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Editor George Swank, June 14, 1889
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Johnstown Weekly Tribune
Editor George Swank, June 14, 1889
Johnstown Tribune editor George Swank had started an article on the flooding early on May 31 before the dam broke. He rewrote this account
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Many photographers took special “stereo views” that made their photos look three-dimensional. First they took the pictures with a camera that had two lenses (like binoculars). The pictures
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PRR Testimony Describing the Flood
J. P. Wilson, South Fork Coal Mines Supervisor
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From Port Royal, Juniata County, PA; a train passenger
I stepped on the platform of one of the gondola cars, and looking east of the river, I saw what appeared like a bank of water coming with fearful
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Shortly before 4 o’clock we heard the loud and doleful whistling of the engines at the mill, which surely betokens a fire, and which we at the time supposed to be such an alarm. I have been info
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This was about 4 P.M. In a few minutes the water began to enter the room. We started to take up the carpets, but in less than half a minute some one burst into the room, exclaiming “The reservoir ha
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Thrusting my head through an open window, and looking north-easterly, from which direction seemed to be coming an awful something, I saw what filled me with indescribable horror. A mountain of darknes
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No one knows for sure whether this hero story is true or not. The little girl in this photo was saved from drowning in the flood when her family’s dog swam to her and towed her to safety.
Based
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Telegrams from South Fork
The telegraph warning from South Fork was sent to the railroad operator west of Mineral Point who had been in constant communication with South Fork all morning. However,
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John Parke as “Paul Revere” of South Fork
John Parke may have been the inspiration for the “Peerless Rider.” Read his own words below. How well does it match the “Paul Re
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Within a few days of the flood a rumor started spreading through the press about a “Paul Revere of Johnstown,” who rode down the valley on horseback warning people that the dam had broken
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After the Flood, photographers flocked to Johnstown. It was the biggest story since the assassination of President Lincoln in 1865. And it was definitely a story that had to be seen to be believed!
Ph
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A collection of newspaper stories sold as a book
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These artifacts, in the collection of the Johnstown Flood Museum, were swept along in the flood waters, just as their owners were. Some have stories that have been passed down to us. Others’ sto
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After the Flood, photographers flocked to Johnstown. It was the biggest story since the assassination of President Lincoln in 1865. And it was definitely a story that had to be seen to be believed!
Ph
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In 1889 most printing presses were not able to print photographs. Printing photos was very expensive, so only books contained photographs. Newspapers and magazines used drawings to illustrate their st
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Stayed in Johnstown
Name
Occupation
Address in 1896 Directory
Barbour, George
Laborer
Owns home 318 Second St.
Beck, Andrew
Laborer
Rents home 138 Gautier St.
Butler, Mary M
Home 610 Frankli
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About 1888, before the flood.
1889, soon after the flood.
1904 (sour
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Rev. David Beale
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Rev. Beale reports on shelters and rebuilding
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Rev. Beale reports on hospitals in the wake of the flood.
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Rev. David Beale
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Arthur J. Moxham
Before the Flood, every neighborhood in the Johnstown area was actually a separate borough or village. They had separate mayors and governing councils. Johnstown itself was a borough.
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Helen Moxham and Cyrus Elder
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By Benjamin Lee, A.M., M.D., Ph.D.
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Statement showing supplies furnished this Department for distribution by certain Relief Committees, by J.L. Spangler
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Official Statement as to the Johnstown Flood and the General Relief Work Performed
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From ruin to recovery
Survivors were dependent on relief efforts almost entirely. They were able to salvage some items, but not enough to return to a semblence of t
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Rescue the Living
The first night after the Flood was filled with terror for survivors. The floodwave had carried most people away from where they were and dumped them somewhere else. Many were injure
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Events in Johnstown’s recovery, June-December 1889
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Topographic Map of the Conemaugh Valley, published in June 1889 in Harper’s Weekly magazine. Conemaugh Lake in the east was the result of damming South Fork Creek. When the South Fork dam failed
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Pastor of the Franklin Street Methodist Church, Chapman and his family lived in a parsonage in the middle of town. On the day of the flood, he opened his front door to see a boxcar rolling down the st
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Click on the survivors’ names to read their stories.
Name
Occupation
Address
Barbour, George
Laborer*
Boards at 120 Maple Ave, Woodvale*
Beale, Rev. Dr. David
Pastor
Presbyterian Church
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For several days after the flood Mr. Henry Viering, the well-known furniture dealer at the corner of Railroad and Jackson Streets, suffered great bodily pain from injuries received on the fatal Friday
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Mr. Morrell Swank tells of the thrilling and terrible experience of himself and family on that ever-memorable Friday evening, as follows:
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Rev. Beale writes of a pair of mother-daughter heroines.
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[Rev. Beale writes] The following letter was written to Mrs. Beale by our next-door neighbor, Mrs. Dr. S. C. Poland. One of her children had been in the parsonage until the water had become two and a
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Victor Heiser was 16 at the time of the flood. He left Johnstown after the disaster and became a world-renowned physician. This account is from his autobiography.
