Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 June 1896 — STOW'S DIRE WORK. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

STOW'S DIRE WORK.

A Cyclone Devastates Three States. DEATH IN ITS WAKE. lowa, Illinois, and /Michigan the _. Sufferers, .. ■ “ f-. • The Death Holl Will Pas* the Hundreds, and Hundreds 31 ore Are Injured—Terrific Downpour of Water in Several Instances Completes the Destruction Which the Wind Began -Damage to Farm Property Is Literally Inconceivably—Several Tbwns Are Wiped Off the Earth. . A most fearful storm originated Sunday night, a little ’ northeast of Des Moines, lowa. Traveling almost due east, it devastated portions of that State, Illinois and by Monday evening had reached the eastern boundary of Michigan, culminating jn Macomb County. In lowa it raged most fiercely in Polk and Jasper Counties, killing twenty-seven persons, fatally injuring seriously injuring nineteen and demolishing a large part of five towns —Valeria, Bondurant, Santiago, Mingo and Ira. The country between the towns was devastated and

the erops utterly rnined. the stock In the path of the storm was destroyed. In Bondurant five were killed’; in Santiago, tWft; in*Valeria, seven; near Mingo, four; and in the intervening country between Mingo and Ida, nine. Eighteen were injured, several fatally. Besides the loss of of life the damage to farm buildings, fences and live stock is fully $1,000,000. Drowned in the Flood. In eastern lowa, a terrific downpour of water occurred, doing greatest damage at *Dubmjue--a ml -Durango.. At the latter place, the depot was carried by the flood a mile and a half, and Mrs. "Clark' station agent, four children, Engineer Griffin; J. Dillon and P. Moss were drowned. The combined fury of wind and "water wiped out the family of John Maloney near Postville, numbering six, and near North McGregor fifteen bodies, unrecogwere found. Miles of railroad tra ck, sevefaTMepots *.‘i n d**eigh*teen bridges were swept away. Delaware County escaped with large property damage only. Passing into Illinois, the first' effects were felt at Elgin. Engineer Keough, of the asylum, was killed. The bicycle factory was- demolished, loss over $200,000. A wide farming territory was devastated,

and railroad property suffered greatly. Near Rockford four were killed. In Chicago and suburban towns, scores of residences were utterly demolished; miles of street paving -hashed away; hundreds of basements fifled with goods flooded, and over two hundred people injured'. Strange to say, not a fatality was reported, though the ruin of many dwellings wasso instant and complete that escape of many from death seems miraculous. Everything in the path of the storm was leveled. The suburbs suffering most were Norwood Park, Niles, Niles Center, Edison Park, Irving Park and Ravenswood. Churches, trees and dwellings were razed. Osse Hundred IHe in Michigan, Leaving Chicago, the next report" "of damage came from Ortenville, Oakland County, Mich. Seventeen lives were reported' lost and a half-hundred persons injured, while the town is practically wiped out of existence. From Oakwood, northeast of Ortenville, word was received that eight had been killed. The villages directly in the line of the storm were Thayer, Groveland, Austin, Brandon, Seymour and Davisburg. A message froip Clarkston late Monday night said that'there had been a large loss of life there, and that Davisburg, Clarkston and Springfield had also a large list of Killed and injured. Mount Clemens, in Macomb County, was given a Ijgd scare, and while much property damage was done and a few injured, yet no loss of life resulted. Thirty

bouses were blown down. The path cut by the cyclone from Oakland and Metamora on the northwest through Thomas, Orion, Goodison, Washington, Disco and the country located between is filled with populous towns and it is feared that many of them have been wiped off the map. It seems that the list of dead and injured would pass 100, and no, estimate can be given as to the property damaged. Storm Was a Twister. Actual details of the devastation caused by the cyblone were meager, but all of the witnesses agree that the storm was a regular Western twister. Its first appearance at Thomas station was from the southwest in the form of a densely- black funnel-shaped cloud, moving with alihost incredible swiftness and seeming to take long leaps. It seemed to have the elasticity of a gigantic rubber ball, and would strike the ground, then, leaving a footprint of devastation, bound into the air

