— 126-132 Blanchard estimated death toll.
Unfortunately the death toll estimates from the sources noted below have a very wide variation. In our view the actual number of deaths is not known. Rather than showing a range of 100 to 350 which the various sources below note, we choose to make a judgement on more probable death-tolls – choosing to rely on the National Weather Service Cleveland Ohio Weather Forecast Office estimate of 126 lives lost for the low end of our estimated death toll range and the NW PA Heritage website and Venango County, PA webpage for the high-end of 132.
— 350 Cranbury Press, NJ. “Fire Rode the Flood,” 6-10-1892, p. 4.*
— 300 Ise, John. The United States Oil Policy. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1926, p. 27.
–150-200 New York Times. “Sad Scenes at Oil City,” 6-8-1892.
— 200 Bryant. Scribner’s Popular History of the United States (Volume V). 1898, p. 618.
— 196 Eastern State Journal, White Plains, NY. “History of 1892.” 12-31-1892, p. 1.
— 156 Listing of fatalities found at end of Newspaper section.
–103 Oil City
— 53 Titusville Fatalities
— 132 NW PA Heritage. “Great Flood and Fire of 1892.” Accessed 2-12-2022.
— >132 Venango County Pennsylvania. “Song of Oil City and Titusville Horror…1892.”
–>60 Oil City (lists 55 by name.)
— 72 Titusville (names 47 in “partial list” of Titusville fatalities.
— 130 Springirth and Weber. Images of Rail. Oil Creek and Titusville Railroad. 2011, p. 17.
— 126 Nat. Weather Service, Cleveland WFO. “125th Anniversary of the Oil Creek Flood.”
— 54 Oil City
— 72 Titusville
— >100 Simonds. The American Date Book. 1902, p. 91.
— >100 Willsey and Lewis. “Pennsylvania.” Harper’s Book of Facts. 1895, p. 619.
— 60 Oil City. Oilcitypa.net. “1892 Fire and Flood Images.” Accessed 2-12-2022.
*Blanchard note: My experience is that the Cranbury Press often exaggerated fatalities.
Narrative Information
National Weather Service: “Heavy rain fell over northwest Pennsylvania from May through early June of 1892. On Saturday June 4th a warm front located just north of the region brought adequate moisture for thunderstorms with heavy rain. This rainfall, over already saturated ground spelled disaster. Widespread flooding occurred across the region with severe damage to bridges, railroads, and communities. The hardest hit towns were Titusville and Oil City.
“Reports suggest the rain first started to develop around noon in northwest Pennsylvania. Additional storms occurred around 4 pm and again from sunset through 10 pm. Some reports estimated the rainfall in Spartansburg that day was close to 10 inches, though no official rain gauges recorded the amounts. This heavy rainfall produced flash flooding in the region with creeks and streams overrunning their banks. Debris became clogged on area bridges, and many streets were inundated. The floods, though noteworthy, were not life threatening to those who remained in their homes. However shortly after midnight on June 5th an earthen dam in Spartansburg, about 7 miles above Titusville, collapsed.
“The wall of water from the dam moved down the Oil Creek from Spartansburg into Titusville between 1 and 2 am Sunday morning, catching residence by surprise. The flood water expanded all the way to Spring Street and as much as ‘half a mile wide’ south of the town. The flood waters moved and damaged oil refiners, resulting in an oil coated creek. As the creek inundated homes, it soon caught fire. The fire expanded over the inundation zone burning at least 25 homes and businesses before moving downstream. The whole business district of Titusville was damaged or destroyed by the floods and subsequent fire. Spartansburg and Centerville, upstream of Titusville, saw significant damage, but did not sustain the effects of the fire.
“The burning creek advanced southward into the next community, Oil City. By 6 am it struck. Alarms were raised all over town, with the creek cresting around 9 or 10 am. To make matters even worse, several tankers holding benzine were located along the banks of the creek. The whole upper end of Oil City, on both sides of the Oil Creek, were inundated. The benzene became ignited and burned most of the second and third ward with 200-300 buildings.
“Approximately 54 Oil City residents and 72 Titusville residents died either from the fire or the flood waters. Elsewhere across the area flooding was severe. Transportation became cut off as bridges and railroads were damaged from Erie to Mercer Counties. The death toll estimated at 126 makes it the worst flood related disaster in Pennsylvania other than the catastrophic Johnstown flood of 1889. Similarly both disasters stemmed from dam breaks.” (National Weather Service, Cleveland, OH Weather Forecast Office. “125th Anniversary of the Oil Creek Flood.”)
NWPAheritage.org: “During the early years of oil drilling, people didn’t fully comprehend the possible dangers of oil. Many hundreds of lives were lost during the first few decades after the Drake’s first oil well. One such disaster was the Fire & Flood of 1892. The first domino that set off this catastrophe was a week of heavy rainfall over the Oil City area, culminating in massive flooding of Oil Creek. On the evening of June 4, 1892 flooding of the Oil Creek was so extreme that it flooded the Titusville Water and Gas Work. By midnight, the Spartansburg dam had burst, sending a massive wave of water down Oil Creek, destroying several refineries, filling the flood waters with oil, benzene, and naphtha. By 2am June 5th, Oily water had filled Titusville, flooding many homes and businesses. As the early morning progressed, the oil on the water would catch fire, causing massive explosions. At around 4am, tanks from the International Oil Works on Monroe Street burst into flame, setting fire to buildings along the surrounding streets. As the flooding worsened, families and business owners were forced to evacuate their homes. By 8am, the floodwaters had grown to eight feet tall. As the wall of water spread through the town, rescue boats were sent in by train to help evacuate survivors. At around 10am, over 5000 spectators lined the banks of Oil Creek to watch the disaster unfurl. The combination of naphtha and other chemical rose into the air, coving the scene in an eerie, yellow fog. Those watching saw a flash and a bang from up river followed by two others, and suddenly there was fire everywhere. The flames stretched up to 500 feet in the air, with smoke billowing from it even higher. Buildings would explode when the volatile gas and oil inside ignited. Nearly 75 homes were burned and the city itself was for the most part completely leveled. At the end of the day, rescue committees had been formed to help the homeless, and rescue efforts continued to search for survivors. The death toll stood at 90 with many more missing. At midnight, rescue workers found and saved 16 adults and 5 children stranded behind Oil City Barrel Works. The final death toll was 132, and the property damage exceeded $1,500,000.” (NW PA Heritage. “Great Flood and Fire of 1892.”)
Venango County, Pennsylvania: “The fire and flood of 1892 occurred on Sunday, June 5th. This was the most disastrous flood that have ever occurred here. A heavy rainstorm had raised the creek to an unusual height on Saturday night, carrying away the Spartansburg dam. The flood from this came through Titusville. Tanks of oil, distillate and naphtha were upset into the stream. A portion of Titusville was flood and great damage was done.
“The wreckage came down Oil creek on a high wave of water from the dam. The banks overflowed and undermined tanks of oil, and one holding thirty thousand barrels of naphtha, on the Clapp Farm. The contents of these, added to that already floating on the water, created a sinister condition. This volatile liquid was carried on the flood down the creek along upper Seneca street, where the houses were then flooded to the second story, down under the railroad bridge and into the river. The gas arising from the naphtha and oil permeated the houses and buildings for a mile. Seneca street was by this time a rushing river. At least five thousand people were gathered on the hillsides and along the river front looking with interest at the strange spectacle.
