Satyan Basnet History 1302 Book Journal I Johnstown Flood Date: February 18th 2014

Chapter 1: The Sky Was Red

After reading the first chapter, I view Johnstown in 1889 as a growing industrial city. Like any other town and cities, the Industrial Revolution had huge effect in its rapid growth. People seemed to be rushing to this town from everywhere. Though the Germans and the Welsh were the first settlers, many others like the Scotch-Irish, Jews and Negroes came along in droves to toil at the town's steel and barbed wire factories. Before the arrival of the canal, Johnstown seemed to be sparsely populated with a rather slow life and the town remained no more than a backwoods trading center. However, with the arrival of the Pennsylvania Mainline canal in 1834 , it became one of the booming town at the heart of Allegheny Mountain Range. After 1834, as the chapter depicts, life in Johnstown seems to start gaining a rapid pace. The nearly doubling of population from 15,000 to 30,000 within ten years time shows how people from all parts of the country were moving into this valley in search of opportunity and prosperity. The image of the town also shows a difference in class. There were wealthy people who lived on the high ground, while the poor workers were crowded in the lowlands. Johnstown then had five-story buildings on Main, up-to-date stores, opera house, a night school, a library, a remarkable number of churches, and several large, handsome houses, most of them owned by the high ranking men of the Iron Company. Life in the town was comparatively simple with few pleasures and a great deal of hard work. After a week of hard work, on Sundays, families wore their best clothes and went for a walk out in one of their neighboring boroughs wanting to be seen and to see others as well. There were saloons of all kinds for the rich and poor as well. After a hard days' work, a working class men received warm welcome in one of the average saloon to quench his fierce thirst the heat of the furnace left him with. I could see myself living in this progressing town amongst one of these families embracing the best years the town had ever seen. With telephone lines, rail roads, electricity, hospitals, hotels, saloons all over the town, I could imagine myself as one of these people trying hard to keep up with the changes coming so quick; however happy to be a part of it and to be able to live with it.
Chapter 2: Sailboats on the Mountains: After reading the first few pages in chapter 2, I could imagine the difference in the living standards of the top notch people of the Iron and Steel Industry and the working class men of Johnstown. The club which was formed in Pennsylvania around 1879 owned the South Fork Dam, the lake and around 160 acres of the surrounding land. Most of the lower class people of Johnstown never even had access to this area. The South Fork Lake which was about 450 ft on elevation from the Johnstown was a recreational center for the wealthy and rich. It had around 16 cottages, boathouses and stables. The cottages were all huge and the largest one was spread in a wide area with around forty seven rooms inside. With a huge brick fireplace, billiard tables, heavy furniture, bars and saloons, these facilities were no less than a present day lavish holiday resorts and hotels. This was however only a side of a coin that represented the high class wealthy and prosperous community of American Society. The other side was the life style of the people of Johnstown that represented most of the working class community of American Society trying hard to cope up with the Industrial Revolution the country was going through. In short, South Fork Lake was a summer resort area for a few wealthy people but for people of Johnstown who were living in overcrowded slums, it was a picture of a life so removed that it almost seemed like a fantasy, just few miles away yet wholly untouchable. The idea of a summer resort in the area was something new in itself, however people who were ready to invest their money and time had to consider rebuilding the old dam. By the author's description of the old dam, I could imagine that the dam stood there uncared for years. The face that was visible was steep and covered with loose rocks. Everything else was covered with wild grass and bushes with their roots making way between the rocks and creating deep crevices that would be covered with ice during winter. From what it appeared, the dam badly needed a reconstruction work before any further plans for the resort. When Benjamin F. Ruff finally bought the property from John Reilly, no proper procedure were followed to register the charter and no confirmation was made by the law. This act itself showed how power, money and influence played a major role in the nineteenth century America. From what I read in the text, Ruff was a business man who had little or no knowledge about technical aspects of construction. However, he used his power and influence to complete the task as early as possible limiting the cost and restoring the dam to its original height. His reconstruction was an act of negligence that he used every means at hand like local rock, mud, brush, hay including horse manure. He mad no attempt to survey the site by official engineers and did not even bother to replace the discharge pipes that were removed and sold by the previous owner. No body bothered to question this action. The working class men were too busy to think about this matter while the top notch were so influenced and rich, they had no time to figure out what impact the dam might have on the people of surrounding areas in case it failed. On the contrary, every one seemed to be happy with this new construction as it was adding up to the progress and development of the valley. Moreover, the official name and members of the club who were organizing all these tasks were not known to many until late. These members of the club considered themselves the best people in Pittsburgh and the idea of the summer resort was to spend some time together away from