General Information Welcome The Dam The Club Colonel Unger Details Dam Building Start of Club Club Members Bibliography The Victims Eye Witnesses US Disasters Last Updated: November 27, 1998 http://www.nps.gov/jofl Park eMail: Johnstown Flood NM Author: Jason Earnest Editor: Diane Garcia General Information Welcome The Dam The Club Colonel Unger Details Dam Building Start of Club Club Members Bibliography The Victims Eye Witnesses US Disasters Last Updated: November 27, 1998 http://www.nps.gov/jofl Park eMail: Johnstown Flood NM Author: Jason Earnest Editor: Diane Garcia General Information Welcome The Dam The Club Colonel Unger Details Dam Building Start of Club Club Members Bibliography The Victims Eye Witnesses US Disasters Last Updated: November 27, 1998 http://www.nps.gov/jofl Park eMail: Johnstown Flood NM Author: Jason Earnest Editor: Diane Garcia General Information Welcome The Dam The Club Colonel Unger Details Dam Building Start of Club Club Members Bibliography The Victims Eye Witnesses US Disasters Last Updated: November 27, 1998 http://www.nps.gov/jofl Park eMail: Johnstown Flood NM Author: Jason Earnest Editor: Diane Garcia General Information Welcome The Dam The Club Colonel Unger Details Dam Building Start of Club Club Members Bibliography The Victims Eye Witnesses US Disasters Last Updated: November 27, 1998 http://www.nps.gov/jofl Park eMail: Johnstown Flood NM Author: Jason Earnest Editor: Diane Garcia General Information Welcome The Dam The Club Colonel Unger Details Dam Building Start of Club Club Members Bibliography The Victims Eye Witnesses US Disasters Last Updated: November 27, 1998 http://www.nps.gov/jofl Park eMail: Johnstown Flood NM Author: Jason Earnest Editor: Diane Garcia

Statement of W. Y. Boyer Q. Where were you engaged in May last? A. With the South Fork --- Fishing and Hunting Club. Q. How long had you been there? A. Two years and eight months up until the time of the flood. Q. What duties did you perform? A. I was there to look after their property, I suppose; to protect it, and to board people coming up there. Q. Did you keep the boarding house? A. Yes, sir. Q. Prior to this big flood in May, had there been other heavy floods during the time you were there? A. There were always floods in the spring of the year since I have been there, but nothing like this. Q. Well now, go on in your own way , and tell us when it commenced to rain, how the rain fell, and in what quantities. A. I couldn't say exactly as to the quantity as I had nothing to measure it by. It commenced to rain in the night or evening of the 30th of May. Q. What time did you go to bed? A. Somewhere about ten o'clock. Q. Was it raining then? A. Yes, sir, but not very hard. Q. Did you awake in the night? A. No, sir, not until about five o'clock in the morning. Q. Was it raining then? A. Yes, sir. Q. What time did you get up? A. About six o'clock. Q. Was it raining then? A. Yes, sir, it was raining pretty hard, but not as hard, I judge, as it rained in the night. Q. Did it continue to rain on Friday? A. Yes, sir, it rained hard until the dam broke? Q. Did the water rise very rapidly? A. Yes, sir, it did in the morning. Q. Now, before this flood, how far had the water been in the dam from the top of the breast of it? A. Well, I never measured it; but on the evening of the 30th, that was the night before, it was above low water mark. Q. And how far was low water mark from the top fo [sic] the dam? A. Somewhere in the neighborhood of seven feet. Q. What was the length of that dam from one side to the other, as near as you can tell? A. Well, about nine hundred feet. Q. And how much of it was swept out? A. Some call it 400 feet; I never measured it. Q. Was it in the middle? A. Yes, sir, right in the center. Q. Now, go on and describer where you were when the dam broke, and what, if anyhhing [sic] , you did, and who was with you, to ease the dam, and let the water out. Q. [sic] Well, I went to South Fork on the morning of the 31st, as I always did when there was somebody wanted to go down--- Q. What time did you go down? A. About eight o'clock. Q. How deep was the water then? A. Within about four feet of the top. Q. What time did you get back? A. I drove to South Fork, and got back somewhere about ten o'clock, and then it was,as [sic] near as I can tell, probably a foot from the top. Col. Unger had sent up for the tools to cut a waste weir, and I was in the spring wagon, and I drove up to get the tools. I got the picks and shovels, and got the Italians in, and drove down, and hitched the horses, and we went to work. We had 22 Italians to cut a waste weir and put a bank over the embankment to keep the water from running over until the waste weir was cut; Q. Who had charge of this? A. Col. Unger was bossing the job. Q. Did he own one of the cottages there? A. No, sir; he owns a farm adjoining the lake. Q. What did those Italians do? A. They were trying to dig a waste weir on the west side of the embankment to relieve the dam, and to make a ridge on top of the dam to hold the water back until that waste weir was cut; but the water was very high; running over that west end, and the digging was slow and very hard, and when the water went out, there wasn't a great deal of it done, because it couldn't be done. Q. Had you plenty of picks and tools, and plenty of workmen there? A. Yes, sir, but the water came up so fast that they couldn't do anything with it. Q. Tell me what your view is as to the dam going out; did it go over the top by the water running over or-- A. Yes, sir, from all I saw of it, it went over the top and washed it away. Q. Where were you when it went out? A. On the west side. Q. Did it go out all at once, or did it run over the top until it cut a channel, and go out gradually? A. It ran over the top until it cut a channel, and then it ran out as fast as it could get out. It went out very fast, but it didn't burst out. Q. How wide a place did it cut through the dam? A. About 400 feet; that is, when it was all done. Q. Now, when it first commenced to cut, how wide was it? A. I couldn't say; I