HOW SICKNESS WAS PREVENTED AT JOHNSTOWN. 
fcy 
G.G.Groff,M.D. 
in 
Chautauquan Hag. Feb.1890. HOW SICKNESS WAS PREVENTED AT JOHNSTOWN. 
BY GEO. G. GROFF, M. D., LL. D. 
Member of the State Board of Health. 
IN a moment Johnstown, Pa.,was destroyed. 
In less than fifteen minutes, the cruel, 
resistless, destroying wave came and 
passed, having leveled the busy mart which 
supplied the wants of 30,000 people ; and in 
the same brief time, at the very lowest esti- 
mate, 3,000 human beings perished, and 5,000 
more were rendered homeless. Ten million 
dollars worth of property was destroyed, and 
where a few hours before had stood beautiful 
towns and villages, was a desolate waste cov- 
ered with broken houses, furniture, forest 
trees, carcasses of domestic animals, dead 
bodies of human beings, bowlders from the 
mountains, sand, mud, slime, all in inextri- 
cable confusion. It is not possible for pen to 
describe the condition of the Conemaugh 
Valley after the waters receded. 
In some places, as at Woodvale, the whole 
town was obliterated and nothing but a plain 
of clean sand and coarse gravel remained. 
At Franklin, the town disappeared, and the 
river changed its course so as to form a new 
channel where the town had formerly stood. 
At Johnstown, the mighty wave divided into 
three great branches, each of which swept 
forward like a besom of destruction leveling 
every thing in its course. Where on the 
higher ground the houses were not absolutely 
destroyed, they were filled with mud and 
slime, in some cases to the third story ; while 
the yards, streets, and alleys were filled with 
trees, broken timbers, and other debris to the 
second stories. No house which the water 
entered was left fit for human occupancy. 
The mud was everywhere; many human 
bodies had lodged in the cellars, and dead 
horses even were found in the parlors of pri- 
vate residences. At Millville every house, 
except the school-house, was demolished and 
carried off. At Kernville, a great reflex 
wave, twenty feet high, was hurled back 
from the stone bridge, and picking up in its 
course the frame buildings of the inhabitants, 
broke them up, overturned and mixed them 
together in the most complex manner, and 
burying in the wreck hundreds of human 
bodies. Some frame houses, escaping de- 
struction, floated with their occupants prob- 
ably not less than two miles, and then came 
to rest in a secure place, with all the inmates 
saved, but unfortunately this was not often 
the case. 
To give an exact idea of the destruction 
wrought, the State Board of Health made a 
Sanitarj7 Survey in June which reported the 
number of lost and homeless. 
It is very difficult to ascertain the exact 
loss of life. The earliest estimates placed it 
at about 10,000. The Board of Inquiry, after 
a very careful study of the lists of sur- 
vivors, placed the loss at 6,111. Later a 
census taken for a local directory fixed it at 
not less than 3,500. However, less than 3,000 
bodies have been recovered, and though there 
is reported a list of 400 missing it is now 
thought that the loss of life is between 3,000 
and 3,500. Bodies were recovered almost 
daily until December the 1st, when the work 
of searching for them ceased. Yet near the 
close of November, as many as four bodies 
were found in a single day. 
The loss of property as reported by the 
Committee of Inquiry on August 16th, was 
$6,698,887. This is exclusive of private cor- 
porations, borough, school, and church prop- 
erty. If these latter items are included the 
total money loss will not be far from ten mil- 
lion dollars. 
To relieve the unfortunate inhabitants of 
the devastated valley, contributions of food 
and clothing, and medicines began at once to 
flow in from all portions of the world in un- 
precedented volume. The contributions of 
money amounted to about $3,600,000, and are 
still being reported, while of clothing, bed 
clothing, food, medicines, and other neces- 
saries of life to the estimated value of $400,000. 
Organized bodies of men began to arrive 
on Saturday, the day following the disaster. 
They came at first on foot and by private con- 
veyance, until the railroads were re-opened, 
when from all the neighboring cities and 
towns, they came by hundreds and by thou- 
sands. Men and women offered their personal 
services from Maine on the east and from 564 
HO W SICKNESS WAS PRE VENTED A T fOHNSTO WN. 
