USA > Pennsylvania > Encyclopedia of genealogy and biography of the state of Pennsylvania with a compendium of history. A record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the founding of a nation, Volume I > Part 15
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Four candidates were again in the field in the election for governor in 1886. The Republicans nominated James .\. Beaver, who was elected ; the Democrats put forth the name of Chauncey F. Black : the Prohibi- tionists supported Charles S. Wolf: and the remnant of the Greenback party, which was still struggling for an existence, supported Robert J. Houston. General Beaver came of German ancestry, and was a native of Perry county, Pennsylvania. He graduated at Jefferson College in 1856, and began his career as a lawyer at Bellefonte. Center county. lle entered the army as lieutenant, and he rose by merit to the brevet rank of brigadier general. He was a good soldier and commander, and
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also made an excellent governor. His administration was uneventful. and during his term of office there was little change in the current of public affairs except that which naturally followed the success of one great party over another.
In 1887 the legislature succeeded in redistricting the state, and accomplished what Governor Pattison had attempted to do four years before. All public interests received due attention, and no department of state government suffered through neglect on the part of the authori- ties in power. The annual appropriation for common schools was in- creased from one million to one and one-half million dollars, and the standard of efficiency of the educational system was thereby greatly advanced.
In 1889 the western portion of the state was visited with the most serious flood known in its history. the valleys of the West Branch and Conemaugh rivers being the scene of greatest disaster. By reason of the fact that Johnstown was the most important city laid waste by the ravages of the flood this event has since been known in history as the "Johnstown Flood," but many townships, boroughs, and cities on the eastern slope of the Alleghenies were badly injured and for a time ren- dered utterly helpless. The area of the devastated district covered hun- dreds of square miles, while the effects of the disaster extended over the western part of the state. The event occurred on May 31. Three thousand lives were lost in the Conemaugh valley alone, and millions of dollars' worth of property were destroyed. The towns most seriously injured were South Fork, Franklin, Minera! Point, East Conemaugh, Conemaugh. Woodvale, Johnstown. Kernville, Millville and Cambria.
The news of this great catastrophe was quickly spread throughout the country, and when relief was asked for the response was quick and generous. Money and provisions and household furnishings poured in
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from Up its of the land, and the flood relief commission appointed by Governor Besser distributed among the sufferers more than one million Hars. "To pay the state's expenses in connection with the disaster." says Schimmel, "generous men of means advanced the money until the kerlaure would reimburse them"; and further, the same writer aptly says: "There never was a more beautiful example of public charity " all history."
The following description by Mr. W. Horace Rose, a leading lawyer of Johnstown, presents the salient facts of this disaster from a personal und authoritative standpoint :
In the Alleghany Mountains along the line of the South Fork, the commonwealth of Pennsylvania had constructed a large storage dam for the purpose of supplying the western division of the Pennsylvania Canal with water in dry seasons, It was known as "The Reservoir."
Soon after its completion in 1862 it broke and ran out, doing but Itle damage to property along the line of the river. After the sale of the main line it was abandoned, and passed into the control of the Penn- sylvania Railroad Company. The broken dam was sold to private parties and eventually became the property of a fishing club, incorporated "for the protection and propagation of fish." The dam was rebuilt without proper outlets, the original outlets having been removed before the dam vis reconstructed by the fishing club; the break in the dam was repaired In the dumping in of all classes of material most convenient and was reconstructed upon the cheapest lines possible. It became a most beau- tiful sheet of water, having a depth of some sixty-five feet at the breast Mitle dam and backing water up a distance of nearly three miles, with a nul width, averaging possibly a quarter of a mile. During the recon- struction of the dam, from time to time suggestions of danger were made, du in fact several investigations were had, the engineers, however, re-
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porting that the dam was safe; and the people had ceased to think of the danger of the dam breaking, being lulled into a sense of security by the reports of its safety and the fact that for several years it had stood the test of quite heavy rainfalls.
