Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 September 1881 — A TORNADO OF FLAME. [ARTICLE]

A TORNADO OF FLAME.

Particular* of the Terrible ffliebi^an Conflagrations—Appalling Destruction of Life and Property* Detboit, Mich., Sept. 9. The scene of the terrible tornado of flame in the lower Michigan peninsula may be readily placed in the mind of the casual reader by the aid of the following explanation: The southern peninsula of Michigan has the form, on the map, of a left-hand mitten, laid on its palm. The space between the thumb and fingers is represented by Saginaw bay. Huron county forms the end of the thumb, and beneath it, on the map, lie Tuscola and Sanilac counties, side by side, Sanilac to the eastward. Bad Ax is in the center of Huron county, and is the county seat, and Caro is in tho center of Tuscola county, and is the county seat Each of tho three counties has about twenty-four townships six miles square. Tho loss Of life and#roperty is immense. A dispatch from Lexington says that dead bodies are being brought in from all directions. It is estimated that 590 people are homeless and in immediate want of assistance. The farmers iurnewer townships lose live stock, houses, barns, cMps, everything. A farmer who just came in from Austin township saved his family of eight children in a field of buckwheat, but he says the whole country in that part is totally destroyed and many lives have been lost. The loss of live stock is simply immense. The older settled townships escaped with but littlo loss, but in most of the newer townships nothing remains but a fire-swept, blackened wilderness, A dispatch from Marietta, Sanilac county, says a terrible state of fiffairs exists at that point. The entire section of the country lying to the north and east of that place has been on fire, and the number of families rendered homeless will reach the hundreds. Up to this time seventeen persons are known to have met their death by fire. The horse of Ira Humphrey, the mail carrier between this place and Davies Corners, came home badiy burned, with » card attached to the saddle written by Humphrey, stating his peril from fire. A relief party found him oh tho road dead. He was entirely denuded of his clothes, either having been burned on his person, or torn off by himself in his desperation. In the township" of Argyle, Huron county, the following were burned dead : Paul Wetzel, wife and five children; George Krotch, wife and three children ; Mrs. Morris Welch and two children ; James Gilson, and two women, recently from Canada, names unknown.