“The odors that came to them had an intoxicating effect and the crowds began to fall back as fear dawned upon them. The air was filled with a yellowish vapor which gave an uncanny cast to every object. Suddenly there was a flash and a loud detonation was heard up the creek. This was closely followed by two others. Instantly fire appeared everywhere, from a point above and railroad bridge, along Seneca street, and below the mouth of the creek along the entire Third ward front, to a point below the Suspension bridge. Flames mounted higher than Clark’s Summit and above them smoke in great waves and billows blackened the air and added terror to the scene. This fire was not like any other. It did not run from house to house, one building kindling the next.
“The first explosion lighted a half mile of fire above the creek bridge and in the houses on the banks. The second explosion set all Seneca street on fire, on both banks of the creek down to the tube mills, instantly, the gas inside igniting with that outside. The third flash ran through the Third ward. Buildings filled with a mixture of gas and air literally exploded. They disappeared while one gazed awestruck at them. This was the case with Paul’s large furniture store and the “Bellevue House” and barns. Nearly seventy-five houses were burned. Many of the inmates reached places of safety by means of boat; heroic endeavors were made to rescue them. A few escaped by swimming. Of a number in the second stories who were seen to leap into the water to avoid the flames, some were drowned, including several of the rescuers.
“The number of those lost by the flood and fire has been estimated at over sixty, including several of the rescuers. Some twenty buildings below Paul’s furniture store, including the “Petroleum House,” were burned. Below the “Petroleum House” the flames swept in by the current of the river and by the breeze from the south burned several buildings, among them the Oil City Coal and Lumber Mill.
“Immediately after the explosions people were terrorized and fled to the hills. Many ran without stopping from the vicinity of the railroad bridge to the cemetery. A crowd in the Third ward watching from the Center street bridge up the creek saw the fire coming, and many ran down Main street; looking back they saw the street behind them filled with flames, and the fire on the riverside seemed to accompany them in their flight. Many climbed up the steepest part of Clark’s Summit and stayed there until late in the afternoon, when the fire had died down, where they were found by their friends. Those who had lost all they possessed were speedily helped, and so numerous were they that for the first time in its history Oil City received aid from the world outside.
“Governor Pattison came with members of his staff to offer assistance and everything possible was done to relieve distress. At the present day the grades of upper Seneca street and of the west side are such that waster as high as that of 1892 would not flood the houses.” (Venango County Pennsylvania. “Song of Oil City and Titusville Horror, Entitled – 1892.” Accessed 2-12-2022.)
Newspapers
June 5, NYT: “Oil City, Penn., June 5. – The oil regions of Pennsylvania were visited to-day by a disaster of fire and water that is only eclipsed in the history of this country by the memorable flood at Johnstown just three years ago. It is impossible at this hour, midnight, to give anything like an accurate idea of the loss of life and property, as chaos reigns through-out the devastated region and a terrible conflagration still rages in Oil City. It is safe to say that not less than 150 lives have been lost. Nearly 100 bodies have already been recovered, and many people are still missing. The number may far exceed 150, but this is regarded as a conservative estimate.
“The property loss will reach far into the millions. At Titusville the loss is estimated at $1,500,000; Oil City, $1,500,000; Corry, $60,000; Meadville, $150,000, and surrounding country probably a million more.
“For nearly a month it has been raining throughout Western and Northern Pennsylvania almost incessantly, and for the past three or four days the downpour in the devastated regions has been very heavy. The constant rains had converted all the small streams into raging torrents, so that when the cloud-burst came this morning the streams were soon beyond their boundaries and the great body of water cam sweeping down Oil Creek to Titusville, which is eighteen miles south of its source, and eighteen miles from this city. When it reached her, the most appalling calamity in the history of Oil City fell upon it to-day, resulting in the destruction of life and property which as yet can only be approximated….
“At 11:30 o’clock this forenoon a large proportion of the population of the city was distributed along the banks and bridges of the Allegheny River and Oil Creek watching the rise of the flood in both streams, the chief cause of the rise of the latter being due to a cloudburst above Titusville last night, which resulted in the loss of many lives in that city.
“At the time mentioned this forenoon an ominous covering of oil made its appearance on the crest of the flood pouring down the Oil Creek Valley, and the dangerous foreboding waves of gas from distillate and benzine could be seen above the surface of the stream, which, at the bridge, is about 100 yards wide. People began slowly to fall back from the bridge and the creek.
“Hardly had they begun to do so when an explosion was heard up the stream, which was rapidly followed by two others, and quick as a flash of lightning the creek for a distance of two miles was filled with an awful mass of roaring flames and billows of smoke that rolled high above the creek and river hills.
“Oil City is bounded on all sides by steep hills. Oil Creek comes down the valley from the north, and just before its junction here with the Allegheny is crossed by a bridge to the portion of the city embraced in the Third Ward, which lies along the west bank of the creek and the north bank of the river. Almost all that portion of the town was on fire within three minutes from the time of the explosion, and no one knows as yet how many of the inhabitants are lying dead in the ruins of their homes.
“The Time’s correspondent stood, at the time of the first explosion, at the east end of the Oil Creek bridge. Almost as quickly as the words can be written, fully 5,000 people in that portion of the town were on the streets, wild with terror, rushing to the hills. Scores of men, women and children were knocked down and trampled upon, both by horses and people, in the mad flight for places of safety.
“Just as this frantic mass of humanity had started up Centre Street the second explosion occurred, knocking many people down, shattering the windows in the main part of the town, and almost transforming the day into night with the immense cloud of smoke preceding the second burst of flame. The heat was intense and the spectacle presented to the panic-stricken people was that of a cloudburst of fire, bordered and overcapped by a great canopy of dense black smoke, falling upon the city.
“The flood in the Oil Creek valley had inundated the upper portion of the town, flooding from fifty to seventy fine houses along North Seneca Street. Most of their inmates reached places of safety by means of boats or by swimming and wading, but a number of them were yet in the upper stories or in the water when the fire came, and their fate was quickly sealed. Some of them were seen to jump into the water to escape death in the flames. From the remnants of the only building remaining in this waste after the flood three persons were removed in a boat severely burned, but alive…
“The distillate and benzine on the creek came from a tank lifted by the flood and is supposed to have been ignited by a spark from an engine on the Lake Shore Railroad just above the tunnel at the northern part of the city. The fire shot up the creek as well as down, and several tanks are on fire at a number of the refineries up the creek….
“The damage to property by fire alone cannot even be fairly approximated. The Bellevue Hotel, the Petroleum House, the Oil City Barrel Factory, the new building of the Oil City Tube Works, the big furniture and undertaking establishment of George Paul & Sons, and probably one hundred dwelling houses have been destroyed. The Fire Department, by excellent work, kept the fire from crossing to the central portion of the town, except one instance, when Trinity Church caught fire, but the department succeeded in saving the building as well as the two bridges….
“Mayor W.G. Hunt has sworn in the members of Company D of the Sixteenth Regiment, National Guard, to serve as special police until further notice…” (NYT. “Scores of Lives Lost,” 6-6-1892, p. 1.)
June 5: “Titusville, Penn., June 5. – This city during the past twenty-four hours has been visited by one of the most appalling fires and overwhelming floods in the history of this country. A conservative estimate places the number of lives lost at fully seventy-five from fire and drowning, and, so near as can be gathered from reports as they come in, the destruction of property will aggregate fully $1,500,000.
“All this loss will be in this city, with the surrounding country yet to be heard from. A large number of our most extensive and prosperous manufacturing establishments now lay in ashes, and hundreds of homes and business places are utterly wiped out, while the streets are filled with a crowd of hungry, homeless, weeping, and distracted people, mourning the loss of loved ones who have perished in the rush of waters, or the fiery billows of flame which engulfed them almost in the twinkling of an eye, as they were struggling in the vain endeavor to save their homes.