On the 30th day of May, 1889, business was suspended in Johnstown and the usual ceremonies of "Memorial Day" were observed. On the evening of that day the rain began to fall in heavy showers, ending with a settled and terrific rain. Friday came-the ever memorable 31st day of May. 1889. The streams were considerably swollen. By 7 o'clock, a. m., the lower part of Johnstown, known as the Point, was submerged. There were heavy rainfalls during the day, and the water continued to rise. Now became manifest the fact that the narrowing of the banks of the rivers was a menace to the town ; and to this cause was, for the most part, attributed the overflow of the banks. Slowly but surely the water continued to rise, the people moving out of their houses in the lower part of the town or into the second story, as the water reached points it had not reached before in any of the periods of over- flow that preceded the one which we are now narrating. There was no alarm. There was no suggestion of flood that reached the masses. True, a number of families went to the hillside or to the higher ground; but they were, for the most part, the timid. By noon hundreds of persons were unable to leave their houses by reason of the rapid flow of the water over the main portion of the town. But they sought refuge in what they thought was a perfectly safe locality-the second floor of their dwellings. For the most part the people were bearing good humor- edly their imprisonment ; but in the mountain gorge on the South Fork there was a demon at work.
The unprecedented rainfall had raised the South Fork more rapidly than had ever been known before. The narrow waste weir of the
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fishing dam was insufficient to carry of the surplus water. It flowed Her the top of the dam. Son it cut away the light formation in the middle of the breast. where the repair had been made. As the water rose Ingher and higher the flow of course became greater and greater, and the cutting process more rapid. It was impossible to stay the waste of the water. The outer surface of the embankment was washed away so rapidly that within less than an hour from the time the overflow hegan there was but a thin film of earth to stay the weight of the water. The dam gave way, and all that immense volume of water, located some five hundred feet above the town, started on its career of ruin. Down through the narrow gorge it thundered, brushing everything out of its course mapping trees as though they were straws, rolling rocks as though they were bubbles.
At four o'clock the irresistible sweep, carrying with it trees, bridges. houses, cars, engines and rubbish of every character, struck the town. Who or what pen can paint, what tongue describe, the scene that ensued ? Fouls of every sort, startled by the rear and rush, crowding together. siled on startled wings, and. hovering over the mighty roar, soared up. as if they thought the earth unsafe. Cattle tossed on the surging wave. and borne up by the debris looked with meaning eyes on man. Dogs howled and the cruel wreck. There were sights none had seen before. Strange, hollow. unpredecented sounds from everywhere between the hills went up throughout that horrid waste and wreck. Shrieks and fierce, unearthly groans, like wails of evil spirits fleeing from utter vengeance. were heard on every side. Not sounds alone of human voice or animals, but the creak and moan of rubbing timbers and crush- mg buildings mingled with sounds from beast and man. Shrick an- "wered shriek, and the winds from every quarter blew at once in violence desperate. The whirling, tossing wave took human freight amidst
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the wreck, traveling they knew not where; lifted them up. then hurled them down again, bruised. confounded. limp, pale and sore. Strange shapes, sights and sounds were heard and seen : voices came apparently from among the clouds or from caverns deep below. Buildings of stoutest shape and mould shook. reeled, and reeled and shook as though by earthquake tossed. then, tumbling to and fro, were broken and destroyed. The surging mass of debris groaned and heaved and groaned again.
Men were all perplexed. The stoutest were appalled. Some tried affectedly to shake off fear. some gazed stupidly, many cursed, others groaned : but all were sad and pale and torn with fright. There were those who mocked, mocked wildly: but more who prayed, and prayed sincerely. On. on this horrid mass heaved, rolled and tumbling tossed : current crossed current, recrossed and twisted in and out. From hill to hill the swirl moved on. The rain-cold, pitiless-in torrents fell. After a while came on the moonless, starless, and rain-cloud darkened night. The rivers surged like the rolling sea tossed furious by an angry storm There came a deep and dreadful silence then. Hope died in every breast. On all imprisored in that fearful wreck fell fear and trembling. Horrid was the suspense in which men, women and children stood. Some shrieked for help betimes, but no help came. Time after time a crash was heard as buildings met, driven with terrific force, and the sound came as if the ribs of nature broke. Then deadly paleness sat on every face of human being in that tumult bound. The stoutest heart grew chilled, and the strongest, bravest man felt his knees to smite. In the darkness none stirred where they could find a lodgment. Few spoke, and for the most part each wept as the thought came of missing husband, wife, child, mother, father, sister, brother or dearest friend.