The Rev. Z. Grenell, Jr., pastor of the First Baptist Church, of this city, arrived from Sand Beach at noon to-day by the Narrow-Gauge and Grand Trunk, passing through most of the burned region in Sanilac county. He gave a reporter a graphic and fearful description of the calamity as he saw it, and heard of it from eye-witnesses. On his way to Port Huron by the Narrow-Gauge railroad it was noticed that, iu somo places, the railroad track had proved an effectual barrier to the flames, which did not find fuel in tho gravel of the road-bed. Iu other places, however, it burned tho ties and twisted and destroyed the rails, which had to be replaced. In other places it had leaped clear over the road, and taken a new start on the other side. For tho most part, it got across in some way, and the spots of unburnt country were small, few, and far between. From the car-windows, all the way, it presented to the view tho aspect of a burned desert of ashes and smoldering embers, without a sign of animal or vegetable life, a country abandoned by God and man, and to whiuh it was impossible to imagine any one returning. The telegraph poles had all burned, and the wires had been reset upon any stick that could be found, and, for long distances, were merely laid along the ties beside the rails. One of the most singular and appalling phenomena accompanying the calamity was the awesome darkness which preceded it and rein lined until all was over. Tho experience of Sand Beach will illustrate that of tlio who’e lake shore. At sunrise Monday the air was as clear as usual. At Ip. m. the people began to observo a singular copper-colored appearance of the whole firmament. A little later this deepened to a rid, and by 2 o’clock it was so dark that pooplc wire compelled to take lanterns to find their way out of doors. Mr. Jenks, a well-known citizen, said that he passed his hand back and forth before his face and could not see. The fearful darkness continued all the afternoon, with an occasional rift, through which the rays of tho sun darted furtively with unnatural brightness, to be succeeded immediately by still more blinding blackness. Many thought the end or tho world was at hand, and wero filled with terror. The horrors of the imagination were soon intensified by the approach of tho flames, tho stories of the universal desolation to tho west of them, the dread that they were fated to a frightful doatli, and then by the arrival of the* charred, blackened and shapeless remains of the poor victims. This awful condition continued all along the shore until Wednesday morning at 8 o’clock, when the wind, which had been blowing steadily from the west, turned suddenly from tho north, carrying the cool, moist air of the lake to the fevered heads and smoke-and-ash-begrimed faces of tho people. It was sweet as the breath of God, and was accepted as thankfully. The scenes of horror in the woods were too frightful for any pen to portray. Tho dead were found everywhere, very rarely recognizable, and in most cases undiatinguishahle as human beings. Many were mere masses of burnt flesh, which fell apart when touched, and in very few could sex or age bo distinguished. From one body the head fell when it was lifted up; from another, that of a young woman, the leg separated and hung. suspended by the tendons. In some places families were found reduced to an undistinguishable heap of roasted and blackened blocks of flesh, where they fell together, overwhelmed by the rushing flames. The manifold horrors of the calamity wbra multiplied by fearful tornadoes, which cut off retreat in every direction. The awful fieat of the atmosphere raised the smoke a little from the ground, and it hung above the earth in an impenetrable mass, shutting out all light, and leaving tIA poor creatures below helpless and blind, until the fire caught them and closed their agony in death. Now and then flames . shot up in tremendous masses, which would be seized by a tornado and carried bodily a quarter of a mile away, and then pushed down again to start the flames in a new quarter. In this way helpless fugitives flying for life were penned in by seas of flame, and roasted like rats in a cage. One farmer, a few miles from Sand Beach, who was plowing with oxen, on noticing the approaching darkness, and thinking he had plenty of time, w&ited to turn Ins cattle and horses loose. He then hurried to the house, and, finding his wife gone to a neighbor, took two children himself, and gave three others in charge of his oldest daughter. Before they got many rods from the house the flames had got before them. He hurried off in another direction with his two youngest, but the girl pushed on over the burning grass with the other three. He escaped. The bodies of the other four were afterward found in a heap, charred beyond recognition. John Ballentme, of Verona Mills, says "that fifty-three lives were known to be lost iu the neighborhood of Sand Beach. The fire suddenly reached Verona Mills on Monday, and the town was soon wiped out. The wind was so strong that Ballentine and wife were picked up and blown fifteen cr twenty yards. A woman and her husband were found lying against a tree, dead, tho woman 'being partly delivered of a child. The devastation caused by the fires of 1871 is nothing in comparison to the fires of the past few days. In the vicinity of Richmondville Western, Forester and Marcer townships reliable information leads one to say that upward of 300 persons perished in tho flames. There was no escape for them. The woods and ground wero so dry that no warning of danger was given. Faster than a race-horse came the fire. It would embrace a house or a barn with its coatents and away to tho next- Persons who have been through the terrible ord>-al say that in ton minutes from tho time the fire struck there would be no vestige of a house left. A correspondent says : “I have just returned from a trio throuirh the burned district, and a description of the sights would make the reader’s blood turn cold. In many instances men, women and children were found lying on their faces in the road, where they had fallen when overtaken by the fire. Children were lying on logs, where they had clambered for safety. There was no finding each other when once separated. Many took refuge in wells and root-house's, thinking to escape, but in almost every instance were suffocated! Details of the disaster in Huron are as bad as here. I believe that when the returns are in 1,000 persons will be found to have perished in the flames. Forester township will turn out Thursday to bury the dead cattle, sheep and horses, the stench from which is unbearable. The Rev. W. T. Alliugton found sixteen dead bodies near Deckeryille, Only fiye buildings were left be-

