Johnstown, Pennsylvania -
Morley's Dog

Morley's dog is currently under restoration and therefore cannot be visited at the present time. [Joe Schantz, 05/26/2007]

[RA: A replica has stood in Morley's place since 2004. After years of expensive hi-tech restoration work, the original Morley's Dog is expected back in Johnstown, possibly at the Johnstown Flood Museum. The replica will stay outside.]

Morley's dog, the cast iron dog on display in Johnstown Pa, belonged to the Morley family. He did not depict a real dog or hero who rescued a child from the flood, although there are stories of such a dog. He was found in the flood debris in 1889 at the stone bridge after the flood.

Later he appeared at the home of and was in the possession of Dudley Morley. He was known as Uncle Morley to my mother, and was a family friend and business partner of her grandfather, H.C. Cook. The Morleys lived in Johnstown at the time of the 1889 flood. They had come from England and had a home where the Lee Hospital now stands. Dudley Morley moved the dog to his home in Southmont, a suburb of Johnstown. Probably sometime in the 1920's.

My mother remembers sitting on the dog and riding him as a small child. Dudley Morley had no children of his own and we have no idea how the dog came to be placed in the park in Johnstown. It is interesting to note that he now stands very close to his earlier home where he graced the lawn of the Morley family home. [Mia Benson, 01/15/2000]

Morley's Dog, of Johnstown. This noble cur, whose own proper name seems lost to history, is supposed to have performed some act of heroism during the city's great Flood of 1889 (just what seems as obscure as the dog's name). He is commemorated in a very handsome, life-size statue in a downtown park — and also in a local microbrew. [Bruce McKillip, 07/04/1998]