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
Booth & Flinn, the Pittsburgh contractors, have just put to work another
large force of men. They have divided the town into districts, and the
work is being conducted in a systematic manner. Main street is being
rapidly opened up, and scores of bodies have been taken out this morning
from under the Hurlburt House.
Only Found One of Her Family.
The first body taken from the ruins was that of a boy named Davis, who
was found in the debris near the bridge. He was badly bruised and
burned. The remains were taken to the undertaking rooms at the
Pennsylvania Railroad station, where they were identified as those of
William Davis. The boy's mother has been making a tour of the different
morgues for the past few days, and was just going through the
undertaking rooms when she saw the remains of her boy being brought in.
She ran up to the remains and demanded the child. She seemed to have
lost her mind, and caused quite a scene by her actions. She stated that
she had lost her husband and six children in the flood, and that this
was the first one of the family that had been recovered. At the First
Presbyterian Church, which is being used as a morgue, seventeen bodies
taken from the debris and river have been brought in.
The relief corps from Altoona found a body near Stony Bridge this
morning. On his person was found a gold watch and chain, and $250 in
money, which was turned over to the proper authorities. This corps took
out some thirty-two bodies or more from the ruins yesterday.
A.J. Hayes, whose wife's body was taken out of the river last night,
had the body taken up into the mountains where he dug her grave and
said:--"I buried all that is dear to me. As for myself I don't care how
soon death overtakes me."
At quarter past one this afternoon, fifty bodies had been taken from the
debris in front of the Catholic Church in Johnstown borough. About forty
of the bodies were those of women. They were immediately removed to the
morgue for identification.
Dr. Beall, who has the supervision of the morgues in Johnstown, said
that so far 2,300 bodies had been recovered in Johnstown proper, most of
which had been identified and buried.
Dynamite and Derricks Used.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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