“At this writing the sky is filled with dense and pitchy clouds of smoke arising from the smoldering and wrecked ruins of refineries, cooper shops, furniture factories, radiator works, hotels, railroad warehouses, cars, dwellings, &c., while the waters of Oil Creek are rushing through the streets with almost resistless tide.
“No tongue, pen, or language can do justice to the scene of terror and confusion prevailing in this city as the gun goes down to-night. The illuminating gas works, the electric light plant, the city water works are all under water, while the natural-gas mains have been turned off at Oil City. This leaves the city without water, fuel, or light, at least from the sources from which these necessities have been accustomed to come from.
“As sad and thrilling scenes as ever took place in the Valley of the Conemaugh have been repeated here to-day, while thousands of people looked on without the least chance to prevent them. One father to-night is crazy over the loss of his whole family, a wife and seven children, one a babe in arms, but three days old….one mother, with a babe clasped in her right arm, while with her left she clung with desperation to a piece of plank, was drawn into a washed-out hole near the New-York and Pennsylvania station and was seen no more….
“Twenty-four bodies have already been recovered in this city, and reports from further on down the creek state that seventeen bodies have been picked up.
“The terrible flood is still almost as furious as at any time. Men with ropes tied to their waists are still at the work of rescue…. People do not yet fully realize the magnitude of the catastrophe. Fully seventy-five people are as yet unaccounted for, but in the crush, hurry, anguish, and confusion, it is a total impossibility to give actual figures.
“Five men were seen to perish together. The sight was witnessed by fully 2,000 people, all powerless to render aid. The men had hold of a piece of timber, and were struggling to make the shore. Just as it looked as though they were making it, a tank of oil nearby exploded and the burning oil quickly enveloped the men. Death came almost instantaneously.
“About midnight, Saturday, Oil Creek began suddenly to rise. The huge milldam owned by Thompson & Eldred, at Spartansburg, seven miles above this city, suddenly burst. This body of artificial water was one and a half miles in length and one-fourth of a mile wide, and quite deep. Thus sudden avalanche of water, descending when most of the inhabitants were sleeping, completely and at once shut them off from the higher portions of the city.
“Then, at 2 o’clock this morning, immediately following the flood, three terrific explosions shook the city to its centre, while a great light went up from the direction of the Crescent Refinery, located on the north side of the creek and owned by John Schwartz & Co.
“A second look showed the entire place to be one sheet of solid flame. The shrieks of the helpless beings caged in their dwellings, like rats in a trap, in the middle of the flood, the shrill notes of steam whistles, the jingle of the fire bell, and roar of the flames and flood all went to strike terror to the strongest heart.
“The people, in their haste to get to someplace out of danger, trampled on each other, and many were injured in this way.
“Oil Creek was now swollen to many times its natural size, reaching from one hillside to the other. Its surface was covered with wreckage, and clinging to driftwood or any other object they could lay hands on, were scores of human beings.
“About an hour from the time the Crescent Works caught, another alarm was sounded. Then it was found that the discharge from an overturned tank up the creek had scattered itself over a broad enough expanse of water to reach the Crescent fire, where it at once ignited and in a moment a large acreage of the creek was one vast sea of fire.
“The blaze soon spread to the International Oil Works owned by J.P. Thomas & Co., and they were soon a blaze. Then came the large refining plant and soap factory of Rice & Robinson, which the flames in a short time reached and consumed.
“The wind was in the right quarter and on sped the fire, arriving in due time at the Oil Creek refinery and wax plant, as fine a one as was in this country, and but recently completed. Those works are at the present time on fire and burning brightly. Three stills have already exploded and fears are entertained that further extensive damage many be done.
“The fire also destroyed the large furniture store and storeroom of Casperson & Rowe, situated on South Franklin Street; the Dullen Hotel, opposite the Western New-York and Pennsylvania passenger station; the same road’s freight depot, and about seventy-five dwellings.
“The Galena Oil Company, the Titusville Refining Company, the Western Refining Company, the American Refining Company are intact, or slightly damaged by water. The Titusville Iron works were flooded, but only slightly damaged. The T.C. Joy Radiator Company, the Cyclops Steel Works, the Acme Extract Company, had a narrow escape, with only slight damage by water….
“The undertaking establishment of Messrs. Davidson & McNitt has been turned into a temporary morgue, and, with the exception of seven Hebrews and two children, all the bodies so far recovered have been taken there as fast as brought from the water. Most of the bodies bear evidence of having met death from burning oil. Many of them are burned almost beyond recognition, and several of them in such a terrible manner as to leave the bodies nothing but blackened crisps, entirely without the least resemblance to the human form….
“No sooner was the true state of affairs apparent to our citizens than a meeting was called, and over $2,500 in cash was contributed for the immediate relief of the sufferers. Committees were chosen and the Rouse Armory was turned into a vast hospital and sleeping and eating house. No less than 100 homeless people are being cared for there to-night.
“The loss in the county by wash-outs and loss of bridges will be enormous. There is not a county or township bridge for many miles that is not washed away, and the roads in every direction are nearly impassable.
“Many of our leading citizens and their wives and children were on [an]…excursion to the lake [Canadohta Lake], and are still detained there. They can neither reach the city by railroad nor by the turnpike…Among the citizens detained at Canadohta at this crisis when their presence is desired are Mayor Emerson, C.N. Payne, Manager of the National Transit; Superintendent Streeter of the public schools, and all the teachers of the high school; M.E. Luco, Manager of the Western Union Telegraph Company; Lawyer Byles of the Galena works, W. T. Scheide, M.E. Hoag, Cashier of the Commercial Bank, and a score of others with their families.” (New York Times. “Hours of Peril in Titusville. Fatal and Destructive Fires Following the Flood.” June 6, 1892, 1.)
June 6: “Oil City, Penn, June 6. – All day the work of caring for the dead, wounded, and homeless living has been going steadily on. Forty-three are dead and found, half that number injured, and the missing are estimated at twenty more.
“Four acres of smoking debris are on the flat, and how many bodies lie beneath is unknown.
“A careful estimate made by The Time’s correspondent of the persons living on the flats previous to the fire shows 47 families, with 300 persons. Five families are wholly wiped out, others have lost one or more members, and all are poor, having nothing left except the clothes they wore when they escaped….
“The substance which caused the fire was naphtha, which had floated down the stream for over a mile, catching below and above the city. This whole burning mass ignited in three seconds, making fully two miles of a flash. It was like a powder train, except that it generated heat instead of force. The whole mass rose directly upward in a flame, rising above the top of the hills, over 300 feet high. The naphtha was burned out in less than five minutes, but the terrible heat fired the wooden buildings, while it also killed those instantly who were exposed to its force. The upper end of the stream of naphtha was at the Penn Refinery, half a mile above the city, and the heat fired this and the Independent Refinery….The Penn Refining Company lost ten tanks; the Independent lost ten, and the Valley one. All other refineries up Oil Creek were not damaged….
“In all, seventy-five families are homeless and desolate. Property to the value of a million and a half of dollars is destroyed.
“How the naphtha was ignited is told by the engineer of the switch engine. He says:
I noticed a haze rising on the water, and, fearing it might be gas, told the engineer of the special which was standing near to get out of there, so as to let me out. My engine was standing on the switch near the end of the Creek Bridge.
The special pulled down toward the station, and I got in the cab and tried to run it out of the switch going toward the bridge. I was then some seventy-five feet from the bridge. I had scarcely pulled the lever when there was a flash, and I saw a slight flame dart through the cab. It scorched me about the neck and hands.