Kansas on the west. By Saturday night, 
with few exceptions, the survivors had all 
been fed and clothed and put into dry gar- 
ments. There were, however, persons found 
alive in the wreck on the Thursday and Fri- 
dayfollowing the disaster. 
To fully comprehend the cause of so great 
destruction, and the difficulties of the work of 
clearing the wrreck, it is necessary to under- 
stand something of the geography of the re- 
gion. The district which has become known 
to the world as “Johnstown” consists of 
some thirty boroughs and villages along and 
on both sides of the Conemaugh and Stony 
Creek Rivers, and mostly near their junction. 
The total population as determined by a cen- 
sus taken just before the flood was about 
30,000. The population of the flooded vil- 
lages was 26,326. 
The river valley is very narrow and as a 
consequence wherever there was a small 
level spot, there a village sprung up. After 
the flood, the bridges were all gone, and 
the narrow roads connecting the different 
towns were found to be utterly impassable. 
Hence, while the waters remained high, com- 
munication was had with the different places 
with the greatest difficulty, and these diffi- 
culties were increased because the work of 
relief was largely in the hands of strangers 
who could not locate the different places 
when one of them was reported to be in need 
of any thing. This condition of things lasted 
for more than a week and was finally relieved 
by the erection of a number of pontoon 
bridges by the United States Government. 
The cause of the disaster was the breaking 
of a dam on the South Branch of the Cone- 
maugh, and some ten or twelve miles above 
Johnstown, and two miles from South Fork 
village. This dam was constructed of loose 
earth and stones. It was about 400 feet long, 
72 feet high, 72 feet wide at the base, and 20 
feet wide at the top. There wras no stone 
work in the dam, the sides were not protected 
in any way from erosion, it wras simply a 
great embankment of earth. The area cov- 
ered with water was some 500 acres. As a 
safety-valve there was a sluice way on one 
side of the dam. However, after the lapse of 
years men grew careless, the sluice way was 
closed with wire gratings to prevent the es- 
cape of fish in times of high water, and it is 
reported that the center of the dam had set- 
tled a number of feet. Then after nine years 
came the unprecedented rain-fall of May 30 
and 31. For the 24 hours preceding the 
breaking of the dam, this fall equaled 8 
inches, an amount most phenomenal. The 
waters arose, flowed over the breast, and in a 
short time this gave way, with the terrible 
result known to the world. 
Few of the people had ever seen the dam. 
It was in the mountains away from the pub- 
lic highways ; moreover, it was on private 
property, to which the general public did not 
have access. Those who did know its nature 
recognized their danger, but the number of 
these persons was very small, and they did 
not invoke the aid of the law. 
When word was dispatched that the dam 
was breaking, word was sent to Johnstown, 
but there were nineteen other towns in the 
track of the waters also; moreover, at Johns- 
town there was a flood of no less than ten 
feet of water in the streets nearly all of the 
fated day. News could not be sent over the 
town. If it had been sent, the people could 
not have escaped. If the dam had broken at 
a time of low water it would have done com- 
paratively little damage. It had so broken 
once or twice, and this also reassured the 
residents who knew these facts. 
The waters of the flood before the dam 
broke arose to such a height for two reasons; 
(1) The natural narrow channels of the Cone- 
maugh and Stony Creek had been filled up 
with cinders from the iron works and with 
other rubbish ; (2) the waters were impeded at 
the stone railroad bridge which is below the 
junction of the two streams. This bridge is 
built of seven arches, but three of these have 
been filled in with cinders and earth, leaving 
only four arches to transmit the waters. 
Under one of these arches passes a street rail- 
way. On the day of the flood a small log 
boom up the Stony Creek had burst and the logs 
and a dislodged bridge greatly interfered with 
the passage of the waters. It is a fact of in- 
terest, however, that up to the time the dam 
broke, but a single life had been lost in the 
valley by drowning, and this was the result 
of carelessness. 
WORK DONE BY THE STATE BOARD OF 
HEALTH. 
