Jasper County Democrat, Volume 6, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 October 1903 — TORNADO TAKES LIFE. [ARTICLE]

TORNADO TAKES LIFE.

BT. CHARLES, MINN., RAZED /K SEVEN PERSONS KILLED. Widespread Destruction of Property Is Reported from the Northwestern Mstss—Twelve Perish in Waters of Orsen Boy. The little town of St. Charles, In Wlnota County, Minn., was practically wiped out by • tornado which struck it at 2:80 Saturday afternoon. Seven people were killed and twenty-eight Injured, many of them seriously. The entire main street of the town was literally wiped out, hardly a business place being left standing. Forty-two residences also were destroyed and the total property damage is estimated at SIOO,OOO. The day had been abnomully sultry for the season of the year, and during ths morning there had been showers of rain, accompanied by fitful gusts of wind. Toward noon ths sky became heavily overcast, but indications of a tornado were entirely lacking. This being Saturday, the country people from the surrounding farms had gathered in large numbers in the main streets to do their customary •hopping. At 2:30 the storm cloud was seen approaching from the southwest, and there was an Immediate scramble for places of safety. Tha tornado struck the town from ths southwest quarter and mads a clean sweep through It, following almost entirely the line of ths main street, and devastating buildings on either side. Then the residences further back from the business center were struck and many of them blown completely away._ The storm seems to have followed ▼ery closely the boundary line between Minnesota and lowa and damage to farm buildings and grain stacks, with injury to human beings nnd death to live stock is reported from several points In that locality. Two boys, seas of Stephen Matter, were killed at St. Cloud, Minn., while seeking refuge from the storm. They bad taken shelter beneath a string of cars on the railway siding and a switching crew backed another string of cars npon them, killing them instantly. The tail end of the cyclone struck Duluth and caused much damage to property, blowing down several buildings and wrecking many boots in the harbor. No one was injured. It is reported that many of the mines of the Mesaba range were flooded by the extraordinarily heavy rain.

Deaths In Wisconsin. A terrific windstorm, approaching a cyclone, swept over Wisconsin, causing death and destruction. At Independence two persons were killed, three fatally Injured and a score of others badly hurt At Eagle Valley the Reformed Church was demolished and bouses on the prairie were swept away. At Racine tree* were blown down, also electric light and telephone wires, and half of the city left in total darkness. Carl Larson, a painter, 35 years old, was electrocuted on State street He ran Into a telephone wire on the sidewalk, charged with electricity. Spectators knocked the wire from his hands with a board. He was taken to a hospital unconßcious and will not live. Thomas Galroth was killed and two men Injured by the demolition of a famehouse at Trempealeau. Baraboo reports a cloud burst more severe than was ever known in that section this afternoon lasting three hours. Fully four inches of water fell Many buildings and wind mills were blown down, cellars flooded and several washouts reported. A tornado which struck Blain and Almond killed five persons near Sheridan, Wis., and blew down twenty buildings as near as can be ascertained. In a field $l,lOO in money was picked np, apparently having been blown there by the stormT

Twelve Pariah ia Greea Bay. During a furious gale that swept over Lake Michigan just at dark the steamer Erie L. Hackley went down off Green island and twelve persona were drowned. Nine survivors, after drifting all night on pieces of wreckage, were rescued the next morning by the steamer Sheboygan of the Goodrich line and taken to Fish Creek. The Hackley left Menominee for Egg Harbor about an hour before the coming of the storm. The day had been hot and muggy, with hardly a breath of air starring. As the sun went down the storm clouds commenced to gather and there wyre unmistakable signs of a coming tempest. Suddenly, from out the northeast, a furious blast swept the lake, causing the ill-fated vessel to careen until the sails almost touched the water. Aa the craft righted itself everyone on board rushed on deck. Then came a second blast, stronger than the first, capsizing the vessel and tending it to the bottom. Honses Are Leveled. A cyclone, accompanied "by rain and hail, visited the vicinity near Neponset, 111., doing much damage to farm buildings and cropa. The bouses of Charles Turnbull and Thomas Morphy were leveled to tfia ground. Peter Johnssgi’s residence was blown thirty feet off its foundations. The path of the storm was forty reds wide and touched at several points in Bureau, Stark and Henry counties. Daring a heavy thunder-storm at Martinsville, Ind., lightning struck Hiram Pearcy’s barn, three miles east, immediately killing John Slongh, a 17-year-old farmhand, and a horse in the barn.