USA > Iowa > Calhoun County > Pomeroy > The story of a storm, a history of the great tornado at Pomeroy, Calhoun County, Iowa, July 6, 1893 > Part 1
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STOR
STORM
THE LIBRARY BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY PROVO, UTAH
551 553 Sp 795 Spraque, 5
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2017 with funding from Brigham Young University
https://archive.org/details/storyofstormhist1893chic
SPRAGUE
INTRODUCTION.
The publisher takes pleasure in presenting to the public this complete history of one of the most remark- able disasters of modern times, the Pomeroy tornado of July 6, 1893. Made up largely, as it is, of the actual experiences of persons who went through that terrible storm and escaped with their lives, when it seemed a miracle that a single soul could thus escape, THE STORY OF A STORM must necessarily contain a vast deal of data which will prove interesting and instructive to the student of nature's phenomena, as well as affording entertain- ment for those who merely through curiosity or the desire to while away an idle hour are attracted to these pages. The illustrations are of a much better class than is usually found in publications of the same character, being mainly photo-engravings and therefore of real value as present- ing faithfully the scenes portrayed, instead of being simply creations of the artist's imagination. The author and compiler desires to express his gratitude to the peo- ple of Pomeroy generally for favors rendered him while engaged in gathering material for the work, and to the editor of the Cherokee Times for valuable information furnished in regard to the tornado's work in Cherokee county, for which credit is not given in the body of the book.
F 629 - P7 58
STORY OF A STORM.
A TRAIN OF DESTRUCTION.
On the evening of July 6, 1893, there passed through one of the most beautiful and productive sections of fair and fertile Iowa a tornado which destroyed more lives and property than any other like visitation of which western history contains any record.
It is not in the extent of territory covered by this tor- nado that it is of especial interest or worthy of more than passing note, for, compared to some of the real cyclones which occasionally visit the eastern coasts of our country, covering territory thousands of square miles in extent and destroying hundreds of lives and millions of prop- erty, it is a mere pigmy in the storm race. It is more on account of the mysterious display of concentrated destructive force, the rarity of occurrence of storms of its kind, and the science-baffling atmospherical conditions essential to bringing it about, that render the tornado and its record of devastation of much greater moment in a historical way than the ponderous cyclones, or hurricanes, whose movements may be studied almost to a nicety and whose comings are heralded days in advance by the weather bureau.
The Pomeroy tornado -so-called from the fact that its greatest work of destruction was wrought at the town
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STORY OF A STORM.
of Pomeroy - swept over a strip of country about fifty- five miles in length, starting at a point some three miles northwest of Quimby, in Cherokee county, traveling in a course a little south of east, and ending a short distance east of Pomeroy, in Calhoun county, and the main track of the storm averaging only about one thousand feet in width.
The first real indications of the tornado observed by human eyes were when the people living among the bluffs on the west side of the Little Sioux river looked up between the hills to the westward and saw two angry- looking clouds approaching, one from the southwest, the other from the northwest. The sultriness of the hot sum- mer day had lowered somewhat, and gusts of cooler air whiffed by occasionally with uncertain direction, although the general course of the wind was from the east. The two clouds met on the crest of the hills, and the tornado was on its eastward course, lifting houses and barns high in air-to be demolished and the ruins scattered far and wide, while their inmates were crushed and killed or badly wounded by the falling débris-tearing trees by their roots from Mother Earth or stripping them of bark and foliage, and laying waste the crops that came in its pathway, nothing above the surface of the earth seem- ing capable of resisting in any measure the terrific force expended on its march of destruction.
WHERE THE WORK WAS BEGUN.
The farm of Jerry Bugh is at the northeast corner of Section 35, Rock township, Cherokee county, and Elroy Cook lives on the adjoining quarter section to the north, and it was about here that the two clouds came into con- junction and that the work of destruction commenced.
THE LIBRARY . BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY PROVO, UTAH
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STORY OF A STORM.
Mr. Bugh and family were in the barn at the time, and they fortunately escaped with only slight injuries, although both the house and barn were badly wrecked. Mr. Cook's buildings were also destroyed, but most of the family were away from home, and only the little girl, Ethel, was hurt.