the overcrowded cities close to the nature. Johnstown residents had a mixed reaction to all their doings on the mountain. Media and newspaper as early as 1850's had been writing about the area's potential as a summer resort. The club had also provided a lot of work and some excellent sport for local anglers. However, relations fast deteriorated when club members imposed strict rules upon the bystanders. The dam also threw a terrific fear among the locals of Johnstown. People were scared at the thought of what would happen if the old reservoir near South Fork might break. Every time when there was high rainfall in Johnstown there would be a talk about the dam breaking. Everyone in Johnstown at sometime feared and talked about the terrible disaster the breakage of the dam would ensue. People knew the dam had become weak over years and wondered and asked questions why no steps had been taken to strengthen the dam. But nothing was done and with time there were less and less talk about it as everyone seemed to be busy with their daily doings. With time the fear of dam breaking had become so common that it was becoming something of a local joke. The dam had always survived despite the warnings over years and I think people had grown tired of hearing about the disaster that never happened. I think since nothing big had ever happened over years, people had overcome the fear and began to feel that nothing would happen to them even if the dam gave up. Newspapers also played a part in imposing such thoughts among people when they wrote Johnstown would not be much affected even if the South Fork dam broke. Though it appeared that Johnstown's leading citizens paid no intelligent account on the threat the dam posed, I feel Daniel Morell was one man who was constantly alarmed by this act of negligence. To me Morrell, more than a business man was a leader and an ethical man. When Morrell was appointed to look after the management of the Cambria Iron Company, it was struggling with debts and about to go bankrupt. However, Morrell though new to the iron business succeed in reorganizing the company and by the start of the Civil war made it the biggest iron producing center in the country. He also showed a keen eye to important technological innovations of that time financing for the new Bessemer equipment that would increase the iron producing capacity. Cambria Iron Company being the leader in iron production employed around 7000 men on payrolls and was one of the largest landowners in the county. Though Cambria Iron Company and Mr. Morrell would not sustain unions among workers, its outlook towards its employees and the town seemed to be quite progressive. It was the only mill left that maintained the eight hour day practice. The company had opened the town hospital which provided free treatment to anyone injured at work. It had also established the library and night school where its employees could learn elementary science, mechanical drawing and engineering. I would say Mr. Morrell had created a good influence among people of Johnstown and they listened to him.
Chapter 3: There's a Man Came From the Lake When I read through this chapter, I could see people had mixed feelings over whether or not the dam would break and it seemed obvious. With such a variety of people living in the town, each of them had his/her own assumptions. It seemed that all of them were worried due to the continuous rainfall rising water level above normal in all the surrounding rivers. Few of the town's leading citizens were worried about the possible breakage of the South Fork Dam and the disaster it would bring to the town. However, most others who had experienced such flood almost every year, knew this was one of the worst flood to hit Johnstown in years but were not yet ready to accept the fact that the dam would give up and the conditions would be more severe than they had imagined. People who had actually visited to see the condition of the dam also shared mixed views to the people in the town. First few who came down from the dam to South Fork told everyone not to worry that there was no danger of water running over the top. However, others who came down later made a statement that the water was running over the top of the dam, and there was very great danger of it giving away. I could relate the flooding described in following pages to the one I myself had experienced few years earlier in my country. In a similar kind of a situation, people in a little village in the Eastern part of Nepal had been hearing rumors about the possible breakage of the nearby Koshi dam almost every year during the rainy season. However, that had never happened and the dam had been able to sustain all kind of threats over years. But this year it was different, due to heavy rainfall, the dam had already been flowing over the top in a first few days. There were warnings about the possible breakage of the dam, but the village which consisted largely of senior citizens and children did not pay much attention. When the dam finally gave up, people were unprepared and there was a huge disaster. More than half of the population of the village lost their life, with large chunks of agricultural land, trees, houses, bridges, roads all under water. This was one of the major disaster the country had faced in years, and it took months for the people and the authority to deal with the issue. Where earlier there used to be concrete roads, it was all covered with water. People like me who had to travel to other part of the country had no other means of transport except few small boats and ferries at some places and on foot most of the time. Months later, when the water had finally dried up, the whole region had remains of human bodies, animals, all kinds of debris and the land that was once fertile was all covered with tons and tons of mud and sand. In Johnstown, people had been more concerned about the rising level of water and those who had seen enough had already began moving out seeking for higher grounds and safer places. Few others moved to the big