Chapter I: Preface

The summer of 1889 will ever be memorable for its appalling disasters by flood and flame. In that period fell the heaviest blow of the nineteenth century--a blow scarcely paralleled in the histories of civilized lands. Central Pennsylvania, a centre of industry, thrift and comfort, was desolated by floods unprecedented in the records of the great waters. On both sides of the Alleghenies these ravages were felt in terrific power, but on the western slope their terrors were infinitely multiplied by the bursting of the South Fork Reservoir, letting out millions of tons of water, which, rushing madly down the rapid descent of the Conemaugh Valley, washed out all its busy villages and hurled itself in a deadly torrent on the happy borough of Johnstown. The frightful aggravations which followed the coming of this torrent have waked the deepest sympathies of this nation and of the world, and the history is demanded in permanent form, for those of the present day, and for the generation to come.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

The Conemaugh Valley in Springtime--Johnstown and its
Suburbs--Founded a Hundred Years ago--The Cambria Iron
Works--History of a Famous Industry--American Manufacturing
Enterprise Exemplified--Making Bessemer Steel--Social and
Educational Features--The Busiest City of its Size in the
State, 15

CHAPTER II.

Conemaugh Lake--Remains of an Old-time Canal System--Used for
the Pleasure of Sportsmen--The Hunting and Fishing
Club--Popular Distrust Growing into Indifference--The Old
Cry of "Wolf!"--Building a Dam of Straw and Mud--Neglect
Ripening into Fitness for a Catastrophe, 31

CHAPTER III.

Dawning of the Fatal Day--Darkness and Rain--Rumors of
Evil--The Warning Voice Unheeded--A Whirlwind of Watery
Death--Fate of a Faithful Telegrapher--What an Eye-Witness
Saw--A Solid Wall of Water Rushing Down the Valley, 42

CHAPTER IV.

The Pathway of the Torrent--Human Beings Swept away like
Chaff--The Twilight of Terror--The Wreck of East
Conemaugh--Annihilation of Woodvale--Locomotives Tossed
about like Cockle-shells by the mighty Maelstrom, 51

CHAPTER V.

"Johnstown is Annihilated"--Appearance of the Wreck--An Awful
Sabbath Spectacle--A Sea of Mud and Corpses--The City in a
Gigantic Whirlpool--Strange Tokens of the Fury of the
Flood--Scene from the Bridge--Sixty Acres of Débris--A
Carnival of Slaughter, 66

CHAPTER VI.

Pictures of the Flood Drawn by Eye-witnesses--A Score of
Locomotives Swallowed up--Railroad Cars Swept
away--Engineers who would not Abandon their Posts--Awful
Scenes from a Car Window--A Race for Life--Victims of the
Flood, 81

CHAPTER VII.

Some Heroes of the Flood--The Ride of Collins Graves at
Williamsburg Recalled--John G. Parke's Heroic
Warning--Gallant Self-Sacrifice of Daniel Peyton--Mrs. Ogle,
the Intrepid Telegraph Operator--Wholesale Life Saving by
Miss Nina Speck, 97

CHAPTER VIII.

Stories of Suffering--A Family Swept away at a Stroke--Beside
a Sister's Corpse--A Bride Driven Mad--The Unidentified
Dead--Courage in the Face of Death--Thanking God his Child
had not Suffered--One Saved out of a Household of
Thirteen--Five Saved out of Fifty-Five, 108

CHAPTER IX.

Stories of Railroad Men and Travelers who were in the Midst of
the Catastrophe--A Train's Race with the Wave--Houses
Crushed like Eggshells--Relics of the Dead in the Tree
tops--A Night of Horrors--Fire and Flood Commingled--Lives
Lost for the Sake of a Pair of Shoes, 119

CHAPTER X.

Scenes in a House of Refuge--Stealing from the Dead--A
Thousand Bodies seen Passing over the Bridge--"Kill us or
Rescue us!"--Thrilling Escapes and Agonizing
Losses--Children Born amid the Flood--A Night in Alma
Hall--Saved through Fear, 137

CHAPTER XI.

The Flight to the Mountains--Saving a Mother and her Babe--The
Hillsides Black with Refugees--An Engineer's Story--How the
Dam gave away--Great Trees Snapped off like Pipe-stems by
the Torrent, 147

CHAPTER XII.

A Desperate Voyage--Scenes like those after a Great
Battle--Mother and Babe Dead together--Praying as they
Drifted to Destruction--Children Telling the Story of
Death--Significant Greetings between Friends--Prepared for
any News, 154

CHAPTER XIII.

Salutations in the City of the Dead--Crowds at the
Morgues--Endless Trains of Wagons with Ghastly
Freight--Registering the Survivors--Minds Unsettled by the
Tragedy--Horrible Fragments of Humanity Scattered through
Piles of Rubbish, 161

CHAPTER XIV.

Recognizing the Dead--Food and Clothing for Destitute
Survivors--Looking for the Lost--The Bereaved Burying their
Dead--Drowned Close by a Place of Safety--A Heroic
Editor--One who would not be Comforted, 171

CHAPTER XV.

A Bird'seye View of the Ruined City--Conspicuous Features of
the Disaster--The Railroad Lines--Stones and Iron Tossed
about like Driftwood--An Army Officer's Valuable Services in
Restoring and Maintaining Order, 179

CHAPTER XVI.

Clearing a Road up the Creek--Fantastic Forms of Ruin--An
Abandoned Locomotive with no Rail to Run on--Iron Beams Bent
like Willow Twigs--Night in the Valley--Scenes and Sounds of
an Inferno, 188

CHAPTER XVII.