The work of caring for the living and the 
rescuing of dead bodies was at once begun 
by the survivors at Johnstown, and the other 
villages, under the direction of a citizens’ 
committee, aided by the relief corps which 
came in from the surrounding country and HO W SICKNESS WAS PRE VENTED A T JOHNSTO WN 
565 
towns. Later, the direction of affairs passed 
into the hands of the Pittsburgh Relief Com- 
mittee, but finally all the work of relief was 
turned at once to the state, under the direc- 
tion of the State Board of Health. On June 7 
Johnstown and vicinity was declared a nui- 
sance prejudicial to the public health, and 
sanitary work was formally undertaken by 
the state and continued until October 12, 
during which time from 500 to 3,000 men and 
several hundred teams were employed at a to- 
tal expense to the state of about $400,000. 
As the State Board of Health receives but 
$2,000 a year from the legislature for sanitary 
work, it became necessary for the Governor 
to secure the large sums needed, which he 
did with promptness. The work of clearing 
away the wreck was done under the direction 
of the Adjutant-General of the state who 
acted as the Governor’s agent. 
In the course of this work the state as- 
sumed the recovery, care, and burial of the 
dead. This work was done with great care 
and propriety. All carcasses of domestic an- 
imals, estimated at 2,000, were burned as soon 
as possible. Free transportation was fur- 
nished to all flood sufferers who desired to 
leave the place for a time, and to hundreds 
who came to labor in the different relief 
corps. All the debris, trees, houses, logs, 
etc., encumbering the streets, was removed in 
the search for dead bodies, as also much of 
the sand and mud, which in places was from 
six to ten feet deep. The mud was also 
cleaned off lots where numbers of dead bodies 
were lodged. Great quantities of disinfect- 
ants were constantly used wherever it was 
thought they would be of value. On one day 
orders were given for $10,000 worth of disin- 
fectants. Numerous depots were established 
in every devastated district for the tree dis- 
tribution of these disinfectants, and for the 
instruction of the people in their use. Their 
liberal use was of great value in re-assuring 
the people that something was being done for 
their preservation. 
About one hundred public privies were 
built and daily disinfected. These when 
abandoned were thoroughly cleansed and the 
pits disinfected. All the camps of citizens, 
laborers, and soldiers were daily inspected 
and kept in good sanitary condition. The 
water supply of the whole district was kept 
under daily surveillance and frequent analyses 
were made. Dangerous wells and springs 
when discovered were closed. About 1,300 
cellars were cleaned and disinfected. It was 
at first thought that the citizens could do this 
themselves, but later the state undertook the 
work. Many dead bodies were found in cel- 
lars. The beds of the rivers were dredged 
and cleansed to an extent sufficient to permit 
the sewers to discharge freely. The mouths 
of many of these had been silted shut. The 
peace of the region was maintained by sev- 
eral companies of the National Guards of 
Pennsylvania. The number of these men 
present varied from 400 to 100. These re- 
lieved the district of the necessity of large 
bodies of local police. For one month all liq- 
uor licenses were suspended, and during this 
time the order in the whole region was nearly 
perfect. This much cannot be said after the 
sale of intoxicants again was permitted. 
A careful and exhaustive sanitary survey 
of the whole devastated region was made at 
an early date after the disaster. This survey 
showed for each house not destroyed, the 
number of rooms in the house, the number of 
families in it, number of males, females, and 
of children; the condition of the cellar, 
kitchen, living rooms ; the source, condition, 
and amount of the water supply ; the drain- 
age, the privy, yard, stable, and surround- 
ings of the house. 
Some of the statistics of this survey may 
here prove interesting. There were found 
2,665 houses remaining in a habitable con- 
dition or soon to be re-occupied ; 18,602 per- 
sons were found living in the devastated dis- 
trict against 26,326 before the flood, a loss of 
7,724. The rooms to each house averaged 
5.2 ; people to each house, 6.8 ; people to a 
room, 1.3. The minimum number of rooms 
to a house was 4.2 in Conemaugh. The max- 
imum number of people to a house wras 8.4 in 
Moxham, and the minimum in Ninevah, 4.9. 
Neither of these places suffered in the flood. 
