Note marriage notes and the loss of William’s wife and children in the Johnstown Flood.3

William and his wife Maggie had a son and a daughter. Maggie and the children all drowned in the Johnstown PA flood* of May 31, 1889 as did the wife and children of William’s brother George.1611
Note: The compiler of his database has not been able to confirm the loss of this family on the Johnstown flood on lists of it’s victims that he has seen.3


*The Johnstown flood was the result of the catastrophic failure of the South Fork Dam situated 14 miles upstream of the town of Johnstown, PA and made worse by several days of extremely heavy rainfall.

The dam's failure unleashed a torrent of 20 million tons of water (4.8 billion U.S. gallons; 18.2 million cubic meters; 18.2 million hectolitres). The flood killed over 2,200 people and caused $17 million of damage. It was the first major disaster relief effort handled by the new American Red Cross, led by Clara Barton.

The disaster caused the largest loss of civilian life in the United States at the time. It was later surpassed by the 1900 Galveston hurricane and the 9/11 attacks (in which, coincidentally, one of the hijacked airliners crashed near Shanksville, just 20 miles south of Johnstown.2475