and travel a mile or more before again touching the earth-. -J- ___ Beyond Macomb County the storm was lost somewhere in the Canadas. A terrific- hurricane and cloudburst struck Cairo, 111., at 8:30 o’clock Tuesday morning. The extent of the destruction of property could not .be ascertained, but it is known that at least a dozen lives were lost through the capsizing of the .steam ferry boa t K-a-therinc. Thwdis*ster occurred at the mouth of the Ohio river. As speedily as possible relief parties were organized to drag for bodies and rescue the ill-fated passengers and crew from the mad fury df the waves. The captain, engineer and clerk of the steamer succeeded in .keeping afloat until succor reached them and they were brought ashore. All attempts to save the other victims were '...ttinr. . ' . FIRST WORK OF DESTRUCTION. "T ~~ ‘ ~ Z ■. ’ , Hurricane Came Like a Thief Upon steeping lowa Families. In the lowa region, where the storm started, Sunday had been a fearfully hot and sultry day, .the air had been oppres-

sive and still and many people had remarked that there was danger of a cyclone. Most of the people were in bed. There was a rain and thunder storm just in advance of the cyclone, and while the wind was Whistling through the trees and the rain beating down in sheeA suddenly the awful roar that every prairie farmer knows gs the dread forerunner of the cyclone would be heard. Another instant and the storm would strike and then .all was chaos. Those who-heard 1 it early saved themselves in some cases by getting into their cellars or caves. In other places whole families were killed or terribly injured, and their property destroyed; Atypical bit of destruction was at the Bailey home, northwest of Bondurant. In the house were nine persons, four of whom were killed and the rest injured so badly that it is doubtful if any of them recover.

Their house was on a high hill, above the surrounding country, and the funnel dipped down to it. Houses, barns, outbuildings and grove were destroyed alike. Two minutes after the storm struck there was no trace of the house save the cellar, and in it were piled the chimney and stove and half the furniture. The house was torn to pieces, the boards into splinters. They were scattered so far that no trace can be found save here and there for a mile east pieces of the broken lumber. The trees were stripped of their bark, but left standing. This was a freak of the storm/ At.-places, as this one, it would strip the trees of their leaves and bark, but leave the trunks and branches; at othees'it would twist them eff-or -uproot them. At the Bailey place the members of the family were blown a considerable distance from the house. The bodies of the victims were found in the fields, where were also found the bodies of a dozen horses, two score of cattle and about 100 hogs, that had occupied the barns and other buildings on the place. Every animal was dead. Freaks of the Storm. The storm perpetrated all the remarkable feats that cyclones are famous for. The first large building wrecked in lowa was the Monarch school house, west of Bondurant. Here it took up a large school house, shook it to pieces, scattered it so that very few of the boards are to be found, and even distributed the stone foundation over the fields, while a big wooden stile over the fence, three rods from the building, it left unharmed. The huge cylindrical cast iron stove was tossed into an oat field a quarter of a mile from the site of the building. The storm came in some places in the fgrm of two and in others in the form of a single funnel. At Bondurant there were two, sweeping along the earth side by side. Between them was a calm space, and in this little damage was done. After the two consolidated their force seemed to be greater. It was at Mr. Markoff’s barn, near Elgin, however, that the cyclone played Its most curious prank. The barn has an Interior covered stall, like a small shed,' Mjhere Jim, a bay horse, makes his stall. The furious wind reduced all the rest of the barn to splinters except this stall, which it threw fifty feet through the air and stood bottom end up in an adjoining lot. Jim was found standing on the ceiling Monday morning chewing hay from the roof of his home os contentedly as if nothing had happened. He had not received a scratch. * LIST OF THE DEAD. Those Whose Lives Are Known to Have Been Blown Out. lOWA. Valeria —Two children of Douglass Aikens, Miss Monita Dickey, Solomon Dickey, Charts Phalan, Sr., Charles Phalan, Jr., Daniel Phalan, Dennis Phalan, Susie Phalan, Michael Phalan, Mrs.

