Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1889-06-08
BY FIRE and FLOOD
Pennsylvania Towns Annihi-
lated by g. Fearful
Flood.
1t la Estimated That From
5000 to 10000 People
Perished.
A Systematic Search for the
Bodies Has Been In
stituted.
A Terrible Catastrophe the Like OF
Which Was Never Witnessed on
the American Continent
Scenes in Detail.
Disastrous Flood.

~ gf''p ~ ~ ~
SANG Hollow, Pa, June 2, l a. m.-The
latest accounts of the YOUNGSTOWN disaster are
far below the widest estimates placed upon
the calamity, and instead OF 1000 or 5000, it
is probable that the death rate will reach
5000, and RAINY say 10000. 1t is now known
that two p~aslsager trains, two sections on
the day express on the Pennsylvania railroad,
have been thrown into the maddened torrent
and the passengers drowned. These trains
were held at JohnstoEn from Friday at IL
a. m, and were laying on the siding between
J%ohnstown and Conemaugh stations. The
awful torrent came down the narrow detile
between the mountains, a distance OF nine
miles, sweeping away the villages OF
South Fork, Mineral Point, Woodyale
and Conemaugh, leaving but one build
ing standing, a wooden mill, where but
an hour before had stood hundreds, and
dashing on with the roar OF a cataract and
the speed Of the wind upon the fair city at
the foothills. The plane in which but yester-
day sat Johnstown sits In the mountains like
a Jewel Of the queens diadem. The great
Gautier steel works sat in this plane and the
CITY DtlCN IL; hHt ldlllOdu IdChb DOuuulLS AZ
al the base OF the mountains on the north.
Here Is where the trains were standing when
the water, like a catapult, came Town upon
them with such resistless force that the heavy
trains, locomotives, Pullmans and all, were
overturned and swept down the torrent and
were lodged against the great stone viaduct
along with forty.one locomotives from the
Johnstown round house, the heavy machinery
and ponderous framework Of the Gautier
mill, the accumulated debris Of more than
1,00U houses, furniture, bridges, lumber,
drift and human beings.
The low arches Of the stone viaduct choked
up Immediately and the water backed back
over the entire level Of the valley upon which
the city stood, TO a depth Of what from the
waterworks indicates about thirty-eight feet.
In the great sea thus formed thousands Of
people were struggling for life.
The scene today was one Of the most har-
rowing II is possible for the Imagination OF
man 10 conceive. The accumulated drift
gorgcd up al the visduct to a height Of forty
feet, and then took fire from the upsetting Of
stoves or clamps. Then were strong men
made sick at the sight. As the flames
cracked and roared among the dry timber OF
floating houses, human bodies were seen
pinned between house roofs, locomotives,
iron beams, freight, passenger. Pullman and
baggage cars. The scene was horrible be-
yond description. From infants a few days
old to the wasted figures Of the aged were
burned before the eyes Of the beholders, and
no rescue from such a fate was possible.
Strong men turned away with sgonized ex-
pressions and women shrieked with horror ct
The scene.
The dead have been computed at not less
than ZOO, and the number may even exceed
this estimate. This seems incredible, but I'M
til the waters have abated and the work Of re-
moving the dead from this tremendous mass
Is complete 1t will be impossible to tell how
many lives have been lost.
The Associated Press correspondent was
the first to cross JohDstown proper by means
of a basket suspended from a cable as pas
senEers are removed from wrecked ships.
Here the scenes were magnified In their hor-
ror. Here were the residences OF the little
city's most wealthy and intelligent people.
Here were found the bodies OF some OF the
most prominent citizens with all the mem
bers Of there families.
Cinder, Market, Main, Locust and Wash
ipgton streets have been swept clean and
bare OF all buildings OF whatever character,
and their inhabitants seem to have fled into
the streets al the first warning OF danger and
rushed TO their deaths, for those who re-
manned In their houses had an opportunity to
dee TO the upper stories. When the houses
were frame they were foated from their
foundations, and many were saved. The
Hotel Hurlbert, a brick structure, had sixty
five guests ard sixty-three OF these were
killed by the falling in OF the floors and walls.
The Morrel library, Schott house, Alma hall,
general stores and offices Of the iron com
pany and ore other brick building are all Of
the probably 1900 buildings that have not
been hoated from their foundations or cavcd
In.
The stone vladuet is forty feet high from
the river bed az low water and over this the
water rushed in a resistless flood. On the
west side Is the Bessemer and rail mills of The
Cambria Iron company. Although warned to
lice to the hillsides, many OF the men, resting
In fancied security, loitered about the mills
and were engulfed in an instant. Today
Riskiminitias and Allegheny rivers and are
being caught as far down the Ohio river as
Rochester.
Below the mills is Cambria, a sub-burough,
in hich district reside probably 1000 per-
sons. The scenes here are but repetitions OF
the others.
In st. Columbis church, a new structure,
which had been flooded to a depth Of six feet
in the auditorium, the water had recedef, and
the floor was covered with a Shiny ooze to the
depth Of seven or eight inches. On boards
stretched along the top Of the new pews were
thirty bodies which had been snatched from
the stream by Father Thomas Darling and
some OF his Pensioners whom he had pressed
into service. While Ia the presence OF the
dead, and amid the solemn surroundings Of
desolation, the representative saw Joseph
Smith, a man OF eXtraoI binary size and
strength, enter. He said not q word, but
quietly went from corpse TO corpse, lifting
the stained and muddy covering Of the dead.
AZ last he came TO the corpse of a child about
9 years old-his daughter. He looked at the
swollen aud blood stained features a moment,
and then, with a voice Of most unutterable
agony, cried, "My Maggie, my little Maggie
az the same time pressing the inanimate
form to his bosom and giving expression to
alternate caresslngs and calculations Of grief.
Tue man took his child and went with 1t to
what had once been his home. He placed Il
beside those OF his wife and two other
children, all of whom had been drowned. 1t
is impossible to narrate the many pathetic In
cidents that occurred ON all sides.
At Morrel fourteen bodies remain to be
identified. Eight Of them are children, one
that OF a child which a physician said had
been born while the mother was lighting for
her life in the raging food.
At Ninevah, nine miles Down stream, JOG
bodies, mostly women and children, were laid