Maxwell survived, but all of her children drowned. Pittsburgh, unpublished dissertation, 1940. The world, in short, wants to kill us. Many members did contribute, but their offerings were minuscule compared to the overall contributions. 10 This break resulted in a minor flood in Johnstown, where water only rose about two feet and did not cause much damage. He wrote, . Legal Statement. They made various attempts to shore up the dam in the midst of a howling storm all of which failed. Then the debris caught fire, burning some of the flood survivors there to death. As the canal system fell into disuse, maintenance on the dam was neglected. (AP Photo/File) (The Associated Press), In this historical photo from May 31, 1889, survivors stand by homes destroyed when the South Fork Dam collapsed in Johnstown, Pa. As officials prepare to commemorate the 125th anniversary of the enormous Johnstown Flood of 1889 that killed 2,209 people, new research has helped explain why the deluge was so deadly. After five years, rebuilding was so complete that the city showed no signs of the disaster. Part of the bridge collapsed, but most of the structure held, again forming a makeshift dam. The dam was about 15 miles upstream from Johnstown, Pa., a steel mill town of more than 10,000 people. Dahlstedt, Marden. After the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania sold the property, it was subsequently owned by the Pennsylvania Railroad, a local businessman and one-time Congressman named John Reilley (Reilly) and, finally, the South fork Fishing and Hunting Club. Some people in Johnstown were able to make it to the top floors of the few tall buildings in town. Beginning on the night of May 31, 1921, thousands of white citizens in Tulsa, Oklahoma descended on the citys predominantly Black Greenwood District, burning homes and businesses to the ground and killing hundreds of people. American author and historian David McCullough's first book, The Johnstown Flood (1968), tells the story of a flood that devastated a steel community in Central Pennsylvania in 1889. Bodies filled morgues in Johnstown and river towns downstream until relatives came to identify them. definitions. This antagonism was to break out into violence during the 1892 Homestead steel strike in Pittsburgh. David Beale Published in 1890, this book is widely considered the best memoir of the flood by someone who experienced it. They'd bought the dam in 1879 with a plan to stock it full of fish and use the lake behind it for pleasure boating. In fact, for a brief moment, the lake reformed itself behind the viaduct. But the city needed more immediate help, and this help arrived in the form of Clara Barton and the American Red Cross. For copyright reasons our film is not available for purchase. Perhaps the best reference book ever written on the story. Except, there wasn't. There were also 16 privately-owned cottages, actually houses of a generous size, along the lakes shores. It was also well-known by the time of this testimony that removing the discharge pipes was the primary cause of the breach, so Pitcairn would have known to lie about the subject. However, the legal ambiguity allowed the club to argue that Reilly was to blame. The Cambria Iron Works was completely destroyed. When the fire broke out, these poor people were not able to escape. In 1879, they made repairs and improvements to the dam to bring up the water level. However, there was not enough substantial evidence to hold the club legally responsible. . As a result, those pipes became clogged with debris. The public was bitter that these wealthy businessmen took so little action and seemed unconcerned by the tragedy. Songs told the stories of real and imagined heroes. Until the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, it was the United States' largest loss of civilian life in a single day. By the time the Club bought the property, the dam needed some repairs. I have an old stereoview of the disasteris it worth anything? At approximately 3:00 pm on May 31, 1889, the South Fork Dam gave way, unleashing 20 million tons of water into the valley below. Sadly, the Flood has proved to be a stumbling block for many genealogists. The Johnstown Flood would become one of the worst natural disasters ever seen in this country. Libby Hipp was carrying Gertrude and her and Aunt Abbie tuned back to go to the house. Wilkes-Barre, 1936. Shappee, Nathan D. A History of Johnstown and the Great Flood of 1889: A Study of Disaster and Rehabilitation. Privacy Policy | Terms of Service, Membership, archives, facility rentals & more, Johnstown Flood Museum/Heritage Discovery Center/Cultural Programming, Johnstown Children's Museum/Children's Programming, Los Lobos to headline AmeriServ Flood City Music Festival 2023, collaboration between JAHA and Pitt-Johnstown. 733 Lake Road When the dam failed, it released all of that water in a torrent initially going as fast as 100 miles per hour briefly matching the flow rate of the Mississippi River at its delta. Some people survived by clinging to the tops of barns and homes. