Rensselaer Union, Volume 10, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 June 1878 — DEVASTATION AND DEATH. [ARTICLE]

DEVASTATION AND DEATH.

Butrecllve Tornadoes la PertldAa of Wlaeoaala and Illinois-Great Ua .of Life and Property. A tornado struck Mineral Point, Wia., about five o’clock on the afternoon of the 22d, doing great damage to property and resulting in the loss of several lives. The following particulars are given by telegraph: A large stone brewery and several buildings surrounding It were demolished. At the residence of John Speneeley there was a large family reunion. Mrs. Waller, mother of John Waller, one of the party, was instantly killed. The rest of the Inmates of the boose miraculously escaped with only slight Injuries. The residence of Judge Cothren was also struck by the storm, and his mother, an aged lady, lulled. After wrecking Mr. Spenseley’s house, the cyclone lifted the house of Mr. Leonard from its foundation and shivered It to stoma In the air, carrying with it Mrs. Leonard, whose body was found about 1011 yards distant, mangled In a fearful manner. It next carried off tbe house of John Coleman, badly injuring Mr. Coleman, his two daughters and Tip Allen, who were In the house at tbe time. Benjamin Beunett’s house was totally destroyed, and Mrs. Bennett thrown over In a wood pile, escaping with but little injury. Tbe houses of James Prince and William Jacks were destroyed. At the brewery of C. Gellman tbe storm did the greatest amount of damage, carrying off the houses of Mr. Gellman and Mr. Adams, and badly Injuring a Miss Zimmer. The brewery building and barn connected therewith were totally demolished, and a number of valuable horses killed. The bouses situated In the summer-garden of John Jenck, opposite the brewery building, were destroyed, and Mrs. Myers and Mary Jenck were killed. Mr. Boban’s family, who lived a short distance from the gardens, were dangerously Injured, and Mrs. Bohan died about midnight. The house of Martin O’Dowd was reduced to ruins. Mr. Beardsley’s house and v,am were carried seven or eight rods from tbe foundations. William Cooking’s house was taken, and nothing left but a few pieces of the furniture. A school-house, about two and a ball miles east of the city, was carried off, with the teacher and scholars. Two of the scholars, a brother and sister, were killed and the teacher slightly injured. The teacher, while holding one of the smaller scholars in her arms, was thrown several rods. Most of tbe children are unhurt

Mhodul Point, Wis., May 25. The storm originated twelve miles southwest of this city, doing no considerable damage until within one mile of here, when It struck H. Phillips’ barn and carried it away, killing five cows. After leaving the Town of Mineral Point It divided, and came together again six miles east of here, In the Town of Waldwick. It swept everything before it for a distance of twelve miles, where It again divided. Mr. Kramer’s place was totally destroyed, and the next was Powers’. About fifty houses and barns were destroyed from here to Adam&ville. Between this place and Darley’s store, three miles, six persons were killed, and the school-house, church and store demolished. Moscow Is also In ruin, and four persons killed. Two families are blown away, and as yet nothing has been heard of them. From there to Perry Is eight miles, and nothing Is left where the tornado struck. Perry Is carried away. The damage from hero to Perry is estimated at- SIOO,OOO, and fifteen lives lost The Welch settlement, ten miles southwest, is completely demolished. Several received Injuries that will prove fatal, it is feared. Six funerals took place In this city on yesterday. Madison, Wis., May 24. Tbe tornado which passed over this place last night proves to have been more widespread and destructive than was thought last night The storm came from the direction of the southwest, passing through a section of the State where no telegraphic communications are established, hence details of tbe great destruction and loss of life are meagre. Enough has been received, however, to show that the devastation and sacrifice of property and life has been appalling. In the vicinity of Primrose, twenty-five miles southwest of this city, from there through Mount Vernon to Paoll, the storm seems to have done widespread damage. From twenty-five to thirty barns and farm-houses were blown down, some of them utterly destrpyed and the debris carried off 'before the mighty avalanche of wind, some of it falling twelve and fifteen miles away, one shutter of a bouse falling in Lake Mendota, near this city. Some twelve or eighteen persons are known to be killed, and large numbers severely Injured. Graphic yet terrible descriptions are fiven of the terrible effect of tbe tornado. earns and wagons are reported taken from roads, and carried in tbe air and dashed to the grouud. At Dr. George Fox’s, near Oregon, two valuable horses in a pasture were taken up 100 feet In the air, carried fifty rods, and dashed to the earth, killing them Instantly. The storm came from the direction of Mineral Point, where it wrought such terrible damage, raised from the ground seven or eight miles southwest of Madison, and again struck the earth near Fort Atkinson, northeast of here. Near Primrose and Paoll the storm seemed from a half to a mile in width, and swept everything before ft, mowing down trees, fences, barns, houses and shrubbery as if with a scythe.

