Harry C. Allendorfer
Your location at the time of the flood of 1889:
20 Potts Place, in the First Ward of the City of Johnstown- now known as Lee Place
Please describe where you were when the catastrophe took place:
I was in the home of my father, John H. Allendorfer I, at the above address, with my father, mother and three sisters.
Give a brief account of your experiences from the time of the flood until the present time:
At the time the flood struck we were unable to get out of the house. The water rose to within three steps of the third floor, we were able to stay on the third floor even when the house floated down the river to the Stone Bridge, the arches at the Bridge were clogged with debris causing water to back up and our house settled in the old Union Graveyard on Carr Street, present location of the War Memorial Building.
Please relate any stories relative to the flood that you may recall:
As our house was floating down and up the river approximately forty-five persons were rescued and saved getting into our house. After the water receded the next day, we were able to get out of the house and made our way to the Shaffer home in Parkstown, where we stayed until my father rebuilt our home. The house my father restored is still standing. In 1900 my father built a house in Westmont Borough, where the family moved.
Mrs. Annie Varner Ashcom
Your location at the time of the flood of 1889:
Cambria City, Broad St.
Please describe where you were when the catastrophe took place:
In Charlie Boyle’s home on the upper end of Broad St.
Give a brief account of your experiences from the time of the flood until the present time:
Left Mr. Boyle’s home started for Hills and was caught in the flood. Held my youngest sister, 4 weeks old, until 5 minutes before I got out at Lower End of Coopersdale, near what is now the Sewage Disposal. Was on a roof of a house from the start until getting out of the water. Lost 5 sisters in the flood, only one was found. Our only survivors was me, my mother and sister. Mrs. Charles Boyle got out of flood at Boliver, Mr. Boyle did not survive.
Mrs. Mary Schmerer Bair
Your location at the time of the flood of 1889:
Baumer Street along B. & O. Railroad track line. Two houses below Poplar Street by Stonycreek River.
Please describe where you were when the catastrophe took place:
My uncle came down and we went up to their place, then we went to Harmonie Hall Bedford St.
Give a brief account of your experiences from the time of the flood until the present time:
My uncle took me, my dad took my sister we went up the alley to Wood St., crossed Bedford St to their place. My dad and uncle went after their sisters, two of them they got out but couldn’t get the three children, they drowned in the flood. Their home was at Conemaugh Boro. They lived by where the P.R.R. has their freight station, there was lot with many four-room houses. They lived there. My Mother, Dad, brothers, and sisters were all up at Harmonie Hall and watched the river from there, it was terrible. Our house was raised up high enough a big pole rammed through the floor upstairs through the roof and held it there, where we found it. Everything in house was ruined but our clock, the barn was over in Conemaugh Boro, the chickens were all dead, barn tore apart. We left our cow out after Mother milked her. She came back to the house she cried at the gate, Dad went out she looked at him gave three loud cries. Dad went to get hold of her, she ran and kicked, the last we seen of her. After the flood water went down she came back to the place where we lived. We took her up to my Grandad’s where Bantley Hardware is now, my Grandparents owned that, then we stayed there till they rebuilt the home.
Mrs Elizabeth Galer Barnett
Your location at the time of the flood of 1889:
Coopersdale at the lower end on side of river.
Please describe where you were when the catastrophe took place:
Walking up the main street in Coopersdale, trying to get to Minersville.
Please relate any stories relative to the flood that you may recall:
When the news came the first time, my mother and grandma took me (I was 2 1/2 yrs old) and went back to the academy that was higher up than we were. Well, the next day when the word came again, Grandma said we will go to Minersville to Elmer’s house. (that’s her son) My Grandma grabbed a few dresses for me, and they started to go to Minersville. On the way up near where the Coopersdale Bridge is now, on the side next to the hill, a man and family was standing on their porch which was high on the bank. There were steps to go from the sidewalk. He said where are you going, Mrs. Shomo? Grandma said, we are going to Minersville to my son. The man said come on up here, and Grandma said no I am going on. He said if you don’t come up here, I will come down there after you. He said look at that river coming up. Well, Grandma was carrying me, and her and mother started up the steps, and when we got to the top landing the rush of water went by, splashed us all. A man that was coming up the street behind us, he was on his way to Cambria City, he climbed up a tree, and while we were watching the tree, man and all went under. Our house was underwater up to the middle of the windows, glass broken. Light things were washed away. Everything in the downstairs was ruined. All things in the cellar was washed away, and the house was moved a little on the foundation. We stayed two days at Minersville until the women got the house cleaned up a little. The day after the flood, my uncle was walking along the river bank and found an iron toad and not far along he found another one. They were used for door stops. Well the one he gave me, it is still in my family, and the other he kept, his son has it yet. My mother said they saw lots of people going down the river on broken roofs and boards. Some was washed under while they were watching. So you see the time it took us to go up those steps saved our lives. My mother and grandma saw the engine going down the main line, the engineer waving something white from the cab window. All this my mother told me in the years after the flood.