As the darkness fell there came another horror to those environed
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the debris and pimoned in the broken timbers accumulated at the Stone Bridge. The bridge had formed a barrier against which the floating houses were driven ar I crushed. One of the buildings contained store with a lighted fire. The structure became ignited from the flame in the stove, and soon above the water level another demon of destruction appeared-an element dreaded by man even when in posi- tion to battle against it. The flames communicated from broken building to broken building, and, seizing with avidity the splintered and dry .
timber, spread rapidly, lighting up with lurid and ghastly streaks the wreckage near the bridge. The rainfall was insufficient to put out the flame, and it spread over in rapid strides the entire mass of packed and broken buiklings gorged in the stream. Screams of terror went up from the many victims tangled in the debris, and there were few appliances at hand or within reach of the survivors on the shore to enable them to resene the persons who struggled for life between the flames above and the water beneath. But there were strong, noblehearted men and brave women there, who, guided by the light from the flames or the shrieks and appalling screams of the victims, went to their relief. How many were burned none can tell ; but all night long the devouring flames moved on, and all night long the shricks of agony came out of the depths of the debris. The sights and sounds of ghastliness and horror where the twin elements of destruction-fire and food-spent their fury at the Stone Bridge made pandemonium itself. as by pen described, seem pale and tamne.
But who can tell what groans he heard, what moans, what sounds; what sights he saw, what visions came in those wretched hours on that dire eve, in that fell night: or who with tongue describe that horrid, seething gulf of devastation deep and utter despair; that horrid lazar place: that demon devil's hole?
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The night wore away, the long-drawn hours passed slowly by -- so slowly that each seemed in itself an age; and when the day at length returned, when the golden sun arose slowly above the eastern hills and kissed into dissipation the night, and sent his genial rays illuminating all around, above, and over the wreck and ruin in the valley of devasta- tion and death, how sad it was to see where but yesterday was mirth and joy and gladness, now a scene of death and desolation. Here and there-all over the space bounded by the hillsides-widows, mothers. sisters and daughters, weeping, stooped over the senseless, cold. defaced and mangled forms of breathless clay, which but a few hours before had been strong and stalwart men-husbands, fathers, brothers, sons. There too were husbands, brothers, fathers, sons, searching for wives, mothers, daughters and sisters. but searching for them in vain; for they soon learned that they were gone, lost to sight, dead and buried in the awful ruin wrought by the bursting dam or charred in the con- suming flames at the Stone Bridge. Hundreds who looked for their loved ones met only stranger faces on the hillsides. It tore the heart. indeed, to see the little. helpless orphan children weeping and sobbing over their dead mother's form. It tore the heart to see the old, forlorn. decrepit men and women on the hillsides unhoused, unclad, who but the day before were possessors of a happy home, well filled with stores. who now sat shivering and hungry, looking down upon the wreck of their late homes, their earthly hope all broken, and their loved ones dead and strewn around among the torn rubbish which in its frenzy had destroyed their all.
The wave had spent its force, the rush of the water was a thing of the past, the flames had spent their fury, the horrid grinding of the broken houses and the roar of the angry rushing water was over. Over two thousand mangled and tom forms-men, women and children-
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las in the valley on the lines of the two streams, many of the bodies crushed beyond the point of recognition. Hundreds of injured dragged their weary limbs and lacerated bodies along the hillsides: hundreds of strong men released from their positions of torture: scores who were vet held fast in the debris. The water had been no respecter of per- sons, the rich and the poor, the strong and the weak, the old and the young. the good and the bad, were hurled together to a calamitous death, or torn of flesh and stripped of clothing in the grind of the wreck. Property of every form was ground to nothing and carried away in the angry roll of the water that swept down from the South Fork dam, destroying millions of dollars worth of property in its wild and madden- ing rush.
