Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1888-07-18
GROUND TO SPLINTERS.
Valuable Property Swept Away on
the Monongahela.
BOATS CRUSHED LIKE EGG-SHELLS.
A C1oud-Burst Carries Disaster to Penn
sylvania TOwns-Many Families
Driven from Their Homes
Barges and Steamers
Ground to Atoms.

Dr0C0O00CoQ ana great Damage mas Do0n
done to the river craft and property all
along the river from the headwaters to
this city. The suddenness of the rise
took the river men entirely unawares
and they were not prepared when the
great volume of water burst upon them.
Millions of feet of lumber, scores of coal
craft, fences, outhouses and coal tipples
have been floating down the swift cur
rent for the last eighteen hours. The
river at this point is still rising with 81
feet 9 inches on the marks at o'clock,
but it is reported as stationary, with 45
feet, at Greensboro, 100 miles above this
city. At every point between Green's
boro and Pittsburg, the lowIands
are under water and the residents have
been compelled to live in the upper
stories of their houses, and In some
cases to seek the hills for safety. Many
had not time to remove their goods as
water rose at the rate of foot an hour
and at Greensboro thirty-two feet of a
rise was recorded in less than twenty
four hours. The damage to property
cannot be estimated at present, but it
will reach away up into the thousands.
A solitary barge which broke away yes
terday caused over S., 600 damage, and
that is but one little item. So far but
one life has been reported lost, that of a
man named George Getter, who was
struck by parted cable and instantly
killed.
The scene along the river front this
morning was one Of great excitement
The banks were lined with people,
watching the debris as it was swept
down the swift current. The river and
coal men were on the alert, fearing that
their craft would be torn from its moor
ings, and as fast as one cable would
snap in twain, it would be replaced by
another. Occasionally a floating boat,
barge or tipple would strike one Of the
piers of the Smithtield Street bridge,
and with a loud, grating sound, sink
from view. Again the helpless craft
would pass the bridges in safety and
continue on its journey to Cincinnati.
The greatest damage to river craft
oconrred between l 80 O'Clock this
morning and daylight. Shortly before
longing to jenkins & Co., came down the
river from the second pool and struck
the Smithfeld Street bridge. the huge
barges turning end over end, and break
ing the tow-boat Barnard in against the
steamer Jacobs. Every whistle on the
river sounded the alarm, and as the
liyid rays OF the electric lights swept
from side to side across the turbulent
flood, it presented a wild sight. Logs,
barges and fuel boats were dashed
against the peers OF the bridge and
snapped like twigs by the overwhelm-
ing force of the current. Half of one of
the jenkins boats lodged against the
bottom just below the Smithield bridge,
hn Il
spray high into the air while the Drift
wood crushed and cracked over the
wreck, with the grinding noise which
adds to the horrors of flood.
About fifteen minutes after the broken
barges came down, number of pieces
of wreckage f1oated past in the middle
of which a shanty boat was swept along
with light on board. The rivermen
shouted and the whistles screamed to
get an answer from any person who
might be on the boat, but no reply
came, and ifthe owners were on board
and asleep, as some of the rivermen
thought, they were swept down to in
evitable destruction. Later the steam
er George Wood broke her moor
ings above the Tenth Street bridge and
was finally caught and towed to safe
sunken Cincinnati wharfboat, which
the owners had been struggling for
twelve hours to save, parted about this
time, and the cumbersome craft was
quickly swept away. A few minutes
later, a lot of O'NeiPs barges and twenty
six pieces belonging to Joseph Walton
& Co., were cut from their moorings
and carried down stream.
Polishtown," located along the bank
of the NJ onongahela River, between the
foot Of South Twenty-second and South
Twentyfourth Streets, is in a sorry
plight to-day. There are nearly seven
ty-tive shantyboats at that point, Occu
pied by over $50 families, aggregating
population of more than 500 people. All
of these, with the exception of about a
dozen families, camped out last night.
Early yesterday morning the trouble be-
gan. All day men, women and children
were busy pumping water out of the boats
and removing their goods to places of
safety. BY night ten lighthouses had
been sunk or capsized and several car
ried down the river. The families who
moved out piled their goods up along
the Lake Erie Railroad and then the
men did the best they could to secure
their shanties, while the women
watched their possessions by the light
OF WOOu uTOS. hlICle CulIuT0u CTdWl0O
under pieces of furniture and slept on
in blissful ignorance of the flood and it's
incur bent cares.
On both sides of the river, from the
Point bridge to far above the Tenth
Street bridge, incidents of the iveies,
description occurred. Many scenes are
ludicrous and laughable and some
serious enough to those who were COM
PEELED to be the actors in them, but
fortunately none ended in catastrophe.
From the Smithfield Street bridge to
considerable distance above the Balti-
more s. Ohio depot were a number of
boat houses occupied by families. The
sudden rise of the water found these
occupants totally unprepared, and a
goodly number of the semi-amphibious
jewellers were forced to make
hasty retreat to dry land The
boat houses that had their foundation
on the water, or in the mud, rode the
freshet in safety and kept the feet and
possessions of its occupants dry, but
those which had been propped high
above the sluggish low water had every
seam and crack opened by the sun, and
when the swiftly-f1owing waters reached