hotels and building in the town center thinking these would be the safest place to ride out of the storm. It had been the biggest flood in Johnstown till date making it even worst when it claimed the first life unlike any other flood. The streets were all full of rushing currents of water and people were looking for safer places, few in their own dwellings while others in nearby locations. Depending on the situation, people had made all kinds of decisions. Some of them were alarmed by early warnings of the possible breakage of the dam and had already started moving out, whereas most of the Johnstown who had been hearing all kinds of warnings over years ignored these warnings and would be one of the major victim of the flood. Had I been in situation like that, I would have made similar decisions few of them like Colonel Unger did to warn people in the valley down, help people move to safer areas and use every possible means to circulate the message to the people of Johnstown. As the author further describes the final moments, I see myself standing helpless amongst these people watching the water rise and cut trough the sides of the dam. It was already too late for anyone to do anything and like everyone else I could do nothing but watch and wait and hope.
Chapter 4: Rush of the Torrent In this chapter the author gives such a vivid picture of the flood advancing towards the valley that anyone reading through these pages will have a clear image of the level of disaster it had brought with it. Mr. McCullough have left no stones unturned and seem to have done an in depth research from all angles possible to make his description of the flood look as authentic as possible. Right from its beginning at the dam, where one of the eyewitness described the rush of water as some kind of “living thing leaping into the valley with a roar”, the author describes the entire course of the flood providing details of the destructions mixed with all kinds of human emotions when victims who somehow survived had stories to tell what they saw and how they managed to hang on through this most difficult times of their life. The flood first hit South Fork which was two miles down the river, then it rushed towards Mineral Point and Woodvale finally hitting Johnstown. People tried all possible ways to get out of the way of flood that from a distance looked like a giant heap of trees, houses, rocks, animals practically everything that stood in its way. Fear rushes through my heart even at the thought of being under such circumstances with water all over, trying hard to rescue myself and watching people, houses, trees, animals and everything else floating all over. South Fork being located on the hill side and not in a direct route of the flood suffered the least damage. As the flood advanced towards the low lying areas it gained in momentum and the level of disaster also started getting bigger and bigger. Like any other people who had lived through this disaster, I would try everything possible to survive. Run towards high hills away from the flow, grab anything possible and cling to it, get hold of anything floating above water and try to reach some place safe. In short, as there had been no time for proper planning, I would keep trying until last bit to keep me and my family alive. The decisions people made were commendable. They tried every means possible to fight with the disaster. Whenever possible, they also helped their neighbors, children and senior citizens. Moreover, few others like one Mr. Hess rode his engine along the railroad yards, blazing down the valley, blowing locomotive whistle to warn people of the flood that was following him.
Chapter 5: Run for your Lives This chapter shows the fate of Johnstown and its people after it was being hit by the flood which now had gained the maximum speed after traveling some 15 miles from the dam collecting all the debris that lied in its way. Johnstown being further away and densely populated was hit hard and suffered most serious consequences of the flood compared to other small towns. Furthermore, people were not at all ready for such disaster. They had received some flying news of the dam being broken, however their reaction to the message was similar to previous years when rumors but nothing serious happened. But this time it was different and indeed the dam had given up. Most of the people did not even see the water coming, they just heard the roaring sound and by the time they would react the city was drowned and devastated. Everyone heard shouting and screaming, crashing of the buildings, glasses shattering and the houses ripping apart. I would have reacted like most people in the town did, dumbstruck, not knowing what actually to do. It would be the most desperate minutes of my life, struggling through the water trying to reach the higher grounds or cling to anything floating in the water. It was something the people of Johnstown had never seen before and nobody had an absolute idea what need to be done under these circumstances. Everything seemed to be underwater. Everyone in the town had lost at least one or more of its family members. People saw their loved ones swept away by the flood but they felt so helpless that they could do nothing to save them and stood stone-still watching in dumb horror. Even worse the debris that had piled caught fire causing even more casualties. Few buildings that survived the hit, were overcrowded with the victims of flood. People spent their longest night in these dark building fearing that the building could collapse anytime crushing all of them to death. Nobody what would happen next. By dawn, people had all kinds of survival story and everyone was looking for their family members. Even for those who had somehow managed to survive, there was indescribable agony of remembering what they had seen. Even though the town was progressing so quick with all the industries, multi-storied buildings, bridges, dams, railroads being constructed by the humans, they seemed so helpless when the nature had strike back upon them.