The next buildings in the course of the storm as it passed directly eastward were those of J. H. McClintock, occupied by Roy Wright, on the south side of Section 25. The buildings here were demolished, and Mrs. Wright and child were quite badly hurt. Mr. McClin- tock's barn, on the next section south, was also torn to pieces.
Then the Perry schoolhouse was straight in the path of the storm. The building was lifted in the air and bursted like a skyrocket, leaving no board fastened to another. From a drive well near the schoolhouse the pump and forty feet of tubing were torn out.
The buildings of B. J. and Reuben Rogers were a little south of the main track of the storm and suffered comparatively slight damage, but a half-mile farther east lived Jap Scurlock, on the Vandercook farm. The family of nine saw the long, serpent-like trail of the tornado, and took refuge in the cellar. An instant afterward the house was a mass of ruins. The family escaped unhurt, although when they saw the heavy wooden steps leading into the cellar lifted out and mingled with the flying débris they doubtless thought the storm fiend was coming down after them.
The parsonage of the Wesleyan Methodist Church, occupied by Rev. James McGovern, was hard by the Scurlock place. The clergyman and family also took refuge in the cellar and their lives were saved, but all earthly possessions were scattered to the four winds,
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STORY OF A STORM.
DEATH RODE THE STORM.
A little way farther down the road, and on the side toward the river bank, stood the home of Joseph Wheeler, and just north of his residence was where Mrs. Moly- neaux lived. Here ruin was complete, and Death had mounted the raging storm and claimed a victim from either home. The scene of desolation left behind could not be exaggerated by the most gifted pen. The com- fortable homes and ample barns and outbuildings were crushed into kindling wood, the well-tilled fields but a moment before giving promise of abundant harvest were now a barren waste littered with dead kine. The bodies of seven dead horses were in sight and forty hogs lay in a wide winrow at the edge of the timber line a quarter of a mile away. Iron castings and broken pieces of an eight horse-power corn sheller were found at widely sepa- rated points, and the ground all about was strewn with corn from the bursted cribs.
Mr. Wheeler was in town on this afternoon. Mrs. Wheeler and her mother, Mrs. O. M. Lester, and sister, Alta Lester, of Cherokee, who were visiting her, were in the house and saw the storm approaching. They went into the cellar and huddled in the darkness in no little terror. Mrs. Wheeler put her arms about her mother and Miss Lester sat upon a chair holding the two little ones on her lap and trying to quiet them. All at once, with a terrible roar, the house was whisked away and the ruins of walls and flying débris fell into the place. Mrs. W. felt a shock as something struck her mother; the aged woman gave a little gasp and sank back more heavily in her daughter's arms, dead. A spoke wrenched from a wagon wheel had struck her in the side and pene- trated her body near the spinal column, tearing a dreadful
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STORY OF A STORM.
wound in the tissues of flesh. The daughter, in the dim light saw the jagged rent in her garments, peered into the white, still face and knew that her mother was dead. Then she laid her down, and with her sister and the children left the place of horrors and went out through the storm to find shelter at a neighbor's house.
At about the same instant that Mrs. Lester was killed another life was claimed just beyond, where Mrs. Moly- neaux's home had stood. Mrs. M. had been to town in the afternoon and was accompanied on her return by Mrs. John Underhill, an intimate friend. They started to the cellar, and Mrs. Molyneaux had just reached the door and was in the act of opening it when the house was wrecked. She was found lying about ten feet from where the house had stood, and a discolored bruise on the back of the head and neck showed where some flying missile had struck and robbed her of life. Mrs. Underhill was unhurt.
When the Wheeler barn was blown to fragments one horse was left standing at his wrecked manger uninjured. The horse that Mrs. Lester and daughter had driven out from town was blown out of the barn and killed.
From here the storm swept on eastward and took out Pilot Rock bridge, over Little Sioux river, a heavy iron structure of one 120-feet span. It was lifted from the abutments and carried to the up-stream side and dropped lengthwise into the river. When it went off its high iron piers it tore the heavy anchors loose and took the stone caps from the piers with it.
Then the storm climbed the steep side of the wooded bluff on the east side of the river and swept across the south half of Pilot and Pitcher townships. Close by the river, on the McCready place, John Cojohn lived, and just south of him was Mannie Peterson's house. Cojohn's
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STORY OF A STORM.
house was taken up and dropped a mass of ruins. The Petersons were just about to move out of the old log house into a new frame structure just completed. The new house was utterly demolished.
