Democratic Sentinel, Volume 6, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 June 1882 — WOEFUL WIND. [ARTICLE]

WOEFUL WIND.

The Town of Grinnell, lowa, Wrecked by a Cyclone—Appalling Lo»s of Life—Five Pentone Killed by the Storm at Leavenworth, Kansan. A frightful storm, or series of storms, swept over a large section of the Northwest on the 17th and 18th of June. Grinnell, lowa, seems to have been the greatest sufferer, a considerable portion of the town going down before the fierce wind. The loss of life is the saddest feature of the disastrous visitation. It is believed that upward of 150 people were either killed outright or fataliy wounded. At Grinnell alone the death-roll will reach nearly, if not quite, 100. Nearly twice that number were more or less seriously injured, while the property loss amounts to at least $700,000. A correspondent furnishes the following graphic account of the ravages of the hurricane at Grinnell and vicinity : During the day the weather had been unusually hot, and toward evening ominous-looking clouds hung in the northwest. About 9 o’clock a deep and sullen roar like the approach of several rapidly-moving freight trains was heard, but before the cause of the peculiar phenomena was surmised the storm had burst in all its fury. Striking the town upon the northwest quarter, it cut a sinuous path through the most beautiful residence part of the town, carrying death and destruction in its path. Every animate and inanimate object was picked up in its relentless grasp and hurled to death and destruction. Houses were annihilated, fences obliterated, trees broken off like straws, or in some cases the trunks were left standing, stripped of every vestige of foliage and peeled clean of the bark, leaving but a white monument of the fury of the storm. Sidewalks were picked up and .tossed about, each particular plank being converted into an engine of death in the circling grasp of the storm. In the light of the terrible damage. done it seems almost miraculous that there was no greater loss of life. There can be but one way to account for it. Many of the village people were down town doing the usual Saturday evening marketing. The business portion of the town escaped, and in this way greater loss of life was prevented. The scene in the track of the storm beggars description. It was about half-past 3 o’clock this morning when the special train from Des Moines, in charge of Supt. Royce, of the Rock Island road, and bearing a corps of physicians and relief force, arrived. At that time twenty-eight of the dead had been recovered from the debris in Grinnell alone. The hotels, school-houses and town hail were converted into hospitals. In the town hall alone were twenty dead bodies, ranging from the youth of 10 or 12 years to the man whose hair had been frosted by age. Ad around were grief-stricken friends and relatives, and the spectacle was one calculated to appall the stoutest heart. The wreck in the early gray of the morning was one of the most lamentable sights presented to human eyes. The path of destruction was through the town of Grinnell about 700 feet in width. On the outer edges of the path the damage was the lightest. For the space of 200 feet in the center scarcely a tree or shrub escaped complete destruction. .Houses were picked up and thrown to the outer circle, some to one side and some to the other, as the freaks of the wind prevailed. In somecases the houses were removed,' dashed to pieces, scattered in fragments and foundation walls leveled to the ground. Nothing was saved of the contents. Stoves, furniture, pianos and all the various articles of household paraphernalia were tossed about as though they were but children’s toys. Articles of bedding and upholstered furniture were found miles from their proper abiding-places. The handsome buildings of the lowa College were completely destroyed, one of brick and another of stone, entailing a loss upon that institution of fully SIOO,OOO. The damage to the town cannot fall short of $700,000 or SBOO,OOO. Passing out of town, the storm struck a freight train on the Central lowa railroad, lifted it clean from the tracks, and turned the cars promiscuously around. About a mile and a half below Grinnell it struck a west-bound freight on the Rock Island road and removed every one of the heavilyloaded cars, twenty-three in number from the track, leaving the engine standing. The conductor of this train was fatally injured and has since died. A brakeman on the Central train had his head completely perforated with a piece of pine board. Beyond the Rock Island train no serious damage was done until Malcom was reached, a small town twelve miles east of Grinnell. Here the work of destruction -was re-enacted in Si its hideousness. The path of the storm was Evidently much broader hero, reaching out. to the south for nearly the distance of a mile. The Presbyterian and Methodist churches were demolished. Several business houses were blown down and residences destroyed. There were eight lives lost at Malcom and the immediate vicinity, though the greatest devastation was done in the country. This Utile town was nestled nicely on a gentle KnolL To the south and southeast is a beautiful valley, beyond which is a stretch of undulating prairie. Along on this prairie were located many neat farmcottages. There is nothing left of them. Standing in the streets of Malcom, the write l was shown the spots where the day before were located twelve comfortable farm-houses. About half a mile west of the village Charley Wheeler was killed. Mrs. Akers and her boy Johnnj also lost their lives here. There is % sad incident connected with the death of Mrs. Akers. She had just closed her house in town for the purpose of making a visit with friends in Illinois. Last evening she and her boy went over to Mr. Wheeler’s to pass the night with his people, her husband being absent in the mountains. She left a little girl with a young friend in town. Mr. Wheeler’s house was destroyed, and Mrs. Akers’ body was found in a ditch about ten rods away witu a heavy beam of timber rasting upon her, and a horrible gash across the side of the head. When the reporter left Malcom the girl was yet ignorant of the fate of her mother, and was placing about the streets full of childish glee. About three miles southeast of the town lived the McClure family of ten peisons. But one of them had been found at noon, and it is feared that death has overtaken them. Fifteen miles south of Brooklyn a number of death. l are reported. Considering the. extent to which the path of the storm had spread when it reached Malcom, its fury is phenomenal. The debris of the farm-houses was scattered over the prairie for a mile or more in a southwesterly direction from the points at which they were located. The lumber was splintered and fragments driven into the ground with terrific force. Barbed wire but recently put on was blown from the fence posts and coiled and twisted into divers shapes. Telegraph poles were snapped asunder and spitefully stuck in the ground. The damage to property in and around Malcom is estimated at $109,000. The place where the storm first struck is not definitely known. Northwest of Grinnell great devastation is wrought and several lives are known to have been lost, four being reported killed in one At Kellogg, a station east of Grinnell, one house was blown down. At Sheldahl several houses are reported destroyed, and it was probably in that vicinity that the first force of the blast was felt. If there was ever a case that called for human sympathy it is the case of these people whom misfortune has so suddenly overtaken.