John Grubb Parke

John G. Parke, Jr.

Quick Facts

Place of Birth:

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Date of Birth:

June 27, 1866

Place of Death:

Monessen, Pennsylvania

Date of Death:

January 29, 1933

Place of Burial:

Monongahela, Pennsylvania

Cemetery Name:

Monongahela Cemetery

"It is an erroneous opinion that the dam burst. It simply moved away." -John Parke

John G. Parke, Jr., was the resident engineer for the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club in the summer of 1889. He was twenty two years old. Parke was named after his uncle, General John G. Parke, who was the Superintendent of West Point at the time.

He studied Civil Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania and completed three years of study. He was overseeing the installation of a sewage system for the Club House and cottages. His job began approximately three months prior to May 31. 

Parke woke up at Lake Conemaugh on the morning of the flood. He said:
"When I awoke at about 6:30 on the morning of the 31st, I found it very foggy outside, and on going out, found the lake had risen during the night probably 2 feet, and I heard a terrible roaring as of a cataract at the head of the lake, about a mile above the club house where I was staying."

He went onto the lake in a boat and went to have a look at the streams that fed into the South Fork Dam. He saw that they were overflowing and that debris was piling up. He estimated the water was rising one inch per hour. When he rode onto the top of the dam the level of the water was approximately two feet below. 

Parke rode from the South Fork Dam to South Fork in a matter of minutes with the first telegraph message. At first his message was not taken seriously. Parke was young, not from the area and people had been hearing for years about the potential for the dam to fail. Adding to the confusion was club member D.W.C. Bidwell, who was waiting for a train at South Fork. After Parke left to return to the dam, Bidwell told people that there really wasn't anything to get excited about. Bidwell had previously told people in South Fork that water would not overtop the dam.

Later in the day, Parke was a witness to the dam failure. 

A few days after the flood, Parke was quoted by the New York Sun:
"No blame can be attached to anyone for this greatest of horrors. It was a calamity that could not be avoided." 

He died after a long illness at age 67.