The Johnstown Flood

Introduction

It is impossible to describe briefly the suddenness with which the disaster came. A warning sound was heard at Conemaugh a few minutes before the rush of water came, but it was attributed to some meteorological disturbance, and no trouble was borrowed because of the thing unseen. As the low, rumbling noise increased in volume, however, and came nearer, a suspicion of danger began to force itself even upon the bravest, which was increased to a certainty a few minutes later, when, with a rush, the mighty stream spread out in width, and when there was not time to do anything to save themselves. Many of the unfortunates where whirled into the middle of the stream before they could turn around; men, women and children were struggling in the streets, and it is thought that many of them never reached Johnstown, only a mile or two below.

At Johnstown a similar scene was enacted, only on a much larger scale. The population is greater and the sweeping whirlpool rushed into a denser mass of humanity. The imagination of the reader can better depict the spectacle than the pen of the writer can give it. It was a twilight of terror, and the gathering shades of evening closed in on a panorama of horrors that has few parallels in the history of casualties.

When the great wave from Conemaugh lake behind the dam, came down the Conemaugh Valley, the first obstacle it struck was the great viaduct over the South Fork. This viaduct was a State work, built to carry the old Portage road across the Fork. The Pennsylvania Railroad parallels the Portage road for a long distance, and runs over the Fork. Besides sweeping the viaduct down, the bore, or smaller bores on its wings, washed out the Portage road for miles. One of the small bores went down the bed of a brook which comes into the Conemaugh at the village of South Fork, which is some distance above the viaduct. The big bore backed the river above the village. The small bore was thus checked in its course and flowed into the village.

The obstruction below being removed, the backed-up water swept the village of South Fork away. The flood came down. It moved steadily but with a velocity never yet attained by an engine moved by power controllable by man....

"Johnstown in annihilated, " telegraphed Superintendent Pitcarin to Pittsburg on Friday night. "He came, " says one who visited the place on Sunday, "very close to the facts of the case. Nothing like it was ever seen in this country. Where long rows of dwelling-houses and business blocks stood forty-eight houses ago, ruin and desolation now reign supreme. Probably 1500 houses have been swept from the face of the earth as completely as if they had never been erected. Main street, from end to end, is piled fifteen and twenty feet high with debris, and in some instances it is as high as the roofs of the houses. This great mass of wreckage fills the street from curb to curb, and frequently has crushed the buildings in and filled the space with reminders of the terrible calamity. There is not a man in the place who can give any reliable estimate of the number of houses that have been swept away. City Solicitor Kuehn, who should be very good authority in this matter, places the number at 1500, From the woolen mill above the island to the bridge, a distance of probably two miles, a strip of territory nearly a half mile in width has been swept clean, not a stick of timer or one brick on top of another being left to tell the story. It is the most complete wreck that imagination could portray.

"All day long men, women, and children were plodding about the desolate waste looking in vain to locate the boundaries of their former homes. Nothing but a wide expanse of mud, ornamented here and there with heaps of driftwood, remained, however, for their contemplation. It is perfectly to say that every house in the city that was not located well up on the hillside was either swept completely away of wrecked so badly that rebuilding will be absolutely necessary. These losses, however, are nothing compared to the frightful sacrifice in precious human lives to be seen on every hand.

"During all this solemn Sunday Johnstown has been drenched with the tears of stricken mortals, and the air is filled with sobs and sighs that come from breaking hearts. There are scenes enacted here every hour and every minute that affect all beholders profoundly. When homes are thus town asunder in an instant, and the loved ones hurled from the arms of loving and devoted mothers, there is an element of sadness in the tragedy that overwhelms every heart....

"It is impossible to describe the appearance of Main street. Whole houses have been swept down this one street and become lodged. The wreck is piled as high as the second-story windows. The reporter could step from the wreck into the auditorium of the opera house. The ruins consist of parts of houses, trees, saw logs and reels from the wire factory. Many houses have their side walls and roofs torn up, and one can walk directly into what had been second-story bed-rooms, or go in by way of the top. Further up town a raft of logs lodged in the street, and did great damage. At the beginning of the wreckage, which is at the opening of the valley of the Conemaugh, one can look up the valley for miles and not see house. Nothing stands but an old wollen mill...."