tween that place and Minden. John Fiytewager’s family, seven children and wife, were all burned together in Paris township, with fifteen others. The Day family were burned. Morris Clifford, wife and child. A man and woman are lying dead in the road between Donncr’s mill and Tyre. Fifteen families were burned in Moore and Argyle. Five hundred families are reported at Minden as having been burned ouL A woman and seven head of cattle were burned at Smith’s mils, .half a mile from Tyre. Wherever a house is left people flock to it like sheep to the fold, in some plaoes as many as six families being in a log shanty. They must have relief from the blow or great suffering will be the result. I saw many families to-day who had not one meal since Monday, and who do not know when they will get one. Their teams are ail gone, and their cows and other stock burned. Desolation stares themm the race. They talk about their misfortune, and many of them say, had as it is, it might be a great deal worse. They are glad to get away with their lives. Many of the men are Canadians, who havo been over but a short time and have just begun to get things in comfortable shape. Many need medicine and medical attendance." The following appeal has been issued by the comruittee of citizens of Port Huron, headed by Senator Conger, Mayor Carleton and others: To the People of the United States: A most appalling disaster has fallen upon a large portion of the counties of Huron and Sanilac, with some adjacent territory, a section of country recently covered with forest, and now occupied by nearly 60,000 people, largely recently settled, and either poor or in very moderate oircumstances. In the whole of this section there has been but little rain during the past two months, and everything was dry, when on Monday, Sept. 5, a hurricane swept over it, carrviug with it a sheet of flame that hardly anything could withstand. We have advices of 200 persons burned to death, many of them by the roadside or in the fields while seeking places of safety, and it is probable that twice this number have perished. We -kavo reports from twenty or more townships, in which scarcely a house, barn or supplies of any kind are left, and thousands of people are destitute and helpless. All of these people require immediate assistance, and most of them must depend on charity for months to come. We are doing all iu our power to succor them, but the necessities of the case are so great that contributions from charitable people throughout the country will be required to keep them throughout the winter. We. therefore, appeal to you to send money, clothing, bedding, provisions, or anv other supplies that will help maintain the sufferers, and enable them to provide shelter for themselves, and begin work again on tbeir farms. Contributions may be sent to the Mayor, E. C. Carleton, Chairman of the Relief Committee appointed by the citizens of Port Huron, who have sent agents through tho burned district to ascertain the wants of the sufferers and distribute supplies. Detroit, Sept 10. The forest fires in tho lower peninsula of this State have been quite generally quenched by rain after ravaging thirty-six townships, and the extent of the awful calamity is beginning to reveal itself. The devastation is even more widespread than had been feared by the most despondent. It seems, from present repc”ts, that about thirty-one townships in Tuscola, Sanilac and Huion counties have been swept over by the flames. In this district are about fourteen villages utterly destroyed, and the surrounding country shorn so close by the fire as to leave the ground cleared like a newly-sown field. No estimate of losses or deaths can be made with any degree of accuracy, but news from trustworthy sources leads to the belief that the estimate on 200 lives lost is very low, and that 300 is nearer the reality. Tho ?wfr' details are beginning to come to band. They are of a character to make strong men shudder. Communication with the burnt district has been again opened and assistance is being rapidly furnished. Many persona are still missing in the burned districts, and the exact loss cannot be known for some days. Among reports of burials aro tho following : Paris townslnp 29 Austin. . 16 Minden 3 Bingham y Delaware 8 Argyle .....'. 1 It is said that twenty-seven dead have been found in the country between Bad Ax and Port Hope. A dispatch from Ludiugton Estimates that the probable loss of life is from 300 to 4'iu in Samlac couuty alone. The towns of Watertown, Flynn, Elmer, Moore, Argyle, Evergreen, Greenleaf and Eaton have sulfired fearful loss in lives, and the destiuction of property in these townships is immeuso. Everything is gone, and tlte people aro congregated at thesy places. m somo localities whole families have perished in tho flames, and on the eastern and north border of the county their condition is pitiful in the extreme. The facts are more horrible than heretofore reported, and many have suspended business to attend to the unfortunates. On the other side of Cass river, the condition is deplorable, and the sufferers are without homes, food or clothing. Immediate relief is contributed liberally, but tho outlook for tho future is dark indeed. Men who have grown old clearing land, and were enjoying the fruits of their labor iu comfortable homes, havo lost everything and been made paupers.

