wreckage near Franklin street, then passing through the break below the Presbyterian church he was carried up the Stonycreek. On Saturday he was found on Somerset street, his flesh badly torn, almost blinded by sand and lime and otherwise seriously injured. By reason of rings and jewelry found in the morgue it is certain that Mrs. Shumaker's body was recovered, but it is not known where it was buried. Although every body in the unknown plot was disinterred, none proved to be hers. Mrs. Levergood, relict of Jacob Levergood, Sr., aged seventy-eight years, her daughter Lucy, and Mrs. Buck, a lady over seventy years of age, were in the Levergood brick residence at the corner of Bedford and Vine streets, in the direct channel of the second break from the Little Conemaugh to the Stonycreek. The house crumbled in an instant and all were carried away. Mrs. Levergood's body was found in Sandyvale cemetery, sitting in the same chair in which she had been at the moment the flood reached her; Mrs. Buck's was also found at Sandyvale, lodged in a tree; while Miss Lucy's body had been recovered and taken to Prospect Hill, where it was identified. In the case of these three bodies from the same house, two were found up the Stonycreek and the third near the Stone bridge. During the first four or five days it was impossible to estimate the number of people lost by the flood, although the daily papers had rated it as high as 15,000 souls. The first ef fort to establish a system to ascertain this fact was made by the Moxham committee on Saturday forenoon, when they opened an office on Adam street and requested every person to report those saved and lost. Other methods were soon improvised to facilitate the undertaking, and within a week it was generally admitted that the loss would not exceed 5,000 people. The committee on inquiry, the committee on $10 a head distribution, and the department under General Hastings made other canvasses, and by July decided that the loss would not exceed 2,500, although the bureau of information organized by Colonel John I. Rodgers, of Philadelphia, closed its work on the 24th of July, reporting that 6,111 people were unaccounted for of whom at least 6,000 had perished. This statement, made almost two months after the flood, as the result of careful, intelligent and earnest work, was far from being correct. It is a fact that the exact number of lives lost will never be known, for the reason that some families, especially of the foreign element who were not well acquainted, were entirely wiped out, and the number reported in the same, although procured from the best sources, was at the best guesswork. There were also strangers and visitors here unaccounted for. But there are two statements which are believed to be as near correct as it is possible to make it. The first one was prepared by J. B. Kremer, secretary of Governor Beaver's Flood Commission, which is as follows: MORTUARY REPORT OF THE FLOOD AT JOHNSTOWN, MAY 31, 1889. Half orphans, under 21 years, lost father. 198 311 156 98 Total Whole families lost ... 565 99 BURIED IN THE PUBLIC PLOT OF THE COMMISSION AT GRAND VIEW After Mr. Kremer's report had been made other names were found to be among the missing, when the Tribune undertook to make another canvass of those lost on the principle of procuring the name of every one who had been lost. Under this system there were 2,205 names of persons who had lost their lives, but many of them were not found, and many of them were found but were not identified. The result of this inquiry is as below: Those buried in family lots in Grandview Cemetery.. Those in the Unknown Plot, but were identified. .114 663 CHAPTER XXI. THE MEDICAL PROFESSION. It seems paradoxical that a physician should locate in this county while it was still a wilderness with very few people. However, such was the case, for Dr. Francis came to Ebensburg in 1796, although it is uncertain how long he remained there. He and his wife walked from Philadelphia in company with George Roberts and his little colony, who were about two months on the journey. In the year 1800 it is evident there was none in the Indian village of Conemaugh, or Johnstown, as we find from the book of original entry of John Horner that he paid Jacob Good fifteen shillings in state currency "for going to Greensburg to the Dockter." From his time until 1820 is the dark age in the profession, as there is no evidence of a resident practitioner unless it be Dr. Francis, of Ebensburg. In that year Dr. Robert Young began to practice in Ebensburg, having studied medicine with Dr. Stewart, of Indiana. Dr. Young married Charlotte Henderson, a sister of Mrs. Moses Canan, about 1824, while living there and they had two children-Samuel, who died in California, and Mary, who died in Oregon. Dr. Young removed to Wyota, Wisconsin, in 1841, dying there about 1850. The next was Dr. Armand Aristide Rodrigue, who located in Ebensburg in 1839, only to remain there until 1847, when he moved to Hollidaysburg. He was born in Philadelphia, August 10, 1810, and married Ann Caroline Bellas, of Sunbury. Being the attendant physician to Rev. Dr. Gallitzin in his last illness, the dying man gave him a Greek cross, which is represented as made from the wood of the true cross and had an authenticated history in the eyes of the Gallitzin family. The cross is now in possession of Hugh Bellas Rodrigue, of Pittsburgh. In 1855 Dr. Rodrigue moved to Lecompton, Kansas, as a Free State advocate and there was an aide to John Brown. He died in Kansas, June 11, 1857. Ebensburg had two other physicians about this time: Dr. David Lewis, who was there until about 1862, died subsequently in Pittsburgh; and Dr. William A. Smith, who was there in the forties. |