At the Hampden Park Watering Trough. Convent of Notre Dame         Women wrung their hands, and wept and shrieked. “Mikey’s gone, Mikey’s gone!” one would cry. “Oh, I shall never see John any more!” sobbed another, while the exclamation of still another is remembered to have run in this wise: “Oh my husband is in there! He’s in there—and me with my seven children—what am I going to do?” The High Street Sprinkling Cart. The stream seemed full of men, and everybody thought they had some friend buried there. But the waters gradually subsided. And friends were found all safe and peace was restored. The flow of water from above having been stopped by the closing of the gates in the morning, The Soldier’s Monument, Hampden Park. Oliver Street, From High the water had pretty much run out from the channel below, leaving the river very shallow and slow; so when, toward evening, a sudden, muddy flood, filled with timbers and debris, came sweeping down from the north, the towns and villages along the stream were filled with alarm and curiosity, and each farmer made haste to hitch his horse into his wagon and to take the up-valley road to examine into the cause. A telegram was sent to Springfield, informing them there was a "big freshet coming," and the railroad did a heavy business that evening bringing up the sightseers.        This disaster was a hard blow to the hopes of the company which built the dam, but they at once went to work on a new one. If the first attempt had not brought success, it had at least given valuable experience. The new structure was made immensely massive and solid. Timbers one foot square were used, laid in tiers across each other, bolted together, and the whole structure was firmly bedded and bolted at the bottom, four feet into the solid rock. Its lower face had a verticlal height of thirty feet, and it had a very long slant up stream, its base having a breath of eighty feet. The slope of the dam was covered with six-inch plank, bolted to the timbers, and the ridge capped with heavy iron plates. The total length of the structure was over 1,000 feet, and it rendered available a water privilege of 20,000 horse power. Previous Page | Contents | Next Page | HolyokeMass.com | Hampden County Page | | Western Mass History & Genealogy | © Laurel O’Donnell 1996 - 2006, all rights reserved This document may be downloaded for personal non-commercial use only and may not be reproduced or distributed without permission in any format. This is an edited adaptation from the original publication.