Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 April 1890 — AN AWFUL DISASTER. [ARTICLE]

AN AWFUL DISASTER.

Three thousand houses de* STROYED AND TWO HUNDRED LIVES LOST:

Uouirrilto the Seme of a Frightful Calamity—A Cyclone Sweeps Part es the City from the Karth— Rail■ oad Depot and Trainee Cars Thrown into the RiverFire Adas to the Horror of the Scene— Jeffersonville Also Wrecked—Many Indiana and IlUnels Towns Damaged. Locisvill's, Ry., March 28. —Shortly after 9 o’clock las tn ight a torn ado swept over this city, wrecking two or three hundred houses and hilling two hundred people The wind came from the southwest. The Union Depot, at the foot of Seventh street was lifted from its foundations and turned over into She raging torrent of the Ohio river. A train of cars making up lor the Louisville Southern road went over with thebailfiing. Palls City Hall, on West Market-street, was wrecked. In the hall were over a hundred people, and but few of them escaped alive. Many buildings, afterifalling caught sere, and the inmates wereburned. All streets are blockaded with debris and fatten buildings or tele-' graph and electric wires. This dispatch is l carried around the<city to the bridge and »sect by railroad wires. The following private information came ifrom Jeffersonville late Thursday night: A cyclone struck Louisville in the south nvest portion about 8 o’clock Thursday; •‘night, and took-a northwesterly direction.; /I only saw the course of it from Pourteenth and Walnut, to Eleventh and Mar ? ket streets. From thie latter point it followed its course to Seventh street and thof Ohio river, where it left the city, and striking across the river, reached Jeffersonville at .the toot of-Spring street. Little damage w«B'done in Jeffersonville, but in Louisville 'the devastation is terrific, and the loss of life will certainly roach hundreds if not thousands. In cue building,at Twelfth and Market streets, two lodges and a danoing school were in session,.there being in the building; perhaps, 100 people. Not one es these is have escaped. Istood .aad watched them working- in this ruin, and saw six or eight oorpses taken out in fifteen minutes. There is scarcolyany thing loft to indicate that thi3 heap of .rubbish had ever been a building, and if any of its-inmates escaped it was by nothing less thar. a miracle. The path of the cyoione was about a square and a half in width. Louisville, -March 28.-3 a. m. —Meager information from Jeff ersonville-is to the effect that ' that town was completely wrecked by the tornado. It is .impossible to gebdefinite information, as the wires are all down.and boats cannot cross the Ohio this morning. The water works two miles above the city were-wrecked. Thirty-five bodies, mostly women and children, have been taken from the ruins at Palls City Hall. It is impossible to get names. Henry Macon, member of the Legislature from Hancock county, was in Virgi Wright’s cigar store lighting a>cigar when the building fell. He was skilled outright. Eleven girls were imprisoned in the collar of Wright’s building. Three have been taken out-doad. A dispatch from Cincinnati says: “A great storm prevailed early this evening in the sou them parts of Illinois and Indiana, and largo tracts in that region-are said to be devastated and a large number of lives lost. Rumor says that the loss of life in Louiavilleis fifteen hundred and in Jeffersonville,.lnd., five hundred. .It is reported that the principal destruction,in Louisville was in the.wostern part of thecity. ”

