Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 74, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 February 1909 — ICE AND SNOW [ARTICLE]

ICE AND SNOW

Has Northern Indiana In \ Its Grip. WORST SLEET KNOWN SINCE 1883 Light, Telephone and Telegraph Wires Down and Rensselaer Was In Darkness Sunday Night—Damage Will Reach Thousands of Dollars Here. One of the worst storms of its kind that has visited this section of the country for more than a quarter of a century came Saturday night, when the rain that started in about midnight with lightning and thunder, turned to ice by a drop in the temperature and froze in solid masses to everything it encountered. Shade and fruit trees, light, telegraph and telephone poles and wires were broken down under their load of ice, and Sunday was about as desolate a day as one ever saw here. While some fruit trees have been broken badly, the damage to them is not so general as might be supposed. Shade trees, especially the soft maple, which is the most in evidence in Rensselaer, suffered considerably, and yards, sidewalks and streets were littered with broken branches. At A. H. Hopkins residence, a large branch of a soft maple broke out an entire window on the south side of the house. "x Quite a number of telephone and light poles were broken down in Rensselaer, and in the country the telephone lines were reported in very bad shape, lots of poles being broken down and the wires broken and twisted so badly that it will be several days before the damage can be fully repaired. Monday the long distance and toll lines were all out of commission, and even bur city people living west of the river were cut off from the outside world, the lines being all down. No lights were turned on at all Sunday night owing to the condition of the wires being such that it was not thought safe to do so. Monday was much colder and the frozen ice clung closely to everything it had attached itself to, but Monday night the light service was resumed, after a careful survey of the lines to see that no damage could result unless more branches of trees fell across the wires. This was a great convenience to the business, houses, although, as may be supposed, business was not rushing in many lines Monday, most people staying inside, who could, the streets and sidewalks being a glare of ice and the day far from pleasant. The big storm recalls to mind of old settlers “the big sleet of 1883,” which also came in February, Friday night, Feb. 2, and was the most destructive storm of its kind ever known here. Those Who remember that storm say it was much worse than this; that ice froze £n inch thick around the telegraph wires, branches of trees and everything exposed to the storm, and that entire apple, peach and cherry orchards wer destroyed, while the damage to shade trees and standing timber was far greater than that done by the present storm which is the worst ever seen here since that time.

Of course at that time we had no electric light or telephone wires in Rensselaer, and there were no telephone lines through the country. There was more standing timber, however, and judging from the best Information The Democrat can get the damage to the latter was far greater than now.