Josiah Allen of Deerfield, Massachusetts, heard the news of the Mill River flood in church the next day. That afternoon, his neighbors readied their teams of horses and oxen to drive them to the stricken region where they would be used to pull away flood debris such as trees, roofs, and boulders, so that men could search for bodies. His son Ed volunteered (like thousands of others) two days later to search and clear wreckage. Since the disaster occurred during planting season, Mr. Allen had to continue his farm chores of planting and weeding. When the Williamsburg, Massachsuetts, reservoir dam broke on May 16, 1874, the Mill River flooded a valley lined with factories and farms and killed 139, making it the deadliest dam failure in the U.S. at the time.
Allen, Josiah. Page from Josiah Allen diary regarding Mill River Disaster Flood. May 17, 1874. Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, American Centuries. https://americancenturies.org/collection/l05-005/. Accessed on October 16, 2024.
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