LATER DETAILS. At this-writing details of the . Louisville disaster are just being authenticated. The tornado struck Louisville at 7-30 o’clock. It entered the southeastern portion of the city-at Eighteenth street And swept a path five blocks wide diagonally reaching in a ragged, line to Seventh street, levelling every building in its path, prohably 2,500 houses. A* rough estimate puts ithe killed at live hundred with thousands injured. ' The city is filled with a crazed mass of people wildly seeking friends. A large force of men.are at work on the tuins and about one hundred bodies have .been recovered. —= It is impossible to get the namc&of those killed or injured. The buildings ,cn Main street from Eighth to Fourteenth streets are in ruins. Not one of the handsome wholesale houses is left, and all the tobacco warehouses were swept away. On Market street, Falls Gity Hall, a four story building was blown down while several Masonic and Knights of Honor lodges were in session, and 100 men and women were buried in tbe ruins. Every other house on Market, Jefferson and Walnut streets, from Eleventh to Sixteenth street, is in ruins. Parkland, a suburb, is swept away. At the Uaion depot at the foot of Seventh street, the Chesapeake & Ohio train lor Washington was just starting out filled >.with passengers. The building was prostrated, crashing,in on the train. All the passengers, however, were rescued, except one newsboy. Such desolation no city has known in this country. Every building, tree and telegraph pole in the .district struck was leveled. The cyctone came with scarce a warning sound, and iu all the buildings struck the inhabitants were engaged in then* usual vocations without an effort to escape when their homes collapsed. The district laid waste comprises an area of thirty-three miles long and nearly half a mile vide. Fifteen unidentified Bodies are lying in aheapat the Falls City Hall. Other heaps are all ever the city. Many bodies were carried away by friends and are impossible to reach. The cyclone crossed the river striking Jeffersonville, Ind„ badly wrecking Front street, which Is on the river front, but no lives were lost Huudreds of wounded have been taken Co their homes and the hospitals. All the physicians at the city are engaged to attending them. At 8 o’clock seven fires were burning. They were all extinguished. All railroads, with the exception of tlsa Pennsylvania lines, are compelled to suspend operation. It is very evident that it was not a cyclone, as its effect was too widespread. For miles in either direction from the city occasional roofs were torn off and trees lifted out of the ground by the roots. As the special train sped toward the fated city bearing Associated Press representatives noticeable fully fifty miles out. First came to view an occasioual dead tree, broken into pieces, then larger and more substantial tress, and flna'ly monarchs of the forest. Many of the HHti tetens along the J. M. <•& I. Railroad were fairly stripped el their signs and gingerbread A few miles south of HanryvlUe. about twenty-one mils* from Louisville, lay an

engine with it* great iron nose plunged' into a bed of yellow mud. On the opposite side lay the massive tender, and behind it two coaches tipped over on their sides. It was the wreck of train No- 6, a combination which runs between Indianapolis and Louisville. The train was making the best time possible in the heavy wind, when it struck a bircb tree that had been torn up by its roots and flung across the track. No one was injured. When the scene of the disaster was reached an appalling sight was presented. Crowds of people thronged the Fourteenth Street Station and from there up Main street to the heart of the city, was a mass of humanity, horses, street cars and all sorts of vehicles in the middle of the street oneitherside. Great masses es brick and stone in heaps presented the appearance of having simply crumbled to the earth. Gangs of rescuers were at work like gophers on the great masses of debris in the search for hitman victims of the awful calamity. Here and there lay a dead mule with dots of blood at their nostrils that had been dragged from the ruins of the great tobacco houses, which they are a most oommon adjunct in this Southern city. Women and men darted before mad horses, whose hoofs, it seemed, would crush them to death. Burley policemen were stationed at street crossings to prevent people from attempting to pass through the ruined thoroughfare where partially wrecked walls stood as a menace to human life, but their efforts were futile, and men, women and children made their way down the dangerous streets with astounding recklessness. The morbid crowd would not be held back in its wild desire to satisfy curiosity, and it was a sight worth their efforts to see. Tho wreck was so great that it beggars an attempt at detal. ' immediately upon the burst of the cy‘done, the fire bells sounded and the police: were at work. Within ten minutes a posse appeared at the Falls City Hall wreck. The walls of the adjoining house were first propped, and then began the work of cutting through- the heavy slate roof that ■covered aIL. At first work was difficult and laborious, on account of the anxious multi tude that thronged the wreck. Difficult was the task to clear the ruin of women, who were found digging with their fingers crazed at the groans beneath,each of which they thought ascended from their dying. Every one did noble work. After an hour of ceaseless labor the first victim, Mrs. Sarah Kelly, was unearthed. Her body was found sitting in an upright position, her head bruised and one arm broken. She said at the first quake a mad rash was made for the entrance. Women were knocked down and trampled upon in the mad haste to escape. Seeing the overwhelming,jam at the door, several remained behind, but none of those whom Mra. Keljy said were near her: could bo found.

