Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 May 1909 — BIG WIND STORM THURSDAY NIGHT [ARTICLE]

BIG WIND STORM THURSDAY NIGHT

Several Barns and Outbuildings Wrecked About Rensselaer. TREE FALLS ACROSS WIRES And City Was In Darkness All Night —Court House Roof Damaged By Falling Ornaments—6oo Feet of Prison Wall at Michigan City Blown Down—Six People Killed By Storm In Chicago. For the second time in the past two months Jasper county has been visited by an electrical storm accompanied by a cyclonic wind that has done considerable damage in different sections of the country. Three barns were destroyed in the northwest part of Rensselaer,' belonging to Isaac Kenpner, Mrs. James Flynn and George Ott. The latter was an extra good barn some 30x40 feet in size, and it was blown to atoms, and parts of it were carried several hundred yards. Mr. Ott had about closed a deal for Mrs. Flynn’s property, the deal to be closed up yesterday, we understand. This barn was a very good one, but Kepner’s was not of much value. A big tree standing in front of John Eger’s residence on North Van Rensselaer street was blown down across the light wires, carrying one light pole down with it and putting the entire light system out of business for the rest of the night. A large apple tree in J. A. Larsh’s yard near by was also blown down. At the court house the wind created considerable havoc on the south side thereof, blowing down several tile, and other ornaments from the roof, which broke several of the slate shingles in, their fall. Two or three blocks of stone from the ornamental pilasters were blown down and broken that would probably weigh from 80 to 125 pounds each, and would Indicate that they were never anchored as safely as they should have been. The telephone wires are down to some extent in the country and it was difficult to get much news from out of town, but it not thought much individual damage was done. At Michigan City a 600 foot section of the prison walls were blown down and a company of the state militia was ordered out by the governor to guard the opening until it can be repaired. At Chicago six lives were lost and the city cut off from communication with the outside world for two hours, until the broken wires could be repaired. The storm came from the southwest and struck Rensselaer at about 7:15 o’clock in the evening. A dispatch from Hammond says: Two hundred passengers on a Mo-non-Indianapolis limited, leaving Polk street, Chicago, at 11:30 last night, narrowly escaped being hurled into the Grand Calumet River. The accident was caused by a structural steel, girder which was being put into a new Bascule bridge being blown across the track on the bridge. The locomotive was derailed while the train was on the bridge, the pilot was wrecked and engine beam torn-off. When the engine struck the girder the shock of the collision shook the passengers out of their berths. A fearful catastrophe would have resulted had the engineer been going fatser.