Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1874-05-28

4udlCu tIdt nearly 1UU OullulugS were u6-
sroyed, and the total loss is from one
million to a million and half of dollars,
although OF course 1t is impossible to &C
curately estimate the damage.
New HAVEN, Conn, May II.
There was an hour and half of flood,
and then ebb, and at noon those who had
escaped came back 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 clung 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 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 waving his coat
The poor fellows mind was gone. No
less than eight cases of insanity followed
among those who have lost relatives and
trends by the terrible calamity, and
three were committed 70 an asylum in
Northampton.
Everything was ground fine, and when
the MOOD was past the timbers were in
tooth-plcks; scraps of iron, brick and
great stones had become powders, and
mere and there was found a corpse or a
piece OF corpse.
All the windings of the valley were
1!led 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
Tor 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
nVe. There had been, in the afternoon,
gangs OF pIunderers, who were promptly
turned TO workers by no stinted threats {;
The people were ready to brain them with
the hrst stone. There were fewer dead at
Florence and Northampton. There have
been found 40 in all, and many more are
certainly buried in the mud and rubbish
that I'LL 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 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 ruin
back for a haven of safety, went down
under the building.
At Williamsburg factory and twenty
seven houses were blotted out; at HAYDEN
vile factory, gas-house, a cotton-milI,
a bank and 100 dwellings; at Leeds but
ton factory and % 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 a piece
over six feet long, over miles of country.
The Licking Water River" as they call
it, has been a sea, and is now a 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 Is.
The flood came without the slightest
warning save heavy rumbIing, not J1n-
like thunder or the sound of a heavy
train passing over a covered railroad
bridge. Almost in moment the torrents
swept successfully through the villages
of Skinnerville, Williamsburg, Hayden
vile and Leeds, the three frst-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
II terrible fire was sweeping across the
country. The spray or foam had the ap-
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 go 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 a moment to rest; the
Hood came before he could get away, and
all were lost, his wife preferring to share
ms 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
rlole disaster tonight there were hun
uic0S Vi weeping men, women and
chllQren, 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
VIII nearly disappear altogether. In fact,
II IL was only about twenty minutes from
the hrst lnundation before there was a
percePuble and rapid fall, which has con-
HnQed ever since.
The latest figures of the loss of life
make a total of LIZ divided as fnIlnrrc