There was a broken, torn and devastated community. It is a state- ment scarce to be believed. yet absolutely true, that spirit was put into the people by reason of the fact that when one felt his loss and distress was great, he had but to cast about to find another whose loss and dis- tress was greater still; and a spirit of resolution permeated the sur- vivors of that terrible catastrophe, and they at once went to work to clear the debris from their properties and prepare again to build up their homes.
Over two thousand bodies were secured and properly interred. In a plot in the cemetery on the Hilltop overlooking the town is one of the saddest evidences of the destruction of Johnstown. Almost eight hun- dred bodies were carried from the wreck and deposited in what is known as "The Unknown Plot." They were totally unrecognizable, and to- day no man knows who is there interred save the fact that it was a victim of the Johnstown flood.
In the election for governor in 1890 four candidates were again in the field. The Greenback party had now lost its identity, but the Labor
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party took its place, not advocating the same principles, but claiming recognition of the rights of the laboring man as a factor in the civil and political history of the commonwealth. In the campaign of this year the Democrats again nominated Robert E. Pattison, who before had carried his party to victory, and now for a second time he placed them in control of the state government. George W. Delamater. Republican. was his leading opponent, while John D. Gill received the Prohibition vote. In 1891 the legislature passed an important act reforming the ballot law, and molded it after the Australian system. It proved a suc- cess. and with subsequent modifications has been continued to the present time.
About this time, or in 1891 and 1892. a renewal of labor troubles began to attract attention to the growing differences between employers and employes. On this occasion the difficulty was between the Carnegie Steel Company and its workmen, and before it was settled the presence of the state National Guard was required. The matters of difference are not proper subjects of discussion in this place, but for several years preceding this event it was apparent on every hand that the breach be- tween capital and labor was gradually growing wider, and that each succeeding rupture was more serious than its predecessor. The Home- stead riot was a serious affair, and was the cause of much apprehension throughout the country. In Pennsylvania such differences on a minor scale had been of frequent occurrence, but none before, and few since. rivaled this one in the extreme measures resorted to by the so-called rioters and by those who assumed to protect property and maintain peace.
In 1894 five candidates contested for the gubernatorial office : Daniel H. Hastings, Republican; William M. Singerly. Democrat ; Charles I. Hawley. Prohibitionist ; Jerome T. Allman, People's; and Thomas H. Grundy, the Socialist-Labor candidate. The voting strength
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of the state was now, as before, found in the two great parties of the 1.0. The Prohibition party remained as in former years, and was making slow gains among the radical temperance advocates. The high license law had accomplished much good, but nothing short of total pro- hibition of the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors woukl satisfy it- demands. The Labor party had become united in a common cause with the Socialists, and combined their strength in support of Mr. Grundy, a leading advocate of Socialist-Labi doctrines.
Hastings, the Republican candidate, was elected and served as gor- ernor four years. During his term substantial progress was made in every department of business life within the state, while the public service was likewise promoted. A banking department was created, and an agricultural department was established in the interest of the farm- mg classes. The new Superior court, also, was established, as an inter- mediary between the trial courts and the court of last resort. It was it wise move, and its operation has greatly facilitated the transaction of legal business in the state, particularly in relieving the supreme court. where business was far in arrears. ยท
The year 1867 witnessed the destruction by fire of the old state capitol at Harrisburg: a building within whose walls sixteen governors had been inaugurated. Here, too. Presidents Tyler, Taylor, Buchanan, Lincoln, Grant, and Hayes had visited and been tendered the freedom and hospitality of the state. The building took fire on the afternoon of February 2, and was soon reduced to ashes and ruin. After the fire the legislative sessions were held in Grace Methodist Episcopal church, and the other departments of state government found temporary quarters in such places as could be provided for them. But the legislature acted promptly and made an appropriation for a new capitol building: a structure more in keeping with the times and with the importance and
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dignity of the commonwealth. The work of construction was begun in the summer of 1898, the corner stone was laid on August io of that year, and in January, 1899. the legislature held its sessions in the new building. The capitol, however, was not fully completed until the carly part of 1903.
