Artisan to Abolitionist Part 3 The Johnstown Flood of 1889

   After the death of her husband (my 3 times great Grandfather James), Charlotte stayed in their hometown, Johnstown, PA. She continued to live in the family home that had served as a station in the Underground Railroad. 

  From looking through many census years, Charlotte moved around in Johnstown and stayed with some of her children as she aged. Most of the homes were in the downtown area.  There are records that show Charlotte and James' sons went into the painting and wallpaper business like their father and had shops and businesses in downtown Johnstown.  One grandson took it a bit further and made stained glass using James' formulas for pigments. 

  While spending her senior years in Johnstown, Charlotte lived through one the top 10 most devastating disasters in our country's history. It was one of the worst for the state of Pennsylvania. The Johnstown Flood of 1889. 

   Johnstown, the hometown of James and Charlotte, was about 50 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, in the Allegheny Mountains. Stoney Creek and the Little Conemaugh River meet in Johnstown. About 14 miles upstream the Little Conemaugh divides into the North Fork and the South Fork. Pennsylvania built The South Fork Dam in the 1830s along the South Fork of the Conemaugh River. The building of the reservoir was to hold back water to run the local canals. By the 1850s the need for the canal system had diminished with the replacement of the railroad, which in turn there was no longer a need for the reservoir. Before the reservoir was sold there were reports that the overflow pipes for the dam were sold for scrap. This was not a good sign of things to come.

  In 1881 the reservoir was sold to wealthy railroad, steel and coal executives to turn into the "South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club". Some of the membership in this club were the rich and famous like Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, Philander Knox and Andrew Mellon. The Club had sixty or so members who built a clubhouse, cottages, stables, and boat houses. They held regattas on the lake and hunted on the grounds. They made modifications to keep the fish from escaping the lake by putting screens across the spillways. With these modifications they now had no way of controlling the water levels of the reservoir.  They also widened the road over the dam so that it would accommodate two carriages side by side. What they did not do was maintain the dam. While the Club owned the reservoir there were incidents of cracks and leaks, and no one at the Club enlisted an engineer to check out the condition of the Dam or did they make any solid permanent repairs.

Cottages at the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club

The cities and towns along the river were use to floods. When you build a city on the banks of a creek or river you know the chances of flooding are great. They have had bad floods in the past and to them past  floods were just water filled streets and some flooding of lower levels of buildings. On May 31, 1889 after several days of heavy rains of 6-10 inches, and the water level in the reservoir raising a foot an hour, the water started going over the dam and then the dam let go. Fourteen miles up river from Johnstown where the dam was located men traveled with a warning of flood on horseback and by telegraph. The warnings were not taken as being more serious than the normal floods they were use to.

  The book by Willis Fletcher Johnson written 1889, titled "History of The Johnstown Flood" has a very descriptive few paragraphs written by a gentlemen named Jacob Reese.   It reads:

  How so marvelous a force was exerted is illustrated in the following statement from Jacob Reese, of Pittsburgh, the inventor of the basic process for manufacturing steel. Mr. Reese says:—

“When the South Fork Dam gave way, 16,000,000 tons of water rushed down the mountain side, carrying thousands of tons of rocks, logs and trees with it. When the flood reached the Conemaugh Valley it struck the Pennsylvania Railroad at a point where they make up the trains for ascending the Allegheny Mountains. Several trains with their locomotives and loaded cars were swept down the valley before the flood wave, which is said to have been fifty feet high. Cars loaded with iron, cattle, and freight of all kinds, with those mighty locomotives, weighing from seventy to one hundred tons each, were pushed ahead of the flood, trucks and engines rolling over and over like mere toys.

“Sixteen million tons of water gathering fences, barns, houses, mills and shops into its maw. Down the valley for three miles or more rushed this mighty avalanche of death, sweeping everything before it, and leaving nothing but death and destruction behind it. When it struck the railroad bridge at Johnstown, and not being able to force its way through that stone structure, the débris was gorged and the water dammed up fifty feet in ten minutes.

