terrible volume
approaching it looked in the distance as
if terrible fire was sweeping across the
country. The spray or foam had the APP
pearance of heavy black smoke, and the
deception was so complete that in the
village of Haydenville the fire, bells were
ringing for a few minutes before the
devastating flood struck the town.
The loss to the industrial enterprise in
the vicinity may be safely reckoned at not
less than million and half of dollars,
and many of the manufactures destroyed
will probably never be replaced. In fact,
all of the villages inundated may be said
to be literally destroyed. All the large
factories and very many small ones are
completely wiped out of existence.
Large brick and stone mills crumbled
like so many piles of sand, and small
wooden dwellings were no more to the
raging current than so many toy steam
boats would be in the surging waters of
Niagara River. The scene was most
horrible and frightful, and made even the
strongest men 90 frantic with fear
Women tainted in the streets and were
borne away by the relentless current. So
sudden was the inundation that many
lost their presence of mind and rushed
wildly from points of safety into very
death itself. Others who remained to
save loved and dear ones were themselves
lost.
One painful case was that Of DR.. E. n.
johnson, of Williamsburg, who seized his
two children and, in company with his
wife started for high prominence just
outside the village. He became exhausted,
and stopped for moment to rest; the
flood came before he could get away, and
all were lost, his wife preierring to share
his death rather than abandon the ones
she so dearly loved. There are numerous
cases where whole families were swept
away.
When the reporter left the scene Of ter
rible disaster tonight there were hun
dreds of weeping men, women and
children, going frantically up and down
in the wake of the food seeking for
missing relatives and friends. The water
had greatly receded, and by tomorrow it
win nearly disappear altogether. In fact,
il was only about twenty minutes from
the first inundation before there was a
perceptible and rapid tall, which has con.
tinued ever since.
The latest figures of the loss of life
make a total OF IA, divided as follows
between the three places: Williamsburg,
60; Leeds, 40; Haydenville, 80. These
figures only represent persons whose loss
is positively known, though the bodies of
ali are not yet recovered. Bodies are
nnno.nnrl,- hninr found and In snmn