History of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, USA

Johnstown, a post-town, the largest of Cambria county, Pennsylvania, is situated at the confluence of Conemaugh river with Stony creek, on the Pennsylvania railroad, and at the W. terminus of the Portage railroad, 85 miles E. from Pittsburg. The western division of the Pennsylvania canal extends from this town to Pittsburg. Johnstown has an active business in shipping produce. Four newspapers are published here. Population in 1853, estimated at 2000.

South Fork Dam burst, town of Johnstown destroyed, over 2000 deaths
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The Johnstown disaster occurred, the worst flood tragedy in U.S. history. Heavy rains collapsed the South Fork Dam sending a thirty foot wall of water rushing down the already flooded Conemaugh Valley. The wall of water, traveling as fast as twenty-two feet per second, swept away all structures, objects and people. 2100 persons perished in the flood. (WeatherForYou.com)


TEN THOUSAND DEAD.
THE JOHNSTOWN DISASTER THE GREATEST ON RECORD.
ALMOST BEYOND BELIEF.
OVER A THOUSAND BODIES RECOVERED AT JOHNSTOWN.
A THOUSAND MORE BURNED IN THE DEBRIS.

Vivid Description of the Scenes of Desolation and Death - First Accounts Not Exaggerated, the Difficulty Being to Tell the Whole of the Truth - Hungarians Caught Robbing Bodies and Two are Hanged - Another Shot and Several Driven Into the River and Drowned. Order Restored and Food and Other...

Johnstown, a city of Cambria co, Pa., on the Conemaugh River, and on the Pennsylvania Railroad, at the W. base of the Alleghany Mountains, 39 miles W.S.W. of Altoona, and 78 miles E. by S. of Pittsburg. A branch of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad leads from Rockwood to this city. The city is surrounded by picturesque mountain scenery, and contains, besides other iron industries, the extensive works of the Cambria Iron Company, which give employment to about 8700 men in the manufacture of steel rails and a great variety of other steel products. Johnstown has 2 national banks, a savings-bank, printing-offices which issue 2 daily and 3 weekly newspapers, 16 churches, electric-light plant, electric railway, several tanneries, flour mills, planing-mills, and woollen-mills, also a convent and an academy. Pop. in 1880, 8380; in 1890, 21,805.

Johnstown, Pa., Oct. 25. - An explosion occurred in the Cambria Steel Co.'s coal mine here, in which seven men were killed and two severely injured.

The management of the company says in an official statement:

"By an explosion in the rolling mill mine of the Cambria Steel Co. seven men are dead and two are painfully but not fatally injured. Up to this time only one of the dead has been identified. He is an American-born miner named SAMPSON LUTHER. It is believed the other dead are all foreigners, as also are the two injured."

"The explosion took place in heading No. 29, a considerable distance from the ill-fated Klondike section, where 114 men lost their lives about four years ago. The exact cause is not known, but it is supposed that the gas was fired by the setting off of a blast. All man when found had their safety lamps in proper trim, showing that the accident could not have been caused by neglect in that direction. No damage whatever has been done to the...

Johnstown, a city of Cambria oo., Pa., on the Conemaugh River and on the Pennsylvania and the Baltimore and Ohio Rs., at the W. base of the Alleghany Mountains, 39 miles WSW. of Altoona. The city is surrounded by picturesque mountain-scenery and contains, besides other iron-industries, the extensive works of the Cambria Steel Company, which give employment to nearly 10,000 men in the manufacture of steel rails and a great variety of other steel products. Johnstown has car-works, tanneries, flour and planing-mills, manufactures of wall- and tar-paper, fire brick, paints, enamel-ware, etc., and extensive coal interests. The town was destroyed by a flood, resulting from the breaking of the Conemaugh dam, on May 31, 1889. Upward of 2000 lives were lost in this disaster. Pop. in 1880, 8380 ; in 1890, 21,805 ; in 1900, 35,930. See Conemaugh.

Johnstown, originally the Indian town of Con-ne-maugh, was founded by Joseph Johns, or Schantz, in 1800. It comprised about 249 acres, embracing a large part of what is now the central portion of the city. He erected the first house to be built in the city, a one story log cabin of black walnut.

In 1800 Joseph Johns laid out the village and named it Conemaugh. Later it was known as Shontz's Town, then Johnstown, in honor of its founder.

Joseph Johns, with his sister, Frainie (Veronica), came to this country from Switzerland in 1768 and located in Berks County, where he was married to Frainie Holly. It is a singular fact that Joseph Johns was never a resident of Cambria County, having founded what is now Johnstown when it was a part of Somerset County and having removed from it before Cambria County was regularly constituted. Joseph Johns died on his farm in Somerset County on Jan. 18, 1810, at the age of sixty years. He was of the Amish Mennonite religion.

By the special act...