Sarah E. Hillman - Williamsburg, MA
Posted by: 
neoc1
N 42° 23.764 W 072° 44.120
18T E 686391 N 4696236
The grave of Sarah E. Hillman, who drowned in flood resulting from the Mill River Dam Disaster, is located in Village Hill Cemetery on Village Hill Road in Williamsburg, MA.
Waymark Code: WMWCJW
Location: Massachusetts, United States
Date Posted: 08/14/2017
Views: 0
Sarah E. Hillman was the first of four residents of the village of Skinnerville to die in the flood. She had warning of the flood and escaped her house to higher ground along with her daughter Clara. However she decided to go back into the house to retrieve something when the flood crushed the house and swept her away.
Her gray grave marker has a pointed arch and is inscribed:
SARAH E.
wife of
J.E. HILLMAN.
drowned
in the flood
May 16 1874
Æ 42 yrs.
-~-
Asleep in Jesus, O how sweet
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 villages of Haydenville, Leeds, and Skinnerville. 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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