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
A dispatch from Carthage, Ill., says:--"Mrs. M.J. Smith, a traveling
saleslady for a book concern in New York city, was at Johnstown at the
time of the flood and was swept away with others. Her brothers,
Lieutenant P. and James McKee, received the following telegram at
Carthage yesterday from Johnstown:
"Escaped with my life on housetop; am all right.
"M.J. SMITH.
"The lady is well known in this county."
Rich Made Poor.
John Kelly, the prominent Odd Fellow of Conemaugh, who was supposed to
be lost, escaped with his entire family, though his house and store were
swept down the river.
John Rowley, who stands high among the Masons and Odd Fellows, tells me
that out of $65,000 worth of property which he could call his own on
Friday last he found just two bricks on the site of his residence this
morning. He counts himself wealthy, however, in the possession of his
wife and children who were all saved. His wife, who was very ill, was
dragged through the water in her nightclothes. She is now in a critical
condition, but has the best of medical attendance and may pull through.
In a frame house which stood at No. 121 Union street, Johnstown, were
Mrs. O.W. Byrose, her daughters Elsie, Bessie and Emma, and sons Samuel
and Ray. When the flood struck the house they ran to the attic. The
house was washed from its foundation and carried with the rushing
waters. Mrs. Byrose and her children then clung to each other, expecting
every minute to meet death. As the house was borne along the chimney
fell and crashed through the floors, and the bricks were strewn along
the course of the river. The house was caught in the jam and held about
two hundred feet above the bridge and one hundred and fifty feet from
the shore. The terrified inmates did not lose all presence of mind, and
they made their escape to the hole made by the fallen chimney. They were
seen by those on shore, and after much difficulty each was rescued. A
few minutes later the house caught fire from the burning buildings, and
was soon consumed.
Swept from His Side.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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