History of the Johnstown Flood: Including all the Fearful Record; the Breaking of the South Fork Dam; the Sweeping Out of the Conemaugh Valley; the Over-Throw of Johnstown; the Massing of the Wreck at the Railroad Bridge; Escapes, Rescues, Searches for Survivors and the Dead; Relief Organizations, Stupendous Charities, etc., etc., With Full Accounts also of the Destruction on the Susquehanna and Juniata Rivers, and the Bald Eagle Creek.Johnson, Willis Fletcher
History
History of the Johnstown Flood: Including all the Fearful Record; the Breaking of the South Fork Dam; the Sweeping Out of the Conemaugh Valley; the Over-Throw of Johnstown; the Massing of the Wreck at the Railroad Bridge; Escapes, Rescues, Searches for Survivors and the Dead; Relief Organizations, Stupendous Charities, etc., etc., With Full Accounts also of the Destruction on the Susquehanna and Juniata Rivers, and the Bald Eagle Creek.
It was Garrett Crouse and his gray horse, and when the neighbors saw it
they turned from the scene of desolation about them and warmly applauded
both beast and master. This is how a Williamsport man got home during
the flood and saved his horses. It took him five hours and cost him
twenty-five dollars.
Mr. James R. Skinner, of Brooklyn, N. Y., arrived home after a series of
remarkable adventures in the floods at Williamsport.
"I went to Williamsport last Thursday," said Mr. Skinner, "and on Friday
the rain fell as I had never seen it fall before. The skies seemed
simply to open and unload the water. The Susquehanna was booming and
kept on rising rapidly, but the people of Williamsport did not seem to
be particularly alarmed. On Saturday the water had risen to such a
height that the people quit laughing and gathered along the sides of the
torrent with a sort of awe-stricken curiosity.
"A friend of mine, Mr. Frank Bellows, and myself went out to see the
grand spectacle, and found a place of observation on the Pennsylvania
Railroad bridge. Great rafts of logs were swept down the stream, and now
and then a house would be brought with a crash against the bridge.
Finally, one span gave way and then we beat a hasty retreat. By wading
we reached the place of a man who owned a horse and buggy. These we
hired and started to drive to the hotel, which is on the highest ground
in the city. The water was all the time rising, and the flood kept
coming in waves. These waves came with such frequency and volume that we
were forced to abandon the horse and buggy and try wading. With the
water up to our armpits we got to an outhouse, and climbing to the top
of it made our way along to a building. This I entered through a window,
and found the family in the upper stories. Floating outside were two
canoes, one of which I hired for two dollars and fifty cents. I at once
embarked in this and tried to paddle for my hotel. I hadn't gone a
hundred feet when I capsized. Going back, I divested myself of my coat,
waistcoat, shoes, and stockings. I tried again to make the journey, and
succeeded very well for quite a distance, when the canoe suddenly struck
something and over it went. I managed to hold the paddle and the canoe,
but everything else was washed away and lost. After a struggle in the
water, which was running like a mill-race, I got afloat again and
managed to lodge myself against a train of nearly submerged freight
cars. Then, by drawing myself against the stream, I got opposite the
hotel and paddled over. My friend Bellows was not so fortunate. The
other canoe had a hole in it, and he had to spend the night on the roof
of a house.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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