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, They soon discovered that the absence of discharge pipes was the primary cause of the breach (Coleman 2019). Clara Barton and five workers arrived in Johnstown on June 5, less than a week after the flood. McLaurin, J.J. News of the disaster prompted an incredible outpouring of assistance from neighboring communities. The Johnstown Flood was so damaging in part due to a confluence of events that augmented its power at every point. The public was very frustrated with the delayed release (Coleman 2019). After the Johnstown flood of 1936, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers undertook a study with the aim of redesigning Johnstown's infrastructure to permanently remove any future threat of serious flooding. Mar. Harrisburg: James M. Place, 1890. Johnstown: Benshoff, 1964, 1993. The deadly flow of water didn't just stop and go calm at Stone Bridge. The waters kept rising and around 3 pm spilled over the dam. Floods have been a frequent occurrence in Johnstown as long as history has been recorded there, floods have been part of those records. Many had been grievously damaged in the incredible violence of the flood, making it all but impossible to tell who was who in this time before forensic science had been developed. They took measurements at the site and interviewed many residents. 777 bodies were never identified, buried in unmarked graves. In fact, asABC Newsreports, it's suspected that some of the modifications the club made to the dam contributed to its failure. And asTribLIVEreports, the flood did $17 million in damage, which would be over $480 millionin today's dollars. Several of the club members, including Carnegie and Frick, supported the relief and rebuilding efforts with large donations. Flooding happened This debris caught against the viaduct, forming an ersatz dam that held the water back temporarily. This flood. About 80 people actually burned to death. It's a lesson the hard-working people living in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, learned more than a century ago, when the South Fork Dam burst during a heavy rainstorm, flooding the area and unleashing an incredible wave of destruction that remains one of the deadliest events in American history. The only thing I can compare it to is the heartlessness of Nero, who fiddled while Rome was burning. The Terrible Wave. This section of our website has more about the station's history, present and future. (AP Photo/File), In this historical photo from May 31, 1889, survivors stand by homes destroyed when the South Fork Dam collapsed in Johnstown, Pa. As officials prepare to commemorate the 125th anniversary of the enormous Johnstown Flood of 1889 that killed 2,209 people, new research has helped explain why the deluge was so deadly. About 4 square miles of downtown Johnstown were destroyed. The club owned the Western Reservoir, the dam that created it, and about 160 acres of land in the area. turned out to be one of the heaviest rainfalls of the 1800s. Most were entombed under debris which had piled up as high as 70 feet in places, the water had scattered victims far and wide, and many corpses were spotted floating down the river. homes as the rising water gradually flooded the valley. Four In the morning, Johnstown residents moved furniture and carpets to their second floors away from the rising waters of the Conemaugh and Stoney Creek Rivers. Five days after the flood, the American Society of Civil Engineers, or the ASCE, met to form an official record of the event. However, the telegraph lines were down and the warning did not reach Johnstown. Eichmann was born in Solingen, Germany, in 1906. Littles case was dismissed almost immediately. (AP Photo/Johnstown Flood Museum). When the water subsided, there was literally no sign that a town had ever existed. As theJohnstown Area Historical Associationnotes,the international Red Cross had been founded in 1863, and Barton launched the American Red Cross in 1881. 400 children under the age of ten were killed. read more, Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres is narrowly defeated in national elections by Likud Party leader Benjamin Netanyahu. The two squadrons opened fire on each other read more. What's Happening!! For the people downriver from the South Fork Dam, the flood came without warning and was unprecedented in its force and speed. As the men were working on the dam that morning, John Parke, an engineer who worked for a Pittsburgh firm of Wilkins and Powell on a sewer system at the Club, went to South Fork about 11:00 AM to start spreading the word about the dam's condition. Find this quaint town amidst the Allegheny region and head straight to the Johnstown Flood Museum to get on first-name terms with this former steel town. Here's some of what's known about the flood, one of the deadliest natural disasters in U.S. history. Work began in August 1938 with extensive dredging and flood control measures. Johnstown, PA . It is a true museum, and features an Academy-Award-winning film by Charles Guggenheim called "the Johnstown Flood." Wasn't Clara Barton involved somehow? Hindsight always makes things seem very clear and obvious, but at several points as the tragedy unfolded, different decisions or a simple change of luck might have averted the worst. By the end of 1889 there were more than a dozen, mostly histories but a few novels as well. The club was legally created as a nonprofit corporation in 1879. For several days in late May of 1889 in Pennsylvania it rained and rained and rained resulting in tremendous flooding and a dam break that killed thousands in Johnstown. Every year, the town honors