wasn't close to it, but my idea was it wasnt [sic] much over five feet Q. When was there any apprehension that the dam was going to give way? A. When I was working on the dam somewhere about 11 o'clock; I couldn't say the exact time; I had my watch in my pocket but didn't look at it. About 11 o'clock, Mr. Parke, the engineer that was up there, came on the dam on horseback, and stopped where I was, and I said "Mr. Park, don't you think it would be a good idea to notify the people in the valley?" and he said he thought it would, and he went to the east side of the dam, and spoke to Mr. Unger about it ( I don't know what he said) but then he went down. It was about 11 o'clock when he left the dam, and when he came back, I asked him if he had notified them, and he said he had, and that he had sent two men to telegraph down below to Johnstown and notify the people down from there. And he says this: "There were two men on my way back from South Fork moving a sewing machine out of the valley onto the road, and one of them said, "We got the sewing machine out, if nothing else", and we felt then as if everybody knew it by that time, and we were doing then what we could to save the dam. Q. At 11 o'clock, had you any apprehension that the dam was going out? A. We had fear if it kept on rising, but when I went down to South Fork, it was then within four fact of the top, and there was no danger then. Q. It was about 11 o'clock when you had apprehension? A. Yes, sir. Q. Did you ever see it that high before? A. There was always four feet from the top. I never saw it rise but within four feet from the top. Q. At 11 o'clock, how near was it from the top? A. I couldn't exactly tell, but it was coming pretty well up. Q. A foot or two? A. No, sir, closer than that; somewheres [sic] within a foot and six inches. Q. What time did the engineer get back from South Fork? A. Somewheres about 1 o'clock. Q. Had the water commenced to go over the dam then? A. Yes, sir. Q. Had it cut any channel? A. No, sir. Q. How long was the water running over the dam until it cut into the embankment? A. About two hours from the time it started to go over a little bit until it had a channel cut. Q. That would make it about 2 o'clock, would it? A. No, sir, it broke about 20 minutes or half-past; somewheres along there. Q. Of two? A. Nor, sir, of 3 o'clock. Q. Was the engineer on the ground directing operations? A. No, sir, he wasn't directing them; I didn't see him directing anything. Mr. Unger did that. Q. Where did he get the Italians from? A. they were working on a sewer up there. Q. Did you people do everything you could to relieve the dam? A. Yes, sir, but the water came so fast that we couldn't do anything to stop it. Q. How long were the Italians engaged from the time you started in until the dam broke, and they had to quit? A. Well, it was probably half-past ten when they commenced to work--- Q. Did they wo rk [sic] vigorously? A. Well, they worked the way all Italians work, you know. Q. How long was the water running out of the dam after ti [sic] broke? A. I think about an hour and ten minutes; others have different opinions. Q. How did it get then? A. It got down as low as the creek; just creek bottom in it. Q. What is the distance between South Fork and the Club House? A. They call it three miles and a quarter. Q. Is there any telegraph between South Fork and the Club grounds? A. No, sir. Q. Was there a telephone? A. No, sir. The wires were up, but there is no operator there, and they were all out of shape; it is only used in the season when the house is open. Q. When you went down to South Fork, who did you talk with? A. I talked with several; I talked with Croutz--- Q. Do you know the Agent there? A. Yes, sir. Q. What is his name? A. Dougherty. Q. well, who else did you talk to? A. Well, there was one man by the name of Hartman told me since, he says; "You remember you told me that the water wasn't within --- four feet of the top, and that it was raising very fast", and he says" from that, I telegraphed to Johnstown", but whether he did or not, I couldn't say. Q. Where does he live? A. At South Fork. Q. What does he do? A. I think he's a coal digger. Q. What did you tell Mr. Dougherty, our Agent there? A. I don't remember what I told him. Q. Did you talk with him about the dam? A. I don't remember that I did. Q. But you talked to several, didn't you? A. Yes, sir; when I went down there, I mostly always talked to everybody I met there;--but [sic] at that time, I really didn't feel afraid that it would go over. Q. What did you say that engineers' name was? A. John G. Park. Q. Where is he now? A. I couldn't tell you. He is employed by Wilkins & Powell, Fifth Avenue, here in Pittsburgh. Q. Was Col. Unger about there on the 30th and 31st? A. Yes, sir. Q. Did he seem to be anxious and careful about the water going out of the dam? Apprehensive of it? and trying to avoid it? A. Yes, sir. Q. Where were these Italians brought from? How far away? A. They were right on the west end of the dam at the time; they had a shanty there. Q. And he got hold of them, did he? A. Yes, sir. Q. And put them to work? A. Yes, sir. Q. That coal digger's name was Hartman? A. Yes, sir. Q. Do you know who he works for? A. No, I don't ; I know he is working somewhere in the coal bank, and that's all I know. Q. How could he send a dispatch? A. I don't know; I only know what he told me two or three weeks afterwards. He said he telegraphed to Johnstown. He says, "I notified them down the valley right away of what you told me". (After being dismissed, Mr. Boyer remarks:) All I know is, that everybody in the whole neighborhood were there at the time, and tried to do what they could to save the dam. Q. Who came in beside the Italians to do the work? A. I couldn't tell you all the people that came there. Q. How many people do you suppose, came there from the surrounding country, independent of the Italians that were there? A. I always thought there was on an average eight around there helping the Italians; sometimes more and sometimes less. Return to the List of Witnesses