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
During the night thirty-three bodies were brought to one house. As yet
the relief force is not perfectly organized and bodies are lying around
on boards and doors. Within twenty feet of where this was written the
dead body of a colored woman lies.
Provision has been made by the Relief Committee for the sufferers to
send despatches to all parts of the country. The railroad company has a
track through to the bridge. The first train arrived about half-past
nine o'clock this morning. A man in a frail craft got caught in the
rapids at the railroad bridge, and it looked as if he would increase the
already terrible list of dead, but fortunately he caught on a rock,
where he now is and is liable to remain all day.
The question on every person's lips is--Will the Cambria Iron Company
rebuild? The wire mill is completely wrecked, but the walls of the
rolling mill are still standing. If they do not resume it is a question
whether the town will be rebuilt. The Hungarians were beginning to
pillage the houses, and the arrival of police was most timely. Word had
just been received that all the men employed by Peabody, the Pittsburgh
contractor, have been saved.
The worst part of this disaster has not been told. Indeed, the most
graphic description that can be written will not tell half the tale. No
pen can describe nor tongue tell the vastness of this devastation.
I walked over the greater part of the wrecked town this morning, and one
could not have pictured such a wreck, nor could one have imagined that
an entire town of this size could be so completely swept away.
A.J. Haws, one of the prominent men of the town, was standing on the
hillside this morning, taking a view of the wreck. He said:
"I never saw anything like this, nor do I believe any one else ever did.
No idea can be had of the tremendous loss of property here. It amounts
up into the millions. I am going to leave the place. I never will build
here."
I heard the superintendents and managers of the Cambria Iron Works
saying they doubted if the works will be rebuilt. This would mean the
death blow to the place. Mr. Stackhouse, first vice-president of the
iron works, is expected here to-day. Nothing can be done until a meeting
of the company is held.
Preparations for Burial.
Adjutant General Hastings, who is in charge of the relief corps at the
railroad station, has a force of carpenters at work making rough boxes
in which to bury the dead. They will be buried on the hill, just above
the town, on ground belonging to the Cambria Iron Company. The graves
will be numbered. No one will be buried that has not been identified
without a careful description being taken. General Hastings drove
fifty-eight miles across the country in order to get here, and as soon
as he came took charge. He has the whole town organized, and in
connection with L.S. Smith has commenced the building of bridges and
clearing away the wrecks to get out the dead bodies.
[Illustration: PREPARATIONS FOR BURIAL.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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