In the early part of 1898 Pennsylvania again responded to the call to arms. On April 21 of that year the United States declared war against Spain, and two days later President Mckinley called for one hundred and twenty-five thousand men of the National Guard of the several states. Had the call been for ten times as many volunteers the answer would have been equally prompt. Pennsylvania's quota was 10.762 men, about one thousand more than the strength of the organized military force of the state ; but the deficiency was easily supplied. and in the following month, when 6.462 more men were required, the quota was easily filled. The Tenth Regiment served in the Philippines. The Fourth and Sixteenth regiments of infantry, with the cavalry and artil- lery. were sent to Porto Rico, and the other regiments performed camp and garrison duty within the United States.
In 1898 William A. Stone was elected governor, and began his administration in January. 1809. His most formidable competitor in the campaign of the year was George A. Jenks, a Democrat well known in political circles and a man of influence and worth. Governor Stone's administration was uneventful. He found a healthful condition of affairs when he took up the reins of government, and he left equally healthful conditions when he retired from office and was succeeded by Judge Pennypacker. But Governor Stone as the head of the military organizations of the state had to deal with one of the most serious strikes known in the history of the state : the strike of the United Mine Workers which began in the spring of 1902 and continued until the following
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fall, and then was finally settled through the kind ofices of the national president. In quieting the disturbances which existed throughout the anthracite coal region nearly the entire state guard was called into service
In November, 1902. Judge Samuel W. Pennypacker was elected governor of Pennsylvania to succeed Governor Stone. In the campaign of the year there was a strong arraval of the voting forces of the state. and on the Democratic side it was hoped that the professional and per- somal popularity of Ex-Governor Pattison might turn the scale of content in his favor. Twice he had led his party to victory, and twice he had given the state an excellent and honest administration. But the Repub- lican majority in the state was not easily to be overcome, and. besides. Judge Pennypacker's record as a lawyer, magistrate, and man of integ- rity was without blemish, and he was carried into office by a splendid majority of votes.
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CHAPTER N.
AGRICULTURE, COMMERCE AND MANUFACTURES.
Pennsylvania, "the Keystone State," one of the original thirteen states of the American Union, has a length of more than three hundred miles from east to west, and an average width of one hundred and fifty- eight miles. Its extreme northeast county ( Erie) borders on the lake of the same name. New York constitutes the remainder of the northern boundary of the state, the Delaware river its eastern boundary. Dela- ware, Maryland and West Virginia its southern boundary, and the last named state. with Ohio, its western boundary. The land surface is level in the southeast, billy and even mountainous in the interior, and sufficiently level to be arable in the west. The Allegheny mountains. with their ramifications, cover more than one-half of the central part. These ridgy tracts have a trend northeast and southwest, those to the east of the trunk range being abrupt and precipitous, while on the west they gradually decline toward the Ohio river and Lake Erie. The passes of the Allegheny range are about two thousand feet above sea level : the lower valleys of the Ohio river, where it leaves the state, have an elevation of about eight hundred feet, while that of the plain skirting Lake Erie is about six hundred and fifty feet. The principal valleys of the mountain region are those of Chester. Lehigh, Wyoming. Lacka- wanna. Juniata, Cumberland. and Monongahela. The chief rivers are the 'Susquehanna, which traverses the center of the state, and is the larg- est stream to enter the Atlantic from the United States: the Delaware. with its affluents. the Lehigh and Schuylkill: the Juniata. a tributary of the Susquehanna: and. in the west. the Allegheny and Monongahela,
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