I sprang off the engine and ran down the track, and was about three car lengths from the engine when the explosion took place. The engine ran back across the bridge, crushing one person who stood on the track, and, running into some coal cars on the other side, burned up.
“All over the city the terror was intense. People on the outskirts ran far out into the fields and woods. It was late in the evening before the scattered families were gathered together again and relieved the anxiety of many an agonized heart….
“Gen. Wiley is here to-night, and owing to the number of crooks who have come into the city has ordered Company D under arms. Contributions to the extent of $5,000 have been received from outside.” (New York Times. “Two Cities of Mourning, Over Six Score Corpses Have Already Been Recovered,” June 7, 1892.)
June 6: “Titusville, Penn., June 6. – Never in the history of Titusville has such a scene of desolation presented itself as was unfolded to the gaze this morning as one entered the main thoroughfare….It is estimated that fully 100 persons have been either drowned or burned to death. The money loss will run from $1,500,000 to $2,000,000. An idea of the amount of territory covered by the flood and fire can be obtained when it is stated that over two miles were destroyed. This includes railroads, factories, refineries, and private dwellings….
“George Stephens, a prominent merchant here, says:
The fire was caused by a spark from a passing train on the Western New-York and Pennsylvania Railroad, which ignited the oil in a tank alongside the line. The oil set fire to every building with which it came in contact. Mechanic Street was known as a residence street for the poorer classes and was simply swept out of existence
Not a vestige of a dwelling on that street remains standing. This is where the greatest loss of life occurred. The fire and flood combined were so swift in their destruction that whole families were swept away before they realized that there was the remotest danger.
“Edgar Hale, a lumber merchant, when asked about the calamity, said:
I noticed a dark cloud in the north on Saturday afternoon, and while standing watching it saw it split in two, the larger portion seeming to go up the river. The rain began falling, and a short while afterward Oil Creek began rising. I did not think anything particularly about it, as it began to recede about 11 o’clock that night. It must have been about that time that the dam at Riceville gave way. The creek rose with terrible rapidity, when this volume of water was accentuated by the addition of another large volume from the dam at Spartansburg.
“…In connection with the saving of families, it is said that had it not been for the heroic work of Tony Daub and William Bennett the death list would have been increased by over fifty more. These two men set out in skiffs, and by the most Herculean efforts succeeded in placing the occupants of the various dwellings in secure places….
“The tracks are washed away in sections above this city for a distance probably of fifteen or twenty miles, so that travel is cut off both to the north and south….
“There are fifteen bodies lying in McNett’s rooms which are burned beyond recognition. The only trace they had to go on was the locality in which they had to go on was the locality in which they were found. Some were headless, while the limbs of others were severed from their bodies. The facilities for caring for a large number of dead are limited, and these burned beings were placed in sacks and thrown to one side on the floor, until they could receive what attention could still be paid to their remains.
“Coroner Strouse impaneled his jury this morning and then visited the various undertaking establishments and viewed the remains. To-morrow will be devoted to going over the ground where these people met their death. Coroner Strouse said that in his judgment the verdict could be nothing else than an act of Providence, and from all that can be learned up to the present time no human beings can be held directly or indirectly responsible for the greatest catastrophe which ever befell Titusville.
“In a talk with M. W. Truesdale, editor of the World who had just arrived from Canadohta Lake he said:
People here do not realize what an enormous loss we have sustained. They are looking now at the number of deaths and the financial loss to Titusville proper. I have just come from Canadohta Lake, which is about fifteen miles above this city, and I found that every bridge in the country with the exception of three railroad bridges have been swept away. This takes in all the bridges between here and Corry. In addition to this, the roads have been so badly torn up that it will cost an immense sum to repair the damage done. The party with whom I came had to fell trees and construct temporary bridges in order to get back to this city.
Hundreds of families are homeless, and great distress prevails. Assistance is needed, and that quickly, as while those remaining are doing all in their power to aid the suffering and afflicted, they have not the means at their command to continue the assistance very long. Clothing and food are both essential….
“No one can truthfully describe the occurrences in and around Titusville. Image a sea of water, covered with fire, and in it see hundreds of people either drowning or burning to death, and you have a slight conception of how Titusville looked on Sunday. The screams of the women and children were terrible….
“At a subsequent day from forty to sixty burials will take place, it being now estimated by the conservative people that no less than 100 lives have been sacrificed. Reports have reached here that a number of bodies have been taken out of the water between here and Oil City….At a late hour to-night sixty-seven bodies had been taken from the ruins, and this practically ends the work of the searchers till to-morrow. Those who are acquainted with the locality where the greatest damage was done say the loss of life must reach 150, and many put the figures at 200. The number of bodies recovered gives no fair estimate of the number lost.” (New York Times, “Mourning at Titusville,” June 7, 1892.)
June 6: “Harrisburg, Penn., June 6. – The following proclamation was issued to-day:
In the name and by the authority of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Proclamation.
Whereas. The people of Titusville and Oil City and adjacent portions of the oil regions have been visited by a terrible calamity from water and fire, carrying destruction to life and property and leaving homeless and destitute hundreds of our fellow citizens: now, therefore, I, Robert E. Pattison, Governor of the said Commonwealth, do hereby issue this, my proclamation, recommending to the citizens of Pennsylvania, prompt action for the relief of their fellow citizens; and I do further request and direct all citizens, societies, committees, and agencies desiring to aid in this work, to put themselves in communication with the authorities of Titusville and Oil City.
Given under my hand and the great seal of the State, this sixth day of June, in the year of our Lord, One Thousand-Eight Hundred and Ninety-Two, and of the Commonwealth the One Hundred and Sixteenth. [Signed] Robert E. Pattison.” (New York Times. “Gov. Pattison Calls For Relief.” June 7, 1892.)
June 6: “Pittsburg, June 6. – At a citizens’ meeting held here this afternoon it was decided to send a committee to the oil regions to administer relief to the unfortunate inhabitants of the stricken district. At the head of the committee are Mayor Gourley and James B. Scott, the director of the Johnstown relief force. The gentlemen appointed left for Oil City this afternoon on a special train, carrying with them $3,500 in currency subscribed by Pittsburgers….” (New York Times. “Help from Pittsburg.” June 7, 1892.)
June 7: “Oil City, Penn., June 7. – This morning broke cloudless, and the sunshine helped to dispel the gloom overhanging the valley. With daylight, the searching parties were again at work seeking for remains of the victims of the great calamity of Sunday.
“Mayor Hunt issued a proclamation calling on all storekeepers, manufacturers, bankers, and businessmen to close their establishments to-day so that all may engage in the work necessary to a recovery from the present condition of the city.
“That many of the victims of the flood and fire will never be found is certain. The swift current has carried many away. Then the fierce flames have made cinders of some, and the crumbling banks of the creek have made their graves.
“The list of the dead as published does not give an adequate idea of the loss of life. In the portions of the city which suffered the greatest damage there lived hundreds of foreign laborers, whose names are unknown, and who will never be known.
“In this same section there were numerous children, and of the great number only ten have been found. The problem is, where are all the rest? Those who are acquainted with this section of the city say that scores have perished who will never be heard of. They continue to estimate the loss of life at 150, while others insist that if a complete record could be had the awful list would reach 200.
“Gov. Pattison on his arrival held a conference with the local committee. It was stated by the committee that there were 800 persons to be taken care of; that this must be done for eight weeks….