Mrs. Alta Peden Bowdler (wife of Wilfrid)
Your location at the time of the flood of 1889:
Corner of South and Franklin St. (Morris St.), N.W. Corner former home of Edw. Peden
Please relate any stories relative to the flood that you may recall:
As I remember, we were at home all day, with the exception of myself, who paid my daily visit to the Brinker family. Later my father (Dr. S. A. Peden, dentist.) came for me. He had on his boots and carried me, for the water was then 10-12 inches deep in the street. As we crossed South St. he stopped and looked back South St. toward Stony Creek River. Just then the Poplar Street Bridge floated by. I can see it now. We then went on home, and into the house. We had a house full of company. I remember us all sitting around the dining room table eating at noon, also playing with two small boys who came with their parents. Later I was taken upstairs to the middle bedroom. While there I remember the house next door crashing into ours breaking the windows. After this we were taken to the front bedroom across the hall. This room had a rear window which opened onto the roof of a little back porch. It was from this window we succeeded in leaving the house. My father and several men who had been with us during the day succeeded in salvaging boards, etc. which were laid across the debris which had floated in. By this time we crossed over South St. to a two-family house owned by Mrs. Vicroy and seems to me to have been living there at the time (not quite sure). From the alley window of this house we were rescued by men with a boat, who took us back South St. where the hill rises and taken up to home of Prof. Heffley at corner of South and Sherman, given wraps, and loaded into Uncle Ed. Peden’s spring wagon and taken up to his farm home in Upper Yoder Twp (Southmont now).People who were at the house that day (over) Uncle Ed. Peden, Susan Cooms from Butte, Mont., Aunt Charlotte Peden’s sister, Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Kuhns and small son. I may have those names confused, I was only 5 yrs. old. A lady and small son who came with the Kuhns, and Jay White who just seemed to appear from a front bedroom window.Worried about Grandmother Haynes who was not at home. She had gone out somewhere during the morning. We found her at the hill when we got there and took her with us to the farm, Uncle Chas Haynes later came for her and took her home with him. He was the well-known Dairyman who lived on a farm in upper Yoder. We stayed on the farm for the best part of the summer. Then in early fall we went to Pittsburgh to visit relatives and friends. I have a photo of myself taken in a dress which came from the Commissary.
W. Blair Burkhart
Location at the time of the flood of 1889:
My parents and myself lived on right hand side of the upper eastern end of Maple Ave. Do not know number.
Please describe where you were when the catastrophe took place:
At the warning of “Dam Breaking”, parents with me left the home, crossed the P.R.R. tracks and went up on the hillside beyond. House and everything in it washed away in the flood.
Give a brief account of your experiences from the time of the flood until the present time:
Parents built a home in Morrellville. Father became M.D. before the turn of the century.
Please relate any stories relative to the flood that you may recall:
My parents told me that when they left our home to seek refuge on the hill they had to run down and around a few cars and a caboose of a train that they thought was being slowly pushed down the railroad toward the city by an engine but when they got around it and across the railroad to the hill they could see that the train was being pushed by the flood water. Had they lost that race I would not be here.
Irene Price Constable (wife of Walter Constable)
Please describe where you were when the catastrophe took place:
Avenue between back of Franklin St near the corner of Franklin St. and Haynes St.
Please relate any stories relative to the flood that you may recall:
Spent the night of the flood in the attic of the home of Mr. Ben Horner, with about 200 other people who were helped into it by men who had escaped from the roofs of other buildings. My father helped my mother, three sisters myself and an old German woman and her son to get to Horner’s attic. We were helped in the window.
Mrs. Carrie Custer
Please describe where you were when the catastrophe took place:
At my home 121 School Alley – Rear Joseph Johns Jr. High School. My father put us on the roof top.
Please relate any stories relative to the flood that you may recall:
When the waters came, my father took our family to the rooftop along with some friends. Our house left the foundation and drifted to Carr St. where we were rescued into an attic. We spent the night in the attic of John Allendorfer along with many other people. The next day we were taken to my aunts who lived on the hill. I then was taken to Pittsburgh until my father got us a home in Kernville. Our home along with 27 other homes were burned down. My family was all saved due to the level headedness of my father.
Grace G. Davis
Location at the time of the flood of 1889:
Franklin St. near Willow opposite the Herlman Baumer home
Please describe where you were when the catastrophe took place:
At home on the lst floor we ran upstairs, water was right behind us when we got to the 3
rd floor water was 1/2 way up steps.
Give a brief account of your experiences from the time of the flood until the present time:
Our house floated up Franklin St. After house settled we got on the roof and crept on our hands and knees and got into the house of Uncle Ben Horner’s house at 444 Franklin St.
Please relate any stories relative to the flood that you may recall:
I think there were 85 people in his house that night there were five new born babies, one of them was Tom Oxnard who lived across the alley from Uncle Ben's house. The only light we had was from the spiral [spire] of the Catholic church which was on fire.
Harry H. Dravis
Location at the time of the flood of 1889:
Portage St. where the Gautier works is now. We lived close to Joe Friedhoff’s planing mill.
Please describe where you were when the catastrophe took place:
At home. My Father Otto Dravis took my Mother and us 4 boys up to Green Hill then went back. Next trip water was up to his neck.
Give a brief account of your experiences from the time of the flood until the present time:
We were standing on the side of the hill. The schoolhouse and Fire Hall were close together before the water came, the draft of it made both buildings collapse. Those buildings were below the American House what is known as Railroad St. today. We lost everything in the flood.
