Larry Pletcher - Massachusetts Disasters: True Stories of Tragedy and Survival

Larry Pletcher has investigated the natural treasures and history of New England for nearly thirty years. After graduating from Princeton University and receiving an advanced degree from UCLA, Larry returned East and combined a professional career with freelance writing, photography, and avid exploration. A resident of Warner, New Hampshire, where he lives with his wife and daughter, Larry has called an old New England farmhouse home since 1975. He is the author of It Happened in Massachusetts and several outdoor recreation guides.

David J. Krajicek has been telling stories for more than 40 years as an author and newspaper and magazine writer. A native of Omaha, Nebraska, he proudly descends from a long line of meatpackers and bartenders--men and women known to tell a few stories of their own. For the past two decades, Krajicek has written The Justice Story, the longest-running true crime feature in American journalism, for the New York Daily News. He is the author of seven books, including Scooped! (Columbia University Press) and True Crime: Missouri (Stackpole), a regional best-seller. He is a former Columbia University journalism professor widely recognized for his expertise on criminal justice, historic crime, and the media. He lives in the Catskills Mountains of New York and on the Gulf Coast.

AMERICAS ROOTS OF MANIFEST DESTINY

The Massacre at Turners Falls (1676)

Bodge, George Madison. Soldiers in King Philips War, Being a Critical Account of that War, Third Edition. Boston: The Rockwell and Churchill Press, 1906.

Everts, Louis H. History of the Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts, Volume II. Philadelphia: Forgotten Books, 2016 (reprint of Louis H. Everts, 1879).

Schultz, Eric B., and Michael J. Tougias. King Philips War: The History and Legacy of Americas Forgotten Conflict. Woodstock, Vermont: The Countryman Press, 1999.

Turners Falls Reporter. Peske-Ompsk-Ut; or, The Falls fight. A series of random sketches showing a glimpse of the early history of Turners Falls, which appeared in The Turners Falls Reporter during the months of January & February 1875. Turners Falls, Massachusetts: C.T. Bagnall, 1875.

US Department of the Interior, National Park Service American Battle-field Protection Program, Technical Report: Battle of Great Falls/Wissantinnewag-Peskeompskut (May 19, 1676), by Dr. Kevin McBride, David Naumec, Ashley Bissonnette & Noah Fellman, October 21, 2015, pp 20-45.

POOR CREATURES PERISH ON IRISH FAMINE SHIP

The Wreck of the BrigSt. John (1849)

Bigelow, Edwin Victor. A Narrative History of the Town of Cohasset, Massachusetts. Cohasset, Massachusetts: Cohasset Town Historical Commission, 1898.

Boston Daily Bee, Disaster by the Late Storm; Awful Shipwreck at Minots Ledge; About 100 DrownedMen, Women and Children, October 9, 1849, p. 1.

Boston Post, The Shipwreck of the St. John: List of Survivors and Drowned, October 12, 1849, p. 1.

Fraser, Robert. Cohasset Vignettes. Cohasset, Massachusetts: Robert Fraser, 1981.

The Thoreau Reader, Henry Thoreau and the Wreck of the St. John, by Richard Smith, 2007.

Thoreau, Henry David. Cape Cod. New York: Norton, 1951.

KEEPERS WARNED OF DANGER; NO ONE LISTENED

Collapse of Minots Ledge Lighthouse (1851)

Appletons Annual Cyclopedia, Third Series, Volume 5. The United States Lighthouse Establishment, by Arnold B. Johnson, pp. 430-458. New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1881.

Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Minots Rock Lighthouse Carried Away, April 18, 1851, p. 1.

Harpers New Monthly Magazine, Minots Ledge, poem by Fitz-James OBrien, January 1, 1861, pp. 660-661.

Hartford Daily Courant, The Late Gale at Minots Rock-Light, January 7, 1851, p. 1.

Historical Digression, The Tragic Story of Minots Ledge Lighthouse, by Patrick Browne, October 30, 2015.

Snow, Edward R. Storms & Shipwrecks of New England. Beverly, Massachusetts: Commonwealth Editions, 2003.