“It has just been learned to-night that a Polish boarding house, situated in the rear of the Oil City Tube Works, was burned to the ground, and when the fire broke out between twenty-five and thirty workingmen were in the building, and the greatest doubts are entertained as to the fate of the unfortunate foreigners. None of them were seen after the building collapsed….
“Forty miles below here, at Parker, four bodies of victims of the flood were found late last night, and will be brought here for identification. Two more deaths occurred this morning – Mrs. Hawk, whose daughter died yesterday, and four-year-old John Bruensell.
“The Relief committee rooms were filled all day with applicants, and so far 325 have been temporarily provided for….There are no young children left orphans. The children were the ones which most quickly succumbed to the flood and fire, and not a case of a destitute orphan child has yet been reported. As a rule, death came to the entire family. If not, the fathers, mothers, and older children were the survivors.
“The big oil tank on the Clapp farm has caught fire to-night and caused great excitement….
The following telegram has been sent from here:
The Hon. Edwin S. Stuart, Mayor and Chairman, Philadelphia:
Arrived at Oil City at 6 [?] o’clock in company with Gov. Pattison. Forty three bodies recovered. A low estimate of loss is $1,000,000. Seven hundred people burned out of house and home.
After thoroughly investigating here we proceeded to Titusville by special train, the first since the disaster. Found the state of affairs at Titusville much worse than here. Up to this day sixty-six bodies recovered. A low estimate of loss is a million and a half. About 750 people homeless.
Immediate help is so badly needed that we authorized both towns to draw for $5,000 each, trusting to Philadelphia’s whole-souled generosity to help these stricken people. Liberal donations now will save much suffering. Excellent committees have been formed in both places.
Have called a joint meeting of the committee from Oil City and Titusville for tomorrow to arrange for equitable distribution of contributions for both places…. [signed] Blankenburg McWade.” (New York Times. “Sad Scenes at Oil City,” June 8, 1892.)
June 9: “Oil City, Penn., June 9. – At the Clapp farm, a couple miles above Oil City, the people are still terror-stricken….from this section six persons are missing.
“When the flood came the survivors fled to the hills, and there many of them are to-day. They cannot be induced to come to their former homes, and are living in the woods. Relief has been sent to them…One cause for their fear is that there still remains a good deal of gas along the bottom, and they fear another explosion….
“Twenty-one tramps were arrested by the militia last night, and driven from town today. If they return, it will go hard with them….
“Titusville, Penn., June 9. – Another body was found this afternoon under the debris in the lower part of the town, just below Joy’s radiator works, and the search is still going on for the bodies of Mrs. O’Mara, Mrs., Julia Queen and child, the Osmer boy, Miss Nellie Quinn, and the two Engleske children….the terrible stench that arises from the ruins indicates that more corpses are under the debris….”
“Pittsburg, June 9. – In speaking of his visit to the oil regions, Rudolph Blankenburg of the Philadelphia Relief Committee, before leaving for said:
“Graphic as are the correspondents, their flowing words fairly…leave the melancholy picture incomplete….At Oil City I saw women wearing the seeds of widows wandering aimlessly through the ruined section of that city….Their blanched faces, expressionless as marble, told in a mutely eloquent way the suffering that was consuming them. I attempted to talk with some of these unhappy women, but I could get from them no information.
Their eyes, from which no tears had flowed, were burning in their sockets, and all seemed paralyzed with grief. One woman sat on the charred and blackened ruins of her former home. Her husband, in his efforts to save his family, had perished, and his remains had not yet been found. With her little boy, probably four years old this woman sat looking in to the ruins. Upon her knee she held her little son.
When I approached she was humming incoherently some childish lullaby. She showed no evidence of weeping. She seemed to look longingly into space, like a frightened doe. While she caressed her little one, her little body swayed back and forth in constant time with her doleful song. I had to speak to her twice before she noticed me. Then she said she was waiting for her husband. From a workman nearby I learned that her husband had been lost in the flood. The expression of that poor woman’s face seems to be standing out before me now. It was intensely painful. It was distressingly sad.
(New York Times. “Still Terror-Stricken. Some Who Fled From Oil City Refuse to Return,” June 10, 1892, p. 5.)
June 10: “A Dam Burst Carries Death to Titusville and Oil City. The oil regions of Pennsylvania have been visited by a disaster of fire and water that is only eclipsed in the history of that country by the memorable flood at Johnstown just three years ago.
“On the day after the calamity [Sunday] it was known that at least eighty persons were drowned or burned to death. Estimates of the loss of life increased, hour by hour, and it was thought that the death roll might swell to from 150 to 200, if not more.
“A dam seven miles above Titusville gave way in the night. Oil tanks were swept away, the stream leaped its banks, and bearing on its back a widespread layer of oil, dashed into Titusville a roaring, tumbling mass of flame. There was a terrible stampede. Scores of persons were swept away in an effort to find safety. One-third of the town was burned, and at 10 o’clock that night forty bodies had been recovered.
“The scenes of the night in Titusville were repeated on perhaps even a larger scale at Oil City, eighteen miles below.
“The damage to property in Titusville and Oil City, and the towns along the creek between those cities, amounted to millions of dollars, and appeals for help have been made to the country at large.
“For nearly a month it had been raining throughout Western and Northern Pennsylvania almost incessantly, and for the three or four days before the disaster the downpour in the devastated regions had been very heavy. The constant rains had converted all the small streams into raging torrents, so that when the cloudburst came the streams were soon beyond their boundaries and the great body of water came sweeping down Oil Creek to Titusville, which is eighteen miles south of its source.
“A dispatch from Titusville tells the following pitiful story: Flood and fire have wiped out fully one-third of this town, and at least two score of human lives have been miserably lost amidst horror and destruction.
“The bursting of the huge dam of Thompson & Eldred at Spartansburg, seven miles from Titusville, at midnight, loosed a lake one and a half miles in length by one-quarter in breadth, the waters of which came rushing down, swelling the historic Oil Creek to a raging torrent, which overran nearly half this town with resistless force, sweeping many of the smaller buildings and scores of people away down the valley. Many of the latter reached the shore farther down, but at least seventy-five were undoubtedly lost.
“The waters of Oil Creek rushed through the streets in the lower part of the city with resistless force. From housetops, windows and driftwood piles came wails and screams of anguish and distress from the helpless victims, all imploring aid. Brave men with boats and ropes battled against the terrific current, and hundreds of the captives were brought safely to land.
“Fully 100 persons of all ages were carried down with the flood. Five persons, all males, were seen to perish while grasping a piece of timber. Just as the thousands of spectators who were looking on with bated breath, unable to render the slightest assistance, were led to believe that the sufferers would reach land, a neighboring tank of burning oil exploded in close proximity, and in a moment the men were enveloped in flames, and death came speedily to relieve their sufferings. Their bodies were at once swallowed in the raging waters.
“Immediately a streak of flame fully 200 feet high pierced the inky darkness and threw a glaring light over the angry waters. At once the cry rang out that the Crescent Oil Refinery Company, owned by Schwartz & Co., close to the north bank of the east end was on fire.
Never before did a fire seem to spread so rapidly, and in less than three minutes from the time the explosion was heard the vast plant was aflame. Then it was that pandemonium seemed to break loose and terror reigned. Thousands of persons rushed pell-mell through the streets, tumbling over and knocking each other down in their endeavors to escape from what they appeared to imagine was the crack of doom. The bright light thrown on the surroundings revealed a truly appalling sight. On the roofs and in the windows of the upper stories of most of the houses in the flooded districts appeared men, women and children dressed mostly in night clothes, and all piteously appealing for aid.