Schell, Mrs. Lucretia Whitney. - Bondurant--Mrs. John Bailey, Llzzlu Bailey, John Bailey, Jr., John Bailey, John Maxwell, Robert Bailey. McGregor—Mrs. Morg Burke, William Burke, John Godlet, Michael Harle, John Lavotch, John Maloney, Mrs. John Maloney, Michael Maloney,,Lawrenee Meyer, Mrs.--Lawrence Meyer, Anton Meyer, four Meyer childfen, John Nichols. Dura ngo—Pour Clark children, Thomas Griffin, brakeman. Santiago—Peter Bolenbaugh, Mbs. Peter Bolenbaugh, Theophilus Mtibnrn, orphan, child. , . J » \ .■ . ILLINOIS. l/.T . A : - Rockford—Mrs, Isora Bird, Mrs. Godfrey Hildebrand, Elsie Hildebrand, Godfrey Hildebrand, daughter of Mrs. Isora Biid. 3 \ ~ i , / ’ Elgin—John Kehoe. Cairo—Captain Rittenhouse, Dr. Orr, Miss Orr, Miss Orr, Richard Thurman, Charles Gilhoffer, seven metfibera of the crew of the Katherine. MICHIGAN. Ortonville—Mrs. T. G. Heaton, two-

Howe children, John Milty, William Mitchell, Mrs. William Mitchell, two Mitchell children, John Porritt, Abram Quick, two Quick children, Mrs. Henry Quick, Mrs. Scott and son, Daniel Thompson and son. Oakwood—Mrs. William Davis and child, W. M. Fifield, Charles Laird, Roger Werber, Mrs. Roger Werber and others. Thomas—Eleven were killed hereabout; names could not be obtained. Minor Damage of the Storm. Several houses at Laporte, Ind., were struck by lightning, but the damage was small. ; d y , ■ At Fowler, Ind., James McDaniels’ barn was fired by lightning.*’ Four valuable horses perished. Lightning struck the residence of Councilman Jackson and Emery Swett at Kokomo, Ind., doing much damage. The

German Lutheran Church at Kappa was demolished by lightning. The new Methodist Church at Stavanger, 111., was struck by lightning- and burned. Loss, $2,500; uninsured. • At Westville, Ind., lightning struck the high school building and It was burned. Loss, $5,000; insured for $3,500. Lightning struck and burned the barns of Henry Lilly in Matteson township, near Coldwater, Mich. Loss, $1,500; insured. According to late statistics there are in the United States 40,000 deaf mutes. At Bay City, Mich., the city electric light tower on Center avenue, 220 feet high, the highest in the United States, was News down and, wrecked. Lightning’ struck the cabin of a settler named Cook, near Superior, Wls., and the owner and a companion narrowly escaped being roasted alive. Fruit growers near Benton Harbor, Mich., consider the storm a blessing to them, as a great many young peaches were blown off overloaded trees. The residences of Clem Hoover, Lewis Cowin and Robert Campbell at Muncie, Ind., were badly damaged by lightning and Mr. Hoover was dangerously injured. In the vicinity of Emporia, Kaik, bottom lands along the Cottonwood river have been, flooded for miles on both sides by continuous rains during the last two weeks, but the water is now receding. Sunday night a storm at Mount Carroll, HL, was terrific. Carroll creek rose twenty feet In almost as many minutes, carrying away the J. M. Shirk Company’s mill dam and flooding the mill, and the*” Electric Light Station, Gilbert’s glove factory and Libkieher’s carriage factory. North of Lanark barns and outbuildings were toppled over by the wind. Three new iron bridges were swept away, and the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway had 200 feet of track washed out Fields that were beautiful and promising twenty-four hours ago are now dreary wastes. It is safe to say that SIOO,OOO will not cover the damage In Carroll County.

MURPHY'S STOCK FARM, EDISON PARK.

WORK OF THE CYCLONE IN NORWOOD PARK.