The excavation was then moved from the rear of,the building to the front.where it was supposed the greater crowd was gathered. As soon as ttio roofing was removed and the mass of brick beneath, the first sight tthat met the eye was anything! but hopeful. Ten women, locked in each; others arms, were drawn out of; the debri»,<all dead but one. Mr. Hasson, whose wife had been at the Lodge meeting, was foremost in the work, and the first person whom he pulled out 'of the ruined building was his wife, who died in his arms. He laid her by the side of tbe others who were dead and continued to work if or the living. Inside of the next hour‘thirty men and women were drawn out dead, but with no wounds on their bodies and it is thought alt met their death by suffocation. The gas pipes had broken, which caused the lights to go out, and which saved ■ the ruins from fire for the time, but flooded the.debris with a vapor almost as deadly as the fire might have proven. Ways were pierced into -the breast of the ruin, tend bodies drawn out dead and dying. .One paa-Lef the building was reserved for the dead,, but the wounded were taken into the stores and houses or. the opposite side of the street, where physicians and priests administered to souls and bodies. Along Main street the . pathway of the sterna, extended from Sixty to Eleventh street, and from Seventh to Eleventh not a single building was left standing. Oc casionally a massive stone or iron front still stood intact, while the entire structure proper had been swept away. This morning it presented the most stupendous-«pco-tacleof disaster aud ruin .ever witnessed. At.L2 o'clock the opening up of a portion of the.debris of the Falls City Hall caused a draught to penetrate the ruins, wnereupon.the smouldering fire broke out with tremendous fierceness. It spread rapidly, and forced the workers to desert the pile. As soan as the fire gained headway, the groans of the imprisoned people became shrieks, and so great was the horror of the moment that the Watchers grew frantic, and screamed and ran .about like wild people, the terrible sufferings which ..they were unable to alleviate .driving them to despair. Several lines of hose were soon throwing water on the flames, but it was more than an hour before .work could be proceaeded with, and thou it was carried on with much difficulty, on account of .the heat. Up to. 12 o’clock, only about thirty-five dead bodies and twenty-five wounded .and dying were taken from the wreck. The corpses were laid in the various houses across the street and in Dougherty & Kennau’s undertaking shop, on the block below. At theiatter place people passed in and out, one by one, to look .at tbe bodies,' hunting lor friends aud relatives. One man said .he was looking for Louis Lipp, and the very first sheet lifted revea'ed the corpse of the person wanted. The man covered his face, groaned, and would nave fallen hod he not been sustained. At about 11:30 o’clock toe room where the children were dancing was reached. Mr. Louis Bimms, Jr., of 1,124 Market street, had lor hours been moving about in an agony of grief in front of that portion of the wreck where this room had been, for his wife and four little children were there. When the room was reached Mrs. Simms was the first one found, and she was fatally hurt. Then, within about fifteen minutes of each other, three of the.children were recovered. They were unconscious, and there is only a faint possibility of their living. While the father was imploring the workers to get his other child, fire broke out and work was suspended. The last m'an taken out alive before the flames atar ted was John Hepden, oi 2,109 We it Broadway, and just previous to that a woman, who was unable to give her name, was recovered. Lt was not possible to tell the extent ot the injuries of either. A dispatch from H. E. Miller, Superintendent of the J. M. & 1., reads: “American history affords no precedent to the storm of last uight. Not less than 300 people were killed, and seventy-five acres .sf buildings were leveled. Some of the largest and finest blocks are gone. The Seventh Street Station fell on two passenger trains. We are handling Monen, O. & L, and Louisville Southern passengers on our trains The water works were ruined, and Company says a water famine is certain. The river is still rising and the wind is blowing a gale, causing the water to cut away tbe embankment ou the New Albany side. I have just returned from a tour of the ruins. It is as wonderful as Johnstown. We have the only telegraph wires going outof town.” Saloons and other available places have been turned into hastily improvised morgues where bodies are taken as fast as recovered and left awaiting identification. Patrol wagons are being pressed into ser- . vieeas “dead wago««”U> convey the corpses to the required places. Eleventh street | seemed to serve ss a kind of fl-o for the storm, as all tbe intercepting objects in that line are practically reduced to nothingness. As lt rushed down this street it carried with it the frobta of the buildings, which are mostly residences, on each sioe, leaving in many instances, the furniture and Ouber contents unmolested- . . . . rilling experience, and one that he has

