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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.

Name: 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.
Author: Johnson, Willis Fletcher

Johnson, Willis Fletcher

Floods -- Pennsylvania -- Johnstown (Cambria County)

"I stood on the stone bridge at six o'clock and looked into the seething
mass of ruin below me. At one place the blackened body of a babe was
seen; in another, fourteen skulls could be counted. Further along the
bones became thicker and thicker, until at last at one place it seemed
as if a concourse of people who had been at a ball or entertainment had
been carried in a bunch and incinerated. At this time the smoke was
still rising to the height of fifty feet, and it is expected that when
it dies down the charred bodies will be seen dotting the entire mass.

"A cable had been run last night from the end of the stone bridge to the
nearest point across--a distance of three hundred feet. Over this cable
was run a trolley, and a swing was fastened under it. A man went over,
and he was the first one who visited Johnstown since the awful disaster.
I followed him to-day.

"I walked along the hillside and saw hundreds of persons lying on the
wet grass, wrapped in blankets or quilts. It was growing cold and a
misty rain had set in. Shelter was not to be had, and houses on the
hillsides that had not been swept away were literally packed from top to
bottom. The bare necessities of life were soon at a premium, and loaves
of bread sold at fifty cents. Fortunately, however, the relief train
from Pittsburgh arrived at seven o'clock. Otherwise the horrors of
starvation would have been added. All provisions, however, had to be
carried over a rough, rocky road a distance of four miles (as I knew,
who had been compelled to walk it), and in many cases they were seized
by the toughs, and the people who were in need of food did not get it.

"Rich and poor were served alike by this terrible disaster. I saw a girl
standing in her bare feet on the river's bank, clad in a loose petticoat
and with a shawl over her head. At first I thought she was an Italian
woman, but her face showed that I was mistaken. She was the belle of the
town--the daughter of a wealthy Johnstown banker--and this single
petticoat and shawl were not only all that was left her, but all that
was saved from the magnificent residence of her father. She had escaped
to the hills not an instant too soon.

"The solicitor of Johnstown, Mr. George Martin, said to me to-day:--

"'All my money went away in the flood. My house is gone. So are all my
clothes, but, thank God, my family are safe.'"




CHAPTER XVIII.

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