Rensselaer Union, Volume 6, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 May 1874 — GREAT FLOOD IN MASSACHUSETTS. [ARTICLE]

GREAT FLOOD IN MASSACHUSETTS.

Breaking Away of an Extensive Water Reservoir—Towns swept Away and Nearly Two Hundred Lives kott—lmmense Destruction of Property. A terrible disaster occurred at the manufacturing villages of Williamsburg, Hay. denville and Leeds, in Hampshire County, Mass., a few miles north of Springfield, on Saturday, May 16. The Goshen reservoir, covering about 125 acres, gale way about eight o’clock, its waters sweeping through Williamsburg, Haydenville, Leeds, Florence and Northampton. The two first named are villages in the town of Williamsburg, and the three last gamed are in the town of Northampton. All are situated on Mill River, a mountain tributary of the Connecticut River, which flows into the lattejksouth of Northampton. In the village or W illiamsburg. Mill River divides into two branches, of which has its rise in Goshen and the other at about the edge of Conway. Two large reservoirs are situated on the Goshen branch and one on the Conway branch, containing a total area of not less than 1,000 acres, with an average depth of not less than six feet. Among the telegraph dispatches giving an account of this fearful calamity are the following: Northampton, Mass., May 18. Not far from 8 o’clock this morning the peaceful residents of Williamsburg were startled by the appearance of a horse flashing madly through the Btreets, while his rider shouted to the people to escape for their lives, for the reservoir had given away, and the waters were coming down upon them. Scarcely comprehending the dreadful tidings, but with the instinct of self-preservation strong within them, the people began to rush from their homes, while the foam-flecked animal that had so gallantly brought the messenger sank to the ground exhausted. Another horse was quickly secured, and the message was borne to other villages, hut the alarm was so sudden that all did not hear it, and scores were caught by the Swiftly-rolling waters, and aged grandams, innocent children and strong men were alike overwhelmed by the Hoor or crushed beneath the walls of their houses. Up among the hills of Goshen there was a large reservoir of about 104 acres in extent, where the various mill operators of Williamsburg, Skinnerviile, Haydenville and Leeds were wont to store their summer supply of water. People living in the vicinity of the dam say that it has been leaking more or less for several weeks, and it is believed that, having thus gradually undermined the dam, the water acquired a strong headway, ahd suddenly the dam gave way, and tne immense body of water poured out in its strength, carrying everything before it. The torrent rushed upon the doomed villages with a loud roar, apparently a large, advancing billow of underbrush and debris issuing rapidly through the deep gorgo to the height of forty feet, and again spreading over a wide expanse of seething, angry waves as it reached the more open country. Reaching the beautiful village of Williamsburg, some two and a half miles distant, it struck a small button factory, sweeping it out of existence. Next, a saw and grist mill was attacked and melted—not a vestige remaining. Houses, barns, and shops followed, like grass before a seythe, and men, women and children were caught and borne away struggling and shrieking in vain. One of the waves swept to Skinnerviile, two miles distant, a silk factory being hurled down, and a huge iron boiler being carried nearly half a mile and landed high and dry. In Haydenville, about one mile further on, the bank building, a three-story brick structure, was swept away, scarcely one brick being left upon another, the money in the vault sharing the same fate. The smaller village of Leeds, between one and two miles distant, was the next place to suffer, and the scones at Williamsburg and Haydenville were here repeated. A short distance below Leeds were two bridges, one of iron and one of stone, both nearly fifty feet above the bed of the stream. They were both swept away, the former being carried bodily and a considerable distance down the stream. Here the greatest destruction appears to have stopped, although along the river, until it emptied into the Connecticut, a short distance below Northampton, the banks are covered with all manner of debris — timber, trees, pianos, tables, chairs and other furniture. It is estimated that nearly one hundred buildings were destroyed, and the total loss is from one million to a million and a half of dollars, although, of course, it is impossible to accurately estimate the damage. New Haven, Conn., May 17. There was an hour and a half of flood, and then ebb, and at noon those who had escaped came back in crowds to sec the ruin. It was an awful sight. Houses were crumpled like twisted paper, trees stripped of their bark and limbs, even when thsir roots clung to the soil. The beautiful valley is a waste of mud and muddy water laden with distorted and strange shapes. Great boilers have been carried hundreds of yards and left crushed together and buried. A man was picked up from a tree upon which he had ridden six miles on the torrent, cheering and waving his coat. The poor fellow’s mind was gone. No less than eight cases of insanity followed among those who have lost relatives and friends by the terrible calamity, and three were committed to an asylum in Northampton. Everything was ground fine, and when the flood was past the timbers were in toothpicks; scraps of iron, brick and great stones had become bowlders, and here and there was found a corpse or a piece of a corpse. All the windings of the valley were filled with the debris, making a terrible picture of waste and death in the most beautiful valley of Massachusetts. The gracious work of saving the dead for burial began at noon at Skinnerviile. The firet bodies were picked up, dug out from mud, or taken with difficulty from overloaded ruins. All through the valley the work went on till night, and then men with lanterns, seeking their dead, stood guard. At Haydenville forty bodies were gathered by night; at Leeds forty-five. There had been, in the afternoon, gangs of plunderers, who were promptly turned to workers by no stinted threats; the people were ready to brain them with the first stone. There were fewer dead at Florence and Northampton. There have been found -140 in all, and many more are certainly buried in the mud and rubbish that fill the valley with black heaps from Williamsburg to Northampton. A man on horseback gave warning through the upper half of the valley, but some would not hear, and some turned to their houses and to the great factories for safety. One man at Haydenville factory saved his life by sticking to the house, but he was a marvelous exception. He ran into a closet that stood against the great chimney of the factory, and, when the factory was crushed, the chimney stood, and his closet stuck to it like a lantern against a wall, with hfan moving his arms for help out of a breach he made In its brickwork; but a man and a girl, who ran out at the roar of the • waters, to run back for a haven of safety, went down under the building. At Williamsburg a factory and twenty-seven houses were blotted out; at Haydeqville, a factory, a gas-house, % cotton-mill, a bank and 100 dwellings; at Leeds a button factory and 25 buildings; at Skinnerviile every house it gone except Mr. Skinner’s own. Such houses as are here set down as “gone" are utterly vanished and distributed In shreds, not a piece over six feet long, over miles of country. The “ Lleklng-Water River,” as they call it, has been a sea, and Is now a trickling stream lost ha miles of mud. The lake,