Please relate any stories relative to the flood that you may recall:
It was a rainy day and we boys were playing hide with the kitten. The only thing found was the sewing machine with the kitten in a drawer. My Father helped clean up the city and found the sewing machine. After the flood my Grandfather Chris Kaltenbaugh (Kaldenbach) who lived in what was known as Goat hill and his lot run down to what was known as the sand patch. My parents were given what was known as a Hughes house and it was put up for them on my Grandfather’s lot, on the sand patch part known now as Woodvale, and our home was in Conemaugh Boro, now the 9th Ward. My Grandfather worked in the woolen mill in Woodvale. Now Bethlehem Steel uses his plot as a parking lot. After the flood, I can mind my Grandfather taking us boys thru what was left of the woolen mill, and I also mind where the Tannery was. We used to go fishing there, where the Swank’s pottery is now. It was quite a big business. I also remember my Father working for the Johnson Co. Then after the flood they moved to Moxham, now known as the Johnstown Plant of the U.S. Steel. I served my apprenticeship in the old Cambria Iron Co. My wife’s Mother's sister Mrs. Mary Hirsch lost 2 children. They were on one house roof and their Mother on another roof. They held out their arms to her crying “Mommy, Mommy come and get us”. She saw them fall into the water and drown. Mary Hirsch survived to live with that memory.
Mrs. Miriam James Dudley (wife of Rufus E. Dudley)
Your location at the time of the flood of 1889:
Corner Main and Market (diagonally opposite present City Hall)
Please describe where you were when the catastrophe took place:
At home (2-1/2 years old)
Give a brief account of your experiences from the time of the flood until the present time:
Family moved to (Allegheny), Pittsburgh, Pa very soon after flood. Stayed there for perhaps 7 yr. Back to Johnstown.
My grandfather, Ebenezer James and my father, David James, were in grocery business at Main and Market Sts. when the flood occurred. In the flood of '89, our third floor and roof (the brick walls collapsed) floated with all the family of 7 (5 children) to the old Campbell home at Walnut and Lincoln – present location of First Presbyterian Church – where we were transferred to the Campbell roof and saved. Grandparents and other relatives were also with us and escaped.
Ludwig P. Eck
Your location at the time of the flood of 1889:
About 100 yards from where the incline plane is on Vine Street.
Please describe where you were when the catastrophe took place:
We were in the house.
Please relate any stories relative to the flood that you may recall:
I and two brothers were in the kitchen when the water started to come in, one of my older brothers picked me up and we ran upstairs and then to attic and to the roof. It isn't pleasant to recall the scenes we saw on the roofs of other houses the older people stretching their hands upward calling to God to save them. Mr. Singer was on the same roof with the Eck’s, he played with the boys.
Mrs. John Edmonds
Your location at the time of the flood of 1889:
Do not remember street and number. But street is now either Iron Street or Cooper Avenue. Lived on hillside just above the present Coopersdale Bridge.
Please describe where you were when the catastrophe took place:
At home, carrying furniture up the hill in back of house.
Please relate any stories relative to the flood that you may recall:
My husband’s family lived at Tenacre (above present Coopersdale Bridge). They lost their home and all their furniture and clothing. There was a house came down the river with a woman on the roof of the house, just below our home, the house went down and the woman was drowned. My husband found a gold watch in the area of the old Coopersdale Bridge after the water receded. *The old Coopersdale Bridge was down about the end of the Wire Mill. This is the way I remember things.
Mrs Magie Roene Boyer Ferrier (wife of Chester Ferrier)
Your location at the time of the flood of 1889:
Grant St., later changed to Boyer Street, Coopersdale
Please describe where you were when the catastrophe took place:
In my home, some of the family carried me out and we all went to the old Academy on the hill. I was 9 months at the time of the flood.
Please relate any stories relative to the flood that you may recall:
It was told to me I had 40 boils (at different times) on my head and face after the flood, caused by the dirt and filth after the flood. I have a scar under my right eye caused when a boil was lanced. My Father always called it “My Flood Relic."
Mr. Homer George
Your location at the time of the flood of 1889:
South Fork
Please describe where you were when the catastrophe took place:
On the day of the flood, I was along the shore of the South Fork River watching the high water, full of debris, flowing down the valley. I was accompanied by two boys about my age – 7 years.
Give a brief account of your experiences from the time of the flood until the present time:
Without warning, except a cry “Run” a man hustled us to higher ground. We were about 100 feet above the crest line of the flood when it rushed past. We never learned who the man was or how he received the warning – but he saved our lives.
Susan Matila Hastee (wife of Andrew A. Hastee)
Your location at the time of the flood of 1889:
Feeder St. Johnstown Pa.
Please describe where you were when the catastrophe took place:
I was only 6 months old was in my crib sick with the measles
Please relate any stories relative to the flood that you may recall:
I only know what I was told. My mother was baking bread at the time, had it on the table raising. The water had lifted the table, bread, and all to the ceiling, and as the water went down the table was set back on the floor. The prints of the bread was left on the ceiling.
When they got the warning of the flood, they picked me up and ran for the hills. Their cat and kittens were on the porch, my father picked them up and put them in the attic. They came through safe but scared. The house was on the next lot and debris was up to the second story windows They walked 4 miles through the rain to my Grandfather’s house where they stayed for four days. They had their house put back on the lot and lived in it until 1898. I am sorry I do not know the number of the house, but it was on Feeder St. on the corner of an alley that went up to Adam St. There was one house between our house and Adam St. on the alley The house is there yet but remodeled.