The minimum number of people to a room 
was .8 in Ninevah, and the maximum 1.6 in 
Woodvale. It was believed that most of the 
people were supplied with mountain water 
drawn from the hydrants, but the survey 
showed 1,783 houses supplied with hydrant 
water, 671 with well water, and 211 with 
spring water. It may be remarked that most 
of the sickness during the summer was among 
those who used the water from wells and 
springs. Four hundred eighty-one cellars 
needed immediate cleaning, and 253 privies 
were found in a very bad condition. The 
number of sick persons found was 193 or only 566 
HO IV SICKNESS WAS PRE VENTED A T JOHNS TO WN. 
one percent of the population. Of these cases, 
54 were measles and 7 consumption. Only 
three cases of nervous prostration were dis- 
covered by the inspectors while making this 
survey. The whole showing of the survey 
after the great exposure is certainly wonder- 
ful. At one time, a few days after the flood, 
there were actually more physicians present 
from a distance than there were patients ; but 
at that time, people who had been sick for 
weeks were walking about as though well, 
the intense mental strain keeping them up. 
The wrhole region was divided into ten dis- 
tricts and over each of these a local physician 
was placed as inspector. He reported daily 
and was given to understand that he was held 
responsible for the general good health of his 
district. There was also an inspector of camps 
and of morgues and burial places. These, 
too, reported daily. The inspectors reported 
each night the need of food, clothing, shelter, 
medicines, and medical attention, if such ex- 
isted, and each received early the next morning 
his orders for the day. In this way, the State 
Board of Health knew each evening the ex- 
act condition of affairs in the valley. Not- 
withstanding the assurances given to the 
press that the general health was excellent 
and no signs of any epidemic sickness could 
be discerned by the Board of Health, a num- 
ber of daily journals, which had a largecircu- 
lation in the region, published very exagger- 
ated accounts of the sickness present, and 
that the whole region was threatened with 
pestilence which doubtless would follow the 
flood. These statements appearing for sever- 
al days, and each time in a more exaggerated 
form; the people were becoming alarmed, and 
it became necessary to issue bulletins from 
time to time, which stated the exact condition 
of the public health. After a few of these 
had been issued, the papers ceased their dan- 
gerous course. 
Besides the health bulletins the Board is- 
sued from time to time circulars of informa- 
tion to the people, giving them instruction as 
to what should be done to preserve health in 
the great emergency. These were kindly re- 
ceived, and the directions generally followed 
so far as was found practical. 
The country below Johnstown also needed 
protection, and for this purpose the river was 
patrolled on both banks down to the Ohio 
line. The drift piles were torn open, human 
bodies were rescued, and the carcasses of do- 
mestic animals were burned. The work of 
the state was completed by the commission 
which the Governor appointed to distribute 
the vast sum of money which had come from 
all portions of the world for the sufferers. This 
last work was a most difficult one, and has 
not yet, December 1, 1889, been completed. 
AIDS TO THE STATE WORK. 
In the work above enumerated, the state re- 
ceived great aid from the citizens of Johnstown 
who forgetting the loss of property and 
friends, fell bravely to work to re-establish 
their homes ; also Irom the thousands who 
came in the relief corps ; the railroads, the 
Western Union Telegraph Company, the 
manufacturers of disinfectants, the United 
States Government, by sending its pontoon 
bridges and disinfectants, the State of Ohio, 
by sending tents for those without shelter, 
the Health Departments of Pittsburgh and 
Allegheny, the Children’s Aid Society of 
Pennsylvania, by caring for all orphans, and 
especially by the Red Cross Association 
which at all times stood ready to care for the 
sick and suffering. The writer in behalf of 
the State Board of Health cannot commend 
too highly this society to all who may desire 
to relieve the suffering ; except for its agents 
at Johnstown, there would have been much 
more suffering than there was. 
THE RESULT. 
It is the province of a Board of Health so to 
modify unsanitary conditions, as to preserve 
in so far as this is possible, the general good 
health of the people. In the Conemaugh val- 
ley, to this date, this work has been accom- 
plished to an eminent degree. Although ty- 
phoid fever, diphtheria, and measles, existed 
before the flood, these diseases never spread 
and never became epidemic. Even the sick- 
ness which would reasonably have been ex- 
pected to appear from the great exposure to 
wet and cold, and from great mental strain, 
appeared in many less cases than was antici- 
pated. Some of the worst cases of sickness 
occurring in the valley during the past sum- 
mer were in the villages which were not dev- 
astated. The people were crowded, not all 
well sheltered, subject to the changes of diet 
and to great distress, and yet bore up under 
it all most bravely. 