“This avalanche was composed of more than 100,000 tons of rocks, locomotives, freight cars, iron, logs, trees and other material pushed forward by 16,000,000 tons of water falling 500 feet, and it was this that, sliding over the ground, mowed down the houses, mills and factories as a mowing machine does a field of grain. It swept down with a roaring, crushing sound, at the rate of a mile a minute, and hurled 10,000 people into the jaws of death in less than half an hour. And so the people called it the avalanche of death.”

Citizens ready for the clean up in Johnstown

What was missing from Mr Reese's writing was the addition of humans. The "avalanche" of water as he called it was also filled with men, women and children. The citizens of the towns between the dam and Johnstown were also swept down the river, in there homes or businesses, some in trains or just swept from the streets. There were accounts of bystanders up on higher ground watching this disaster as it happened. These bystanders heard the screaming of the people riding this wave clinging to life on trees or roof tops all the time the bystanders were helpless to rescue them.

All the family members in this house survived the flood.

When the water reached Johnstown it split and met at the joining of Stone Creek and the Little Conemaugh and turned into a whirring torrent of water where bystanders could see people swirling several times in front of them, seeing the same people on their side of the bank over and over again. Once they finally arrived at the Railroad bridge that stopped the 100,000 tons of debris a new horror happened. With all the lumber, and fuel the debris ignited and those who survived the wild ride were then killed in an inferno.

This is the stone railroad bridge where all the debris was stopped and caught fire.

The stories that were told of the days, weeks and months after the flood are heart braking and uplifting. The number of dead was 2209 with over 750 not being able to be identified and buried in unmarked graves in a special section of a Johnstown Cemetery. There were articles in some newspapers, examples below, with descriptions of the unidentified victims to see if even their shoes or clothing would help in the identification. 

 

            

These articles are the gut wrenching to me.

 

The Plot of the Unknown in Grandview Cemetery

Some facts that were published about this flood:

• 99 entire families were killed including 396 children.
• 124 women and 198 men were widowed
• Bodies were found 400 miles away in Cincinnati
• Bodies were found from the flood up into the year 1911
• 1600 homes were destroyed
• 4 square miles of Johnstown were destroyed
• Clara Barton the founder of the America Red Cross arrived on June 5th to Johnstown for the first major peace time disaster relief effort for the American Red Cross.
• More than 750 victims were buried at the Plot of the Unknown in Grandview Cemetery.

Below is a link to a YouTube video called "The Johnstown Flood- What it looks like 131 years later." by Chris of Mobileinstinct. He does a good job of touring the site of the flood. You will have to cut and paste the link on your search bar. 

https://youtu.be/uCALCe3-lhk

 At the time of the flood my 3 times Great Grand Mother Charlotte Heslop was living with her son in the Johnstown downtown district on Vine Street. She was in the home when the water hit the city and was one of the lucky citizens to survive.  She did have to be rescued from the home by raft, but there was no information on what condition the house was in, if it was on its foundation, or where in the house she was rescued from. When researching her husband James I found that his grave and many graves of the soles that were resting in the Sandyvale Cemetery in Johnstown no longer had head stones because they were washed away by the flood. 

Charlotte moved to Middleport, Ohio in September of 1893, where she lived with her Daughter Mary and Eli Russell, my  Great, Great Grandparents. She fell shortly after the move and broke both hip bones. She died on November 4, 1895. Charlotte was a charter member of the Episcopal Church in Johnstown when it was organized in 1836. She was brought back to Johnstown to be interned near her husband in Sandyvale Cemetery.

The Sandyvale Cemetery is now called the Sandyvale Memorial Gardens. There have been three major floods in Johnstown, 1899, 1936 and 1977 and less than 200 gravestones remain from the estimated 6000 burials. Many people had been re-interred to other cemeteries on higher ground. The flood of 1936 destroyed all the records so, there was no way to place any of the headstones on the proper graves. The last burial in the cemetery was in 1977. At the Sandyvale Memorial Gardens all the remaining headstones displaced by all three floods are now assembled in a group of Memorial Beds next to the Sandyvale Trail. A sign/marker in Sandyvale reads, "Interred here in Sandyvale are Abolitionists: William Slick, Benhamin Slick, John Cushon, James and Charlotte Heslop.

The Memorial Bed of the displaced headstones. 

I have found no trace of my Grandparents home that they used for the Underground railroad and my assumption is that by the time it would have been labeled as a historic site, the house was no longer standing and could have even been destroyed by any of the flood. 

