The Johnstown Horror!!!: or, Valley of Death, being A Complete and Thrilling Account; of the Awful Floods and Their Appalling RuinWalker, James Herbert
History
The Johnstown Horror!!!: or, Valley of Death, being A Complete and Thrilling Account; of the Awful Floods and Their Appalling Ruin
Assistant Superintendent Crump telegraphs from Blairsville Junction that
the day express, eastbound from Chicago to New York, and the mail train
from Pittsburgh bound east, were put on the back tracks in the yard at
Conemaugh when the flooded condition of the main tracks made it
apparently unsafe to proceed further. When the continued rise of the
water made their danger apparent, the frightened passengers fled from
the two trains to the hills near by. Many in their wild excitement threw
themselves into the raging current and were drowned. It is supposed that
about fifteen persons lost their lives in this way.
After the people had deserted the cars, the railroad officials state,
the two Pullman cars attached to the day express were set on fire and
entirely consumed. A car of lime was standing near the train. When the
water reached the lime it set fire to the car and the flames reaching
the sleepers they were entirely consumed.
Exhuming the Dead.
Three hundred bodies were exhumed to-day. In one spot at Main and Market
streets the workmen came upon thirty, among whom were nine members of
the Fitzparis family--the father, mother, seven children and the
grandfather. Only one child, a little girl of nine years, is left out of
a family of ten. She is now being cared for by the citizens' committee.
The body of a beautiful young girl was found at the office of the
Cambria Iron Company. When the corpse was conveyed to the morgue a man
entered in search of some relatives. The first body he came to he
exclaimed: "That's my wife," and a few feet further off he recognized in
the young girl found at the Cambria Iron Company's office his daughter,
Theresa Downs. Both bodies had been found within a hundred yards of each
other.
A dozen instances have occurred where people have claimed bodies and
were mistaken. This is due to the over-zeal of people to get their
relatives and bury them. Nine children walked into one of the relief
stations this morning, led by a girl of sixteen years. They said that
their father, mother and two other children had been swallowed up by the
flood, the family having originally comprised thirteen persons in all.
Their story was investigated by Officer Fowler, of Pittsburgh, and it
was found to be true. Near Main street the body of a woman was taken out
with three children lying on her. She was about to become a mother.
Nursing Their Sorrows.
The afflicted people quietly bear their crosses. The calamity has been
so general that the sufferers feel that everybody has been treated
alike. Grouped together, the sorrows of each other assist in keeping up
the strength and courage of all. In the excitement and hurry of the
present, loss of friends is forgotten, but the time will come when it is
all over and the world gradually drifts back to business, forgetful that
such a town as Johnstown ever existed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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