Mary Conrad Haws (wife of R. N. Haws)
Location at the time of the flood of 1889:
308 Vine Street -- First Ward
Please describe where you were when the catastrophe took place:
On Green Hill, in pouring down rain.
Give a brief account of your experiences from the time of the flood until the present time:
Lost all possessions in March Flood of 1936.
Please relate any stories relative to the flood that you may recall:
My uncle took me from my home on Vine Street to a friend's house, on Huber St., where he had taken my aunt, then he left to see if all was alright at her home in Woodvale -- where he and his brother were drowned.
Dr. George Hay
Location at the time of the flood of 1889:
Double brick house at corner of Walnut and Locust Sts. where New office bldg. of Bethlehem Steel Co. is now located.
Please describe where you were when the catastrophe took place:
On third floor of this home when the (30) thirty foot wall of water from South Fork dam hit it.
Please relate any stories relative to the flood that you may recall:
When I was a child in the eighties, my mother made magnificent Christmas tree decorations and yard settings that had to be stored afterwards in wooden drygood boxes put on the 3rd floor, set against the roof and at the end of our yard was a stable (both of these helped to save our lives on May 30, 1889). The freshet water was up to within one (1) foot of the second floor then, where we were sitting. When we heard a loud noise developing and we ran up to third floor to look out of a small window which mother would not let me look, when she saw the terrifying thirty (30) foot wall of water with houses, trees, barns, bridges, etc. being pushed ahead of it and ready to crush us in a minute. She grabbed hold of me so tight I could hardly breathe and said, “Pray George” which I did as she had made up her mind that we both would go together. This wall of water hit the stable and pushed it into our house knocking it to pieces but caused it to catch on the timbers of the home shoved the third floor up to within 1 ½ feet of the beams of the roof above and could easily have crushed us when the cone of the roof pulled apart and the Christmas boxes caused it to roll or slide down and allow us to climb on top which soon settled to the level of the swift moving muddy water that was rushing to the P.R.R. stone bridge.
We eddied on the edge of this stream with a large lumber pile upon which were about twenty (20) people who kept yelling to us to get on something higher and they would throw boards of lumber down to us but the water kept us moving constantly when suddenly we eddied into the where they had been and became jammed in the gorge of crushed houses and they eddied out to where we had been and swiftly went down stream. A woman on that lumber pile said later that the pile was knocked to pieces and more than half of the people on it were drowned. In walking over the debris to the hillside, I stepped on a plastered ceiling and crashed through it but fortunately my arms caught on some joists and I was rescued by mother; for if I had gone through I could have been killed. We finally got on the hillside and went to a brick kiln to get warm as I had on only a little waist shirt, short pants and stockings as my slippers were lost when I fell. It is astonishing that we went through all flood water and did not get our feet wet.
Mrs. Freda Wehn Heinze
Location at the time of the flood of 1889:
Resided with parents, George and Ellen Wehn, at 417 Main St. Johnstown, Pa.
Please describe where you were when the catastrophe took place:
At 417 Main St. Johnstown, Pa., Went to Attic where we went out a window to Lewis property and on to Dr. Lowman’s property at Main and Park Place where we spent that night.
Give a brief account of your experiences from the time of the flood until the present time:
Moved with parents after flood to 7th Ward, Johnstown, Pa., upon completion of home. Lost everything, furniture and clothing in Flood. Grandmother, Mrs. Frederica Wehn drowned in Flood, having resided at the same address, 417 Main St., Johnstown, Pa.
Please relate any stories relative to the flood that you may recall:
Too young to recall any specific stories, other than I recall I wanted a drink of water that night and of course, there was none available, and someone held out a wash basin and caught some rainwater for me to drink.
My Father and Mother and I were living with my Father’s Mother, Fredericka Wehn, at 417 Main Street Johnstown, Pa., which property was owned at that time by my Grandmother. When the water rose my Father suggested we go to the attic and go thru the Lewis property, which stood next to Dr. Lowman’s property on the corner of Main and Park Place but he could not persuade my Grandmother to go. So he took my Mother across a plank laid from our attic window to Lewis’s attic window. We just got out in time as our house was brick and was water soaked, collapsed at that moment and my Grandmother was in there. We spent the night in Lowman’s attic with a lot of other people. I wanted a drink of water in the night so some one held a wash basin out the window and caught some rainwater from the roof. The next day we got in a boat which took us to the Bank corner, where we spent the next night. Then the next day we got out to the 8th Ward to my Mother’s sister (my Aunt). I can’t remember how we got there. I remember we were all given boots, I suppose from the commissary, and I kept mine for years. I do not recall too much more, as I was very young, having my third birthday June 1, 1889, the day following the Flood.
Ida Herrick
Your location at the time of the flood of 1889:
Johnstown Pa. River Ave. Close to P.R.R. Station. Millville Borough.
Please describe where you were when the catastrophe took place?
Midway between P.R.R Station & Stone Bridge & went to Brownstown.
Give a brief account of your experiences from the time of the flood until the present time:
We went to Morrellville to live and I married a man the next year that came to Johnstown to work (carpenter) a friend of Clara Barton he did work for her (before coming to Johnstown Pa) in New York State.
