Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 June 1885 — WIND-DEMONS UNCHAINED. [ARTICLE]

WIND-DEMONS UNCHAINED.

A Series of the Most Furious Cyclones in the History of the Nortwesh P;, ' X Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars and Some Lives Destroyed by the Fierce Blasts, [Sioux City dispatch. 1 A tornado swept over this section of country last night, causing great damage to all the towns within a radins of twenty-five miles, and demolishing farm Improvements In all directions. The postofilce here was unroofed, and damaged to the extent of t 1,500. The other losses are: Trotle, Livingstone <fc Co., dry goods, $4,600; C, Shenkberg, wholesale grocer, $5,100: J. McDavls, bam and residence, $5,000; J. D. Farr <fc Co., warehouse, $1,000; Standard Oil warehouse, s4ou; St. Paul and Omaha Railroad barge wrecked, $1,500; the ferryboat Bennett, $5,000. The Methodist and Baptist churches are razed, as are several dwellings. J. H. Rivers was caught in the wreck of his honse and bad three ribs broken. It is impossible at this hour to fully summarize the disasters. Only one telegraph wire Is working. Reports from the adjacent towns are coming in but s'owly. At Jackson, Neb , Dovey <fe Barrey’s store is blown down. At Elk Point,’D. T., the railroad coal station and windmiU are demolished. ALColeridge, Neb-., sixteen buildings are destroyed? A Hudson’s merchandise store was blown away in fragments. Two children were killed and thrte grown persons seriously injured. At Hartingtort, Neb., the skating rink and a number of residences are down. The trets, fences, and windmills for miles around are destroyed, and hundreds cf farmhouses are knocked into splinters. According to the advices so far received the escapes from death have been miraculous, although there is no reliable means of determining the fatalities. A report just received from Lemars, la., says that St James' Catholic Church succumbed, a.s did the Plymouth Mills. The gas works are also leveled, and the op ra house, new school honse, and a number of residences are unroofed. At Ponoa, Neb., the Pour mills are blown down. The wind was at fit st direct irom the south, and after awhile veered around to the northwest. The house of S. B. Hennyford, seven miles north of here, was blown axvay and the contents scat ered. Mr. Hennyford was himself badly bruised, though the other members of his family escaped injury by taking refuge in a cyclone cellar. J. B. Wad'dington. near by, lost a valuable barn and sixty acres of com. His house was blown off its foundation and twisted out of all shape, William Brill's grove, the finest in the country, was desolated, the huge trees being snapped in twain or tom from their roots. Nobody appears to have been killed north of here, the people at the first signs of the approaching hurricane disappearing in the cellars, which are designed, tor refuge on such an occasion^—— ■*. - —v—■ ——; Late advices say that at Elk Point, D. T., the Episcopal Church was moved from Its? foundation. At Jefferson, Union county, the grain elevator was btown over on the railroad track, and most of the houses were unroofed. The damage to the crops can not be estimated for several days. At . present it is impossible to compile the total losses sustained or give the number of Sioux Citv buildings damaged, but a rough estimate is that more than 200 buildings were injured and that the total loss will exceed $200,000. i [DubUque dispateh.l c . Specials received here give the following particulars of the storm in Northern and Northwestern Iowa: The most damage was done at Cherokee, Manson, and Storm Lake. At Aurelia fences and buildings wore leveled In all directions, and several persons were killed. At Remsen the schoolhouse and the Catholic Church were entirely demolished. At Willow Creek the water-tank was moved out of place. Marcus appears to have suffered the most. The west end of the station honse is gone. The freight honse was entirely destroyed, the freight blown to atoms and cannot be found. Nearly every building in the town is damaged. The M. E. Church was completely ruined, and Jackson’s lumber yard is scattered In every direction. M. Y. Ames' house is gone and two of the occupants have been found dead. The reports Indicate great damage to life and property. At Meridian the freight depot was badly damaged. At Cherokee the school-house was unroofed and damaged to the extent of $7,000. The cars wore blown off the track at Newell; Lemars, and Fonda. The storm was worse between Cherokee and Slonx City. [Mason City (Iowa) dispatch.] A terrific storm visited this section shortly after midnight, doing more damage than has been done here by wind-storms in yearß. The wind was accompanied by continuous and incessant lightning, the thunder peals being loud and deafening. The velocity of the storm was thirty-eight miles per hour. It was felt severest In Bath Township, where seven barns and six dwellings were overturned and totally destroyed, It is remarkable there were so few accidents. The principal sufferers were H., T. Lincoln, whose house and barn are a total less: R. J. and W. D. Parker, and IX F. Wheeler. The seriously Injured thus far reported are Mrs. W. D. Parker, hurt by falling timbers, and Mrs. F. Doderer. A school-house at Mount Vernon Center was overturned, and the two a. m. train on the lowa Central was delayed two hours at Hampton by the wind. [Lpmars ilowa) dispatch.] „ The rain fell In torrents here last night, accompanied by a fierce electric storm. The gas house was completely demolished; The spire of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, 165 feet high, was blown down, and the building damaged SI,OOO. St. James’ Catholic Church was totally wrecked, at a loss of over $4,000. The Plymouth Roller Mills and Elevator were unroofed, the smokestack demolished, the cribs blown down, the total damage being about SIO,OOO. The loss in the city Is estimated at SIOO,OOO, with an equal amount in the country. No lives were lost in town, but two men and two children were killed In the country. Of the six or eight wounded several are not expected to live. [Lincoln (Neb.) dispatch.] Specials to the Journo l say that the cyclone which has just passed was the most severe that 8 has ever been experienced in the northwestern part of the State. The rain fell in torrents, and tne gale was terrific. At Harrington scarcely a building In the town escaped injury, many of them having been taken up from their foundations and either carried some, distance, toppled over, or broken into kindling-wood. Two miles west of Coleridge a new settler named Loener lost two children. His recently built honse and barn were demolished, and himself and family were caught In the-xuins. His wife and remaining child were fatally Injured, it is thought, while he himself can scarcely recover frOm~~Sh ' Injury to the spine which he suffered. The streets of Coleridge are 1 airly blockaded with the wreckage, and only a few of the more substantial buildings are left standing. Seven miles north of 'Wakefield, Henry Erickson was killed in the storm. Jones Rytfiers, agent for Peavy & Co., at Wakefield, was swimming In Logan Creek when the whirlwind passed, converting the little stream into a boiling mass of waves, trees, and mud. His body has not been recovered.