Along the road leading past Sam Whithouse's home the trees were twisted and fences broken, but the build- ings were left.
Wm. Simmons' place, just beyond, was right in the tornado's path. Simmons and family were the lucky possessors of a cave, in which they took refuge just in time. Nothing remained standing about them but the wreck of a windmill. The house was carried twenty rods away and the barn about one-half that distance. One colt was killed, but four horses that were in the barn escaped. Four hundred bushels of corn and three hundred bushels of oats were scattered to the winds.
On the next quarter section east the destructive ele- ments found the home of V. M. Groves, where the big barn, 80 by 60 feet, and other outbuildings, were on the west side of the road running north and south, and the house on the east side, surrounded by a dense grove. The house was not taken, but the barn and outbuildings were demolished. Jess Mason and Frank Baker were in the barn when the storm struck and wrecked it. They were pinned down by heavy timbers for an instant, but these were suddenly lifted off by what seemed a second stroke of the unseen force and they were left unhurt. About this place was the usual scene of complete wreckage to be found where the storm had plenty of material with which to display its wonderful devastating powers. Trees were stripped and twisted, wheels and odd pieces of machinery were scattered far and wide in the fields. A dead steer laid on his back in a ditch, and jammed against a tree was the body of a calf. The windmill was lying flat on the
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STORY OF A STORM.
ground and a harvester stood on end far in the dismantled grove. Barbed wire from the fences was strewn about the premises and in the road in an inextricable tangle.
AN ENTIRE FAMILY KILLED.
Straight in the way as the storm continued eastward was the home of Samuel Burdge, with evidences of thrift and good management all about. Mr. Burdge had home- steaded his place twenty-five years ago, and his toil and industry during all these years had not been unrewarded. He was surrounded with everything needed to make him- self and family comfortable and happy during the years to come, but now, with hardly a moment's warning, not only were the evidences of his toil obliterated, but his own life and that of his wife and three children were taken. The fourth child, a young girl of feeble mind, lingered a little while with bruised and swollen body, and then she, too, passed away. Burdge was found near the house with life not wholly extinct, but he died shortly afterward without recovering consciousness, so that none were left of this family to tell the story of destruction. The bodies of the wife and two of the chil- dren were found sixty rods away - the little girl with a ghastly gash in her forehead, as though cut with an ax, and the elder boy with his neck broken, one foot cut off at the ankle and the limb again severed just below the knee. The feeble-minded girl was found under a maple tree, her limbs swollen and purple, and body racked and surcharged with electricity so that it gave out a distinct shock to the hand laid upon the tender flesh. Two horses were dropped in the cellar, one dead, the other alive. Chickens were dismembered and parts of the bodies blown hither and thither. The Burdge family were buried in one grave in the Good Hope churchyard.
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STORY OF A STORM.
John Peters' place was on the east side of the road, eighty rods further north. Peters and family and two of Allen Cunningham's children went into the cellar. After gaining the cellar, the east door of the house blew open and Peters returned to close it, when the house was taken and Peters with it. He received a bad cut on the head, a shattered arm and a severe contusion on the right side. One of the Cunningham children was hit on the head by a rock, but not seriously injured, and the others in the cellar were unhurt.
Allen Cunningham, who lives eighty rods north of the Peters place and outside of the storm's track, claims to have seen the whirling funnel of the cloud as it swept in from the west. It seemed to him that the center of the storm passed about midway between the Burdge and Peters houses, and just as it got there swooped down and sucked them into its gyrating maw.
The characteristic of the tornado, of drawing objects from either side toward its center, would go to confirm Mr. Cunningham's idea of the storm at this point, as the ruins of Peters' house were carried to the south and those at the Burdge place to the east or north.
On the next farm east of Peters lived Marian John- son, who was killed in the ruins of his house. The rest of the family - one son twenty-two years of age and two daughters aged nineteen and sixteen - escaped without serious injury.
A GIRL TERRIBLY MANGLED.
