Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1874-05-28
DREADFUL CALAMITY.
Three Villages i'm Massachusetts Swept
Away-One Hundred Lives Lost.

Away-One Hundred Lives Lost.
BosToN, Mass, May 16.-Three great water
reservoirs, situated in Hampshire county, West
ern Massachusetts,, along the line Of the New
Haven and Northampton railroad, burst this
morning. completely sweeping away the three
manufacturing villages of Leeds, Haydenville
and Williamsburgh. Scarcely building is
left standing. At last account 100 lives had
been lost.
The reservoirs were used to supply the
streams in that vicinity in dry seasons. but
the heavy rains last night burst them. They
were situated three, eight aud ten miles, re-
spectively. from Haydenville.
Not house is standing in Williamsburgh.
destruction of property is not less than &c.,
O00 600.
The villages affected by the disaster are
Williamsburgh. Haydenville, Leeds and
Florence located on Mill river, a tributary to
the Connecticut, running into the latter at
Northampton.
The mills OH the stream have all been carried
away, aud included brass-works, button-hole
factories, silk and cotton mills, brush fac
tories, agricultural implements, and basket
factories, etc., besides saw and grist mills.
The manufacturing capital invested along
Mill river is estimated at 50, 000, 900. and the
immediate damage effected is $4,000, 900.
The valuation of Williamsburgh, farming
and manufacturing town, is nearly 500. 600,
personal, and the number of dwelling-houses
in both Wilamsburgh and Haydenville,
which is q settlement in that town. WAS about
500.
NEW HAVEN Conn.,, May IA 24-1nch pipe
in the town of Great Ashfield reservoir, above
Williamsburgh, Mass, has been leaking 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 the outlet
gave way, and then all in minute. asif a piece
had been bitten out of the dam, 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
Williamsburgh in ten minutes. and cent its
spray above trees 60 feet high. 1t crunched one
house like paper, and killed a woman and her
two children: then another, and another. 1t
swept away the woolen-mils. and rushed on
at the rate OF 20 miles an hour. AS it came
raging down the valley, it dug up houses and
swallowed them in an instant, leaving no
trace; and tree-butts and great stones came
down with the flood. The mountain of water,
q
Skinnerville and lifted the silk mills upon it's
shoulders before shredding them into bits.
AT Haydenville it swept away the factory in
moment. At Leeds it came down, q wall of
water faced by an abattis of timbers, trees
and iron boilers, which struck the village In
full front.
There was an hour and half of flood, and
then ebb. and at neon those who had escaped
came ba TX in crowds to see the ruin. 1t was
an awful sight. Houses were crumpled like
twisted paper, trees stripped of their bark
and limbs, even when their roots chung to the
soil.
The beautiful valley is a waste of mud and
muddy water laden with distorted and strange
shapes. Great boilers have been carried hun
dreds of yards, and left crushed together and
buried
The loss of life is now get O.. 40, and the
loss of property at b, GOO. 900.
The gate-keeper of the reservoir says he has
lived in constant expectation of a break. and
has often called the attention of his superiors
to it's unsafe condition The accident has
caused great apprehension among the resi-
dents along the west branch OF Mill river, OF
which the Goshen reservoir is the head, and
which joins the east branch at Williams
burgh. 1t is in all respects similar to the
Williamsburgh reservoir.
To-day, petition unanimously signed was
sent to the company owning it, asking to have
1t emptied at on 70 and the dam strengthened.
Popular apprehe lsion ran SO high that citizens
Threatened to take the matter into their own
hands and break the dam. The company
promised to do what is necessary at once.