Seen from the high hill across the river from Johnstown, the Conemaugh Valley gives an easy explanation of the terrible destruction which it has suffered. This valley, stretching back almost in a straight line for miles, suddenly narrows near Johnstown. The wall of water which came tearing down toward the town, picking up all the houses and mils in the villages along its way, suddenly rose in height as it came to the narrow pass. It swept over the nearest part of the town and met the waters of Stony creek, swollen by rains, rushing along with the speed of a torrent. the two forces coming together, each turned aside and started away again in a half-circle, seeking an outlet in the lower Conemaugh Valley. The massive stone bridge of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, at the lower base of the triangle was almost instantly choked up with the great mass of wreckage dashed against it, and became a dam that could not be swept away, and proved to be the ruin of the town and the villages above. The waters checked here, formed a vast whirlpool, which destroyed everything within its circle. it backed up on the other side of the triangle, and devastated the village of Kernville, across the river from Johnstown.

The force of the current was truly appalling. The best evidence of its force is exhibited in the mass of debris south of the Pennsylvania bridge. Persons on the hillsides declare that houses, solid from their foundation stones, were rushed on to destruction at the rate of thirty miles an house. On one house forty persons were counter; their cries for help were heard far above the roaring waters. At the railroad bridge the house parted in the middle, and the cries of the unfortunate people were smothered in the engulfing waters.

Extract from: Willis Fletcher Johnson, History of the Johnstown Flood.... Edgewood Publishing Company, 1889.

National History Standards

Materials compiled in this document can be used by educators to fulfill the following National History Standards for Grades 5-12:

Era 7: The Emergence of Modern America (1890-1930)

STANDARD 3: How the United States changed from the end of World War I to the eve of the Great Depression.

Standard 3B: The student understands how a modern capitalist economy emerged in the 1920s.

5-12: Explain how principles of scientific management and technological innovations, including assembly lines, rapid transit, household appliances, and radio, continued to transform production, work, and daily life. [Examine the influence of ideas]
9-12: Analyze the new business downtowns, the development of suburbs, and the role of transportation in changing urban life. [Explain historical continuity and change]

Primary Resources

DESCRIPTION: South Fork, Cambria County, Pennsylvania 1900.
ARTIST: Drawn by T. M. Fowler.
DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: Morrisville, Pa., T. M. Fowler & James B. Moyer [1900]
NOTES: View shows the location of the South Fork Dam.
REPRODUCTIONS: How to Order Reproductions
COPYRIGHT: Copyright and Other Restrictions
SOURCE: Map Collections: 1500-2004
REPOSITORY: Library of Congress Geography and Map Division Washington, D.C.
DESCRIPTION: Andrew Carnegie, 1835-1919
DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: c1913 April 5.
NOTES: Carnegie was a member of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club.
REPRODUCTIONS: How to obtain copies of this item
COPYRIGHT: Copyright and Other Restrictions
REPOSITORY: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.
DESCRIPTION: Johnstown flood, [Pennsylvania], South Fork Dam and club house
DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: c 1889
REPRODUCTIONS: How to obtain copies of this item
COPYRIGHT: Copyright and Other Restrictions
REPOSITORY: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.
DESCRIPTION: General view looking south, Johnstown flood
DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: [1889]
REPRODUCTIONS:
REPOSITORY: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.
DESCRIPTION: [Afro-Americans with wagons at flood site, some digging, Johnstown, Pennsylvania]
DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: [1889]
REPRODUCTIONS: How to obtain copies of this item
COPYRIGHT: Copyright and Other Restrictions
REPOSITORY: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.
DESCRIPTION: [Ruins of viaduct bridge, Johnstown, Pa., after the flood, May 31, 1889]
DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: [1889]
REPRODUCTIONS: How to obtain copies of this item
COPYRIGHT: Copyright and Other Restrictions
REPOSITORY: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.
DESCRIPTION: [Ruins at Johnstown, Pa., after the flood, May 31, 1889]
DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: [1889]
REPRODUCTIONS: How to obtain copies of this item
COPYRIGHT: Copyright and Other Restrictions
REPOSITORY: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.
DESCRIPTION: The Ruins at Johnstown, Pa., after the flood, May 31, 1889
DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: [1889]
SUMMARY FROM Library of Congress: Interior of the R.C. Church of St. Mary at Cambria City, showing the miraculously preserved image of the Blessed Virgin
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REPOSITORY: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.
DESCRIPTION: Johnstown disaster, May 31, '89. Conemaugh Valley
DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: c. 1889
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COPYRIGHT: Copyright and Other Restrictions
REPOSITORY: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.
DESCRIPTION: The Johnstown flood - Main Street, looking east
DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: c1889
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COPYRIGHT: Copyright and Other Restrictions
REPOSITORY: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.
DESCRIPTION: Johnstown flood. No. 11. View near Main Street
DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: c1889
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REPOSITORY: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.
DESCRIPTION: Johnstown Flood, 1889: Looking down Main St. #18
DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: c1889
REPRODUCTIONS: How to obtain copies of this item
COPYRIGHT: Copyright and Other Restrictions
REPOSITORY: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.
DESCRIPTION: The Johnstown flood, looking west on Main Street
DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: c1889
REPRODUCTIONS: How to obtain copies of this item
COPYRIGHT: Copyright and Other Restrictions
REPOSITORY: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.
DESCRIPTION: Johnstown flood, May 31st, 1889
DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: c 1889
REPRODUCTIONS: How to obtain copies of this item
COPYRIGHT: Copyright and Other Restrictions
REPOSITORY: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.
DESCRIPTION: The Johnstown Calamity. A slightly damaged house
DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED:
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COPYRIGHT: Copyright and Other Restrictions
REPOSITORY: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.
DESCRIPTION: Hundreds of Lives Lost: The City of Johnstown Swept Completely Away
DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: May 31, 1885
SOURCE: New York Times on the Web Learning Network