no Mit to repeat, was that of Mr. Goo. H. Capita, of 1431 Stewart avenues who was present at the meeting of Jewell Lodge, No. % Knights and Ladies of Honor, in their Lodge-room on the top floor of the F&lls City Market Hall, when the building collapsed under the terrible impact of the cyclone. He says. “The first intimation of danger we had were two distinct rockings of the building, about which time a dormer win dow in the Lodge-room was blown from its casings, and immediately after the plasterings began to drop from tbe ceiling. A wild rash was made for the ante-room, which,carried me with it, and I had just reached the door when the entire floor gave way, and we were precipitated to the basement, blinded and almost suffocated by a cloud of dust and crushed and jammed by failing timbers. In somb way the door frame ' fell with me, and maintained an upright position when it stopped, and I was enabled to extricate myself from the debris and make an exit to take the street through an adjoining house, whoso doors I kicked in. Mean while the shrieks and groans of those still imprisoned by the wreck formed a chorus that, in connection with the howl- ) ing of the storm, made my very heart sick. I was, so far as hasty examination went, comparatively uninjured, and at once returned over the ruins with several men to the rear of the place and extinguished a fire that had begun to blaze fiercely. By this time the rain was falling in torrents and it was difficult for those who had gath ered from the neighborhood, or who had been as lucky as I was to escape with life, to tell where to begin the work of rescue. ■“The vivid lightning flashes only gave

momentary views of the position of the ruins, and blinded everybody. Among those whom I saw and recognized as having escaped from Jewel Lodge,l can name only one—Mrs. Lizzie Walters, the Treasurer of the Lodge, who was covered with dust, drenched by the storm, and well nigh distracted by the probable fate of her aged father, who attended the lodge meeting with her, and was still in the ruins. “The entire building collapsed in front and rear, and of the east and west side walls nothing was standing above the second story. : ■ . ...'•■ ■■ ' y: j . j “There were nearly a hundred members present at our lodge as several candidates were up for initiation. Fully two-thirds of those in attendanoe were laeies. “Besides our lodge, another order was holding a meeting on the same floor with us. h German band was rehearsing on the second floor, and a party of decorators were at work in the large hall on that floor, in preparation for some entertainment. “So far as I could judge, when I had succeeded in escaping, there were less than a dozen, all told, who got out unhurt, and the cries for help and groans that issued thorn the broken and twisted heap was froof that scores were still there, unable to