“Clinging to the driftwood, timbers and other debris they were borne onward down the stream were scores of human beings, their white and terror stricken faces and desperate struggles and cries for aid combining to create impressions never to be forgotten. About one hour from the time the Crescent Works took fire another alarm was sounded. Oil on the creek, spilled by the water overturning a tank located some distance up stream, had taken fire, and the expanse of creek for a number of acres square was all a solid blaze, and the sky was filled with dense and pitchy clouds of smoke arising from the smouldering ruins of refineries, cooper shops, furniture factories, radiator works, hotels, railroad warehouses, cars and dwellings.
“The illuminating gas works, the electric light plant, the water works are all under water, while the natural gas mains had been turned off at Oil City. This leaves Titusville without water, fuel, or light, at least from the sources from which those necessities have been accustomed to come.
Parents and children stood by without the power to aid one another’s struggles against the clutches of the flood until eventually they went down to rise no more. As sad and as sickening scenes as occurred in the valley of the Conemaugh three years ago were repeated, while thousands looked on unable to avert them.
“One father is a maniac over the loss of his whole family, a wife and seven children, one a babe three days old. A brother was rescued from a burning building, where he was forced to leave a sister, her husband, and two children to perish.
“Fully one-third of the business and residence portion of Titusville is in ruins. The terrible flood rushed through the streets. Brave men with ropes tied about their waists breasted the terrible current rescuing the unfortunates who patiently awaited their return. A little four year old boy, just brought to shore from the wreck of a handsome residence was placed in the hands of friends. When asked where his parents were he replied with a sob, ‘Papa and mamma both drowned.’
“Oil Creek was swollen to 500 times its natural size and reached from one hillside to the other, presenting an appalling picture. Floating swiftly by on its bosom were all sorts, manners, and kinds of animate and inanimate objects — tanks, stills with the steam in them and blowing-off house, barns, horses, cows, chickens — everything almost being borne onward with a rush.
“Clinging to various objects, such as driftwood, pieces of boards, timbers and any other object they could lay hands on, were scores of human beings, their white and terror stricken countenances, desperate struggles, and plaintive soul piercing cries for aid all combined to create impressions in the minds of the beholders never to be forgotten.
“The undertaking establishments of Davidson and McNitt have been turned into temporary morgues. With the exception of the bodies of seven Hebrews and two children, all the bodies were taken there as fast as they were brought from the water. Most of the bodies bear evidence of having met death from burning oil, many of them burned almost beyond recognition and several of them in such a terrible manner as to leave the bodies nothing but blackened crisps, entirely without the least semblance of the human form. One woman, with a babe closely clasped to her breast, was burnt to a crisp. Another woman found burned had a prematurely-born babe by her side.
“No sooner was the true state of affairs apparent to the citizens than a meeting was called and over $2,500 in cash contributed for the immediate relief of the sufferers. Committees were formed and the Rouse Armory turned into a vast hospital and sleeping and eating house. No less than 100 homeless people were cared for.
“The loss in the country by washouts and loss of bridges will be enormous. There is not a county or township bridge for many miles that is not washed away, and the roads in every direction are nearly impassable.
“The above harrowing scenes were repeated on an even more dreadful scale at Oil City, eighteen miles below Titusville, as told by the following dispatches from the ill-fated city: At 11:30 o’clock in the forenoon a large proportion of the population of the city was distributed along the banks and bridges of the Allegheny River and Oil Creek watching the rise of the flood in both streams, the chief cause of the rise of the latter being due to the cloudburst above Titusville, which resulted in the loss of many lives in that city.
“At the time mentioned an ominous covering of oil made its appearance on the crest of the flood pouring down the Oil Creek Valley, and the dangerous foreboding waves of gas from distillate and benzine could be seen above the surface of the stream, which, at the bridge, is about 100 yards wide. People began slowly to fall back from the bridges and the creek. Hardly had they began to do so when an explosion was heard up the stream, which was rapidly followed by two others, and quick as a flash of lightning the creek for a distance of two miles was filled with an awful mass of roaring flames and billows of smoke that rolled high above the creek and river hills.
“Oil City if bounded on all sides by steep hills. Oil Creek comes down the valley from the north, and just before its junction here with the Allegheny is crossed by a bridge to the portion of the city embraced in the Third Ward, which lies along the west bank of the creek and the north bank of the river. Almost all that portion of the town was on fire within three minutes from the time of the explosion, and at the time this dispatch was sent no one knows how many of the inhabitants were lying dead in the ruins of their homes.
“An eye witness at the time of the first explosion stood at the east end of the bridge. Almost as quickly as the words can be written fully 5000 persons in that portion of the town were on the streets, wild with terror, rushing to the hills. Men forgot that they were men, and scores of men, women, and children were knocked down and trampled upon both by horses and persons in the mad flight for safety.
“Just as this frantic throng had started up Centre street a second explosion occurred, knocking many people down, shattering the windows in the main part of the town, and almost transforming the day to night with an immense covering of smoke. Hundreds thought the day of judgment had come and many prayers were heard mingled with moans and lamentations. The heat was intense, and the awful spectacle presented to the panic stricken people was that of a cloudburst of fire, bordered and over-capped by a great canopy of dense black smoke.
“It was no wonder that people wept and fainted, leaving everything behind them and ran or were helped to the hills. And after they were out of danger, and even before it, came the anxiety and suspense regarding relatives and friends who had been along the creek watching the flood when the avalanche of flame came. The flood in the Oil Creek Valley had inundated the upper portion of the town, flooding from fifty to seventy-five houses on North Seneca Street. Most of the inmates reached places of safety by the use of boats or by swimming and wading, but some of them were yet in the upper stories or in the water when the fire came, and their fate was quickly sealed. Some of them were seen to jump into the water to escape death in the flames. From the remnants of the only building remaining in the waste after the flood was over three persons were removed in a boat severely burned, but alive…The distillate and benzene on the creek came from a tank lifted by the flood, and is supposed to have been ignited by a spark from an engine on the Lake Shore road, just above the tunnel at the northern part of the city. The fire shot up the creek as well as down, and several tanks were set on fire up the creek. The Bellevue Hotel, the Petroleum House, the Oil City barrel factory, the new building of the Oil City tube works, the big furniture and undertaking establishment of G. Paul & Sons, and probably 100 other dwelling house have been totally destroyed….
“Of the devastated cities Titusville has a population of 10,000 and Oil City 12,000. Oil Creek rises in the north part of Crawford County and flows in a general southerly direction to Titusville, and from there almost due north to the Allegheny River at Oil City. Just below Titusville it is joined by East Oil or Pine Creek. Between Titusville and Oil City there are nine little hamlets where oil wells have been sunk which have attained the dignity of Post Offices. Altogether these hamlets have a population of about 2,000. The eighteen miles between Titusville and Oil City probably represent a population of from 40,000 to 45,000.
“LATER DETAILS. The loss of life and destruction of property in Oil Creek Valley, Penn., were far greater than was stated in the first reports.
“At Oil City sixty-seven bodies were recovered in one day, and it was believed that not less than 150 persons perished by flood and fire.
“At Titusville fifty-five bodies were found in the ruins, and there was every reason to believe that many were washed away and will be recovered when the water recedes. The latest estimate of the total loss of life placed the number at 350.
“Calls for financial help are made by both cities, and a generous response has already been received. Several hundred thousand dollars at least will be needed.
“One-third of Titusville has been destroyed by the combined horrors of fire and flood, and $1,000,000 will not cover the property loss.
“It was impossible at the time this dispatch was received to estimate the loss of life and property in the Oil Creek Valley, outside of Titusville and Oil City.