Tlio territory burned over is peopled by at least 50,000 inhabitants, one-half of whom have set tled here within ten years. The conditions which made the fire so destructive were these: Fully two-thirds of the timber over the entire burned tract was destroyed by the great fire of 1871, and was piled up iu miles of windfalls, or, if standing, was mere kindling-wood. The settlers preferred burned lands as beimr easily cleared, and hundreds of new homes were surrounded by great tracts of fallen timber. The roads were lined on either side by it, and many who perished wero caught on these roads and hemmed in by labyrinths of this burning hemlock, black ash and pine. There had been no rains over this region since spring to wet down any depth. Even swamps which were usually covered with one or two feet of water had become dry as tinder. For weeks (here had been no heavy winds. The prevailing winds had been from Lake Huron, with which fires did not run. On the day of the great fire there was not a square mile m all the burned region that did not hold more or less fire. Monday morning opened with a cloudless sky, the mercury gradually rising to 100 and over. The wind was south, running to southwest, and by noon increasing to a fifty-mile gale. At noon in many piaccs lamps had to be lit, and a sickening sense of fear and impending calamity overspread the whole population. About 4 "o’clock the wind assumed the violence of a tornado. The flames were of a ghastly bluish hue, giving no light, but licking up timber, houses, barns, stacks, animals and people with a resistless fury, and this at places were no fire was known to be for miles around in ihe morning. On Tuesday the extent of the horror began ;to be known —dead men, women and children at what had been their doorsteps, at their gates in the fields, and on the highways, some untouched by fire, others charred and blackened. One poor woman, in the agony of childbir'h, was half-burned. The living, with burned feet, ears or hands, and many women and children entirely naked, were separated from the rest of the family, blind, hopeless and despairing.

In Sanilac county, Cato, with a population of 100, suffered a clean sweep of every building. William Cole was burned. In Tyre, which h::d a population of fifty, one dwelling alone is left. Deckervilie, with a population of 150, lost two mills, six stores and dwellings. At Anderson, with a population of 100, a clean sweep of all the buildings was made. At Cumber, which had a population of fifty, only one dwelling is left. A clean sweep was made of Richmondville, with a population of 100, and seven lives were lost. The following is a summary of the losses by townships : Washington, 31 homes ; Watertown, 40 homes, 5 lives; Elmer, 30 homes; Moore, 40 homes, 14 lives; Argyle, 40 homes, 13 lives ; Austin, 60 homes, 9 lives; Marion, 25 homes, 26 lives ; Delaware, 40 homes, 7 lives; Minden, 30 homes; Bridgehamton. 40 homes. Lamotte, Evergreen and Green have suffered undoubtedly in lives and property in tbe same proportion, but no particulars are at hand. JFlynn, 30 homes; Speaker, 25 homes ; Maple Valley, 20. homes ; Sanilac, 10 homes. Lexington, 20 homes ; Elk, 25 homes. In Huron county, in the village of Bad Ax, the population of which was about 300, the court-house and one store only were saved. In Verona, with a popu.ation of 100, a church and hotel were savecL A clean sweep was made of Huron* City, population 200. The same fate befell Umbly, population 150 ; and Parisville, populatien 100. At Port Hope, three mills, a salt block and lumber, ana six dwellings

were burned. The townships of Bingham, Paris. Bloomfield and Rubicon are nearly a clean sweep. There are eighty-five dead in these townships, and many missing—with no hopes. Reports hourly increase the number, and every township has suffered nearly as much. B. R. Noble, banker, of Lexington, who has a good knowledge of the country burned, estimates Die loss of property in Huron and Sanilac counties at $3,000,000. The insurance among the fanners was mostly in a mutual company, whose members are the principal sufferers, and, of course, unable to pay assessments. Relief has commenced to flow in from various quarters, and subscriptions are being taken up in all the commercial cities. In answer to a request for tents, the Secretary of War urges the construction of temporary buildings, and Gov. Jerome has telegraphed him to order one thousand army blankets. Secretary Windom has instructed the Collector of Customs at Port Huron to pass free of duty all contributions from Canada. The residents of the burned district were mainly insured in the farmers’ Mutual Company, of Huron, Sanilao and Tuscola counties, and probably not over 20 per cent will be realized.