Date of Award
12-22-2023
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
History
First Advisor
Nathan Tye
Committee Members
Carol Lilly; David Vail; Linda Van Ingen
Keywords
disaster;financial relief;Johnstown;Johnstown Flood;relief work;South Fork
Abstract
On May 31, 1889, the South Fork dam ruptured, and the resulting wall of water pummeled through the small town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, killing over 2,000 people. The cause was negligence by the dam’s proprietors at the South Fork Fishing & Hunting Club. As bodies lay scattered throughout the Conemaugh Valley and Johnstown sat nearly twenty-feet deep in mud and debris, two questions arose: What relief work should be done to restore Johnstown? And how should this relief be financed? Lack of resources and the urgency of the work created a chaotic atmosphere in which constantly shifting procedures and disputes of authority were the norm. When the state of Pennsylvania took control of the relief work and financial management of relief funds on June 12 locals in Johnstown were forced to watch outsiders manage the rebuilding of their town while donated funds sat in the state’s bank for months on end. Much of the historiography has presented the relief work in a neat and simple package. This research returns the immediacy and chaos of the relief work to the narrative. In doing so, it seeks to return humanity to the locals and relief workers in Johnstown who persevered through the chaos and accomplished insurmountable tasks amidst the wreckage and death left by the flood. This thesis explores the relief work of Johnstown in three parts: an overview of the flood and its causes, a catalogue of the physical labor carried out in Johnstown, and a timeline of the management of the flood financial relief.
Recommended Citation
Marze, Carly N., "“Storm of Insanity”: The Chaotic Nature of Relief Work and Financial Compensation Following the Johnstown Flood of 1889" (2023). History Theses, Dissertations, and Student Creative Activity. 41.
https://openspaces.unk.edu/hist-etd/41