Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 June 1896 — FOURTEEN BODIES FOUND. [ARTICLE]

FOURTEEN BODIES FOUND.

That Many More Victims of the Soneca, Mo., Flood tStill Missing. The scenes in and about the district of the awful Hood disaster at Seneca, Mo., present a picture of desolation. Cherokee avenue, Seneca’s principal business street, is divided in two sections by the loss of the splendid iron bridge which spanned the Lost creek. Of the twenty-eight thought to be drowned, fourteen have been taken from the water. Every merchant in Cherokee avenue, which embraced fully nine-tenths of the business interests of the town, has suffered more or less direct loss to stock. The loss and damage to stock in stores alone is fully $30,000, while the total loss, including the inundated residence district and loss of buildings, brings the total above $50,000 at a very conservative estimate. No accurate conception of the loss to private residences cajr he given, but probably 100 homes were inundated. Two houses were carried' down the stream, and every member of the Andreas and Schmidt families was drowned. A number of families have lost all and are destitute. Many farmers along the course of Lost creek lost their crops.