The outrage over that legal outcome actually changed the law, however. Wasn't Clara Barton involved somehow? He interviewed some of the few survivors to learn what happened during and after the disaster. One comment published in the Philadelphia Inquirer captures the publics attitude towards the club members. 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. What might have been worth a fortune 20 years ago may be worth significantly less today. a moving mountain of water at an average speed of 40 miles per hour. WHAT HAPPENED? The total population was about 200 people, most of whom worked at the sawmill or the furniture factory. The night of May 30, 1889 heavy rain poured non-stop. Perhaps they have been so busy lamenting over the loss of their big fish pond that they have really not had time to think much of the destruction down the valley (PA Inquirer, June 13, 1889). The dam was about 15 miles upstream from Johnstown, Pa., a steel mill town of more than 10,000 people. 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). In a list printed about fourteen months after the Flood, the death toll was set at 2,209. The club had very few assets aside from the clubhouse, but a few lawsuits were brought against the club anyway. Floods: 1889, 1936, 1977. valley. It's difficult to imagine just how much water slammed into Johnstown that day. What type of story is "The Johnstown Flood"? As law professor Jed Handelsman Shugerman notes, the South Fork Dam held about 20 million tons of water behind it. They took measurements at the site and interviewed many residents. When we tell the story of what happened at the dam May 31, 1889, we draw from first-person accounts from Colonel Elias Unger, the President of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club in 1889, John Parke, a young engineer who had recently arrived to supervise the installation of a sewer system, William Y. Boyer, whose title was Superintendent of Lake and Grounds at the South Fork Club, and several others. Pittsburgh, unpublished dissertation, 1940. South Fork The Johnstown Flood was so damaging in part due to a confluence of events that augmented its power at every point. Below the bridge the floodwaters reached the first floor, but it did not have the force of all that debris trapped in the jam. Later, he would rebuild Johnstowns library that library building today houses the Johnstown Flood Museum. fairly often in southwestern Pennsylvania, so most people didn't think The Johnstown Flood resulted in the first expression of outrage at power of the great trusts and giant corporations that had formed in the post-Civil War period. The only thing I can compare it to is the heartlessness of Nero, who fiddled while Rome was burning. sentences. this flooding would be much worse than other times. However, whirlpools brought down many of these taller buildings. University of Pittsburgh scientists have used ground-penetrating radar and computers to analyze the dam site and the volume and speed of floodwaters that hit Johnstown at 4:07 p.m., an hour after the break. A historical narrative. There were two primary conjectures about who was to blame: former Congressman John Reilly and the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club. However, there was not enough substantial evidence to hold the club legally responsible. who weren't killed instantly, were swept down the valley to their deaths. 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. There was a census done in 1890, but little of it survivesnot enough to help us at all. Looking back over the course of human experience, peace and stability are rare, after all. The two squadrons opened fire on each other read more. Even more tragic was the loss of life. The Johnstown Flood would become one of the worst natural disasters ever seen in this country. As it is, for the people of Johnstown and the surrounding area, May 31, 1889, remains a memory of loss. 19 About 80 people actually burned to death. The three remembered most happened on May 31, 1889, when at least 2,209 people died, the St. Patrick's Day flood of 1936, in which almost two dozen people died, and a third devastating flood on July 19-20, 1977, when at least 85 people died. Undertakers volunteered for the gruesome task of preparing over 2,000 bodies for burial. Six dams in the area failed, resulting in incredibly traumatic flooding for much of the town. Degen, Paula and Carl. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. After years of disuse, John Reilly purchased the dam from the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1875 and operated it for four years. 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. best swimmers couldn't swim in that mess. A wrecked freight car next to twisted railroad tracks, after the Johnstown, Pennsylvania flood of 1889. 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. 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. They installed fish screens across the spillway to keep the expensive game fish from escaping, which had the unfortunate effect of capturing debris and keeping the spillway from draining the lakes overflow. 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. Five thousand homes had been destroyed, so many families lived in tents. They left immediately following the disaster, and the club members were largely silent about the tragedy. By the time it was finished in 1853, the railroad had already made the canal system obsolete, so the state sold the dam to the Pennsylvania Railroad. In Harrisburg, the . Earlier in the night, Schmid allegedly had said to his friends, I want to kill a girl! 10 This break resulted in a minor flood in Johnstown, where water only rose about two feet and did not cause much damage. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. (AP Photo/Johnstown Flood Museum). Most Internet records concentrate on the aftermath and don't give. In 1879 he ended up selling the land to the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club at a loss. Wasn't Clara Barton involved somehow? What happened to the papers of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club? Fourteen miles up the Conemaugh River stood the South Fork Dam holding back the waters of Conemaugh Lake. The Tribune-Democratreportsthat many people believe this spared communities downriver from Johnstown from a similarly horrifying fate. The club owners made small donations to Johnstown relief funds but were never held responsible for the disaster. Johnstown was about 14 miles away from the South Fork Dam, and standing in between was the Conemaugh Viaduct. It took them seven months to finish the report and they did not publish it until 1891. It had been raining heavily in the two days before the flood. Recovering the bodies took weeks and cleaning up debris took months. Perhaps the best reference book ever written on the story. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. They had set the club up as a limited liability company, which meant they couldn't be held personally accountable and that their vast personal fortunes were never in danger. The water had brought an incredible mass of trees, animals, structures, and other stuff to the bridge, leading to a pile of debris estimated to cover about 30 acres and be as high as 70 feet. The club made a public agreement with Reilly, and he allowed them to begin work on the dam six months before the official property transfer. Later investigations like the 2014 computer simulation refuted this claim. Legal Statement. Whatever happened to Bill Collins? When it did come out, it favored the club. The Johnstown Flood (locally, the Great Flood of 1889) occurred on Friday, May 31, 1889, after the catastrophic failure of the South Fork Dam, located on the south fork of the Little Conemaugh River, 14 miles (23 km) upstream of the town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, United States. However, Pitcairns position meant that he had a commercial interest in defending the club. "The water rose and floated us until our heads nearly touched the ceiling. The Red Cross also provided warm meals, provisions for daily needs, and medical care. Something inflammable must have been carried along in the debris, because it soon burst into flame, engulfing the bridge in fire. These men had been warned of the danger time and again, but they feasted and enjoyed themselves on the lake while the very lives of the people in the valley below were in danger.. 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. The Club members also had many connections, allowing them to insert court-appointed experts that happened to favor their positions. The reservoir would service the Western Division of the Pennsylvania Main Line Canal in times of low water. We can use some tools like a city directory that was recompiled after the Flood and some other Flood related documents, but definite family histories, unless somehow preserved by the families themselves, are hard to determine. The Johnstown Flood Museum is located in downtown Johnstown inside the city's former Carnegie Library. These victims were buried in a mass grave called the Plot of the Unknown at Grandview Cemetery. Even in 1889, many called the old dam and water the "Old Reservoir," as is had been built many decades before. According to Johnstown citizen Victor Heiser, It is impossible to imagine how these [club] people were feared (PA Inquirer, August 23, 1889). It took them seven months to finish the report and they did not publish it until 1891. But in Johnstown and other communities above the bridge, the devastation And asTribLIVEreports, the flood did $17 million in damage, which would be over $480 millionin today's dollars.