The Keepers Log, Minots Ledge: The First Light Tower Collapse, by David A. Gamage, Fall 2015, pp. 12-17.

US House of Representatives Documents, 25th Congress, 1838, Doc. No. 24, Light-Houses, &c, pp. 1-171.

U.S. Lighthouses, Minots Ledge, Cohasset, Massachusetts, by Bryan Penberthy. October 25, 2016.

BOSTON HARBORS WORST SHIPWRECK

The Sinking of the Maritana (1861)

Boston Daily Advertiser. Disasters. & c., November 4, 1861, p. 4.

Boston Daily Journal. A Severe Storm, November 4, 1861, p. 3.

. News from the Fleet, November 5, 1861, p. 4.

Boston Daily Evening Transcript. A Heavy Gale, Shipwrecks and Loss of Life, November 4, 1861, p. 1.

Smith, Fitz-Henry, Jr. Storms and Shipwrecks in Boston Bay and the Record of The Life Savers of Hull, privately printed, Boston 1918.

ONE MANS COURAGE

The Wreck of the Eveline Treat (1865)

Boston Daily Evening Transcript. Mariners Relieved from Peril, October 25, 1865, p. 2.

Boston Herald. Wreck of a Maine Schooner Off Nantucket, October 25, 1865, p. 2.

Boston Post. Disasters, &c., October 24, 1865, p. 3.

Nantucket Inquirer and Mirror. Marine Disaster, October 28, 1865, p. 2.

New Bedford Daily Evening Standard. October 23, 1865, p. 3.

Snow, Edward Rowe. Great Storms and Famous Shipwrecks of the New England Coast. Boston: Yankee Publishing, 1943, p. 225.

THE GREAT REVERE DISASTER

Crash on the Eastern Railroad (1871)

Boston Daily Evening Transcript. Great Railroad Disaster, August 28, 1871, p. 2.

. The Eastern Railroad Accident, August 29, 1871, p. 2.

Boston Herald. The Eastern Railroad Horror, August 29, 1871, p. 2.

. The Eastern Railroad Horror, August 30, 1871, p. 2.

Boston Post. Frightful Disaster, August 28, 1871, p. 2.

WHOLESALE RUIN

The Great Boston Fire (1872)

Boston Daily Advertiser. The Fire, November 11, 1872, p. 1.

. The Great Conflagration, November 11, 1872.

. After the Fire, November 12, 1872, p. 2.

. Rain on the Ruins, November 13, 1872, p. 1.

Boston Daily Evening Transcript. A Great Calamity, November 11, 1872, p. 1.

Describing the Great Fire. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1909.

Harpers Weekly. The Boston Fire, editorial, November 30, 1872, p. 934.

Murdock, Harold. Letters Written by a Gentleman in Boston to His Friend in Paris. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1909.

THE MILL RIVER FLOOD

Failure of the Williamsburg Dam (1874)

Harpers Weekly. The Mill River Tragedy, June 6, 1874, p. 470.

Sharpe, Elizabeth M. In the Shadow of the Dam: The Aftermath of the Mill River Flood of 1874. New York: Free Press, 2004.

Springfield Daily Republican. Terrible Disaster, May 18, 1874, pp. 1, 5, 8.

. A Disaster Extra, May 19, 1874, pp. 4, 5.

. The Disaster Extra, May 20, 1874, p. 4.

Worcester Aegis and Gazette. Terrible Calamity, May 23, 1874, p. 3.

Worcester Evening Gazette. The Flood, May 18, 1874, p. 1.

THE GRANITE MILL NO. 1 FIRE

Women, Children Die, Blocked by Wall of Flames (1874)

Koorey, Stefani. Historic Fires of Fall River. Stroud, England: The History Press, 2016.

New York Times, Granite Mill No. 1, in Fall River, Destroyed by Fire, September 20, 1874, p. 1.

., Fall River: Its Industries and Its Remarkable Commercial History; The Spindle City of America, September 24, 1874, p. 1.

., The Fall River Disaster: The Verdict of the Coroners Jury, October 3, 1874, p. 5.