See also:

Davis, Richard Harding. Adventures and Letters of Richard Harding Davis. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1917.
Davis was a journalist for the Philadelphia Press. The Johnstown Flood was his first major assignment.
Heiser, Victor George. An American Doctor's Odyssey: Adventures in Forty-Five Countries. W W Norton & Co Inc., 1936.
Heiser was a teenager when the flood struck Johnstown. His parents died in the flood and the family's store was destroyed. He left Johnstown, went to college and studied medicine. Heiser is credited with developing the first effective treatment against leprosy.

Additional Media Resources

Johnstown Flood National Memorial. From the National Park Service.

Additional Instructional Resources

Run for Your Lives! The Johnstown Flood of 1889. From the National Park Service.

Recipe for Disaster: Ingredients of a Deadly Flood. From the Johnstown Flood Museum.

Telling the Story. From the Johnstown Flood Museum.

Rebuild or Move On? From the Johnstown Flood Museum.

Push and Pull of Immigration. From the Johnstown Heritage Discovery Center.

Making a Life: Creating a Community. From the Johnstown Heritage Discovery Center.

Making a Living. From the Johnstown Heritage Discovery Center.

Secondary Resources

Jackson, Donald Dale, "When 20 Million Tons of Water Flooded Johnstown" Smithsonian (1989): 50-61.

McCullough, David. The Johnstown Flood: the Incredible Story behind one of the most Devastating "Natural" Disasters America has ever Known. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1968.

Miraldi, Robert. The Pen is Mightier: the Muckraking Life of Charles Edward Russell. Palgrave, 2003. See Chapter 1.

Associated Heritage and Preservation Organizations

Johnstown Flood National Memorial Park
733 Lake Road
South Fork, PA 15956 Johnstown Flood Museum
304 Washington Street,
Johnstown PA 15901

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Credits

Teaching American History in Maryland is a collaborative partnership of the Maryland State Archives and the Center for History Education (CHE), University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), and the following sponsoring school systems: Anne Arundel County Public Schools, Baltimore City Public School System, Baltimore County Public Schools, and Howard County Public Schools.

Other program partners include the Martha Ross Center for Oral History, Maryland Historical Society, State Library Resource Center/Enoch Pratt Free Library, with assistance from the National Archives and Records Administration and the Library of Congress. The program is funded through grants from the U.S. Department of Education.

This document packet was researched and developed by Nancy Bramucci.

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