From here the storm passed over Ellis Whitehead's place with only slight damage to buildings and seemed to gather its force for another more destructive effort on the farm of William Slater. Mr. Slater's buildings were completely wrecked and his invalid daughter, Lulu Slater,
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STORY OF A STORM.
and Ida Johnson, a domestic, were killed. One of the daughter's legs was wrenched from her body, and the dis- membered limb was found hours afterward two miles away. Bert Slater and the hired man were on the way from the barn to the house when the storm struck them. Bert was cut about the head and badly bruised, and the hired man had an arm broken.
Following its direct course eastward the storm next struck Horatio Pitcher's buildings, where, of the prop- erty, only the barn was damaged, but Frank Lord, the hired man, was struck by flying timbers and killed. Then the storm seemed to veer to the northward nearly a half-mile, taking the house and outbuildings of David Angles, where Hiram Converse lives, and damaging the barn of O. D. Wadell, a little farther on. Then the storm turned south again until, regaining its former course eastward, it passed over the farm of A. M. Converse, dam- aging his buildings somewhat and killing seventeen head of cattle. Then a vacant house owned by G. W. Blanche was entirely destroyed, and the house on the Balling place, occupied by Charles Anderson, was wrecked, and barn taken out entirely.
After leaving this point the storm seems to have raised off the ground, for no further damage is encountered until reaching Woolson's place, two miles farther east, and the same distance into Buena Vista county, and here the evidences do not indicate the presence of its full force. On the Baker place, however, eighty rods farther east, the work of thorough destruction is resumed, Mr. Baker's house and barn being demolished. In the same section the buildings of James H. Wadsworth were quite near the storm's center, but only his barn -said to be the largest in the county - was destroyed. Mr. Wadsworth and his hired man, Barnard Johnson, were in the barn at
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STORY OF A STORM.
the time, and Johnson was blown some distance, his chest striking squarely against a tree and the force of the con- cussion wrapping his body firmly about the tree. He died thirty-seven hours afterward.
From here the tornado continued on its due eastward course for another half-mile or so, wrecking the house, barn and sheds of W. E. Partridge, destroying Mr. McWilliams' sheds, in the same section, and demolishing the house and outbuildings of J. Zoungstom, and then the course was turned slightly southward, taking Henry Tutt's sheds and wrecking his barn.
In Section 1 of Maple Valley township, Buena Vista county, it first took G. L. Watson's house and barn. Thomas Wall lived on the place and he lost everything but his team. His wife was quite badly hurt, and his father, Edwin Wall, and daughter, of Aurelia, who were visiting at the place, were also severely injured, Mr. Wall so badly that his leg had to be amputated. In the same section the Hetric farmhouse was wrecked, and John Whitman, who occupied it, lost all his household goods, but the family escaped. Some damage was also done to Donald Hill's buildings, in the northwest corner of this section.
The storm then crossed into Hayes township, and, veering slightly southward again, struck the place of Jacob Breecher, on the west side of Section 6, where it took house, barn, and everything but a corn crib. Jacob Breecher and daughter, and Joseph Slade, were killed here. Slade, the hired man, and one of Breecher's sons had returned from the field and were unhitching the team. Mr. Breecher ran out with a coat for his son, when the terrible blast struck them all. The son says he caught his arms around a tree, and succeeded in holding on, though the tree was twisted off just above his hands,
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STORY OF A STORM.
When the storm had passed he saw his father stagger toward the house, and reached him as he fell. His neck had been struck by a board and nearly severed. He died very soon afterward. The mother was found sitting on a small part of the house floor several rods from the site of the house. Slade had an arm and leg broken, and died the following day.
Of the further progress of the tornado through a por- tion of Buena Vista county, the Storm Lake Pilot, of July 12, gave the following account :
" The north side of the whirling mass caught the buildings at L. A. Clemons', forty rods farther on ; the barn was wrecked, the roof torn from the house, and the fine orchard trees mostly twisted beyond recall, but the house stood, and in it was a large company. Mrs. Harry Clemons was at home, and spending the afternoon with her were Mrs. Paxton, Mrs. F. S. Hollenbeck, Mrs. Taylor and others, whose escape seems miraculous.
" A few rods east was the little home of W. R. Clemons, the father of L. A. Clemons, and brother of W. L. Clemons, of Storm Lake. He had just returned from Alta, and was changing his clothes. He saw the storm coming, and hastened to get his wife down cellar, following himself. Just at the last step he threw up his left hand to steady himself, and as the house rose into the seething mass his arm was caught and the muscles and bone laid bare. In this condition he helped his wife, who had been hit on the forehead and severely hurt, out of the cellar and almost to his son's home, when they met him. His arm was in a sad condition, and in the hope of saving his life it was thought best to amputate it. He stood the operation bravely, but could not survive the shock, dying Sunday morning about 8 o'clock.