Please relate any stories relative to the flood that you may recall:
We had to leave our house at 10:00 AM a girlfriend and I were together all day. The water was about 10 inches deep then, we managed to get up to P.R.R. Station, we were separated from our families when the flood came. Our families went to Prospect, and Alice and I went closer to the hill, so we ran there and went to a Farm house in Brownstown. The house was filled with people.
We went down to the Stone Bridge and that was a terrible sight. Their bodies wedged in and could not move, hundreds of people. Some of them their arms were free, and they were beckoning for help, crying and moaning, not knowing when the fire would reach them. Then at that time the fire was spreading, and we did not know if any of our family was living. Finally, I heard from them on Sunday evening and they were alright in Prospect. Alice's parents also.
Homer A. Hershey
Your location at the time of the flood of 1889:
523 Napoleon St. Johnstown
Please describe where you were when the catastrophe took place:
In the attic of our house which was washed off the foundation and stood at an angle half on and half off the foundation.
Give a brief account of your experiences from the time of the flood until the present time:
Our family of seven and two neighbor families had an experience just before night-fall of flood day. When the water subsided below the second story windows we came down from the attic, wading through the mud and destroyed furniture, crawled out a window and walked and crawled on the debri] up Napoleon St to the corner of Dibert and then into the second story of that brick house – still standing – and spent the night in total darkness. The owners of the house had gone to the hill earlier and were not at home when we occupied the house. We walked about 150 feet over the debris with the rushing and swirling water underneath. Our family of seven and two adjoining families of seven, or fourteen in all, made that trip and not one went down. That would have been certain death. We were fortunate enough to step on and crawl over large timbers and several house roofs. I can still hear that roaring water under us. Our escape was miraculous.
Marie W. Roloff Hill
Your location at the time of the flood of 1889:
802 Chestnut St. Johnstown, Pa.
Please describe where you were when the catastrophe took place:
At home.
Give a brief account of your experiences from the time of the flood until the present time:
I don’t remember very much about it. I was too young and it all seem like sketches of a dream but I remember we had a grocery store at home, and we had crackers to eat that we salvaged from the store.
Please relate any stories relative to the flood that you may recall:
Mother often talked about the scare we had our house was shaking and it was moving from the foundation, but a tree seemed to be pushed up against it which saved it from toppling over. I remember we went to the commissary at the lock up as we named in that day for supplies and food.
Mrs. Else Schubert Kantner (wife of H.G. Kantner)
Your location at the time of the flood of 1889:
83 Stoneycreek St., Johnstown, Pa.
Please describe where you were when the catastrophe took place:
Next door at a neighbor's home
Please relate any stories relative to the flood that you may recall:
I was 11 years old at the time of the flood, so I remember quite a bit of what happened. Our house did not have too solid a foundation, so we all went next door to our neighbors - a family by the name of Gribble. My father, C. T. Schubert, sent my three brothers to an uncle who lived in Conemaugh Boro. From an upstairs window we watched as the floodwaters rose. Suddenly my father shouted for us to go the third floor. I saw our house break apart and float away. Father kicked out the skylight and got us all out on the roof - my mother holding my nine month’s old baby sister, my four other sisters and myself, and four members of the Gribble family. Mrs. Gribble was carried downstream between two logs. The backwater kept us stationary and I was within a foot of getting onto the hillside when I looked back to see if the others were coming. I saw that they were all back on the rooftop. Thinking that it was the end of the world, I went back to be with my family. The next thing I remember was my father telling everyone to lie down flat, and it seemed to me as though a brick house passed over top of us, but I learned later that we had gone under the stone bridge. After we had passed under the bridge, we discovered that father was not with us. Mother said he had been struck by some debris and had fallen into the water. His body was recovered next morning in Cambria City. We were carried downstream to Morrellville where we were finally rescued - one by one. We all stayed for several months with a widow, a Mrs. Wolfe, who kept a rooming house in Morrellville. My father was editor of the Johnstown Freie Presse, a German newspaper. My mother was now left with nine children.
Harry Kitto
Your location at the time of the flood of 1889:
Union Street
Please describe where you were when the catastrophe took place:
I remember my uncle Bill Edwards took me to the attic of our home; through a trap-door to the roof. My father, mother and younger brother must have been along. The Kitto family survived the flood, but my father died soon after at the age of 29 yrs, leaving a wife and three children (my sister was born about three months after the flood.)
Give a brief account of your experiences from the time of the flood until the present time:
There is a tombstone at Grandview Cemetery that tells part of the tragic story of my mother's older sister, Aunt Maggie, who was born in Wales and came here with her parents Thomas Edwards and wife and son John Edwards. She was ten yrs. older than my mother. Children of Aunt Maggie and James Jones: Annie, Tommy, Elmer, and Harry.
I don't know how Aunt Maggie and her husband got separated but he was drowned with Annie and Tommy. Aunt Maggie had the baby who died soon after the flood. She always looked a little sad to me and I remember her saying at different times "I don't know why God took my family and left me."
Aunt Maggie and mother kept a boarding house (had as many as 15 borders at one time. Later when an epidemic of typhoid fever or diphtheria broke out in Johnstown Aunt Maggie nursed many of our relatives back to health. She said "Now I know why the Lord let me live."