I hope you enjoyed the history of my amazing 3 times grandparents, and that you will look further into the history of the Underground Railroad and the Johnstown Flood of 1889. There are so many individual stories on the flood that are so amazing and stories of the brave men and women that fought for the end of slavery before the Civil War. 

Artisan to Abolitionist: Part 2, The Underground Railroad

When we last left our Heroes James and Charlotte Heslop, James retired from the wallpaper and painting business in Johnstown, PA in 1853. In a book about the History of Cambria County, PA this is how they started the section on James and Charlotte Heslop and their retirement years. "During the several years immediately preceding the Civil War he (James) took an earnest part in the general agitation of the slavery question, and arrayed himself clearly and firmly on the side of those who bitterly opposed it. Indeed he was one of the rankest Abolitionists in all the region, and held in utter contempt any measure; that tolerated traffic in human beings, white or black."

The Heslop's political leanings were first with the Whig party and when the Whig party collapsed  in 1854 they joined the anti- slavery Republican party. The Heslop's used their comfortable home as a station on the Underground railroad and they were conductors. They would hide runaway slaves in the attic of their home, an abandoned mine on their land and in a cellar dug under the horse stable. The door of the cellar was under the horse stall covered by hay and the horses.  

It was a dangerous business to hide fugitive slaves. Pennsylvania was the first free state north of the Mason Dixon line and bordered the slave state of Maryland. With the passing of the National Fugitive Slave Acts in 1793 and 1850 requiring free states to return fugitive slaves, and the later act requiring officials to assist in the recapture of fugitive slaves, it made their work even more dangerous. The Act also established a six month prison term and $1000 fine for anyone assisting the fugitive slaves. That didn't stop the Abolitionist community in Johnstown from protecting runaways by joining the Underground railroad in defiance of the laws. This came with personal risks for the individuals that were conductors of the railroad with the state being barraged with slave catchers where no home was safe from their searching parties with the law on their side. They were brazen in their pursuit and would raid private homes and property and even offer compensation for information on the location of the fugitive slave. They would also kidnap free black citizens and take them back to their states and sell them into slavery. James and Charlotte's home was frequently visited and searched by slave hunters, but not one was ever found or taken while at their station. They would aid, feed and house fugitive slaves and then send them safely to more friendly regions north where the slave hunters would not follow.

 

A US map of the many routes taken by slaves to freedom

I found this story in the book of the History of Cambia County, Pennsylvania, by Henry Wilson Storey, published in 1907. The story about my 3 times great grandparents is a testament as to how strong their abolitionist convictions were, especially Charlotte, and was told with a bit of humor on a subject that is not in the least bit humorous.

HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.

After the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, which was substantially done in the famous compromise of 1850, an incident occurred in Johnstown which discloses strong conviction and decision of character, with a beautiful sentiment expressed by Mrs. James Heslop, who as well as her husband was an Abolitionist. An escaping slave had reached this town and had been 
secreted in Cushon's coal bank, under Green Hill, by John Cushon and other agents of the Underground Railroad. Soon thereafter, while Mr. and Mrs. Heslop were sitting in their room on the second floor, a knock was heard at the front door. It was about dusk, and Mr. Heslop, going to the door, became engaged in conversation with the visitor, which continued for some time. Mrs. Heslop, being acquainted with the escape, divined the matter to which the conversation 
related. Going to the top of the stairs she heard the visitor pleading with her husband to tell him where the fugitive was, and offering him twenty-five dollars for the information. Still Mr. Heslop denied any knowledge of the affair. Hearing the offer increased to seventy dollars, she descended the stairway, quietly walked to the door and closed it. In referring to it to a friend she 
mildly said: "I was afraid James might be tempted."

James and Charlotte were conductors on the Underground Railroad until James' death in 1865. He passed a few months after the start of the Civil War. He did not live to see the emancipation of slaves. 

In the next part of Artisans to Abolitionist I will tell the continuing story of Charlotte Heslop in her later years. 

