Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2020 All Rights Reserved USGenNet Data Repository Please read USGenNet Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott for the USGenNet Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ =========================================================================== Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== The Pentwater (Michigan) News Friday, May 22, 1874 A TERRIBLE CALAMITY Breaking of an Extensive Reservoir in Massachusetts - Towns Swept Away and Nearly Two Hundred Lives Lost - Immense Destruction of Property A terrible disaster occurred at the little manufacturing villages of Williamsburg, Haydenville and Leeds, in Hampshire County, Mass., a few miles north of Springfield, on Saturday, May 16. The Goshen reservoir, covering about 125 acres, gave way about 8 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 named are in the town of Northampton. All are situated on Mill River, a mountain tributary of the Connecticut River, which flows into the latter south of Northampton. In the village of Williamsburg Mill River divides into two branches, one 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 telegraphic dispatches giving an account of this fear- ful calamity are the following: NORTHAMPTON, MASS., May 16. Not far from eight o'clock this morning the peaceful residents of Williamsburg were startled by the appearance of a horse dashing mad- ly through the streets, 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 dread- ful tidings, but with the instinct of sel-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, but the alarm was so sudden that all did not hear it, and scores were caught by the swiftly- rolling waters, and aged gradams, innocent children and strong men were alike overwhelmed by the flood or crushed beneath the falling walls of their homes. Up among the hills of Goshen there was a large reservoir of about 104 acres in extent, where the various mill operators of Williams- burg, Skinnerville, 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, and suddenly the dam gave way and the immense body of water poured out in its strength, carrying every- thing 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 gorge 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 clear 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 scythe, and men, women and children were caught and borne away struggling and shrieking in vain. One of the waves swept to Skinnerville, 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 Hay- denville, 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 scenes at Williamsburg and Haydenville were here repeated. A short distance from 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 destruct- ion 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 100 buildings were destroyed, and the total loss is from one million to a million and a half 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 see the ruin. It was an awful sight. Houses were crumpled like twisted paper, trees stripped of their bark and limbs, even when their roots clumg 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 hun- dreds 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 fellows 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 tim- bers were in tooth-picks; scraps of iron, brick and great stones had become bowlders, and here and there was found a corpse or a piece of corpse. All the windings of the valley were filled with the debris, mak- ing 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 Skinnerville. The first 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 ex- ception. 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 him moving his arms for help out of a breach he made in its brickwork; but a man and 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 and factory and twenty-seven houses were blotted out; at Haydenville a factory, a gas-house, a cotton-mill, a bank and 100 dwellings; at Leeds a button factory and 225 buildings; at Skinnerville every house is 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 "Licking-Water River," as they call it, has been a sea, and is now a trickling stream lost in miles of mud. The lake, hemmed up by defective masonry among the Goshen hills, has done its work terribly. SPRINGFIELD, MASS., May 16. The flood came without the slightest warning save a heavy rumb- ling, not unlike thunder or the sound of a heavy train passing over a covered railroad bridge. Almost in a moment the torrents swept successively through the villages of Skinnerville, Williamsburg, Haydenville and Leeds, the three first-named hamlets being about three-quarters of a mile apart, and the latter about two miles below Haydenville. To those who saw the terrible volume approaching it looked in the distance as if a terrible fire was sweeping across the country. The spray or foam had the appearance of heavy black smoke, and the de- ception was so complete that in the village of Haydenville the fire- bells were ringing for a few minutes 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 dollars, and many of the manufactories destroyed will probably never be replaced. In fact, all of the villages inundated may be 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 raging current than so many toy steamboats would be in the surging waters of Niagara River. The scene was most horrible and frightful, and made even the strongest men go frantic with fear. Women fainted in the streets and were borne away by the relentless current. So sudden was the inun- dation that 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 fran- tically up and down in the wake of the flood seeking for missing relatives and friends. The water had greatly receded, and by to- morrow 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. ==========================================================================