”Twenty–nine miles of the creek banks on either side were laid waste.” (Cranbury Press (NJ) “Fire Rode the Flood,” June 10. 1892, p. 4.)
June 12: “Oil City, Penn.,– Two more bodies recovered to-day have been identified….The body reported at Brandon’s Ferry, below Franklin, has not yet been brought here…Word has been received from points down the river that two more bodies have been discovered in an advanced stage of decomposition.” (New York Times. “The Dead at Oil City,” June 12, 1892.)
Listing of Oil City (103) and Titusville Fatalities (53) — 156
Oil City Partial Listing of Fatalities:
1. Baker, Charles
2. Baker, William
3. Bambo, John
4. Briggs, William
5. Briggs, Miss Emma, 18
6. Bristol, J. W., Rochester, N.Y.
7. Burns, James
8. Copeland, Mrs.
9. Copeland, baby of Mrs.
10. Crouch, Mrs. J
11. Dorsworth, J.L.
12. Dorworth, J. L., lawyer, 46
13. Dougherty, H.
14. Dougherty, W. G.
15. Eakin, William
16. Eakin, Edward (son of William)
17. Eakin, Frank (son of William)
18. Feeny, P.J.
19. Feeny, Mrs. P.J.
20. Feeny, child of Mr. P.J.
21. Feeny, child of Mr. P.J.
22. Feeny, child of Mr. P.J.
23. Feller (or Fetters), Mrs. Levi
24. Fisher, Charles
25. Fritz, J. Hasson
26. Fritz, child of J. Hasson
27. Fritz, child of J. Hasson
28. Fritz, child of J. Hasson
29. Fritz, child of J. Hasson
30. Goodrich, Frank (also noted as fireman F. B. Goodrich; died trying to rescue children)
31. Hanks, Mr.
32. Hanks, Mrs.
33. Hanks, daughter of Mr. and Mrs.
34. Harkins
35. Haskins, James
36. Hassanfritz, William J.
37. Hawks, Mytie E. (14)
38. Holmes, James (barber)
39. Holmes, John (of Jamestown, NY)
40. Kaplan, Mrs. David
41. Kaplan, child of Mrs. David
42. Kaplan, child of Mrs. David
43. Kaplan, child of Mrs. David
44. Kaplan, child of Mrs. David
45. Kaplan, child of Mrs. David
46. Keating, Edward (section boss, Western New-York and Pennsylvania Railroad)
47. Lewards, H.
48. Lewards, Mrs. H.
49. Lewards, child of H.
50. Lewards, child of H.
51. Lewards, child of H.
52. Lyons, Councilman Bartholomew
53. Lyons, wife of Councilman B.
54. Lyons, son of Councilman B.
55. McPherson, Walter
56. Miller, Charles
57. Mills, Edward (38)
58. Mills, Mrs. Mary Edward (35)
59. Mills, Amy, daughter of Edward and Mary, 8
60. Mills, Edith, daughter of Edward and Mary, 3
61. Mills, Emily, daughter of Edward and Mary, 13
62. Mills, Florence, daughter of Edward and Mary, 11
63. Mills, Maud, daughter of Edward and Mary, 5
64. Mills, Mrs. J.
65. Mills, child of Mrs. J.
66. Mills, child of Mrs. J.
67. Moran, Ambrose F.
68. Moran, William
69. O’Leary, John
70. O’Leary, mother of John
71. Plarke (or Plank, or Planke), E.V.P., businessman visiting from Carthage, New York
72. Quinn, Mrs.
73. Reinbold (or Rembold), Select Councilman John B., 45
74. Richardson, Samuel
75. Richardson, child of Samuel
76. Richardson, child of Samuel
77. Richardson, child of Samuel
78. Richardson, child of Samuel
79. Roach, Mrs. John
80. Roach, infant child of Mrs. John
81. Rogers, James
82. Rogers, Mrs. James
83. Rogers, son of James
84. Rushel, Minnie (of Pottsville, PA)
85. Shaffer, Harry William. (of Franklin, PA)
86. Steck, John
87. Stewart, Humphrey
88. Stewart, William (Willis) L.
89. Stewart, Mrs. Willis
90. Sullivan, Daniel (engineer)
91. Terwilliger, Grant
92. Terwilliger, W. D. R.
93. Watson, Frank (14)
94. Wells, Edward
95. Wells, Mrs. Edward
96. Wells, child of Edward
97. Wells, child of Edward
98. Wells, child of Edward
99. Wells, child of Edward
100. White, William
101. Wick, Sheridan (a mason)
102. Unknown, June 6
103. Unknown, June 6
Titusville Partial Listing of Fatalities:
1. Bingenhiemer, Mrs. J.
2. Bingenhiemer, child of Mrs. J.
3. Bingenhiemer, child of Mrs. J.
4. Bingenhiemer, child of Mrs. J.
5. Bingenhiemer, child of Mrs. J.
6. Bingenhiemer, child of Mrs. J.
7. Bingenhiemer, child of Mrs. J.
8. Bingenhiemer, child of Mrs. J.
9. Campbell, Mrs. Fred
10. Campbell, child of Mrs. Fred
11. Campbell, child of Mrs. Fred
12. Caspersen, Mrs. C.P.
13. Cohen, Miss Golda (or Goldie Cohn, 11 years old)
14. Coppy, Fred (possibly the same as William Cuppy)
15. Cuppy, William (possibly the same as Fred Coppy)
16. Eckert, child of William
17. Edgar, Oliver
18. Englesky (or Englisky), Mr.
19. Englesky (or Englisky) , son of
20. Foster, Frank C.
21. Furman, Mrs.
22. Furman, daughter of Mrs.
23. Haehn, Mrs. Mary
24. Haehn, Clara, daughter of Mrs. Mary
25. Haehn, Gertie, daughter of Mrs. Mary
26. Haehn, Mamie, daughter of Mrs. Mary
27. Haehn, Peter, son of Mrs. Mary
28. Jacobs, Mrs. A.
29. Jacobs, child of Mrs. A.
30. Lures (or Lemers), Fred (watchman)
31. Lures (or Lemers), Mrs. Fred
32. McFadden, John
33. McFadden, Mary
34. McKenzie, Mrs. Neal
35. Osmer, Lena
36. Osmer, child of Lena
37. Osmer, child of Lena
38. Pease, George
39. Quinn, Mrs. John
40. Quinn, Mamie
41. Quinn, Nellie
42. Reid, Amelia
43. Reid, Fred
44. Reid, Mrs. Fred
45. Rice, Miss Della
46. Riche, Henry, of Buffalo
47. Speige (or Spiegles), Joe, of Warren
48. Speige, child of Joe
49. Speige, child of Joe
50. Whalen, Frank
51. Whalen, Mrs. Frank
52. Whalen, Miss
53. Unknown picture peddler
Venango County Pennsylvania. “Song of Oil City and Titusville Horror, Entitled – 1892.”