Artisan to Abolitionist Part 1

During my ancestry research I found my 3 times Great Grandparents James Gale and Charlotte Heslop. James was born in 1797 in Lancaster, England and Charlotte was born in 1811 in Burnley, England. James came to America in 1818 and Charlotte came with her parents when she was a little girl. James and Charlotte married in 1829 in Pottsville, PA and moved to Johnstown, PA in 1832.

I am going to start with James Gale Heslop. Because of the time period when James and Charlotte lived, there was so much more information on the men than on the women. James learned the trade of blending and making colors/pigment for painting and staining wallpaper. He was under an apprenticeship in England as a boy/teen and became a gifted artisan at not only blending and making colors, but in his skill of using those colors to stain wallpaper. He made colors for oils, calico prints, and dyes. 

James' skills were so rare that the British government would not let these specific artisans emigrate to America without an impossible to obtain special passport. Even though he was a master of his craft in England he was not compensated well and knew he could make more income in America. His Father, my 4 times Great Grandfather, knew a Captain of a vessel that was sailing to America and the two of them secretly and illegally shipped James as a cabin boy at the age of 21. When they docked at the port in Baltimore the Captain had to find a way to get James off the vessel. He sent James to shore to get him a twist of tobacco and gave him a small sum of money to purchase it. As James was starting to depart, the Captain grabbed his hand, said goodbye, and said quietly in his ear, that he never expected to see him again. James Gale Heslop was now free in America in 1818.

He found work easily in Baltimore and after some time moved to Philadelphia and worked for a manufacturer of wallpaper named Howell Brothers. In 1825 he moved to Pottsville, PA then married Charlotte in 1830, and then in 1832 the couple moved to Johnstown, PA. From 1832 until 1841 James worked for the transportation companies that operated in the region. He was a skillful letterer using his finely mixed colors to paint the names on canal boats, and company names on railroad cars. With the money he made from the transportation companies James opened his own establishment in Johnstown in 1841, at the corner of Vine and Market, staining wallpapers. James used a block of carved wood and with the vegetable or earth colors he applied the stain to strips of wallpaper.

A carved wood stamp from the 1800s.

The back of the stamp.

You can go to the Ron Hazelton link of the Farmers Museum in Cooperstown and see how wallpaper was made in the 1800's. They are using paint for their exhibits so you have to imagine the process that James had to go through first of using  ink, plants, clay, minerals or other earth based items to make his stain colors. You will have to copy and paste the link below into your web browser. It is worth watching.

https://www.ronhazelton.com/projects/how_to_make_wallpaper_by_hand

 It was a crude method compared to how our current wallpaper is made, but he was a man ahead of his time. When the cylinder press was invented and available to him, James had a hand in construction and manipulation of the cylinder press and turned out to not only being a master in making colors and staining, he was also somewhat of a mechanical engineer too. He not only installed the machinery for his former employers at Howell Brothers in Philly, but also for a company in Pittsburgh called James Howard and Company. James Gale Heslop had built quite a reputation in the state of Pennsylvania. In the late 1840's James stopped staining and opened a store on Main Street and became a seller of colors and wallpaper. He retired in 1853.

Not a clear picture, but this is wallpaper from around the 1830s.

During his retirement, before the Civil War, James and Charlotte in their golden years became Abolitionists and a part of the Underground Railroad. Talk about a career change!

To be continued..........

An Armoire Update

 Many years ago we bought our current bedroom furniture. The set included the bed, dresser, nightstands and an armoire that holds a TV. We used all the pieces in our bedroom in two homes in Indiana and one home in Virginia. We used the armoire in our dining room at our previous Texas home for table linens, place mats, seasonal table decorations and chargers. Now, our new home does not have the wall space for the armoire in either the bedroom or the dining room, so I decided to update it and use it in our guestroom.

The beginning of the armoire transformation.

The TV section of the armoire has not been used for a TV in years. I purchased baskets for that section and used them in our old dining room for table decorations. I also covered, with fun fabric, the wood cut out that was for the back opening access for the electronics and held it in place with Velcro.

Baskets replaced the electronics.

Fabric covered wood to cover the hole in the back.

I used Country Grey, (looks tan) Annie Sloan Chalk Paint to paint the armoire. I painted on two coats with a round chalk paint brush. When the paint was dry I finished it with the Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Wax. As I have said before about this wax, you need to use it outside, or in a very well ventilated room. This wax really smells awful.

