Willis Fletcher Johnson (1857–1931)

This work The History of Cuba Vol. 1 is the first of four by Willis Fletcher Johnson. Johnson was a journalist rather than a historian but he consulted and referred to many primary sources in this work. While I found it readable, especially considering his early 20th century style, it had points where it dragged too. At some points it read like a listing of the sequence of frequently changed Spanish colonial officials. Not quite as dull as the reciting of generations in the Old Testament but not the most interesting part. In other parts I was fascinated. Johnson connected events in Europe with the history of Cuba and the other colonial holdings. He description of the development of the tobacco and sugar industries was well done. The horrible treatment of the native people by the Spanish was not neglected or made light of. However he described the treatment of African slaves as genial and benign. I have seen the plaza in Santiago de Cuba where disobedient slaves were hanged in public. It was hardly so benign. I found Vol. 1 interesting enough that I have downloaded Vol. 2 from Gutenberg Project.… (mere)

Disastrous flood (1889) in the town of Johnstown, Pa., U.S. Johnstown lies at the confluence of the Conemaugh River and Stony Creek; at the time of the flood it was a leading U.S. steelmaking centre. At 3:10 PM on May 31, the South Fork Dam, a poorly maintained earthfill dam holding a major upstream reservoir, collapsed after heavy rains, sending a wall of water rushing down the Conemaugh Valley. A 30-ft (9-m) wall of water smashed into Johnstown at 4:07 PM, killing 2,209 people. Johnstown Flood of 1889 was the worst natural disaster in the United States. The city of Johnstown is located in southwestern Pennsylvania, in a narrow valley where the Little Conemaugh and Stony Creek rivers merge to create the Conemaugh River. In 1880, Johnstown was a leading industrial center with 10,000 inhabitants and 20,000 more in its surrounding communities.… (mere)