Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 May 1896 — STORM’S DIRE WORK [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

STORM’S DIRE WORK

A Cyclone Devastates Three States. DEATH IN ITS WAKE. lowa, Illinois, and Michigan the Sufferers. The Death 801 l Will Pass the Hundreds, and Hundreds More Are Injured—Terrific Downpour of Water in Several Instances Completes the Destruction Which the Wind Hagan —Damage to Farm Property Is Literally 1 nconcei vable—Several Towns Are Wiped Off the Karth. A most fearful storm originated Sunday night, a little northeast of Des Moinet., lowa. Traveling almost due east, it devastated portions of that State, Illinois and by Monday evening had reached the eastern boundary of Michigan, culminating in Macomb County. In lowa it raged most fiercely in Polk and Jasper Counties, killing twenty-seven persons, fatally injuring three, seriously injuring nineteen and demolishing a large part of five towns —Valeria, Bondurant, Santiago, Mingo nqd Ira. The country between the towns was devastated and the crops utterly ruined. All the stock in the path of the storm was destroyed. In Bondurant five were killed; in Santiago, two; in Valeria, seven; near Mingo, four; and in the intervening country between Mingo and Ida, nine. Eighteen were injured, several fatally. Besides the loss of of life the damage to farm buildings, fences and live stock is fully $1,000,000. Drowned in the Flood. In eastern lowa, a terrific downpour of water occurred, doing greatest damage at Dubuque and ‘Durango. At the latter place, the depot was carried by the flood a mile and a half, and Mrs. Clark, station agent, four children, Engineer Griffin. J. Dillon and P. Moss were drowned. The combined fury of wind and water wiped out the family of John Maloney near Fostville, numbering six, and near North McGregor fifteen bodies, unrecognisable, were found. Miles of railroad track, several depots and eighteen bridges were swept away. Delaware County escaped with large property damage only. Passing into Illinois, the first effects were felt at Elgin. Engineer Keough, of the asylum, was killed. The bicycle factory was demolished, loss over $200,000. A wide fanning territory was devastated,

and railroad property suffered' greatly. Near Rockford four were killed. In Chicago and suburban towns, scores of residences were utterly demolished; miles of street paving washed away; hundreds of basements filled with goods flooded, and over two hundred people injured. Strange to say, not a fatality was reported, though the ruin of many dwellings was so instant aud complete that escape of many from death seems miraculous. Everything in the path of the storm was leveled. The suburbs suffering most were Norwood Park, Niles, Niles Center,' Edison Park, Irving Park and Ravanswood. Churches, trees and dwellings were razed. One Hundred Die in Michigan, Leaving Chicago, the next report of damage came from Ortenville, Oakland County, Mich. Seventeen lives were reported lost and a half-hundred persons injured, while the town is practically wiped out of existence. Prom Oakwood, northeast of Ortenville, word was received that eight had been killed. The villages directly in the line es the storm were Thayer, Groveland, Austin, Brandon, Seymour aud Davisburg. A message from Clarkston late Monday night said that there liad been a large loss of life there, and that Davisburg, Clarkston and Springfield h;«l also a large list of Killed and injured. Mount Clepiens, in Macomb County, was given a bad scare, and while much property damage was done and a few injured, yet no loss of life resulted. Thirty

houses were blown down. The path cut by the cyclone from Oakland and Metamora on the northwest through Thomas, Orion, Goodison, Washington, Disco and the country located between is filled with populous towns and it is feared that many of them have been wiped off the map. It seems that the list of dead and injured would pass 100, and no estimate can be given as to the property damaged. * Storm Was a Twister, Actual details of the devastation caused by the cyclone were meager, but all of the witnesses agree that the storm was a regular Western twister. Its first, appearance at Thomas station was from the southwest in the form of a {densely black funnel-shaped cloud, moving with almost incredible swiftness and seeming to take long leaps. It seemed to have the elasticity of a gigantic rubber ball, and would •trike the ground, then, leaving a footprint of devastation, bound into the air

and travel a mile or more before again touching the earth. Beyond Macomb County the storm was lost somewhere in the Canadas. A terrific hurricane and cloudburst struck Cairo. IIL, at 8:30 o'clock Tuesday morning. The extent of the destruction of property could not be ascertained, but it is known that at least a dozeiglives were lost through the capsizing of the steam ferryboat Katherine. The disaster occurred at the month of the Ohio river. As speedily as possible relief parties were organized to drag for bodies and rescue the ill-fated passengers and crew from the mad fury of the waves. The captain, engineer and clerk of the steamer succeeded in keeping afloat until succor reached them and they were brought ashore. All attempts to save the other victims were unavailing. FIRST WORK OF DESTRUCTION. Hnrricane Came Like a Thief Upon Sleeping lowa Families. In the lowa region, where the storm started, Sunday had been a fearfully hot and sultry day, the air had been oppres-

sive and still and many people had remarked that there was danger of a cyclone. Most of the people were in bed. There Was a rain and thunder storm just in advance of the cyclone, and while the wind was whistling through the trees nnd the rain heating down in sheets suddenly the awful roar that every prairie fanner knows as the dread forerunner of the cyclone would be heard. Another instant and the storm would strike and then all was chaos. Those who heard it early snved themselves in some cases by getting into their cellars or caves. In other places whole families were killed or terribly injured, and their property destroyed. A typical bit of destruction was at the Bailey home, northwest of Bondurant. In the house were nine persons, four of whom were killed and the rest injured so badly that it is doubtful if any of them recover.

