The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1889-06-15
WHAT JOHNsTOwN is LIKE.


part VI Oduoiia Souutl, ~ tuc ioi hS
where Stony creek and Conemaugh
creek form the Conemaugh river. 1t
was on the Pennsylvania Railroad,
thirty-nine miles southwest CT Al
toona, and seventy eight miles east
of Pittsburg. The people of the
town were the employees of the Cam
bria Iron and Steel Company, their
families and small storekeepers.
There was not one rich man in the
town. Three-quarters of the $4,000
people lived in small frame tenement
houses on the flats by the river
around the works of the Cambria
COMPANY. The Cambria Company
owns almost all of the land, and the
business and professional men and
the superintendent of the company
live on the hills away up from the
creeks. The creek becomes the
Conemaugh river right at the end of
the town, near where the big stone
Pennsylvania Railroad bridge cross
es the river.
The borough of Johnstown was on
the south bank of Conemaugh creek
and the east bank Of Stony creek,
right in the fork. 1t had only about
a third of the population of the
place. 1t had never been incorpor-
ated with the surrounding villages,
as the Cambria Company, which own
ed most of the villages and only a
part of Johnstown, did not wish to
have them consolidated into one
city. These villages lay in string
along Conemaugh creek, which flows
from the reservoir, or Conemaugh
Lake
The first of the villages which the
flood struck was ten miles above
Johnstown borough, and on the fats
made by the junction of small
creek with Conemaugh creek. This
village is occupied entirely by work
ingmen who lived on the flats in ten
ements. 1t was known as South
Fork. 1t had a population of about
1,400. Three miles below South
Fork was Mineral Point, cluster
of workingmen's houses about half
the size. Neither of these towns was
part of Johnstown,
Conemaugh was the largest vii
lage on the creek between the reser-
voir and Johnstown. 1t is often
spoken of as part of Johnstown,
though its railroad station is two or
three miles up the creek from the
Johnstown station. The streets of
the two towns run into each other,
and the space between the two sta
tions is well built up along the creek
Part of the Cambria Iron and Steel
Company's works are at Conemaugh
and five or six thousand of the work
ingmen and their families live there.
The business was done in Johnstown
borough, where almost all the stores
of YOUNGSTOWN city were.
The works of the Cambria Com
pany were strung along from here
down into YOUNGSTOWN proper. They
were slightly isolated to prevent a
fire in one spreading to the others,
and because there was not much fat
land to build upon. The Pennsyl-
vania road runs along the river, and
the works were built beside it.
Between Conemaugh and Johns
town borough was string of tene-
ments along the river which was
called Woodville. Possibly 5000
workmen lived in them. They were
slightly built of wood, many of them
without cellars or stone foundations
There were some substantially built
houses in the borough at the fork.
Here the flats widen out somewhat,
and they had been still further in
creased in extent by the Cambria
Company, which filled up part of the
creek beds with refuse and ashes
from their works. This narrowed
the beds of the creeks. The made
land was not far above the water at
ordinary times. Even during the
ordinary spring floods the water rose
so high that it flowed into the cellars
of the tenements, and at times into
the works. The reservoir, the break
ing of which caused the flood, has
served somewhat to equalize the
depth of the main creek by holding
the water back. The natural land
was occupied by the business part of
the town, where the stores were and
the storekeepers had their residences.
The borough had a population of
about 5000. On the north bank Of
the river were third as many peo-
pie more living in tenements built
and owned by the Cambria Compa-
ny. Farther down, below the juno
tion of the two creeks, along both
banks of the Conemaugh river, were
about 4, 900 employees of the Cambria
Company and their families. The
place where they lived was called
Cambria or Cambria City. All these
villages and boroughs made up what
is known as Johnstown.
The Cambria Company employed
about 4, 900 men in it's works and
mines. Besides these were some
railroad shops, planning mills, -four
mills; several banks and newspapers.
Only the men employed by the Cam
bria Company and their families
lived on the flats and made ground.
The Cambria Company owned all
this land, and made it a rule not to
sell it, but to lease it. The company
put rows of two-story frame tene-
ments close together on their land
close to the works, the cheaper class
of tenements in solid blocks to cheap
en- their construction. The better
tenements were separate buildings,
withtwo families to the house. The
tenements rented for from SIS to SIS
a month, and cost possibly, ON the av-
erage, $500 to build. They were all
of wood, many of them without Gel
lars and were built as cheaply as
possible. The timbers were mostly
pine, light and infammable. 1t was
not an uncommon thing for a fire to
break out and burn one or two rows
of tenements. But the different rows
were not closely punched, but were
sprinkled around in patches near the