The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1906-01-16
KILLED IN A LANDSLIDE
Over a Score Of People at Hayer-
straw, N. Y, Perish.
ENGULFED IN GREAT BRICK PIT

cause of Their Encroachments-Fire
and Water Added to The Horrors OF
the Awful Night of Terror--Fire De-
partment Helpless.
Haverstraw, N. Y-The bodies of
twenty two persons We're buried under
thousands of tons Of clay and quick
sand as result of disaster which
overwhelmed the northeastern part Of
this village at night.
Rockland street, for distance Of five
city blocks, was swept into an abyss
caused by the settling of the clay bank
upon which it stood. This for years
had been steadily undermined by the
brickmakers, whose yards are down
the valley. The brickmakers, however.
are expected to profit from the slide, as
100000 worth of clay was dumped
into their pits.
The whole town is built on huge
| clay-bank, and the principal industry
of the place is brickmaking. The top
| layer of ground is sand about thirty
| feet deep. Then comes a stratum of
fairly soft clay, such as is used for
brickmaking. This is about forty feet
| thick. Beneath this is a soft, blue
sand mixed with clay, of the consist
ency of mortar and about thirty feet
| thick.
Tor years the brickmakers had been
| digging away at the clay bank below
Rockland street in such manner that
they had practically undermined that
part of the village above.
1 s.k. xl-~~~ L. <~~4t
sand slid out, and the tons of clay and
| sand above settled straight down. At
| the same time the soft mass of clay
and sand lowest down rose up like
| great geyser, and, falling, settled over
the entombed part of the village.
A great assure was seen in the ground
at the end Of Rockland street at 4
o'clock in the afternoon. Warning was
| quickly sent around that the clay bank
was settling. Some persons left their
houses and went to another part of the
village. Cave-ins had occurred before,
but never SO close to the residential
section
Into the chasm were swept thirteen
houses, only one of which stands to-
day, 200 feet away and $50 feet down
into the pit. This was the only one
| of the thirteen that was vacant. That
the landslide occurred in three distinct
parts, about fifteen minutes apart, ac-
counts for the fact that the lives lost
are not counted in hundreds,
Now q dozen houses, from which the
tenants have fled, are standing on the
brink of the abrupt declivity into
which they will sink with other slides
which are bound to come. For three
blocks around the danger zone houses
have been deserted. The ground is
honeycombed with great assures, and
bits of the bank break away every few
minutes.
There was a consultation among the
people living at the edge of the bank.
They agreed that there could be no
danger while the mass below was
frozen, but that it would be danger
GUS section should thaw occur.
Most Of the people in the neighbor-
hood were awakened at 1850 o'clock
by loud rushing sound like the in
coming of a huge wave as the soft
clay slid out
Three houses began to settle. The
first to go was boarding house run
by Mrs. Foley. John Burke awoke to
see the sky through grea rent in the
roof above him. He ran to window
and jumped, almost into the arms of
Mrs. Foley, who had run out the front
door. They raced away just as the
house turning completely over, went
crashing into the pit With this house
were engulfed two Hungarians and
Swede. The experiences of others was
similar.
Directly after the first crash the
alarm bell on the Town Hall was rung
nd ic To-
Foss and the Fire Department to the
scene. BY the time the department ar
rived the wreckage was mass of
flames.
The overturned stoves in the houses
set fire to Them and flames shot out
from broken gas pipes. Sparks and
burning brands were carried on the
stiff breeze that blew from the river
directly over the village. But for the
snow that lay deep on the roofs of the
frame houses the whole village might
have been burned.
The firemen stood aghast when they
discovered that in the landslide the
water main supplying that part of the
town had been carried away, and from
its broken edges tons of water were
pouring down OYER the clay pits. 1t
was manifestly impossible to use the
apparatus under the conditions, and
after some delay the water was
turned off in that main and line
of hose laid up to Broadway. Soon
the Gainesville department from i've
miles away reached the scene, and,
taking the affair out of the hands of
the local department. saved the city.
Among the dead are: Joseph Albert,
Mrs. Joseph Daley Mr.. and Mrs. Law
renee Manion, Mr.. and Mrs. William
Cohen, Michael Barry, II. Nelson, Ben
jamin Nelson, his son; Mrs. Silverman
and her baby, Rabbi Aligen, an I'M
known Jewish man, the Protich fam
lily of three, BARLEY McGovern, Abra-
ham Dias, William Hughes and John