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Mr. & Mrs. John Fenn’s story
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Resided before the flood at 112 Morris Street, Kernville
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From Rev. Dr. David Beale’s book Through the Johnstown Flood
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The following letter was written by Mr. George Barbour to a relative in Chambersburg, PA:
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After the Flood, photographers flocked to Johnstown. It was the biggest story since the assassination of President Lincoln in 1865. And it was definitely a story that had to be seen to be believed!
Cl
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These photos are from “stereo views” that made photos look three-dimensional. Learn more about stereo cards and stereopticons on this page.
To help you see as much as possible from these
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There aren’t many pictures of the day after the Flood, since people were too busy saving their lives and helping others. Besides, most cameras and photo equipment was lost in the Flood. Within d
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Stereo viewer used to look at stereo photo cards
Many photographers took special “stereo views” that made their photos look three-dimensional. First they took the pictures with a camera th
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Use the tool “Reading a Photograph” to help you see as much as possible in these photographs.
Aerial view of Johnstown.
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Use the tool “Reading a Photograph” to help you see as much as possible in these photographs.
Canoeing on Lake Conemaugh at the South Fork Fishing & Huntin
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Be sure to use the tool “Reading a Photograph” to help you see as much as possible in these photographs.
The dam and the South Fork Reservoir in the 1880s.
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Be sure to use the tool “Reading a Photograph” to help you see as much as possible in these photographs.
Washington Street Bridge, 1884.
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Clear-cutting forests leads to environmental problems
The first 10 images are used courtesy of the Pennsylvania State Archives; the final image is from JAHA archives. Be sure to use the tool “Readin
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Canal connects Johnstown to the world
To help you see as much as possible from these photos, use the tool “Reading a Photograph.”
Boat going through the
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Conemaugh and Stoneycreek Rivers and their tributaries
Be sure to use the tool “Reading a Photograph” to help you see as much as possible in these photographs.
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The shape of the land shapes the land’s history. See the tool “Reading a photograph” before you start!
Painting of Conemaugh River by George Hetze
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Map of Johnstown’s original street plan
Map of Johnstown showing Pennsylvania Canal basin (ca. 1840-50)
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The Paul Revere of Johnstown: True or False?
This is the title of the following story, which was printed in the book The Johnstown Horror, or, Valley of death being a complete and thrilling account o
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Newspaper and Telephones
In the Tribune plant over the post-office on Franklin Street, Swank and his assistants had begun the last work on the Johnstown Weekly Tribune for May 31. Some of the force
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PRR Testimony
Engineer J. C. Hess tells his story
…We heard the flood coming. We didn’t see it but we heard the noise of it coming.
Q. What was the noise of it like?
A. It was like a hurrican
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PRR Testimony about the Safety of the South Fork Dam
Statement of W. N. Hays
Q. What was said about the reservoir breaking?
A. Some said it was liable to break, and others said there was no danger. I
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Newspaper and Telephones
The Pennsylvania Railroad trains left Pittsburgh at scheduled time on the morning of May 31. The New York and Chicago Limited (No. 2) departed for the east at 7:15 a.m. The D
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Were There Warnings?
Hettie Ogle’s “Last Message” telegram
Many versions grew up of the story of Hettie Ogle, a telegraph operator who kept at her post to send out river gauge rep
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Were there warnings? Another Hero Racing with Death
This is the title of the following story, which was printed in the book The Johnstown Horror, or, Valley of death being a complete and thrilling ac
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Were there warnings?
Telegrams from South Fork
The telegraph warning from South Fork was sent to the railroad operator west of Mineral Point who had been in constant communication with South Fork all
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Floods on the West Branch of the Susquehanna River
The West Branch of the Susquehanna drains northern Cambria County before … [it] receives waters from the counties of Clearfield, Clinton, Came
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The Great Storm of 1889
The greatest PA rainfall of the century
A wet year
…The greatest rainfall in Pennsylvania during the century played its part [in the Flood] also. The records of the Franklin
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Riverbank measurements, 1854 and 1907
Henry Wilson Storey measured the river channels in 1907 and compared them to the widths in 1854 to see how much they had narrowed.
Little Conemaugh
Location
Di
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Development Narrows the Rivers
Rev. David Beale relays a conversation early on May 30
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First person account of the disaster, scientifically viewed
Through the courtesy of the Engineering News of New York I am permitted to insert the following extracts from its columns. The proprietors s
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The rain keeps coming
The downpour of the great storm continued with an undiminished strength during the afternoon and evening of May 31. The rain over the watershed of the South Fork Dam fell at the
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[The property was bought by the newly formed South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club in 1879 to create a recreational lake and retreat. The Reservoir was renamed Lake Conemaugh]
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…The railroad company maintained a watchman at the reservoir to protect its machinery and to drive off the residents who coveted the lead wipings in the exposed joints of the sluice pipes. On July 1
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The South Fork Reservoir had originally been planned and built to supply the Pennsylvania Canal with water during the dry season. Although the State Works possessed a dam across the Conemaugh east of
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It rained and rained
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. In its path, were Johnstown and the surrounding c