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STORY OF A STORM.
"The schoolhouse on the hill a short distance east next came in line, and beyond a few stones which mark the spot one could not know that a building ever stood there. Within ten rods there is not a piece of timber as large as stove wood, and the iron drive well was pulled out and taken with the rest.
" A little farther east, on the farm owned by S. J. Powell, lived C. N. Totman. He saw the storm approach- ing, and hurried his family into the cellar, but delayed going himself. The house was taken from its foundation and ground to splinters ; the barn shared the same fate, mixed with horses, cattle, hogs and poultry. Mr. Totman was found in the yard injured internally, and lived only until Saturday morning. There is not enough left of the Breecher, W. R. Clemons and Powell homes and out- buildings to build a pig pen, and the ground for a mile is stuck full of slivers and strewn with farm machinery.
"Passing on southeast the south edge of the whirl caught the L. J. Chamberlain farm buildings, unroofing the barn and cutting the grove in pieces. The building at the spring was annihilated, and the iron tubing carried nearly to the lake. From here the destructive forces swept across the lake, the only thing in its path across upon which to feed being the Fisher steamboat, which was soon devoured.
" Leaving the lake at the southeast corner, the Lake- side farm was in the north side of its path, and out of a fine herd of young thoroughbred heifers and a herd of sheep, twenty of the former and fifty of the latter were killed and many more fatally injured. Among the cattle were three as fine heifers as there are in the United States. The only building to be absolutely wrecked here was the hen house, and the poultry in it experienced a most vio- lent shaking up. First the building was stood on end,
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STORY OF A STORM.
and then whirled about and dashed in pieces. The other buildings were a good deal stirred up, and Mr. Miller says it was difficult to keep on his feet in the house far- thest north.
" East of the Bryant farm the residence of Albert Scharm was demolished and all his belongings destroyed, and he is, with the possible exception of Thomas Wall, the most needy along the line in our county."
Continuing in a southeasterly direction from the above point, the storm did no material damage until it reached the Tenney place, on Section 26, Providence township, where it took the stable and killed one horse for Pat Kennedy, who occupied the place. From here the tor- nado pursued a course almost directly eastward, the dam- age done consisting mainly of shattered barns and out- buildings, stripped groves and flattened crops, until reaching John Slayman's place near the Pocahontas county line, where everything was taken and every mem- ber of the family more or less injured. Crossing the Pocahontas county line, the house and barn on the Waterman farm, occupied by Mr. Sayne, were destroyed. In this neighborhood the buildings of Samuel Hersom, E. A. Sherley, B. Peach and Mr. Hardy were wrecked, but their families escaped serious injury.
At Amos Gorton's, one and three-fourths miles west of Fonda, work of a more serious character was accom- plished. The buildings were blown into splinters, and Mrs. Gorton and one child were taken from the ruins dead, and another, a little girl, fatally injured. Mr. Gorton and the eldest daughter were not hurt.
Here the storm veered to the southward again, else the town of Fonda would have been directly in its path- way, and would doubtless have met a fate similar to that of Pomeroy.
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STORY OF A STORM.
About a half-mile from the Gorton place, the buildings occupied by John Detwilder were demolished, and Mr. Detwilder was carried out into the grove and killed.
Near here the home of Harry Hersom was swept away, though none were seriously hurt. Mrs. Hersom passed through confinement while at the mercy of the elements, and, remarkable as it may seem, both mother and child were saved.
Tearing down the buildings of George Sanborn, one- half mile south of Fonda, and doing considerable damage on the farms of Messrs. Busby, Neiting and Jerry, the tornado swept across the track of the Des Moines, North- ern & Western Railroad, and from thence followed close along the south side of the Illinois Central track into Pomeroy.
The buildings on the Shirley, Ferguson and Becker farms were demolished. Mr. Becker thinks that torna- does must have a peculiar grudge against him. Only a few months before a small one came along which ruined his house, and he had just completed a new house and was intending to move in the following Saturday when this storm razed it to the ground.
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