Two coats done!

I had some left over knobs from our bathroom cabinets and they were just the right touch for this armoire.

The last change to this armoire was something my sister did to her refurbished armoire at her FL home. *Florida has more Armoires per capita than any other state, in my opinion.*😉  My sister put mirrors in the doors, so you can use them as dressing mirrors. My armoire had trim pieces inside the doors that were perfect to set mirrors in. I just measured the space and ordered two cut mirrors from a glass store. You can pick a thickness for the mirrors and that was important to make sure my glass fit level to the trim pieces and that I got the right size mirror clamps. When we installed the mirrors we had to do a little sanding to the trim pieces of the door to make sure we had a tight fit. I didn't even have to touch the paint up because the mirrors covered the sanded spots.

The newly installed mirrors.

The room has a little bird theme going on and so we had to apply a few bird decals for fun. Now the armoire fits the rooms decor and it is functional for our guests.

The updated armoire in its new home

Special Twin Headboards

 Our first child was born in 1984. When we bought her crib back then, we picked a style and color that we thought we could use for all our future babies. A gender neutral crib that worked for all, and it did. This crib is now about 37 years old and I have kept it all these years. Now, my intent at the beginning was to keep it for my grandkids, but safety standards as they are, this crib was way too old and just not safe anymore.  

We built a new home last year and the crib moved with us. The crib would now be re-purposed in our new home as headboards for our guestroom. Instead of the old Queen bed from past homes, I decided to put two twin beds in the guestroom since our grandkids would be using them the most.

The end of our old crib.

I bought a can of Chateau Grey (a sage color) of Annie Sloan chalk paint at a local antique store. This paint is so easy to use, covers without primer and it does not peel. I used the end pieces, head and foot panels of the baby bed, and took all the hardware off before painting. I purchased a large round chalk paint brush from Amazon and it was absolutely the best brush for the job. I painted two coats, and when it was dry the next day, I put Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Wax on the painted headboards. This wax really smells awful and I suggest you do it outside if possible.  When it drys, it protects and leaves the paint with a satin finish.

The crib end painted.

The next step was trying to find the best way to mount the headboards to the wall. We bought some heavy duty metal hangers and put them on the top of both sides of the headboards. We put some heavy anchors and  screws in the wall and hung the headboards onto the screws. 

The heavy hanger I used.

To decorate the headboards I used the pillow shams that came with the quilts I purchased for the beds. I put a pillow in the sham and using sage ribbon that was leftover from my daughters wedding 9 years ago, I attached the ribbon to the shams top corners and tied them to the headboard.

Pillow hung with wedding ribbon.

Now we have two beautiful headboards that are a reminder of our kids as babies, our Daughter's wedding and they can be passed down as a family heirloom.

The finished product

                           

The Power of a Teacher

After an almost two year break, I have started blogging again. This blog is drastically different and will be the only one like it. It is personal. It does not included any photos or funny little antidotes. Just an honest story and a personal voice of gratitude to a former teacher.  

I graduated from High School in Columbus, Ohio in 1978. I am sure you are doing the math, I am 61 years old. I started my school years the same as millions of children do, with great excitement and eager to learn. I loved Kindergarten through 2nd grade, and then my school experience turned South. From the third grade on I was teased and bullied to the point that I would become physically ill in the morning before school.  This of course was in the 1960's and schools were not equipped to address this type of problem, nor unfortunately were my loving parents. They sure did try though. To this day I have a hard time sharing what was said and done to me. This blog is the first time my children have even heard about my experiences. It is a lot easier to write about it than to have a face to face conversation. Unfortunately, the tears still flow.

