Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1897-07-15
BURSTING RESERVOIRS
Cause a Harvest Of Death in Two
New York Towns.
EIGHT LIVES PROBABLY LOST.


Five Bodies Recovered and Three
Others Missing-One of the Victims
Was Rescued From the Johnstown
Flood. and Married Her Rescner.
Poughkeepsie, N. Y, July 15.-The
two large reservoirs in the Fishkill
mountains which supplied water to the
towns of Matteawan and Fishkill
burst their walls at o'clock yester-
day morning, and the water that was
released swept through the Duchess
valley, causing ruin and death. Five
bodies have been taken from the
wreckage left in the wake of the flood,
and there are known to be two and
probably three more lying somewhere
beneath the piled up debris, which is
all that remains of three houses that
We're swept away by the mighty tor
rent. The names of those whose bodies
have been recovered, as officially given
out by Coroner H. B. Bevier, of Mat
teawan, are:
Mrs. John Conroy, aged SO, wife of the
engineer in Timoney's brick yard Her
body was badly bruised by contact
with trees and wreckage, and was COW
cred with mud.
Mrs. Mary Ferry, aged SO years, a
widow. Her body was in the worst
condition of all the victims, being COW
cred with mud and bruises.
William Ferry, aged 9 years, son of
Mrs. Ferry. The body was in good con-
dition. except for bruises about the
head.
John Surka, a Hungarian, aged 2S.
1.tl< n
years old. The body was unmutilated.
The missing are: John Conroy, aged
3 years, son of Engineer Conroy;
Julia Conroy, aged years, daughter
of Engineer Conroy; an unknown Hun
garian, whose brother declares that he
was drowned.
There were two floods. The first was
not disastrous, but alarmed the inhabi-
tants, most Of whom left their houses.
A short time later the second dam
burst, pouring the flood down the
mountain, carrying with it a great
mass of debris, parts of buildings etc.
This struck the buildings In the rear
of Timoney's brick yard. One was
boarding house, conducted by Patrick
Murphy. This building contained five
families A short distance from the
Murphy boarding house was building
occupied by about 25 laborers, mostly
Slavs, with a few Italians. From these
two buildings the victims were taken.
The body of Mrs. Mary Ferry was re-
covered yesterday afternoon, dug from
mud and debris 10 feet deep Thirty
five men worked all day in the ruins.
Mrs. Conroy, one of the lost, before
her marriage lived at Johnstown, Pa,
where the great food occurred several
years ago. She was rescued there by
John Conroy, who afterwards married
her.
There are three of the Timoney brick
yards. Two of them are badly dam
aged. The north one, managed by
Frank Timoney, Jr., is a total loss.
The flood swept directly over the val
ley carrying away everything but the
sheds. The briekmaking plant, wag-
ons, carts, ETC., were swept across the
railroad track into the river
At the northern yard were 60 arches
of green" brick, $4,000 in each arch
The water softened these, and let the
whole down in mass of clay. A 12-
arch kiln was burning. The flood put
out the fire and partially ruined the
brick
Most of the ruins have been searched
over, and it is possible that some bodies
have been swept into the river. The
water still runs through the yard
which is covered to depth of several
feet with gravel, mud, trunks of trees
parts of wagons and like material,
finding it's way thence through a Gull
vert into the river.
The three buildings in which the la
borers had quarters were totally
wrecked. There Is hardly piece Of
wood two feet long anywhere In the
ravine there are great rocks some of
them Weighing five to ten tons each.
rolled down the mountain by the tor
rent. One rock, Weighing ten tons at
least, lies on the site of Murphy's
boarding house. 1t is supposed to be
the one that knocked the house off its
foundation. Frank McGinnis, a 15-
year-old boy, machine tender in
Timoney's wards. was on the piazza
of Murphy's house. He says the house
broke in two. The flood carried the
first half, with him clinging to it, down
towards Hammond & Freeman's yards,
which adioin Timoney's. He went
SCFGidt tll1iGSt Out managed 10
swim, and was at length pulled out in
an unconscious condition by Charles
White. fellow workman. He had not
| stitch of clothing on when rescued.
His body was badly bruised, and he
has a great cut on the face from the
right eye across the mouth to the chin.
When he recovered consciousness, half
crazed, he started for the water again,
but was held back.
The Montreal express train arrived
| at the scene about three minutes after
the accident and was tagged through
the efforts of M. H. Reilly.
John I. Lundy, of Matteawan, one of
Timoneys employees, rescued Patrick
Murphy and four little boys. He wad-
ed out to a building and carried them
one by one to place of safety. This
was directly after the first wave. They
had no more than got to the bank be-
fore the house was swept away.
AS soon as the excitement attendant
upon the awful catastrophe had sub
sided the thoughts and conversation
of the hundreds of people who had
| gathered at the scene and of the resi-
dents of the twin villages of FishkilI
Landing and Matteawan turned to the
question of responsibility for the dis
aster.
Morgan H. Hoyt, a member of the
coroner's jury said II believe that
the Fishkll and Matteawan Water
company will be held for criminal neg
ligence, One of the dams at least has
been notoriously unsound ever since it
was built. ten years ago, and has been
leAking all the time. The dam was
one half feet above the water and three
and half below, and built of cobble-
stones. People have been predicting its
collapse ever since l have lived here. =
Similar expressions could be heard