hemmed up bv defective masonry among the Goshen hills, has done its work terribly. Spbinqeield, Mass., May 16. To those who saw tho terrible volume approaching it looked in the distance as if a terrible fire waa sweeping across the country. The spray or foam bad the appearance of heavy black smoke, and the deception waa ao complete that in the village of Haydenville the fire-bella were ringing for a few minutea before the devastating flood struck the town. The loss to the industrial enterprise in the vicinity may be safely reckoned at not less than a million and a half of dollars, and many of the manufactories destroyed will probably never be replaced; in fact, all of the villages inundated may he said to be literally destroyed. All the large factories and very many small ones are completely wiped out of existence. Large brick and stone mills crumbled like so many piles of sand, and small wooden dwellings were no more to the surging current than so many toy steamboats would be in the surging waters of Niagara River. The scene was most horrible ana frightful, and made even the strongest men go frantic with fear. Women fainted in the streets and were borne away by the relentless current. 80 sudden was the inundation tkat many lost their presence of mind and rushed wildly from points of safety Into very death itself. Others who remained to save loved and dear ones were themselves lost. One painful case was that of Dr. E. N. Johnson, of Williamsburg, who seized his two children and, in company with his wife, started for a high prominence just outside the village. He became exhausted and stopped for a moment to rest; the flood came before he could get away, and all were lost, his wife preferring to share his death rather than abandon the ones she so dearly loved. There are numerous cases where whole families were swept away. When the reporter left the scene of terrible disaster to-night there were hundreds of weeping men, women and children going frantically up and down in the wake of the flood, seekingfor missing relatives and friendß. The water had greatly receded, and by tomorrow it will nearly disappear altogether. In fact, it was only about twenty minutes from the first inundation before there was a perceptible and rapid fall, which has continued ever since. The latest figures of the loss of life make a total of 144, divided as follows between the three places: Williamsburg, 60; Leeds, 49; Haydenville, 35. These figures only represent persons whose loss is positively known, though the bodies of all are not yet recovered. Bodies are constantly being found, and in some cases those of persons who were not supposed to be lost, so that it seems perfectly safe to say that the total loss of life will exceed 150, if indeed it does not more nearly approach 200.