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The Mill River Disaster.
Verdict of the Coroner's Jury.
SPRINGFIELD, July 3. The verdict of the coroner's jury in the Mill River disaster
investigation is published in full in to-night's Springfield Union.
It censures the Legislature for inadequate and defective legislation on the
subject of reservoirs; the mill owners for their parsimonious disregard of life
and property; the engineers for ambiguous and inefficient specifications; the
contractors for manifest delinquencies and want of thoroughness in their work,
and finally the County Commissioners for accepting a dam so shabbily built,
when they had the power to order its entire reconstruction.
"A full and Graphic Account of the Terrible Mill River Disaster, in Hampshire
County, Mass., May 16, 1874, with Full Details of the Loss of Life and Property
at Williamsburg, Skinnerville, Haydenville and Leeds."
The above is the title of a nicely printed 48 page pamphlet published by Geo.
H. Wood." For sale at the News Room by A.F. P. Conant, agent for its sale
in this village. |
(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
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The coroner's inquest investigated the cause of the Mill River flood deaths. A jury of prominent men from Hampshire County called 42 witnesses, including the principals involved in the construction of the Williamsburg dam (which broke and caused the flood) as well as professional engineers knowledgeable in dam construction. The jury deliberated for several weeks and reached this verdict which assessed blame on all of the parties involved in the dam's design, construction, and operation. But the verdict's breadth was also its weakness; it spread the blame so thinly that it stuck to no one. There were no indictments and no civil suits. In 1874, the flood was the deadliest dam failure in the U.S.
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"The Mill River Disaster" article from the Journal of Industry newspaper
publisher Journal of Industry |
date Jul 11, 1874 |
location Orange, Massachusetts |
height 5.75" |
width 2.5" |
process/materials printed paper, ink |
item type Periodicals/Newspaper |
accession # #L05.006 |
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