Mary Brennan Scully & her Children John & Lizzie - Northampton, MA - Graves Mentioning a Cause of Death on Waymarking.com

Mary Brennan Scully & her children John & Lizzie were in their Williamsburg home while their father Patrick was at higher ground working on a farm. Patrick was able to see the flood waters demolish his house and sweep away his family.

A 15' high brownstone obelisk with the family name SCULLY at the base marks the graves of the three members of the Scully family. The dadoes above the base of the is inscribed:

In 1865 The Hampshire Reservoir Company build a dam three miles north of Williamsburg, MA on the east branch of the Mill River. The dam was built for corporate mill owners for the sum of $35,000. It was 42 feet above the bed of the stream, holding back 90 acres of water with an average depth of 24 feet.

On May 16, 1874, the dam collapsed. It was determined at an inquest that poor supervision and faulty workmanship of the contractor, caused the dam to give way. Water swept down through Williamsburg and the downstream villages of Haydenville, Skinnerville, and Leeds. The disaster cost included: 144 lives lost, 750 people were made homeless, and damage to buildings, personal property, bridges, dams, roads, factories, and mills amounted to over one million dollars. One third Williamsburg was devastated in the largest disaster in New England of its time.

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