“Oil City
1. Briggs, Emma.- age 18 Grove Hill Cem.
2. Bristol, James W. – age 14
3. Brunsel, Johnnie
4. Burns, James
5. Dorworth, James L. Attorney
6. Dougherty, Harmer D. – of Summit
7. Eakin, Edward – s/o W.D. Eakin – Grove Hill Cem.
8. Eakin, Frank – s/o W. D. Eakin – Grove Hill Cem.
9. Eakin, W.D. age 55
10. Freeman, Edith- age 9
11. Fritz, Eugene
12. Goodrich, Frank A. – June 3, 1861- June 5, 1892 – Grove Hill Cem.
13. Harkins, James
14. Hassenfritz, Frank
15. Hassenfritz, Louis
16. Hassenfritz, William J.
17. Hawks, John C.
18. Hawks, Mary A. – w/o John C. Hawks – 1832-1892 Grove Hill Cem.
19. Hawks, Myrtle E. Miss – 1877-1892 – Grove Hill Cem.
20. Holmes, James – age 20
21. Kaplan, D. Mrs.
22. Kaplan, David
23. Kaplan, infant
24. Keating, Edward
25. Lyons, Bartholomew – age 55
26. Lyons, Kate Mrs. – age 40
27. Lyons, William
28. McPherson, Walter
29. Miller, Charles
30. Mills, Amy-baby
31. Mills, Edith-child
32. Mills, Edward/Edwin – Family buried in unmark grave at Grove Hill Cem.
The Odd Fellows & Rebeccas later erected a stone in their memory.
33. Mills, Edward Mrs. Mary ?- age 30
34. Mills, Emily
35. Mills, Florence
36. Mills, Maud
37. Moran, Ambros – of NY
38. O’Leary, F. Mrs.-Joana
39. O’Leary, John- s/o F. and J. O’Leary
40. Planke/Plake, E.V.R. – of Carthage, NY
41. Reed, Abraham M. or N.
42. Reinhold, John B. – livery proprietor – 1846-1892 Grove Hill Cem
43. Richardson, Samuel
44. Roache/Roach, Ada
45. Roache/Roach, John Mrs. – age 28
46. Rogers, James – age 55- of Clapp Farm
47. Shafer, William H. – s/o Harry and Jennie Miller Shafer-buried in the Franklin Cemetery
48. Steck,Simon P.
49. Stewart, Willis – of Siverlyville
50. Sullivan, Daniel – age 45
51. Terwilliger, U.S. Grant – age 30- Apr. 23, 1865- June 5, 1892 – Grove Hill Cem
52. Terwilliger, William D.R. – b/o Grant – Feb. 21, 1856- June 5, 1892 – Grove Hill Cem.
53. Watson, Frank – age 14- nephew of Alexander Watson
54. White, William
55. Wick, Walter Sheridan
“Titusville:
1. Bingehimer, 8 children
2. Bingehimer, Jacob Mrs.
3. Butler, Henry
4. Campball, Fred Mrs.
5. Campball, John
6. Campbell, baby
7. Caspersen/Casperson, O.H. Mrs.
8. Cauty, J. Mrs.
9. Cohn, Goldie
10. Edgar, John
11. Edgar, Oliver
12. Engeisky/Engalsky, Joseph
13. Engeisky/Engalsky, Rebecca
14. Firman, C.A. Miss
15. Foster, Frank
16. Foster, Lilly
17. Furman, M.I. Mrs.
18. Haehn, Clara
19. Haehn, Gertrude
20. Haehn, Mamie
21. Haehn, Mary Mrs.
22. Haehn, Peter
23. Haehn, Sarah R.
24. Jacobs, Mrs. and baby
25. Koppy, Willie
26. Luers, Fred
27. Luers, Fred Mrs.
28. McFadden, John
29. McFadden, Mary
30. McKenzie, Neil Mrs.
31. Osmer, James
32. Osmer, Mrs.
33. Pease, George
34. Quinn, John Mrs
35. Quinn, Mamie
36. Raide/ Reide, Fred Mrs.
37. Raide/Reide, Amelia
38. Raide/Reide, Fred Mrs.
39. Reide, Louis
40. Reihl, Henry
41. Rice, Delia Mrs.
42. Spiegel, Walter
43. Spiegel, Willie
44. Whalen, Abbie
45. Whalen, Frank
46. Whalen, James Mrs.
47. Whalen, John.”
Sources
Bryant, William Cullen, Sydney Howard Gay, Noah Brooks. Scribner’s Popular History of the United States (Volume V). New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1898. Digitized by Google at: http://books.google.com/books?id=K5hYAAAAMAAJ&printsec=titlepage#v=onepage&q=&f=false
Cranbury Press, NJ. “Fire Rode the Flood,” June 10. 1892, p. 4. Accessed at: http://digital.olivesoftware.com/Default/Skins/CranburyA/Client.asp?Skin=CranburyA
Eastern State Journal, White Plains, NY. “History of 1892 – The Chronological Record of a Memorable Year….Demons of Destruction.” 12-31-1892, p. 1. Accessed 2-12-2022 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/white-plains-eastern-state-journal-dec-31-1892-p-1/
Ise, John. The United States Oil Policy. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1926. Accessed 2-12-2022: https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_United_States_Oil_Policy/caa3AAAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=1892+oil+city+titusville+flood+fire&pg=PA27&printsec=frontcover
National Weather Service, Cleveland, OH Weather Forecast Office. “125th Anniversary of the Oil Creek Flood.” Accessed 2-12-2022 at: https://www.weather.gov/cle/event_OilCreekFlood125
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New York Times. “Help from Pittsburg.” June 7, 1892. Accessed at: http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9F00EEDC1538E233A25754C0A9609C94639ED7CF
New York Times. “Hours of Peril in Titusville. Fatal and Destructive Fires Following the Flood.,” 6-6- 1892, p. 1. Accessed at: http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9800E0DC1538E233A25755C0A9609C94639ED7CF
New York Times. “Mourning at Titusville,” June 7, 1892. Accessed at: http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9407EEDC1538E233A25754C0A9609C94639ED7CF
New York Times. “Sad Scenes at Oil City,” 6-8-1892. Accessed at: http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9A03E5DB1538E233A2575BC0A9609C94639ED7CF
New York Times. “Scores of Lives Lost – First a Cloud-burst Back on Pennsylvania Hills. Then a Leakage of Benzine Into a Swollen Stream. Then a Spark Caused an Explosion, and Oil Creek was in Flames…,” June 6, 1892, p. 1. Accessed at: http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9C00E0DC1538E233A25755C0A9609C94639ED7CF
New York Times. “Still Terror-Stricken. Some Who Fled From Oil City Refuse to Return,” June 10, 1892, p. 5. Accessed at: http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9B0CE0DB1538E233A25753C1A9609C94639ED7CF
New York Times. “The Dead at Oil City,” June 12, 1892. Accessed at: http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=990CE5DA1538E233A25751C1A9609C94639ED7CF
New York Times. “Two Cities of Mourning, Over Six Score Corpses Have Already Been Recovered,” June 7, 1892. Accessed at: http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9B07EEDC1538E233A25754C0A9609C94639ED7CF
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Simonds, W. E. (Editor). The American Date Book. Kama Publishing Co., 1902, 211 pages. Google digital preview accessed 9-8-2017 at: http://books.google.com/books?id=JuiSjvd5owAC
Springirth, Kenneth C. and David L. Weber. Images of Rail. Oil Creek and Titusville Railroad. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2011. Accessed 2-12-2022 at: https://www.google.com/books/edition/Oil_Creek_and_Titusville_Railroad/ICVkU2QaHL0C?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=1892+oil+city+titusville+flood+fire&pg=PA17&printsec=frontcover
Venango County Pennsylvania. “Song of Oil City and Titusville Horror, Entitled – 1892.” Accessed 2-12-2022 at: http://www.venango.pa-roots.com/oilcity/oilcity.html
Willsey, Joseph H. (Compiler), Charlton T. Lewis (Editor). Harper’s Book of Facts: A Classified History of the World. New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1895. Accessed 9-4-2017 at: http://books.google.com/books?id=UcwGAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=&f=false