Chapter 6: A Message From Mr. Pitcairn When the news of the flood went on wires before midnight, the entire county showed interests on what had happened and everyone wanted to know more. Newspaper representatives from all around the county, some of them who had never heard of the town before rushed to Johnstown by whatever means possible. Some of the Pittsburgh newspapers like the Dispatch and Times chartered trains, while others just started rushing to the town not even knowing exactly how to reach the place. Few of the newspapermen had managed to reach the town while others were still on their way. Mud-spattered, dead-tired, wet and cold these people not knowing what to do next began interviewing who ever wanted to talk. So hungry were Americans for news of the flood that representatives got hold of wires to Pittsburgh and started filing their stories. Stories of the disaster often true, sometimes exaggerated, at times patently false traveled almost as quickly as the floodwaters had.
Chapter 7: In the Valley of Death This chapter describes in detail the aftermath of destruction and the initial reaction of the people of Johnstown and of the entire country to the disaster. I could imagine what would be the next day like. By dawn, it looked that the entire valley had come to an unearthly stillness and people for the first time could feel the haunting silence. They realized that all those harsh, incessant noises from the mills, wagons, trains which had become a part of their life all had come to a halt. Nearly all of the Johnstown had been destroyed. Spread all around the town was nothing but vast sea of muddy and filthy water. Destruction of such a large scale definitely changed the meaning of life for the people who faced it. People lost everything they had possessed so far--- shelter, clothing, food and even more devastating was that they have lost their loved ones. For those who survived, they had to start all over again and with such a huge loss of life and property it was not at all easy thing to do. The problem faced immediately were even more enormous and critical. People were hungry and there was practically no food available. Others had no clothes and many were injured. Some of them were already in early stages of pneumonia. The situation seemed to dreadful. People had no money and even if they had some there were no stores to buy anything, There was no gas or electricity and every telegraph and telephone to contact to the outside world was down. The rail roads had been destroyed. Dead bodies were lying everywhere and hundreds of carcasses of drowned cattle, horses, pigs, dogs, rats, birds poised a threat of a violent epidemic. News of the flood had made headlines in almost all of the newspapers all across the country and fellow Americans were willing to extend their helping hands to the victims of the flood. Help arrived from almost all parts of the country. Doctors and work crews were arriving to Johnstown in huge numbers. Wagons and trains loaded with food, clothing, medicines and goods of all kinds kept coming through. Remembering the dead and the victims, church bells were rung and donations were made from all over the country. People outside Johnstown seemed to have really moved by the sad incident that had destroyed the town. People were so eager to help that they had not bothered to think what would be needed. But almost everything that came in, however shabby or trivial seeming, was immediately grabbed and put to some good use. The news of the flood had already become the biggest news story since the murder of Abraham Lincoln. What effect the news had to the outside world was beyond imagination. Everywhere people were talking about the incident and they wanted to know even more, much more probably facts, names,details, pictures and everything else. People were rushing to Johnstown for as far away as California.