preape.” Mr. Capita, covered with dust and bruises drenched by rain, and naturally greatly excited, called at the Courier Journal office and related his terrible experience, on his dearway homo to reassure his family of safety. —— Ninety houses were destroyed at Jeffersonville, but no lives were lost. The track of the tornado is nine blocks long, and a little over a block wide. Everywhere in the traok of the storm is wreck and ruin. The Carpenter-Annear ironworks, on Eighth street, a four , story building, was blown down, and only several feet of the wall remains standing. The wholesale liquor establishment of Brown & Son, corner Eighth and Main, fell, and instantly the liquors caught fire and caused an awful conflagration. The building consisted of five stories and was a comparatively new -structure. By hard work the firemen managed to control the blaze despite the character of the stuff that filled it. The buildings adjacent to it were considerably torn up,and it is quite positive that several dead lie beneath the ruins. The great building, No. 745 Main street, occupied by S. Gunther, tobacco broker; H. K. Toewater and James W. Prather, was nearly demolished, as was also an im mense building ocoupied by the H. A. Thirman Company, wholesale liquor dealers and distillers. The Langdon-Krieger Saddlery Co., at .737, lost the roof, and Carte 1 * Brothers storage rooms were badly damagea. Several men were injured in the queensware store of Rosenheim &Co., at 745. Johnston Brothers, wholesale grocery, and that of Moore, Bremaker & Co., iron store, Newman's wholesale grocery, Dunlap Brother’s saddlery store, and the wholesale clothing establishment of Levi, Newbprger & Co., and a large number of others have iost their roofs. The property loss is estimated at $2,500,000. The entire western portion of tho town known as Parkland, which lies just beyond tb.e southwestern Limits of the city wa| wrecked. The storm struck that place before roaobing this city, and its course was a most peculiar one. It did not move in a direct line, mowing down a path bes re it but it went about its dreadful work in zig zag fashion. On the outskirts of the town, the two-story brick residence of Mayor Keppers was struck by tho wind. The heavy tin roof was rolled up like a piece of paper and carried a long distance. Mrs. Keppers was ill with pneumonia, and no sooner bad the roof been blown off than her husband and another man picked up the bed upon which ahe was laying, to carry her to a place of safety. The work was not too quickly begun No sooner had they reached tho yard with their burden than tho full force of the wind struck the roofless building and swept it down like a shell. A number of houses were blown down, but the inmates were all up auu had time to escape. The frame school house was lifted from its foundation.and moved several feet and utterly destroyed. Tue Dusy Line depot was almost totally destroyed and the track cov ered with debris for several hundred yards. Mr. Howard’s house on Virginia avenue, a taro atory structure, was badly wrecked io the rear. Mrs. Howard was caught in tho wreck but not seriously hurt. J. G. Brown’s two story frame house, a short distance away, was demolished. This house was not occupied. The masonic templo was injured in the upper floor, but without much damage. Young’s grocery had the root blown off, aud Kamser's tin shop close by was demolished. Several people were iu the grocery at the time, but got out before the final crash. The residences of Messrs. Gregory, Mensier, Harrison, Wise, Kaue, Sheppard, Barnes, Van Felt and Kice were ail badly damaged, but none of the inmates were hurt.

The churches escaped with the exception of the Baptist, which was twisted some. The track of the storm in Parkland was about three blocks wide, but in such a zigzag manner that it is almost impossible to measure the exact track. To the west of the town from the direction which the monster had come, a path several hundred yards wide is mowed down, the trees being out off like stalks of grain before tbe reaper’s scythe. At the corner of Sixteenth and Magizine the most horrible cremation of the bodies of three men occurred. These men were caught in the falling timber of a two story grocery and bar room of Nick Phieneman and burned entirely to a blackened mass. They were Bud Sullivan and William Deemer and Ben Schildt, tbe first two laborers and the latter an undertaker. Seven people were in the house at the time and Mr. Phieneman, the owner, escaped with his life alone,being badly burned and bruisod. To a reporter he told tho folio w“I was standing in the bar at tbs back of the store and was talking to three men who are now dead and to two other men. About 8:30 o’clock we heard.a terrible roar and tearing sound and then the house rocked back and forth. Ben Schildt had just said that he waa going home, but he VaJ scarcely said it when the door was blown in and wo ware

caught. 1 tried to open it, but could not. My wife and children screamed but ran safely out of the back way but they had scarcely gone out before that part of the house was down. We tried the windows but just then the floor fell in and Scaildt, Sullivan and Deemer went through to the cellar. I clung to the side of the house and escaped through a broken window with two other men. “The screams of the men were terrible to hear, as they were held in by the roof and the building rapidly blazed and oumed. They cried for help, but we could do-nothing. We tried, but it was in vain, and crushed and mangled they burned to death before our eyes. They were soon burned to death and their horrible cries for help soon stopped, but it was terrible.’’ It was three hours later before the fire was stopped and the wreck cleared away enough to get at the three men, and so black and charred were they that Sullivan’s father and Deemer’s brother were unable to recognize them. They were burned into a crisp, and could only be identified after a long search. It was 12 o’clock before the bodies c were removed, and they were immediately carried away to their respective homes. Sullivan was an emplqye of the Pullman shops. The boundaries of the districts swept by the hurricane, as nearly as may be described by streets, are as follows: Coming from the southwest, the wind began its destruction at Broadway, sweeping roofs between Eighteenth and Sixteenth. Thence northeasterly diagonally to Chestnut; on Chestnut the damage is between Sixteenth and Fourteenth; on- Walnut between Fourteenth and Twelfth; on Green, between Twelfth and Tenth; on Jefferson, between Eleventh and Ninth; on Market, between Eleventh aud Eighth ; on Main, from Eleventh to the Louisville hotel in the middle of the square between Sixth and Seventh. Between Sixth and Eleventh the hurricane swept to The river and thence leaped to Jeffersonville. By far the greatest loss of life at any one place was at Twelfth and Market, where several different orders and societies had met in the Falls City hall. It is difficult to estimate the number of lives lost at this point. It was currently reported at 4 p. m.-Friday, that seventy-five bodies had been recovered there, but an Associated Press reporter found that the number did not exceed perhaps three-fourths of this number.