HOME INCIDENTS OF THE STORM. IMa c on City (Iowa) special.) In Booth Township, Cerro Gordo County, the tornado struck the house and bain of Mr. H. F. Lincoln, tearing hoth to 1 ieces. The household mrniture was scattered iu every direction; the' farm machinery was also broken. Trees were u(,roote 1, and some of them driven deep into 1 the earth. A horse was thrown over a fence into a ditch, and lay on his back until relieved. Trees as large as a man’s body were snapped off like candy ten feet above the ground and th ir trunks peeled. The family saved themselves by going into the cellar, where th y stood knee-deep in water, and were pelted by hail as the building toppled over. The bams and outhouses and cribß were leveled to the ground; chickens and doves were to be seen lying about dead. A stallion worth ll.oou was found, after tne roof and sides and floor of the bam had disappeared, hanging unhurt across some joists, while another horse was thrown down and held to the ground, though apparently not hurt. The body of James Lick, the philanthropist, is to be taken up and put in thJe pier of the great telescope of the Lick Observatory, ou the summit of Mount Hamilton, California. Col. Ingebsoll will not go to Europo before fall, but with his farm* will spend spend the summer at Moneposhemet, Marblehead Neck, Mass. The production of Nova Scotia gold mines last year amounted to 16,079 ounces, that of iron ore to 54,885 tons, and of coal 1,389,295 tons. The Assessed valuation of taxable property in the city of New York is $1,175,052,885, or $55,419,799 higher than in ' / There are over 60,000 shade trees lining the streets of Washington. / \