Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 January 1884 — A BROKEN DAM. [ARTICLE]

A BROKEN DAM.

Two Houses Wrecked and Six Persons Drowned at Houghton, Midi. (Houghton (Mich.) Dispatch.] Many years ago a dam covering several acres was built by the Huron Mining company to supply water to its stamp mills. This dam has always been considered sirfe, but this morning it gave way, and the immense body of water rushed down through a narrow valley, a distance of about a mile, to Pcrtago lake. The residences of Mr. Charles E. Raymond, Assistant Cashier of the First National Bank of Houghton, and of Mr. Stephen E. Clevep, proprietor of the Eureka Iron works, were situated near the lake in the direct course of the current. Mrs. Raymond, on the first sound of danger, seized two. of her little children and rushed through the snow, protected only by her night-dress, to the high land near |he house. The rest of the family delayed for a moment and were swept awuy. The names of those lost ttre: Charles E. Ravmond, Assistant Cashier of the First National bank of Houghton, his son and servant girl, and Howard Raymond, wife and son, of the Allouez mine. The family of Mr. Cleves remained in the upper story of their house and passed through the terrible ordeal safely. The buildings are still standing, but arc filled with debris. In Mr. Cleves' house the floors gave way and the cellar and lower floors are tilled with trunks of trees and stones weighing tons, the remains of a piano, stoves, and other furniture, all frozen into a compact mass. The track of the torrent, which was covered with a heavy growth of timber, is swept clean to the surface of the rock.