The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1903-06-11
HALF A HUNDRED DEAD
Great Cotton Mills at PacoIet
and Vicinity Totally De-
stroyed by a Mighty
SwirIing Deluge.
List Of Fatalities May Equal Gaines
willie and New Holland Horror,
While Property Loss is MIL
lions Higher-Scenes ct
Devastation.

Following close up to dire havoc OF
the storm king at Gainesville and New
Holland, Ca, came another terrible
visitation of the upper elements upon
the thriving mill towns Of Pacolet anu
Clifton, near Spartanburg, S. c., FIJI
day night.
The black demon of destruction de-
scended in the form of -errihc water
spout and cloudDurst shortly after the
shades of evening had enveloped the
silent big cotton mills which support
these busy textile communities. The
very bottom seemed to have fallen out
of the heavens and in few moments
the celestial Niagara had swollen the
great dams, three in number, lying In
the narrow valley above the three big
mills, until the massive masonry could
not resist the tremendous pressure
but burst asun6er like pasteboard
barrier. On as quick as thought the
wild wall of water swept down upon
the huge brick mills with their en-
vironing rows of cottages, crushing
their steel-girdered walls as though
they were egg shells and carrying
upon its seeshing churnins surface
hundreds of frame cottages as though
they were corks..
The property destruction was COM
plete the bricks and machinery OF the
three mills being scattered for miles
down the valley and mingled with Inc
kindling wood de ris of the opera
tives' cottages and uproo.ed trees.
Fortunately, most of the inhabitants
of Pacolet and Clifton had been sum-
ciently alarmed by the menacing as
pect Of the heavens shortly before the
cloudburst to cause them to fee to the
bluffs and highlands above the narrow
valley in which they lived, and this
wise precaution saved hundreds OF
hun1and lives. A few fingered too
long in the valley Of death.
Half a Hundred Known Dead.
The latest reports place the esti-
mated loss Of life at fifty-fVe. The
known dead are:
AT Clifton Mills No. 3.-Mrs. VIII
Kirby, Miss Maggie Kirby, Mrs. John
Owens and her four children. Mr.. -
Hall and his eight children, Mr.. and
Mrs. Elders, Garland Long. Mrs. Gar
land Long, Sam Swaingan, Mrs. Sam
Swaingan, Miss Fleta Goss.
AT Clifton Mills No. 2.-Augustus
Calvert, Mrs. Augustus Calvert, Lucy
Calvert, Feyllx Calvert, Robern Fin
ley. Mrs. Robert Finley and their five
hoarders, Mrs. B. F. Finley, Mrs. B.
S: Johnson and four children, three
Williams children, Marie Sims.
List Of the known dead Is now 4s,
and there are known to be fourteen
others drowned at Satuc and Clifton
mills No. 2. Total; 81.
Five bodies have been recovered,
one of which has been identified IS
Lucy Calvert and the other two rs
Maggie Kirby and three children OF
Mrs Williams. B. S. Johnson, VINO
was reported to have drowned, after
having clung to house top from Clin-
ton down to Pacolet, distance OF
eight miles. who, when last seen, went
over the dam at Pacolet, escaped by
catching to the overhanging boughs
of tree, returned to Clifton Sunday
only to find that lis wife and four chill
6ren were all drowned.
Some of the actual scenes along the
banks of the river were sad beyond
portrayal. While the food was at Its
height. scores of persons foated down