Sights that Greeted Visitors--Wreckage Along the Valley--Ruins
of the Cambria Iron Works--A Carnival of Drink--Violence and
Robbery--Camping on the Hillsides--Rich and Poor alike
Benefit, 198

CHAPTER XVIII.

The First Train Load of Anxious Seekers--Hoping against
Hope--Many Instances of Heroism--Victims Seen Drifting down
beyond the Reach of Help--Unavailing Efforts to Rescue the
Prey of the Flood, 207

CHAPTER XIX.

Newspaper Correspondents Making their Way in--The Railroads
Helpless--Hiring a Special Train--Making Desperate
Speed--First faces of the Flood--Through to Johnstown at
Last, 216

CHAPTER XX.

The Work of the Reporters--Strange Chronicles of Heroism and
of Woe--Deadly Work of the Telegraph Wires--A Baby's Strange
Voyage--Prayer wonderfully Answered--Steam against Torrent,
228

CHAPTER XXI.

Human Ghouls and Vampires on the Scene--A Short Shrift for
Marauders--Vigilance Committees Enforcing Order--Plunderers
of the Dead Relentlessly Dispatched--Outbursts of Righteous
Indignation, 238

CHAPTER XXII

The Cry for Help and the Nation's Answer--President Harrison's
Eloquent and Effective Appeal--Governor Beaver's Message--A
Proclamation by the Governor of New York--Action of the
Commissioner of Pensions--Help from over the Sea, 249

CHAPTER XXIII.

The American Heart and Purse Opened Wide--A Flood of Gold
against the Flood of Water--Contributions from every Part
of the Country, in Sums Large and Small, 265

CHAPTER XXIV.

Benefactions of Philadelphia--Organization of Charity--Train
loads of Food and Clothing--Generous spirit of Convicts in
the Penitentiary--Contributions from over the Sea--Queen
Victoria's sympathy--Letter from Florence Nightingale, 281

CHAPTER XXV.

Raising a Great Relief Fund in New York--Where the Money
came from--Churches, Theatres and Prisons join in the good
work--More than One Hundred Thousand Dollars a Day--A few
Names from the Great Roll of Honor, 292

CHAPTER XXVI.

Breaking up the Ruins and Burying the Dead--Innumerable
Funerals--The Use of Dynamite--The Holocaust at the
Bridge--The Cambria Iron Works--Pulling out Trees with
Locomotives, 299

CHAPTER XXVII.

Caring for the Sufferers--Noble Work of Miss Clara Barton
and the Red Cross Society--A Peep into a Hospital--Finding
Homes for the Orphans--Johnstown Generous in its Woe--A
Benevolent Eating House, 309

CHAPTER XXVIII.

Recovering from the Blow--The Voice of the Locomotive Heard
again--Scenes Day by Day amid the Ruins and at the
Morgue--Strange Salvage from the Flood--A Family of
Little Children, 319

CHAPTER XXIX.

The City Filled with Life Again--Work and Bustle on Every
Hand--Railroad Trains Coming In--Pathetic Meetings of
Friends--Persistent Use of Dynamite to Break Up the
Masses of Wreckage--The Daily Record of Work Amid the
Dead, 341

CHAPTER XXX.

Scenes at the Relief Stations--The Grand Army of the
Republic in Command--Imposing Scenes at the Railroad
Station--Cars Loaded with Goods for the Relief of the
Destitute, 353

CHAPTER XXXI.

General Hastings' Headquarters--Duties of the Military
Staff--A Flood of Telegrams of Inquiry Pouring In--Getting
the Post-office to Work Again--Wholesale Embalming--The
Morgue in the Presbyterian Church--The Record of the
Unknown Dead--A Commemorative Newspaper Club, 358

CHAPTER XXXII.

A Cross between a Military and a Mining Camp--Work of the
Army Engineers--Equipping Constables--Pressure on the
Telegraph Lines--Photographers not Encouraged--Sight-seers
Turned Away--Strange Uses for Coffins, 370

CHAPTER XXXIII.

Sunday Amid the Ruins--Services in One Church and in the
Open Air--The Miracle at the Church of the Immaculate
Conception--Few Women and Children Seen--Disastrous
Work of Dynamite--A Happy Family in the Wreck, 378

CHAPTER XXXIV.

Plans for the Future of Johnstown--The City to be Rebuilt
on a Finer Scale than Ever Before--A Real Estate Boom
Looked For--Enlarging the Conemaugh--Views of
Capitalists, 387

CHAPTER XXXV.

Well-known People who Narrowly Escaped the Flood--Mrs.
Halford's Experience--Mrs. Childs Storm bound--Tales
Related by Travelers--A Theatrical Company's Plight, 393

CHAPTER XXXVI.

The Ubiquitous Reporter Getting There--Desperate Traveling
through a Storm-swept Country--Special Trains and Special
Teams--Climbing Across the Mountains--Rest for the Weary
in a Hay Mow, 402

CHAPTER XXXVII.

The Reporter's Life at Johnstown--Nothing to Eat, but Much
to Do--Kindly Remembrances of a Kindly Friend--Driven
from Bed by Rats--Three Hours of Sleep in Seventy-two--A
Picturesque Group, 410

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

Williamsport's Great Losses--Flooded with Thirty-four Feet
of Water--Hundreds of Millions of Feet of Lumber Swept
Away--Loss of Life--Incidents of Rescue and of Death--The
Story of Garret Crouse and his Gray Horse, 421

CHAPTER XXXIX.

The Juniata Valley Ravaged by the Storm--Losses at Tyrone,
Huntingdon and Lewistown--Destruction at Lock Haven--A
Baby's Voyage Down Stream--Romantic Story of a Wedding, 435