Mill River Flood (Williamsburg)

Rude boards Slips of paper Rings on fingers Names, only

Reference: The Mill River Flood of May 1874, in Williamsburg, Leeds Massachusetts

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Mill River Flood (Williamsburg)

And as far away as Goshen, the dam bursting, sounded like an earthquake, shaking ground and foundations

Theodore Hitchcock never made it - his dangerous trek across the river to the mill to find his ledgers of business records, and save it - No, Theodore Hitchcock never made it

Reference: The Mill River Flood of May 1874, in Williamsburg, Leeds Massachusetts

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Mill River Flood (Williamsburg)

Milkman Collins Graves, with the sound of metal buckets banging and liquid inside, sloshing, makes his way to the villages, warning of the water to come, yells tossing as echoes of homes and businesses

Reference: The Mill River Flood of May 1874, in Williamsburg, Leeds Massachusetts

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Mill River Flood (Williamsburg)

If a horse can be a hero, then here, surely, is one, the same one, unnamed, who galloped three miles from dam to town, bearing the man, warning that disaster loomed, and still, not finishing this most important race, first

Reference: The Mill River Flood of May 1874, in Williamsburg, Leeds Massachusetts

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Mill River Flood (Williamsburg)

One lone man, standing, motionless, on an island of nothingness, the west and east branches of the river, flowing, no one yet knowing the damage wrought by sudden flood

Reference: The Mill River Flood of May 1874, in Williamsburg, Leeds Massachusetts

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Mill River Flood (Williamsburg)

No voice left from the frantic run, Robert Loud resorted to sticks, catching the attention of Williams Adams, who saw what was coming and lost his life, crossing the water to warn his sons and wife, and Loud never recovered, neither

Reference: The Mill River Flood of May 1874, in Williamsburg, Leeds Massachusetts

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Mill River Flood (Williamsburg)

Twenty feet, and rising, a hungry river feeds on debris, a diet of mills and homes, and keeps roaring its way along the path, leaving little of the present behind nor the past

Reference: The Mill River Flood of May 1874, in Williamsburg, Leeds Massachusetts

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Mill River Flood

What saved the Hills and the Hannums in their house that day was perhaps the water itself, strong currents pushing two downed trees around the building as barrier, dividing the flood like a monstrous Moses made of fluid and strength, parting the waters around the people like some whimsical god

Reference: The Mill River Flood of May 1874, in Williamsburg, Leeds Massachusetts

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Mill River Flood: 8:00 am

Hard to even imagine what Eugene Davis saw as he stood there, watching the storm of flood approaching – it wasn’t water he saw - it was a tornado of brush, trees and trash; of boards, timbers and buttons; but, he said, not water, not yet, anyway, only a deluge of lost things, twenty feet high, and rising

Reference: The Mill River Flood of May 1874, in Williamsburg, Leeds Massachusetts

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Mill River Flood: 9:00 am

As is too often the case, the suddenly surged river had a mind all of its own

And luck, too, played its terrible hand for the people of the village

The West was safe; The East, not

Reference: The Mill River Flood of May 1874, in Williamsburg, Leeds Massachusetts

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