The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1874-05-18

1
rent was on Williamsburg in ten minut,
and sent Its spray above trees 90 Ic,
thigh, Il crunchGd one kodss like Dane
and killedsi woman and her two chi
dren. Then another and another swcr
the woolen mills and rushed on at Ii
rate ottWenty miles an hour. AS
: came raging down tho vaIleYit dugu
houses and swallowed them in an instan
leaving no trace. Tree butts and grea
stones came down with the flood! -, 4
The mountain Of water roaring like
thunder storm Of hail reached Sklnne,
vile and lifted the silk mills upon II
shoulders before shredding them int
bits. AT Hsydcnvillc 1t swept away tn
factory in moment. At Leeds It cam
down wall Of iwater faced by an abat
It's Of timbers. trees and iron boilers whicl
struck the village in full front. Ther,
was an hour and a half Of food and thel
an ebh, and at noon those who had es
capped came back in crowds to see tn,
ruin. It is an awful sight, houses arr
twisted likecrumpled paper, trees strip
ped otthelr bark and limbs, even whert
their roots have clung to the soil. ThC
beautiful Valley Is q waste Of mud and
muddy water laden with distorted and
strange shapes. Great boilers have beer
carried hundreds ofgards and left crushed
together and buried.
A man was picked up from a 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 oil insanity have fol.
lowed among these who have, lost rels-
tions and friends by this terrible calamity,
Three were committed to tho asylum.
AtNorthampten everything was ground
fine where the flood went past. Timbera
were in toothpicks, and scraps Of iron,
bricks, and great stones became boulders.
Here and there a corpse or piece o! o
corpse could be seen.
All the windiugs Of the valley were
filled with debris. The most beautiful
valley Of Massachusetts, Is d terrible pic.
ture Of waste and death. Tue work Of
saving tho dead from this burial began at
noon at skinnerville. The drst bodies
were picked up, dug out Of the mud, or
taken with difficulty from overloaded
ruins. a.e
All through the valley the work went
on until night, and then men with Ian.
terms seeking their dead stood guard. At
Haydenville forty bodies were gathered
by night, and at Leeds forty yfivo. There
had been in the afternoon gangs ol plum.
derers promptly turned to workers by no
stinted threats, and the people were ready
to brain them with the first stone. There
were fewer dead bodies at Florence and
Northampton, 140 In all, and many more
are certainly buried in the mud and rub.
bish that fills the valley with black heaps
from Williamsburg TO Northampton. A
man on horseback gave warning through
the upper part Of tho valley, but. some
would not hear to him and some turned
to their houses and to the great factories.
One man at the Haydenville factory saved
his life by sticking 10 that house. But he
was a msryelous exception. Hc raninto
closet that stood against the great chin.
ney of the factory, and when the factory
was crushed tho chimney stood and his
closet stuck 10 1t like lantern against a
wall, with him waving his arms for help
out oil breach he made in It's walls.
But man and girl who ran out at the
roar OF the waters and then ran back for
haven Of safety, went down under the
building. i! = ". .f ga
At Williamsburg factory and twenty
houses were blotted out; at Haydenville
q factory, gas house, cotton mill, bank
and one hundred dwellings, at Leeds q
button factory and twenty-five buildings,
and at sklnnerville every house is gone
except MIR. SINNERS own. Such houses
as are here set down as gone have utterly
vanished and are distributed in shreds,
not piece over six'feet long, over miles
Of tho country. The Licking Water
river, as they call it, has been a sea, and
islnow a tricklipg stream, lost in miles Of
mud. Thelakc, hemmed in by detective
masonryup among Goshen hills, has done
It's work terribly. .S ki'i5,i q
ADDITIONAL PARTIcuLARs-THEE NUMBER
OF LIVES LOST WILL PROBABLY REACH
2O0-LlsT OF PERSONS KNOWN TO De
LosT-$e, 100000 OF PROPERTY DE.
sTRoYRD. a'. 81
sPNaFEE1D, MASS, May 1.-THE lat.
est figures Of the loss Of life by breaking
ofWilliamsburg reservoir make the total
one hundred and fOrty.sevcn, divided as
follows between the three places: VII,
liamsburg, O;Leeds, 4Oi Hsydenville, 95.
These figures only represent persons
whose loss is positively known, although
the bodies Of all are not yet recovered
Bodies are constantly being found, and in
some cases Of persons not supposed to be
lost so that it seems perfectly safe to say
that the total loss Of; LIE will exceed one
hundred and fifty, II indeed it does no,
more nearly approach two hundred
The following are lists for each village, oI
persons who are known to be missing, al
Williamsburg, Mrs, Kingston, 8. Bartlett