Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1886-05-07
TERRIBLE CATASTROPHE.

A Dam Bursts at East Lee, Mass, ard
Turns Loose a Raging Torrent Which
sweeps through the Town Leaving Death
and DesOlation In Its Wake-Eight Dead
Bodies Recovered and Other Lives
Thought to Have Been Lost.
LEE, Mass, April 21.-Shortly before
six O'Clock yesterday morning the dam OF
the huge mud pond reservoir at Mount
ain lake, two and one-half miles from
here, gave way, and within a few minutes
a terrible torrent OF water rushed down
the valley through the village OF East
Lee, carrying with it the first news OF the
calamity. In an instant East Lee was in
undated by a food OF seething waters six
feet deep, on the top OF which. were
borne great trees, portions OF houses,
fences, wagonsa and other evidences OF the
destruction wrought i'll the valley. People
fed to the slopes of the valley, along
which the torrent was pouring, and saw
houses moved and topple about like chips
on u river. The flood passed East Lee and
went on down the road, destroying gar
dens, lawns and fences, and moving the
smaller buildings.
1t is impossible at present to tell how
many lives were lost. but it is thought chat
the number will exceed twelve. Eight per-
sons are known to have been drowned OF
killed by falling timbers. They are:
A. N. White, Mrs: White, Ida White, their
daughter; John White, their infant son;
Theodore King, Mrs. King, Mrs. Charles
King, Simeon Dowd. )
The channel quilted by the rushing water
is from so to 0 feet wide, and while the
evidences of its terrific power are plainest
as the pond is approached, the most seri-
GUS loss OF life and property occurred in
East Lee village. The water reaches
81 stream on which manufactures are
built by a brook running through
the woods and thinly settled farm
land, and there was not much loss
OF life or buildings until the village was
reached. Here it wrecked Edward Sturges'
barn, washed away u bridge span
ming the brook, which is but small, us it
runs naturally from a small pond, and
then rushed down the channel Of the
stream, on which dwellings, and manufac-
tories are located.
Couch & Oakley's millwright shops, John
Dowd's mandatory OF paper machinery,
and A. N. Whites carriage-shops were all
destroyed. Whites family, consisting OF
himself and wife, aged forty eight and for.
ty-tive years respectively, their daughter
Ida and an infant son were in bed when
the flood struck the house, and were
all killed by the building crash.
ing tn. All the bodies except
that OF the baby have been recovered.
Theodore King and wife and Mrs. Charles
King rushed from their house and were
carried off by the food and drowned. Had
they remained in the house they would
have been saved, as the building was not
destroyed. Simeon Dowd, aged sixty
years, is known to have been drowned, but
his body has not yet been found.
Further down the stream ohm McLaugh-
Inns machine-shops, Harrison Garfield's
mill and Deckers g. Sabin's mill were all
ruined. The boilers and all the basement
machinery We're taken out by thetiood and
carried away like SO much woodwork.
John Vernon's paper-mill was also Quilted.
These disasters throw a great many hands
out of employment, and literally paralyze
all East Lee industries. The loss in prop
erty is fully $500, 900, while the expense o
repairing roads and other costs that must
fall on the town will reach $50, 900 more.
THE FLooD ABAT1NG.
MONTREAL, Can, April 21.-The ice has
begun to break up. The water is still rap.
idly subsiding. The trains on the Grand
Trunk railroad are able to come in as far
as Chatham street. Church ediices in the
flooded district have suffered sc.
verely. 1t is reported that two men
have been drowned on Chabboillea
square,. The Canadian Pacific railroad is
impeded by floods in the neighborhood of
Lake Nipissing. Since Friday no trains
have reached here from Winnipeg. The
total loss caused by the flood in this city
I'LL - I'm r--l -l = rn NNN NNr vNno
present flood was higher by thirty-one
inches than the flood OF 1861.