The title of this blog is to bring attention to the power that teachers have to make a child's school experience positive or negative. I truly believe that there are people that are meant to teach, and those who were not. Here is a case of the latter.  My 5th grade teacher, Mrs. C, definitely soured me on school. I was having so many physical issues with my health due to the bullying, and my parents were taking me to specialists to try to find the problem, and in hindsight counseling was what was needed. But, in the 60s kids were not inclined to complain, or make waves in school.  We would never have spoken badly of our teachers to our parents. We had a healthy respect, and in some cases, fear for both. This was a time when corporal punishment was alive and well in schools. We didn't have special programs to talk about our mental well-being or even understand what bullying was. I am sure that at that time the same could be said for teachers. No special training to identify the signs of a child in emotional distress. Ms. C was an older woman, I would guess in her 50s, and just mean. Mrs. C did not like the fact that I missed so much school, she would talk about me openly in front of the class, berate me, talk to other teachers loudly in the hall about me, keep me in class during recess to make me catch up on work (which alienated me from my classmates), and there were days that she would be just a bit physical by pushing my chair, or bump me as I went past her. It brings tears to my eyes just writing this. What she may not have known, or maybe she intended, is that she fed the fire of all those kids that were already bullying me. She gave them just the encouragement they needed. I was such a small kid and very shy and it really was too much for me to handle. Sixth grade was not any better when I had Mrs. W, Mrs. C's best friend. Although Mrs. W was not physical with me, she was just as verbally abusive.

I moved on to Jr. High with low self esteem, and the same kids moved with me from Elementary School. Better environment, but still not a happy student experience . Then I went to High School. I don't remember the first year I had Mrs. H.B. for Home Economics/Sewing, but to say she was a blessing is an understatement. She was a young teacher, well I was 16ish and thought all teacher were much older, and she made me fall in love with sewing. She was such a great teacher, and she seemed to love the subject matter she was teaching. She paid attention to me, encouraged me, and complimented and displayed my work. She taught me and inspired me. I was not this awkward dorky teenager, I was a budding seamstress. 

That following Summer I worked at the lemon shake stand at the Ohio State Fair for the two weeks the Fair was held. I worked long hours, and had many bee stings, to make the $150 I was paid for the pleasure. My older sister took me to some yard sales and at one I found a portable Singer Sewing Machine for $50 and bought it. I am not sure if that was a good price back then, but it was one of the best purchases of my life.  My Mom was an outstanding seamstress, and she was so proud of me. What 17 year old girl spends her hard earned money on a sewing machine? Well, Me!!

When I went back to school for my Senior year and told Mrs. H.B. She was so supportive and showed so much interest in my special purchase. She encouraged me to do extra projects and I could even take projects home and work on them. We learned other life skills in her class, and I enjoyed those as well, but sewing was a life changer for me. It allowed me to really excel at something I loved doing, in a safe environment, with a teacher that cared. What huge contrast between my 5th grade school experience and my junior and senior years in high school. That was because of Mrs. H.B. 

I have over the years shared these experiences with one of my older sisters and she shared that she too was bullied in School. It is funny that we both kept all that hurt and anger of those years to ourselves until we were in or late 50s and 60s. It just shows that the effects of bullying does not go away after graduation, you carry that all through your life. I remember when my kids started school I made sure that I got involved in their school and education to make sure they had a positive experience. That experience not only helped them, but it helped me gain confidence in myself too. I gained self esteem, held state office in PTA, spoke and held workshops at conventions, and became a parent leader in my community. Yet, there was always that fear, that someone was going to say something critical or hurtful about me and make me feel like that 5th grader all over again. Even when I was a Aide and Secretary in two different Middle Schools, kids would say something about me or call me names. Kids being kids I guess, yet it threw me right back into Elementary school on the playground and classroom with the bullies. I am sure that reaction will never go away.

A positive outcome came after a stay with my sister a few years ago and our conversations about our bullying experiences. During those conversations I told my sister about what a huge impact Mrs H.B. had on me and how I wish I could tell her that. So, after I returned home I got on Facebook to see if I could find Mrs. H.B.. I found someone that had the same name and her profile picture looked just like her, so I sent her a message on Messenger over a year ago asking if she was my High School Home Economics teacher. On March 18, 2021 she replied YES! I wrote back thanking her for her kindness and for how much she helped me in High School. She was so gracious and appreciated me looking her up and letting her know what a positive impact she had on my life. I think everyone should have that conversation with the people that had a positive influence on them.

We shared our bios from 1978 on, and I realized that we still share the love of sewing.  She stopped teaching from 1979 until 1997 and then went back to teaching, but this time in Special Education. That is not surprising to me knowing her kindness and encouragement to me those many years ago. I am sure she was wonderful at her new chosen career, and her students were probably better for having her in their lives. I sure know I was.