4/8/2023 0 Comments Johnstown flood![]() ![]() It appears that the club was the idea of Benjamin F. Whose idea was the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club? 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. From design to finish, the dam took well over a decade to finish and was finished in 1852, at a time when canals were well on their way into the history books. The reservoir would service the Western Division of the Pennsylvania Main Line Canal in times of low water. The dam was envisioned by the state of Pennsylvania, and Sylvester Welch (Welsh), the principal engineer of the old Allegheny Portage Railroad, as a canal reservoir. The Johnstown Flood is considered the first major civilian disaster relief effort for the American Red Cross, which was less than ten years old in 1889.Įven in 1889, many called the old dam and water the "Old Reservoir," as is had been built many decades before. The Red Cross also provided warm meals, provisions for daily needs, and medical care. Barton's branch of the American Red Cross is remembered for providing shelter to many survivors in large buildings simply known as "Red Cross Hotels," some of which stood into early 1890. A branch of the American Red Cross from Philadelphia, not associated with Barton, arrived as well. 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.Ĭlara Barton, after confirming the news, brought a team with her from near Washington D.C. ![]() The three remembered most happened on May 31, 1889, when at least 2,209 people died, the St. Once the dam failed at 3:10-3:15, however, such communications were impossible.įloods have been a frequent occurrence in Johnstown as long as history has been recorded there, floods have been part of those records. At least three warnings went out from South Fork that day, the last believed to have reached Johnstown at just about 3:00 PM. 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. It's accepted that the flood struck Johnstown proper at 4:07 PM.Īs 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. ![]() Boyer, whose title was Superintendent of Lake and Grounds at the South Fork Club, and several others.īy most accounts, it failed after 3:00 PM, most say either 3:10 or 3:15. 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. What exactly happened at the dam that day? It's not clear, although there is a suspicion that much was lost when the law firm of Reed, Smith, Shaw and McClay (formerly Knox and Reed, which represented the Club in court, it seems) threw out a bunch of papers in 1917 when moving to a newer building. What happened to the papers of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club? The railroad lost two cases based on the loss of property. The only cases successful from the Johnstown Flood were against the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. The Club was never held legally responsible for the Johnstown Flood, although the Club was held responsible in public opinion. Were the members of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club held responsible for what happened May 31, 1889? While that number was carefully derived, for a variety of reasons, some of the victims of the flood were never included in that count, and so, the actual death toll was probably well over 3,000. In a list printed about fourteen months after the Flood, the death toll was set at 2,209. What was the official death toll from the 1889 Johnstown Flood? ![]()
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