Their house was on a high hill, above the surrounding country, and the funnel dipped down to it. Houses, barns, outbuildings and grove were destroyed alike. Two minutes after the storm struck there was no trace of the house save the cellar, and iu it were piled the chimney and stove and half the furniture. The house was torn to pieces, the boards into splinters. They were scattered so far that no trace can be found save here and there for a mile east pieces of the broken lumber. The trees were stripped of their bark, but left standing. This was a freak of the storm. At places, as this one, it would strip the trees of their leaves and bark, blit leave the trunks and branches; at others it would twist them off or uproot them. At the Bailey place the members of the family were blown a considerable distance from the house. The bodies of the victims were found in the fields, where were also found the bodies of a dozen horses, two score of cattle and about 100 hogs, that had occupied the barns and other buildings on the place. Every animal was dead. Freaks of the Storm. The storm perpetrated all the remarkable feats that cyclones are. famous for. The first large building ?wrecked ip Jowa was the Monarch school, house, west of Bondurant. Here it took; up a large school house, shook it to’ pieces, scattered it so that very few of the boards are to be found, and even distributed the stone foundation over the fields, while a big wooden stile over the fence, three rods from the building, it left unharmed. The huge cylindrical cast iron stove was tossed into an oat field a quarter of a mile from the site of the building. The storm came in some places in 'the form of two and in others in the form of a single funnel. At Bondurant there were two, sweeping along the earth side by side. Between them was a calm space, and in this little damage was done. After the two consolidated their force seemed to be greater. It was at Mr. Markoff’s barn, near Elgin, however, that the cyclone played its most curious prank. The barn has an interior covered stall, like a small she I, where Jim, a bay horse, makes his stall. The furious wind reduced all the rest of the barn to splinters except this stall, which it threw fifty feet through the air and stood bottom end up In an adjoining lot. Jim was found standing on the ceiling Monday morning chewing hay from the roof of his home as contentedly as if nothing had happened. He had not received a scratch. LIST OF THE DEAD. Those Whose Lives Are Known to Have Been Blown Ont, lOWA. Valeria —Two children of Douglass Aikens, Miss Monita Dickey, Solomon Dickey, Charles Phalan, Sr., Charles Phalan, Jr., Daniel Phalan, Dennis Phalan, Susie Phalan, Michael Phalan, Mrs.

Schell, Mrs. Lucretia Whitney. Bondurant—Mrs. John Bailey, Lizzie Bailey, John Bailey, Jr., John Bailey, John Maxwell, Robert Bailey. McGregor—Mrs. Morg Burke, William Burke, John Godlet, Michael Havle, John Lavotch. John Maloney, Mrs. JohD Maloney. Michael Maloney, Lawrence Meyer. Mrs. Lawrence Meyer, Anton Meyer, four Meyer children. John Nichols. Durango—Four Clark children, Thomas Grithn, brakeman. Santiago—Peter Bolenbaugh, Mr*. Peter Bolenbaugh, Theophilus Milburn, orphan child. ILLINOIS. Rockford—Mrs. Isora Bird, Mrs. Godfrey Hildebrand. Elsie Hildebrand, Godfrey Hildebrand, daughter of Mrs. Isora Bird. Elgin—John Kehoe. Cairo —Captain Rittenhouse, Dr. Otr, Miss Orr, Miss Orr, Richard Thurman, Charles Gilhoffer, seven members of the crew of the Katherine. MICHIGAN. Ortonville—Mrs. T. G. Heaton, two

Howe children, John Milty, William Mitchell, Mrs. William Mitchell, two Mitchell children, John Porritt, Abram Quick, two Quick children, Mrs. Henry Quick, Mrs. Scott and son, Daniel Thompson nnd son. Oak wood—Mrs. William Davis and child, W. M. Fifield, Charles Laird, Roger Werber, Mrs. Roger Werber and others. Thomas—Eleven were killed hereabout; names could not be obtained. Minor Damage of the Storm. Several houses at Laporte, Ind., were struck by lightning, but the damage was small. At Fowler, lud., James McDaniels’ barn was fired by lightning. Four valuable horses perished. Lightning struck the residence of Councilman Jackson and Emery Swett at Kokomo, Ind., doing much damage. The

German Lutheran Church at Kappa was demolished by lightning. The new Methodist Church at Stavanger, 111., was struck by lightning and burned. Loss, $2,500; uninsured. At Westville, Ind., lightning struck the high school building and it was burned. Loss, $5,000; insured for $3,500. Lightning struck and burned the barns of Henry Lilly in Matteson township, near Coldwater, Mich. Loss, $1,500; insured. According to late statistics there are in the United States 40,000 deaf mutes. At Bay City, Mich., the city electric light tower on Center avenue, 220 feet high, the highest in the United States, was blown down and wrecked. Lightning struck the cabin of a settler named Cook, near Superior, Wis., and the owner and a companion narrowly escaped being roasted alive. Fruit growers near Benton Harbor, Mich., consider the storm a blessing to them, as a great many young peaches were blown off overloaded trees. The residences of Clem Hoover, Lewis Cowin and Robert Campbell at Muncie, Ind., were badly damaged by lightning and Mr. Hoover was dnngerously injured. In’the vicinity of Emporia, Kan., bottom lands along the Cottonwood river have been flooded for miles on both sides by continuous rains during the last two weeks, but the water is now receding. Sunday night a storm at Mount Carroll, 111., was terrific. Carroll creek rose twenty feet in almost as many minutes, carrying away the J. M. Shirk Company’s mill dam and flooding the mill, and the Electric Light Station, Gilbert’s glove factory and Libkicher’s carriage factory. North of Lanark barns and outbuildings were toppled over by the wind. Three new iron bridges were swept away, and the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway had 200 feet of track washed out Fields that were beautiful and promising twenty-four hours ago are now dreary wastes. It is safe to say that SIOO,OOO will not cover the damage in Carroll County.

MURPHY’S STOCK FARM, EDISON PARK.

WORK OF THE CYCLONE IN NORWOOD PARK.