Chapter 8: No Pen Can Describe.... After reading the first few pages of this chapter I could say that news is not simply captured and recorded but made. In order to sell their papers and gain Americas attention, newspapermen were not just recording true facts but adding up stories to make it look more dramatic. The newspapers were filled with stories of about Johnstown's tragedy. The papers wrote about every aspect of the town that were not even relevant to the actual disaster the town and its people had gone through. Some wrote about the environment of the town after the flood, some about the rope bridge over the Conemaugh and the difficulty to cross the same, still others wrote about curious things to be found in the town like the a clothing store dummy that stood erect in the midst of the wreck. Few others interviewed bystanders and what they felt about the face of the town before and after the incident while some quoted the death toll to reach 10,000. The competition between papers was so fierce that none cared about the authenticity of news being covered. People were reported missing and others like John Fulton and Colonel John Linton were both mistakenly reported dead. The wreckage at the bridge was described in detail some claiming it covered thirty acres, while others saying it was more like sixty. Instead of focusing on the real facts and authentic data, the press coverage was becoming an interesting way of story telling. Furthermore there were false reports of Hungarians who were told to be involved in all kinds of foul deeds. Paper wrote about how the crowd got hold of a Hungarian involved in robbery and strung him up on a lamppost. I feel these kinds of false reports mixed with the tragic story of what the town was going through was more than enough to fuel the hatred of a reader towards the targeted community who were in no way related to the real incident. These news had no truth in them and were without foundation. It was a story that was made and was an outburst of personal differences that had been developing over years. Hungarians had been singled out because they were hard working people willing to work at low wages and when wages were going down, when men were laid off at the mills, when unions suffered setbacks, somehow the Hungarians seemed at the root of things. Press coverage does not seem to have changed then and now. The practice of making up stories to make the coverage look interesting is still in practice. Today news industry is huge and even more competitive. In the race of keeping themselves on top, newspapers and news channels use all kinds of techniques to draw the attention of its readers and viewers. Law might have become a little more strict regarding the authenticity of the news then and now, however the basics still remains the same. It also largely depends on the audience how they perceive things they see, hear and read everyday. The flood relief efforts began as news of devastation reached Pittsburgh, then Philadelphia, New York and the rest of the world. Laborers worked day and night to restore the washed away rail lines and soon trains loaded with food, clothing and tents made their way to the survivors. Among the most prominent relief workers were Clara Barton who aided flood victims for five months never leaving the scene even for a day. She and her people worked day and night and did their best to tend everyone they could. The flood was the first disaster to which her new organized American Red Cross responded. She had built a career helping others and in her I could see glimpses of Mother Teresa.
Chapter 9: “Our Misery is the Work of Man” When the water level in the town reached to its normal level and cleanup well under way local people and newspapers shifted their concern to the members of the club blaming them to be responsible for the disaster. Their accusers argued that the tragedy might have been averted with more careful maintenance of the dam. With sufficient information about Ruff's negligence in reconstructing the dam from few members of the club itself as well as from the local people of Johnstown there remains no doubt that the club was very much responsible for the disaster. I do not think that the people of Johnstown were in any way responsible for this. The people of Johnstown had little concern about the dam at the time it was built. Since most of them who lived in the valley were working class people, they were busy taking care of their daily affairs and had no time to think what the rich people were planning to do in the mountains. Few of the leading people of Johnstown like Mr. Morrel did show some objections related to the building process of the dam, however he did not live long enough to see the disaster it would bring to his valley. The press focused their attention to the club because almost everyone in the country and outside were eager to know the next move from the club members. The club members had a mass meeting and had agreed to remain quiet for the moment. But few members decided to speak their minds. One member told reporters that in the past he heard questioning about the strength of the dam. Others more loyal to the club, denied the fact that there had been any trouble in the dam. Some went even further to claim that the dam had never been condemned and was safe as it always was while others even claimed that there were confusion among engineers if it was South Fork dam that broke. Feelings were running very strong against the club members when these kinds of statements made by them appeared in the newspapers. Local people also reported against the club members benefiting the newspaper coverage which by had drawn all kinds of attention. The blatant lies and the lawsuits which never held the club legally responsible for the disaster shows how in 19th century America justice could be manipulated using influence, wealth and power. If the damage cases had been conducted by today's standard, it was understandable that many of the club members would have lost. What we do need to understand that the people who were being charged were people with tremendous power and their influence and prestige then was such that very few had a really dared to challenge them on anything. The Johnstown Flood resulted in the first expression of outrage against power and influence. It is not a mistake to try to alter things around us to improve the world but while doing so one should not drastically alter the natural order. Events like this also offers a powerful historical lesson of all times: the danger of assuming that because people are in positions of responsibility they are necessarily behaving responsibly. Overall, the book provides a nice snapshot of American society at that time including a pretty vicious press not very concerned with truth or accuracy but more focused on sensationalism.