The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1889-06-15


morning and no implements TO dig then
with A large detachment of men arrived
from Pittsburgh during the day and the,
| were Immediately put to work digging
graves. Altogether about 300 bodies were
taken to the different cemeteries yesterday
morning.
At 1 80 o'clock Tuesday afternoon bodie.
were being taken from the ruins ut the rate
of one every five minutes. The supply OF
collins on the west side of the bridge run
out and the corpses had to be laid on the
ground. An extra supply of collins is ex
pected from Pittsburgh, and If they do moi
arrive soon the work of rescuing the bodies
| from the burning ruins will have to be
stopped, as the stencil arising from the place
| Is terrible.
While the total loss of life at Johnstown
and the surrounding boroughs of Cambria,
Morrellsville, Kernville and Conemaugh
will never be known, yet a fair attempt is
now being made to ascertain it within q
reasonably fair limit. This is being done
through bureau of registration which was
established Monday. Twenty eight agencies
have been established within the flooded
districts, and all survivors have been noti-
fled to register themselves and their fami-
lies at once. At noon 9,000persons had reg
istered. There were 295O0 people residing
in Johnstown and the boroughs named be-
fore the terrible catastrophe
When the work of registration is finished,
which may be tonight, then it will be
known how many persons are missing The
work is very carefully and thoroughly done,
special care being taken to prevent duplica
tions. Superintendent Morgan of the Cam
bria Iron Company, who is regarded as an
exceptionally level headed man, returned
yesterday from tour of the entire flooded
district. He declared that only about $1,000
persons are now alive where 29, 500 lived and
had their being before the flood
Adiutant General Hastings maintains that
the death list may not exceed 5000, and of
this number he thinks 3, 900 bodies will never
be recovered. Mr.. McConnaughy, the chief
of the bureau of registration, says heis con-
vinced that the number who perished is
fully 10000 or more.
SOUTH Fork, Pa, June Sit was John G..
Parke, an excellent civil engineer of Phila-
delphia, who first saw the danger that
threatened the valley by the bursting of the
dam. Early Friday morning he discovered
that the waters would have to have an ad-
ditional outlet or the dam would give way.
Hastily securing force of thirty Ital-
ians he set to work to prepare an
other sluice. In half an hour his
water continued to rise. Giving orders to
his men to cut another outlet, Mr.. Parke
jumped on his horse and started at break
neck speed to warn the village below. AS
he rode he warned the people on every hand
of their danger Soon hundreds of famlies
were fleeing to the hills for safety. Reach
ing South Fork station, he telegraphed the
warning to Johnstown. Some needed the
warning; others laughed at it.
JoNHsTowN, Pa, June 6-In the midst of
this see ie of death and desolation, a relent-
ing Providence seems to be eXerting a sub
DUNG influence Six days have elapsed
since the great disaster and the temperature
still remains low and chilly in the Cone
maugh valley. When tits remembered that
in the ordinary June weather of this locali-
ty from two to three days are sufficient to
bring an unattended body to degree of de-
cay and putrefaction that would render it
almost impossible to prevent the spread of
disease throughout the valley, the inestma-
BILE benefits of this cool weather are almost
beyond appreciation. The emanations from
the half mile of debris above the bridge are
but little more offensive than Tuesday, and
should this cool weather continue few
days longer it is possible that hundreds of
bodies may yet be recovered from the wreck
in such state of preservation as to render
possible. Many hundreds of
victims, however, will be roasted and
charred into such shapeless masses as to
preclude all chance of recognition by their
relatives.
The work of clearing up the wreck and
recovering the bodies is now being con-
Quoted most Systematically. Over 900 men
are at work in the various portions of the
valley and each gang of twenty men is di-
rected by foreman who is under orders |
from general headquarters. As the rubbish |
IS gone over and the boxes and scattered ar
ticles of value recovered, the debris is piled |
up in one high mass and the torch applied. |
In this way the valley is rapidly " assuming |
4 less devastated condition. In twenty-four |
hours more every mass of rubbish will |
have been searched, and the in
will be confined to the smoking |
wreck above Johnstown bridge.
The first body taken from the ruins yes
erday was that of boy, who was found in
he debris near the bridge. He was badly |
bruised and burned. The remains were
aiken to the undertaking rooms at the Penn
'ylvania railroad station, where they We're
Identified as those of Willie Davis. The
Boys mother has been making a tour of the
litferent morgues for the past few days and
vas just going through the undertaking
'ooms when she saw the remains of her boy
brought in She ran up and demanded the
emains, and seemed to have lost her mind
She stated that she had lost her husband
md six children in the flood and that this
vas the first one of the family that had
,een recovered. She said she had not slept
wink since Saturday, and had visited the
ifferent morgues at least 100 times and was
lmost crazy from the sights she had wit
essed.
During the work of removing the rubbish
rom the Methodist Episcopal church man
nd his wife were found clasped so tightly
n each others arms that it was found nee
ssary to bury them together. just as the
ood struck the city wedding was going
n, and the principals were drowned just as
he ceremony was completed. The minister
scaped, together with nearly all the wit
esses.
Two hundred and fortysix more bodies
yere found Wednesday, of which the ma
,rity have been identified. This swells the
st to 3, ll3 bodies.
In the town of Conemaugh there are only
hirty- eight persons positively known to
ave perished.
Ten million dollars is how some Of the
railroad officials now at this
lace figure the loss and damage to their
Through trains will not be run
)r three weeks at least. The damage at
ast Conemaugh station will run into the
lillions. Further up, where the railroad
rossed the river diagonally on fine iron
ridge, not even suggestion remains to
now that there ever was a bridge there,
or is there particle of road-bed, rails or
es remaining for three-fourths of n mile.
L..