Please relate any stories relative to the flood that you may recall:
My grandfather, Thomas Edwards owned three houses and Grocery Store which were a total loss. After the flood he sold two lots to build a home on the third lot.
William Kitto
Your location at the time of the flood of 1889:
112 Union Street, Johnstown
Please describe where you were when the catastrophe took place:
On the roof of our house, with Mother, Father, Brother Harry, Grand father and Grand Mother Thos. T. Edwards, their son William Edwards, and daughter Sarah Edwards
Mrs. Mary Catherine Grafe Knerem (wife of George Knerem)
Your location at the time of the flood of 1889:
100 Block of Horner St Johnstown, Pa.
Please describe where you were when the catastrophe took place:
At home
Please relate any stories relative to the flood that you may recall:
Was Rescued with my mother and older brother by Uncle John A. Grafe on a raft. House came down on Tub which remained there as long as I can remember.
Mrs. Ella Hammer Krise (widow of Warren S. Krise)
Your location at the time of the flood of 1889:
1399 Franklin St.
Please describe where you were when the catastrophe took place:
1399 Franklin St.
Please relate any stories relative to the flood that you may recall:
My father Joseph S. Hammer took his horse & helped to place houses back on their foundations. The John Kite family of Walnut Grove moved in with my family. We went to the commissary at the eighth ward bldg. (where the Nazarene Church now stands) for food every day. Several days after the flood Nan Hite and I went around through the flood district. We saw a rough box with a large woman in it and a small child at her feet, no covering on the box. We went up the cemetery road and watched them bring the dead to a building where volunteer women washed and prepared them for burial among whom was Mary Benton of Somerset St.
Clara C. Kugel
Your location at the time of the flood of 1889:
Portage St. on The Island which was where the Gautier Plant of Cambria Iron Co was located
Please describe where you were when the catastrophe took place:
In the attic of our home, which was carried down to the Stone Bridge. There we were rescued and taken to a home on Prospect The next day we were taken to my uncle’s home on Bedford St.
Give a brief account of your experiences from the time of the flood until the present time:
The Cambria Iron Co gave my parents a lot on Chapin St for one that was lost and they built a house on it and we stayed until 1925 when they moved to Messenger St.
Herman Niessner
Location at the time of the flood of 1889:
We had a Greenhouse and lived at 82 Poplar St. at the time of the Flood
Please describe where you were when the catastrophe took place:
At the time of the flood we were at our uncle Morris Niessner's home on Strayer St. Dale Borough
Please relate any stories relative to the flood that you may recall:
After the flood we lived at 88 Poplar St. The house we lived in came from the lower end of Somerset St. The flood floated it up the river to Horner’s property across the alley from our place. The government kept horses in it for awhile. My father paid $10.00 for it and moved it over to our property. It was overhauled and We lived in it for some time.
It may be that I owe my life to a horse and a cow. The water was getting higher and Father said he wanted to take the horse and cow out of the stable so they would not have to stand in water. Mother said if you do we may as well all go along. So he hitched the horse to a spring wagon and our family of 5 climbed in with a few belongings and tied the cow to the wagon. We spent the next few days with Uncle Morris Niessner on Strayer St. Dale Borough which was on much higher ground. The lives of our whole family spared. The seventh ward was not so thickly settled and from Dale we could see the B&O railroad and we could see the water covering the bridge. The house we lived in at the time of the flood was a double house, eight rooms in all. It floated about one block and settled on the railroad tracks. It was one of the first ones the B&O had to remove it so they could bring in supplies. The lower rooms were smashed. A clock was saved and it run for some time afterward. Also a mirror remained unbroken. Right after the Flood my father built a one room house. It was not altogether perfect. It had a leaky roof and when it rained at night mother would open an umbrella over us to keep us dry. To save space in the daytime the legs were cut off one bed so it could slide under the other. We lived there for some time. Later on we moved to 82 Poplar Street.
D. Park Petrikin
Your location at the time of the flood of 1889:
75 Napoleon St.
Give a brief account of your experiences from the time of the flood until the present time:
I was at home with my parents until a short time before the alarm when a man came along with a wagon and offered to take anyone out who wanted to go. The water was then between two and three feet deep on the street. A lady who lived on the other side of the house decided to go and I went with her. We had only gotten up as far as South St. when the alarm came and we ran up South St. as far as Grant and got on the front porch of John Haws house where we saw that the whole city was under water and that the Stony Creek was flowing opposite from its natural course. Some time later I walked out along the Kernville Hill and saw my parents and brother on the roof of our house and as I watched saw them get down and go over the wreckage to Dibert St. School where they spent the night with a lot of other people. I spent the night on the floor of a house on Grant St. From there I could [see] the burning of the Catholic church. The flames going up the steeple to the top and also the light from the burning wreckage in front of the stone bridge. The next day I was united with my parents and taken to the farm of William Rambarger and from there a little later to the home of my Grandfather George Knowlton. We stayed there till October when our house was cleaned, repaired and pushed back on the foundation. My principal job that summer was carrying food from the Hornerstown commissary.
John Wesley Price
Your location at the time of the flood of 1889:
#216 Morgan Place, Johnstown, Pa.
Please describe where you were when the catastrophe took place:
Above address – mostly in mother’s arms.
