Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 88, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 July 1898 — MANY PERISH. [ARTICLE]

MANY PERISH.

Disastrous Flood in Missouri—Thirteen Lives Lost at Steeleville and Six at Other Points. * , _____ St. Louis, July 9. —A special to the Republic from Cuba, Mo., say’s: A courier from Steeleville, the county seat of Crawford county, brought the terrible news Friday that the town had almost been wiped out by a waterspout early Friday morning. The known dead: Mrs. Lou Tucker and babe, St. Louis; daughter of Charles Abrams, St. Louis; Mrs. John Woods and two children. Steeleville; Mrs. James Tass and three children, Steeleville; Mrs. William Lesough, Steeleville; Luther Slough, Steeleville; colored man, unknown. Midland. As soon as the news was received a relief party started for the stricken town. The town was in ruins. Few buildings were left standing, and groans of anguish were heard on all sides as searchers sought for loved ones among the debris. The waterspout occurred cutside the town, but swelled Yadkin creek, ‘which came down in a mighty and destructive flood, sweeping all before it. Up to Friday evening 13 bodies had been recovered. but it is thought more have perished. Steeleville was a town of 1,000 inhabitants, situated on the Salem branch of the ’Frisco railroad. All the wires are down and no communication can be had except by courier. St. Louis, July 9.—A special to the Republic from Stanberry, Mo., says: A heavy rain at three o’clock Thursday afternoon became a flood of water along the valley south of the railroad tracks and some 15 families with their homes were carried along by the sweeping torrent. Some houses were destroyed, while men, women and children Friday morning were found in trees and drifts for at least a mile along the valley. The dead are: Mrs. Isaac Gray and babe, Charles Smith and Bert Vance. The Standard Oil tank, with 3,000 gallons of oil, was carried a mile. Miles of railroad track and bridges are gone. Three miles from Maryville, Mo., the water from the swollen Nodaw ay river surrounded the house of James Nolan, a farmer, and Mrs. Nolan and her mother, Mrs. Phoebe Joslyn, were drowned. Nolan made a heroic effort to rescue them, but they were caught in a barbed wire fence and he was swept away and lodged in a tree.