the dead with a reading of a list of names of those who died in this tragic event. What exactly happened at the dam that day? The Johnstown Flood would become one of the worst natural disasters ever seen in this country. "The water rose and floated us until our heads nearly touched the ceiling. Philadelphia: Hubbard Brothers, 1890. NEW! READ MORE: How Americas Most Powerful Men Caused Americas Deadliest Flood. Upon his election in 1980, Reagan read more, May 31, 1819 is the birthday of poet Walt Whitman, born in West Hills, Long Island, and raised in Brooklyn. Our misery is the work of man. A New York Times headline read, An Engineering Crime The Dam of Inferior Construction, According to the Experts, A New York World headline on June 7 declared The Club Is Guilty. However, most news articles did not mention club members by name. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1968. The South Fork Fishing Club comprised primarily of wealthy industrialists, including Andrew Carnegie, Henry Frick, and Andrew Mellon (Coleman 2019). Market data provided by Factset. But one of the greatest challenges was identifying the bodies that were recovered. The tragedy of the Johnstown Flood of 1889 resulted from a combination of nature and human indifference and neglect. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. It was too little, too late. Many businessmen seemed more concerned with repairing their damaged property rather than aiding Johnstown. Inside, on a local news page, the paper ran a review of "Johnstown and Its Flood," a book about the firsthand memories of author Gertrude Q. Slattery, also known as Mrs. Frank P. Slattery, during the 1889 Johnstown Flood that killed more than 2,200 people. For instance, William Shinn became the president of the ASCE just five months after the flood and was one of the primary figures who advocated to keep the report sealed for as long as possible (Coleman 2019). Were the people below the dam warned? You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter! 99 entire families were wiped out, 396 of them, children. This book provides a solid overview of the history of Johnstown and an exhaustive history of the Flood. Then the whole dam broke -- the lake full of water just pushed the dam out in front of it. Many Remarkably, the Pennsylvania Railroad was able to build a temporary bridge at the site just two weeks after the flood, and a new stone viaduct was built a year later. At 3:10 pm on May 31, the South Fork Dam, a poorly maintained earthfill dam holding a major upstream reservoir, collapsed after heavy rains, sending a wall of water rushing down the Conemaugh valley at speeds of 20-40 mph (32-64 kph). As it was, many of the town's residents were trapped in the upper floors of their homes when the deadly wave hit. The dam was originally built with discharge pipes, so the only question that remained was who removed them. FILE - In this 1889 file photograph, people stand atop houses among ruins after disastrous flooding in Johnstown, Pa. Facts, figures and anecdotes about the Johnstown flood in Pennsylvania, which killed 2,209 people 125 years ago, gave the Red Cross its first international response effort and helped set a precedent for American liability law. It's accepted that the flood struck Johnstown proper at 4:07 PM. YA. Values of Johnstown Flood related items have varied greatly in this age of internet auction sites. Although suits were filed against the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, no legal actions or compensation resulted. anymore. AsThe Tribune-Democratreports, when the water from the failed dam smashed into the viaduct, it brought with it an enormous amount of debris trees and rocks and anything else in its path, even livestock and other animals. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. The matter of who was to blame was not very contentious. Later, he worked as a teacher, journalist, editor, carpenter, and read more, Best known to his many fans for one of his most memorable screen incarnationsSan Francisco Police Inspector Dirty Harry Callahanthe actor and Oscar-winning filmmaker Clint Eastwood is born on May 31, 1930, in San Francisco, California. There were two primary conjectures about who was to blame: former Congressman John Reilly and the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club. University of Pittsburgh-Johnstown professor Paul Douglas Newman describes the city as a giant drain that sits at the bottom of several watersheds, all prone to flooding. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. In its path, were Johnstown and the surrounding communities. The Club members also had many connections, allowing them to insert court-appointed experts that happened to favor their positions. Johnstown and Its Flood. Tents and temporary shelters called "Oklahoma" houses were erected. The dam collapsed around 3 p.m. after heavy rains and runoff from hillsides that had been clear cut of timber raised the lake level. Eastern Acorn Press, 1984. The public had grown weary of corruption during the Gilded Age (see Gilded Age Political Cartoon Analysis), so their distrust was understandable. There are stories of homes floating past with people trapped on the roofs, screaming for help. He claimed that Reilly was responsible for the removal of the pipes (Coleman 2019). Others Viewed one way, history is a series of tragedies. They left immediately following the disaster, and the club members were largely silent about the tragedy. The repaired dam would hold for ten years. Hounded by the media, members of the club donated to the relief effort. So did the grim work of recovering the bodies of the dead. Crete is now Axis-occupied territory. What happened to the papers of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club? It flattened a railroad bridge. after the occurrence. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. The reprieve lasted less than ten minutes. On the day of the flood, the town woke up to find water already rising in the streets from the torrential rains, and everyone moved to the upper floors in order to wait it out. Johnstown Flood. square miles of downtown Johnstown was completely leveled, including Train service in and out of Johnstown stopped. Law, Anwei. The fear of big floods remains. But there was one small blessing on the day: Because so many had already fled, only 16 people from Mineral Point died. Few of them would be considered reliable histories, although all of them are fascinating, and copies of almost all of them survive to this day. As theJohnstown Area Historical Associationnotes, the town had been built in a river valley. 1JOHNSTOWN, Pa. The house will be rocking at this year's AmeriServ Flood City Music Festival. Later investigations like the 2014 computer simulation refuted this claim. Long mischaracterized as a race riot, rather than mass read more, Thirty years after its release, John Lydonbetter known as Johnny Rottenoffered this assessment of the song that made the Sex Pistols the most reviled and revered figures in England in the spring of 1977: There are not many songs written over baked beans at the breakfast table read more, In Pretoria, representatives of Great Britain and the Boer states sign the Treaty of Vereeniging, officially ending the three-and-a-half-year South African Boer War. General Hastings took charge for several months, making sure relief supplies went to survivors who needed them and keeping the press from taking over the town. Andrew Carnegie was a member of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, the group . One comment published in the Philadelphia Inquirer captures the publics attitude towards the club members. Johnstown was about 14 miles away from the South Fork Dam, and standing in between was the Conemaugh Viaduct. The night of May 30, 1889 heavy rain poured non-stop. A wrecked freight car next to twisted railroad tracks, after the Johnstown, Pennsylvania flood of 1889. Frick and Pitcairn donated $5000, Carnegie $10,000. They also lowered the dam by a few feet in order to make it possible for two carriages to pass at the same time, so the dam was only about four feet higher than the spillway. In The Johnstown Flood, David McCullough gives you all as well as the heart and soul of this heinous catastrophe. What might have been worth a fortune 20 years ago may be worth significantly less today. As it is, for the people of Johnstown and the surrounding area, May 31, 1889, remains a memory of loss. Parke talked to people in South Fork and sent somebody to the telegraph tower at South Fork so that messages could be sent down the valley. Like many other towns in the Rust Belt, Johnstown, Pennsylvania, was a bustling community in the late 1800s and early 1900s when the steel industry was at its height. The Club bought the dam from Reilly in 1879 and created a vacation spot to escape the summer heat and clouds of soot in Pittsburg. Residents of Johnstown, and Americans in general, began to turn their wrath toward the members of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club. Doctors, nurses and Clara Barton and the American Red Cross arrived to provide medical assistance and emergency shelter and supplies. the only warning was a thunderous rumble before the water hit. A bridge downstream from the town caught much of the debris and then proceeded to catch fire. The destruction of Johnstown was incredible, but many smaller communities in the surrounding area suffered incredibly as well. Legal action against individual club members was difficult if not impossible, as it would have been necessary to prove personal negligence and the power and influence of the club members is hard to overestimate. In a list printed about fourteen months after the Flood, the death toll was set at 2,209. It was the first disaster relief effort of its kind. The most powerful case against Reilly was provided by Robert Pitcairn, the executive of the Pittsburgh division of the Pennsylvania Railroad. The Flood Museum's film is available for purchase. Pennsylvania Railroad Company. A strong surface low pressure of around 1000 mb is centered over Kentucky at this hour and heavy rain is falling . Entertainments included an annual regatta, theatricals and musical performances. As reported by the Delaware County Daily Times, bodies were eventually found as far away as Cincinnati, Ohio, (which is 367 miles away) and as late as 1911, more than two decades after the event. The only time the rivers have flooded the downtown since then was in July 1977, when 11 inches of rain fell over two days, causing six dams to fail. Strayer, Harold. Barton would leave Johnstown a hero. Francis P. Sempa is the author of Geopolitics: From the Cold War to the 21st Century and America's Global Role: Essays and Reviews on National Security, Geopolitics, and War. I dont think there has ever been a case in this country where such cold-blooded disregard of the interest of others was exhibited as in this instance. Five thousand homes had been destroyed, so many families lived in tents. Despite a large number of court cases filed against the South Fork Fishing Club, no individuals were able to recover damages from the dams owners. In 1936 another severe flood finally produced some action with the passage of the Flood Control Act of 1936. 