From the standpoint of the sanitarian, and 
from the experiences at Johnstown, what are 
LESSONS FOR THE FUTURE. THE POETRY OF THE CIVIL WAR. 
567 
the matters to receive attention when great 
national calamities have occurred ? These 
may come from pestilence, fire, earthquakes, 
floods, famine, war. 
In the past, pestilence too often has fol- 
lowed these great calamities of the human 
race. To-day sanitary science stands ready 
to prevent pestilence. How? i. The whole 
region must be divided into convenient dis- 
tricts and over each a competent sanitarian 
(best a local physician) must be placed, and 
he must be held accountable for the general 
health of his own district. He must report 
daily the condition and needs of the people in 
his district, and not fail to note the need of 
food, clothing, shelter, and medical attend- 
ance, if such need exists. 2. The dead must 
be gathered and buried as speedily as possi- 
ble. For the purpose of future identification 
careful descriptions should be taken, and the 
bodies buried in their own clothes, that iden- 
tification may be practical on disinterment. 
Morgues and burial places must be in charge 
of a competent sanitary inspector. 3. A lib- 
eral supply of disinfectants should be ordered 
at once, and freely used, even early after the 
disaster. The moral effect of disinfectants is 
good. 4. The drinking water should be ex- 
amined at once, and kept under constant sur- 
veillance. At such times polluted waters can- 
not be tolerated. 5. The district may be par- 
tially depopulated, by offering free transpor- 
tation to the women and children. 6. The 
sewers, if in a town, must be carefully exam- 
ined, and if closed, must be opened, and if 
possible flushed out, else foul gases escaping 
may seriously pollute the atmosphere. Priv- 
ies and water closets must be built and daily 
inspected and disinfected. 7. A careful and 
systematic sanitary survey of each house in the 
district should be made, and all in an unsan- 
itary condition condemned, and the owners 
be compelled to purify them. It may be neces- 
sary to remove temporarily the whole popu- 
lation from the town to a more healthful lo- 
cation ; in which case, the people should be 
sheltered in tents. The camp should be laid 
out in military style, and must be under the 
daily inspection of a competent sanitarian. 
8. Health bulletins and circulars of informa- 
tion from time to time may be issued to re- 
assure the people and to direct them in doing 
those things which will best preserve the 
general health. 9. Hospitals must be estab- 
lished at once, and at least one hospital for 
contagious diseases, all cases of which should 
be isolated at once when discovered. All 
physicians in the district should report daily 
all their cases to the health department. 
10. The Board of Health must be prepared to 
meet every emergency as it may arise. To 
be thus prepared it should have at its dis- 
posal, men, money, and medical stores with- 
out stint. 
THE POETRY OF THE CIVIL WAR. 
NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN. 
by maurice Thompson. 
down to the fine lyrics of Whittier, Tenny- 
son, and Beranger, the tender passion has 
found a place close beside the dark and terrible 
instinct of fight. As a rule song birds are a 
pugnacious race, half their lives given over 
to melodious wrangling. It is a large part 
of the value of imagination that it preserves 
the picturesque at all hazards and by any 
means. If genius cannot fight, it will feign 
fight and simulate all the intense passion and 
savage emotion of the hero who rushes to 
battle for mere love of slaughter. If the poet 
cannot love, he will assume the role of lover 
and outdo the lustiest swain in the world bel- 
lowing of jealousy or whining of despair, all 
on account of some imaginary Barbary Allen 
or Annie Laurie. In a word, to love and to 
IN one of his essays Emerson says, ‘ ‘ If 
your subject do not appear to you the 
flower of the world at this moment, you 
have not rightly chosen it.” In time of great 
popular excitement when the blood of the 
people is at fever heat, the poet’s imagina- 
tion is apt to choose rightly. It is said that 
all the w’orld loves a lover ; but the thought 
is not fully rounded without adding that all 
the world doubly loves a good fighter. When 
the imagination is highly wrought, the fight- 
ing humor is not far away ; love and war 
touch elbows as they walk. Love songs and 
war songs are very closely related and are 
found associated in every literature of the 
world. From the songs of the old Bible