The latest estimate of killed, though necessarily inaccurate, places the number at 500. The injured number many thous ands. As the details eorrie in the horror grows. Relief is offered from all parts of the country. Up to tne morning of the 29th, more than 100 bodies had been taken from the Louisville wreck. ELSEWHERE. A special from Olney, Ill.,says the storm Was very severe there, unroofing houses, overturning barns, and wrecking windows and chimneys. The Tosses oh butidrngs; - fences, etc., will foot up fully $25,000. Several persons were injured. A cow and a calf were taken up by the wind and carried over a quarter of a mile, being dropped in a field uninjured. The dwelling of John Bourreil was blown completely away, not a vestige of it remaining. The streets present a desolate being filled with debris. Advices from Jefferson City, Cape Girardeau and Charleston, Mo., state that the storm was very severe, and at the latter place one life was lost—a woman. At Catbage, Mo., the storm did $5,000 damageHeavy damage is also reported at Webb City.

A tornado struck Metropolis, 111., at 5 o’clock doing great damage to property. Many houses were blown down, but no loss of life is reported. Mill Creek Mills was also visited by the storm, and considerable damage is reported. A later special says that Metropolis was destroyed by the storm and several hundred people were killed and injured. This is probably not true. ■Goulterville, 111., was visited by a disas trous wind storm, accompanied by hail the size of hens’ eggs. It became so dark that chickens went to roost and lamps were lighted. The storm struck at 3:45 with terrific force, shat tering windows and unroofing houses, tearing downjj awning and filling the streets with debris. The storm assumed the importance of a cyclone to the south, and while no lives are report ed lost, there are numerous stories of narrow escapes. At Jacksonville, 111., a woman was killed by lightning. Messengers from Little Prairie reached Nashville about 6 o’clock on the 27th with the intelligence that the village had been visited by a cyclone and every house in the plaoe demolished. A number of people had been badly injured, and some, it was thought, could not recover. The messengers had left Little Prairie, to obtain aid for the sufferers before the full extent of the disaster was known, and particulars have not yet been received. In response to the summons every physician in Nashville left for Little Prairie.

The storm destroyed the residence of William Rhine, and Mr. Rhine was badly hurt, his leg and arm being broken. He is also internally injured, and not expected to live. Two of his children were carried a quarter of a mile to the home of David Smith. They were uninjured. Smith’s house was destroyed. He rushed out with his litUe girl and a tree fell on them. Neither is expected to live. Fritz Krum’s house was blown away and he and his wife probably fatally injured.

A cloud-bnrst and terrific hail storm, at 4:10 Thursday evening, did about $15,000 damago in Nashville. The Tabernacle, the largest building in the city, and tho two story briok ccoper shop owned by Sawyer & McCracken, were demolished. No one was hart. Hail stones the sizo of hens eggs fell by tho bushel, and caused teams on the streets to run away. Countless fences were blown down, and all the window glass on the west and north sides of the buildings were broken. Mascouth and Centerville have also suffered great damage. Rogana, Tenn., was entirely swept away and one hundred residents of that vicinity were killed or wounded. Manon, Ky.,was also devastated with great loss of life. But one person was killed at Metropolis, lU. From many other points fatalities are reported. our lives were destroyed near EvansvillF Washington, Ind., was damaged $75,0e.. The storm extended to Kansas on the west and as far east as Cincinnati.