Give a brief account of your experiences from the time of the flood until the present time:
We were not in the direct path of the flood, but parents sheltered many people. Our living room and front porch were full.
Please relate any storiesrelative to the flood that you may recall:
Too small to recall. Everything was told to me by my parents.
Mrs. Ada Mitchell Ramsey (wife of Wesley Ramsey)
Location at the time of the flood of 1889:
Conemaugh Pa, Franklin Boro side, our home was on flat where the Steel works are now.
Please describe where you were when the catastrophe took place:
We took to the hill where Pine Street, Franklin Boro is now.
Give a brief account of your experiences from the time of the flood until the present time:
All we had left of our home was the clothes we had on our back and our cow that was in the pasture field which is the place where the Steel Mill is now. Our home went between two large trees and smashed up. After several days my father moved into home on Main Street Franklin Boro for several years then we moved to Pine Street Franklin Boro till I was married. Where steel mill is now, they had large fairground where they played ball and had greased pig races as my brothers who were older than me took part in.
Mrs. Minnie Anderson Roberts
Location at the time of the flood of 1889:
Morrellville. Corner Garfield St. and Chandler Ave. No street number. My father had a general store at this location.
Please describe where you were when the catastrophe took place:
Lower part of Morrellville was all under water but did not reach our place. My father’s name was Henry Anderson. I was just 11 years old.
Give a brief account of your experiences from the time of the flood until the present time:
We watched the terrible waters carrying screaming people to their death and dead bodies being carried on the raging water. Houses and debris and people clinging to anything they could hold on to only to be knocked off by things that came tumbling along.
Please relate any stories relative to the flood that you may recall:
When the waters could not be carried under the stone bridge the waters backed up and everything piled up and caught fire. People were trapped in the houses and were screaming for help, which was impossible. I saw four people cling to the roof of a house and they were singing “Nearer My God to Thee” only to be knocked off into the water and drowned. Bodies floating everywhere. I will never forget the terrible sight.
Mrs. Amelia Shaffer
Your location at the time of the flood of 1889:
Portage St. one time called the Island 10th ward
Please describe where you were when the catastrophe took place:
We got out just in time and got up on Huber St. We lost everything we had.
Mrs. Mary Amelia Werner Seiwert (wife of George A. Seiwert)
Your location at the time of the flood of 1889:
Chestnut St., Cambria City. On Brownstown Hill.
Give a brief account of your experiences from the time ofthe flood until the present time:
don’t remember much as I was just 6 yrs. old, but the crying and screaming was terrible. We huddled together, all of us children my Mother and Grandmother wet and hungry no place to go. My father was in the house. He cut the clothes line from the attic and saved a lot of people. What I saw after the flood, I will never forget.
Mrs Griselda Tenney (wife of Paul Tenney)
Your location at the time of the flood of 1889:
Gautier St./near center St./P.R.R. tracks now on the place.
Please describe where you were when the catastrophe took place:
At home, barely escaping the flood, we fled to the hill.
Please relate any stories relative to the flood that you may recall:
My Brother Robert Paul and myself Mrs. W.E.Tenney have gotten together several weeks ago and went over the flood as we remembered it. These remarks will serve us and my sister Elizabeth who are still living. The time of the flood we were living in the Conemaugh Boro District, on Gautier St. near Center, and on the same side of street as American House. P.R.R. tracks are now on the spot where the home stood. Our home was a double dwelling type, with 2 store rooms and apartments above them. A Mr. Daley had a saloon, one of the rooms and our Father had a small store in the other one. In the upstairs apartment our family lived, and another family consisting of Husband, wife, a new born baby, and midwife. A graveyard came down to our back yard line. I think there was a fence but not sure of this.
Well do we remember the day, Robert was 16, I was past 6 and Elizabeth was 4, she don't remember much too young, but early in the morning of that day, my great Aunt and Uncle (Mr & Mrs. George Bird) and a Mrs. Andrews and her son came to tell us about the dam was about ready to give way as they had heard of this the day before. And we was to get ready to get to higher ground. My Brother Robert and Fred and Mrs. Andrews son went out and watched for the water to come down stream. Sometime in the afternoon they came in soaking wet, told us the dam had broken, as a fellow on horseback was riding and breaking the news, and people were throwing chestnuts at him. Somewhere around 3.P.M. Robert and Fred took us 3 girls along with the rest and started for the hill. Mother and Father lingered back on account of Jennie who would not leave the house, they dragged her out and they just merely reached high ground till down went the home, the other family never got out, they were drowned under our roof of the house. Part way up the hill, we turned around to look back, saw the school house go down, like a spoonful of sugar in hot coffee. Our home was gone. How Mother and Father and Jennie escaped is a miracle to us. Someone has told me that the school was on, now Railroad St.
Toward evening we came down off the hill and stopped with a family by the name of Crouse, how long our family stayed there we don't remember. The next day mother went out to look things over, she found the trunk broken opened, everything gone but the revolver. (It is still in the family). The night we stayed at the Crouse home, we rolled up the carpet and slept on the bare floor, using the carpet for a pillow. Eight of us all in a row. My Grandfather Willman came down from Ebensburg, got a boat rowed across the river, and looked the family up. He took my sister Elizabeth and I to the boat and rowed back across the river and took us to his home near Ebensburg. When we came home from near Ebensburg, I don't remember where our family was living but in the fall I went to school in a school house that was at the bottom of the hill of Moxham View. So this makes us believe that our parents were located in Moxham district. I went to the school until they built the brick school house, then I was transferred to the new school. And we also remember when we had to sleep on the bare floor with a rug for a pillow till our parents were able to provide for us.