9:00 PM. It was dark and the house was tossing every way. after everything that has happened. After all, water, like everything else, moves faster downhill. There are two Johnstown Flood-related sites in the area. Johnstown: Johnstown Area Heritage Association and the National Park Service, 1997. All of the water from Lake Conemaugh rushed forward at 40 miles per hour, sweeping away everything in its path. The majority of the public attributed the disaster to the South Fork Fishing Club. As authorDavid McCulloughwrites, Mineral Point was home to about 30 families who lived in neat houses lining the town's only street, Front Street. perished. They soon discovered that the absence of discharge pipes was the primary cause of the breach (Coleman 2019). or redistributed. It had already failed once in 1862. By most accounts, it failed after 3:00 PM, most say either 3:10 or 3:15. Daily weather map for 8 am May 30, 1889, the day before the big flood in Johnstown. When the South Fork Dam burst on May 31, 1889, the population of Johnstown had already spent their day dealing with floodwaters. That happened 88 years after America's deadliest flash flood, also in Johnstown, prompted the construction of the Laurel Run Dam. A small crowd of angry flood survivors went up to the club and broke into some of the buildings, breaking windows and destroying furniture, but no major damage was done. With his father, Eastwood wandered the read more, On May 31, 2005, W. Mark Felts family ends 30 years of speculation, identifying Felt, the former FBI assistant director, as Deep Throat, the secret source who helped unravel the Watergate scandal. it made its way to the city of Johnstown. He was a prominent businessman in the railroad and steel industries and therefore had an interest in protecting Carnegie and numerous other club members. Yet, the ASCEs authority allowed them to absolve the club without any evidence that the dam would have flooded regardless of the renovations. Their quiet retreat from the city life was just a train ride away from Pittsburgh. On the day of the flood, the dam's operators knew they were in trouble early on. The newest chapter on the Johnstown flood, written not by historians but geologists, fixes blame for the disaster squarely on a sports club owned by some of Pittsburgh's industrial . A spillway at the dam became clogged with debris that could not be dislodged. She oversaw a massive relief effort that established the reputation of the Red Cross, which included building temporary shelters and providing food. The clubs activities were beautifully documented by member Louis Semple Clarke, a talented amateur photographer (as seen in the shot below more of Clarkes work can be seen on the Historic Pittsburgh website, thanks to a collaboration between JAHA and Pitt-Johnstown). Four square miles of Johnstown were obliterated. The total population was about 200 people, most of whom worked at the sawmill or the furniture factory. One comment published in the Philadelphia Inquirer captures the publics attitude towards the club members. After the flood, the public was eager to determine exactly what caused the dam to fail. All rights reserved. The fire continued to burn for three days. They captured their readers' attention with their wrenching stories (some more accurate than others), photographs, and illustrations. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Through the Johnstown Flood. AsBarton herselfwrites, she stayed in Johnstown for five months and estimated that the Red Cross spent half a million dollars on their relief efforts, which would be more than $10 million in today's money. People in the path of the rushing flood waters were often crushed as their homes and other structures were swept away. The railroad lost two cases based on the loss of property. The people of Johnstown sued the South Fork Hunting & Fishing Club over its negligence in maintaining the dam, and since the club was owned by some of the richest men in America, including Andrew Carnegie, you might assume there was a lavish settlement. After a fire destroyed much of the Palace of Westminsterthe headquarters of the read more, On May 31, 1941, the last of the Allies evacuate after 11 days of battling a successful German parachute invasion of the island of Crete. A total of 314 of the 1100 Woodvale residents died when this happened. It swept whole towns away as The report admitted that the club removed the pipes, but maintained that in our opinion they cannot be deemed to be the cause of the late disaster, as we find that the embankment would have been overflowed and the breach formed if the changes had not been made (ASCE Report, 1891) As discussed in the Blurring the Lines section, the club was able to avoid liability by portraying the disaster as an act of God beyond human control.