Babbinoton, 111., Mar 28. The peculiarities of the tornado, which swept through this town last Thursday do not seem to be appreciated by any of the correspondents. The formation of the great rolling cloud, which expression fitly describes the tornado, was seen by a witness who explains that it was in reality a joining together of two clouds approaching from opposite directions, and that neither one had any danger in it until joined with the other. It seems to have kept almost a uniform height throughout the whole of its career; that is, after it struck the house five miles from here. Before that time it had been gradually dropping toward the earth, but after that it maintained substantially the same height all the way. This is very clear from the fact that in the low places, bogs and marshes through which it passed it scarcely touched anything, whereas, when it came to a rise of mound, or a hill of any kind, its force was terrific. The appearance of the country over which it passed is most extraordinary. There is what might be called a furrow about 200 feet wide, perfectly black, and having not a fixed thing resting In it. That is, the turf was torn up and thrown either out of the track or forward some distance. The fences were taken bodily, excepting here and there a few posts. The hedges were stripped perfectly bare. Most of the trees were torn up by the roots, except in a few cases where they were small. In these cases the Insignificance of the object saved it. The blackness which characterizes this swath or furrow of 200 feet is due to the fact that the whole of the soil around aboui, is of black loam after a few inches have been cut off.

All through the path of the wind, and for as much as a half a mile on each side, the ground is sprinkled with various kinds of sticks and lumber, and, curiously enough—a thing which cannot easily be explained—all these are stuck in the ground and are upright. One can see a fence-board and the timber of a barn standing side by side upright, and to look at a field over which the storm passed gives one the idea that some one has gone over it and driven stakes in it This appearance is found from the beginning to the end of the career of the cloud. The cloud made some curious discriminations which are hard to explain. For Instance, at Braun’s place it annihilated the house itself, and even went so far as to tear out the stone lining of the cellar. And yet, wHhln five feet of that place, it left the floor of a kitchen and it took one of the beams out of the barn and brought it forward some 100 feet, throwing it down near where the house had stood, though the barn was some distance further on in the direction that the cloud was going. Again, it killed almost every living thing with which it came in contact, but made a curious exception of Braun’s horses. It'smashed up his hogs, and sheep, and poul/fry, but the horses were comparatively uninured, and will recover. It is most remarkable o a person living here to see the path picked out by the cloud from the time it left Elgin until the time it disappeared. Its full force struck but one house, though others were sohtowhat affected. And vet it was almost impossible. to pick out a straight line through the town without encountering at least a dozen residences. Probably a most ingenious man could not have laid down a path for such a tornado and bad it strike only one house, as this one did. If it had veerea to the right or left a hundred feet, it would have taken at least a dozen places. . Three persons were killed in this vicinity.

Six hundred and eiqhtt rats were around the granary and outbuijdir.es of a Minnesota farmer the other day. The New England cotton and print mills are losing nearly as much by fire this year aa by Treasurers.— Hawk-Eye.