In April of 1891, Father purchased a lot on Central Av. No 95 and built a six room home and a store room and started up again. Here my two youngest sisters were born. He sold the place in 1893 and later on moved to Pitcairn, Pa. (Now Block's Dept Store). I knew a lady that lived in Pitcairn, that she was washed down stream in her baby crib. My brother Robert was in his late teens, he helped to find and get the deceased out and took them to Adams St. School which was turned in to a morgue. The Governor came into the town one day to look things over, he sent a number of men into the mill to clean up the machinery, Robert was one of the men. The only day that he received wages for his work. My Brother Robert also rode the first train over the trestle that the P.R.R. built to re-establish the tracks. He rode as far as Cresson. This trestle was 90 feet high from the river bed and 500 feet long.
Our father worked in the commissary, used to come home and tell us lots of things that happened during the day. Mother would always take me along to the commissary, she would hold up her apron and they would fill it with whatever they had to give to her. There were no baskets or boxes to carry the stuff home. I also remember of mother telling us about a woman that went to the commissary with her baby in her arms one Saturday evening after closing time, crying for a loaf of bread, they turned her down and Monday came along and they hauled the bread out and dumped it in the river.
Jennie Thompson
Your location at the time of the flood of 1889:
Jackson Street, Johnstown Pa. I do not remember the number but the second house East of Locust St. Or toward Railroad St.
Please describe where you were when the catastrophe took place:
At home when warned but escaped by going up Locust St.
Give a brief account of your experiences from the time of the flood until the present time:
Mr. John Engle & wife Sarah took us into their home on Singers Hill that PM, and gave us a home until other plans could be made.
Please relate any stories relative to the flood that you may recall:
A Ripple preceded that great flood and its name was Jackson Ripple. He rode his horse through our alley and that warned us. We had the family of George Lavely as guests that day. My father came in the back gate and got all into the house. Mr. Lavely came in the front and called to Mr. Taylor Gallagher at the next house on the corner. Mr. Gallagher ran downstairs to turn off the gas and as he ran up our house collapsed. The Gallagher’s got out with great difficulty, but Mrs. Morris Wolfe and her servant were lost on the other side of their house. Mrs. Knorr. [sp ?] and 2 daughters on other side of house next to us toward Railroad St. drowned.
My father W. H. Thompson warned the neighbors on both sides but the Knorr’s [?] were baking bread and mother thought they waited to take it out of the oven. The eldest daughter was preparing her trousseau. The John Stenger’s lost 2 sons, John and Lew. They had been our neighbors one year before.
Our attic floor floated over behind the Catholic Church on the northwest corner of Jackson St. but there was nothing of value in it, a few old chairs and an old trunk. Otherwise, nothing was ever found but a battered silver cream pitcher which still had mother’s initials on it. Otherwise, it was so battered as to be useless and beyond identification. My father said we would never complain of the loss in material things because no lives were lost in our family or that of our guests that day.
I have never felt that Jackson Ripple received the credit due him. He warned others but lost his own life. Mrs. Jackson Ripple later became Mrs. Hull. Jackson put her and a neighbor lady on the horse, went back for a fox terrier puppy they were fond of and lost his life.
Mr. and Mrs. Will V. Young
Your location at the time of the flood of 1889:
I was born on Vine St. near Walnut where we lived on that day. My wife Lulu May Good lived on Baumer St. We both were in the flood.
Give a brief account of your experiences from the time of the flood until the present time:
All day long our home was surrounded by water. I can remember watching logs and other things come floating down Vine St. By noon we were on the 2nd floor. When the flood came my father rushed us up to the attic then on the roof of our house and our house floated out Walnut St to the hill then up to Napoleon St. Then down to the Point about 100 or more feet from the hill where we were rescued: My Father, Mother, 2 sisters and myself. We were on the roof about 2 hrs.
Please relate any stories relative to the flood that you may recall:
My wife’s home was flooded up to the 2nd Floor and they got out by climbing up to Bedford St. and then up Green Hill. Her father’s name was Frank B. Good.
Miss Suzanne E. Zipf
Your location at the time of the flood of 1889:
787 Railroad Street
Please describe where you were when the catastrophe took place:
I was in the house on the second floor at the above Railroad St. Address.
Give a brief account of your experiences from the time of the flood until the present time:
After the flood we lived at the same address until 1905. Our house was one of the few which remained standing.
Please relate any stories relative to the flood that you may recall:
I was just 14 months of age at the time and was with my mother and her 13 yr. old brother. He had just arrived after leaving a cousin at a relative’s house on Clinton St. That boy and all his relatives were drowned while Mother’s brother was saved. That evening we were rescued by two men on a raft and taken to my grandparent’s home on Hudson St.
On the morning of the flood my father had gone to the Henry Raab residence (Mother's home) in the first ward near the present Joseph Johns High School to help them move some furnishings upstairs as water was coming into the basement and during the flood he and his in-laws threw ropes from attic windows and rescued a number of persons. After the flood, their home was burned down while flood rubbish was being burned up.
