History of Johnson County, Iowa, containing a history of the county, and its townships, cities and villages from 1836 to 1882, Part 51

Author: Johnson Co., Ia. History. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Iowa City, Iowa.
Number of Pages: 980

USA > Iowa > Johnson County > History of Johnson County, Iowa, containing a history of the county, and its townships, cities and villages from 1836 to 1882 > Part 51

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Patrick Tierney was a widower with eight children.

Joseph Smally was an elderly man; family all grown up.

James Smally, working in the engine room east of the tanks, is his son. Herman Bechtel was the only support of an aged mother. He was a young man of steady habits.

The only minor casualty of any gravity occurred to Mr. McCann, father to one of the mill men who would have come on at midnight. He and Mr. Kloos, Sr., were walking up street near the west front of the mill, and Mr. McCann got a broken arm.

There were many narrow escapes. Mr. Francis, one of the mill hands, had just stepped from the boiler room and passed north, outside, in front of the machine room; his brother Charles had passed the same route but a moment before.

James Smally says he felt it coming, and thought they were " blowing off,"-that is, emptying the tanks, as they did when the pulping process

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HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY.

had made the straw ready for the engines; and in the next instant he crouched in the corner of the east engine room and the ruin flew over him, while his father was done to death fifteen feet from him. The shock was felt in the city as a distant and very heavy blast, the concussion being quite perceptible, and the noise being merged into one roar. Those nearer to the scene say that there were four distinct explosions, which was doubtless the case, as No. 3, would naturally cause the explosion of 1, 2, and 4, following in rapid succession, yet at an interval noted by the ear.

As the mass was lifted into the air witnesses speak of it as all looking red, as if a flame below reflected from it. The tank No. 3, was noted in its flight by many.

Mr. Thomas Curry saw Bechtel's body in the air when it looked no larger than a common hat.

Following rapidly upon the explosion came the clattering of a horse ridden madly to town. The rider passed through the streets crying the calamity aloud, and in a few minutes the road to the disaster was turned into a panting, pulsating artery of human sympathy. The road was crowded with every discription of vehicle, with people on horseback and on foot, and so it continued all night. A bonfire was built to illuminate the ruin and hundreds of men worked the night through. The bodies of Gilmore, Bechtel and Chiha were recovered immediately. Smally was found about one o'clock and Tierney some hours later, Sinton not being discovered until daylight.

Description cannot convey the impression made by the scenes of that night. The river weirdly traced by the flickering lights and chasing shadows; the hollow roar of the adjacent dam; the loud mourning of men for their relatives, of children for their fathers, and wives for husbands they would meet no more; the great pieces of machinery thrown into fantastic confusion, shafts thrown from their seats and their length lost in the darkness; long belts sinuously mingling with fallen brick and broken beams, made a picture that sleep could not subdue into forgetful- ness.

The cause of the explosion is sought in but two directions. The steam was delivered to the tanks by a pipe which passed over them with a small pipe branching to each, and each of these small pipes was fitted with a cock which could shut steam off of its tank, while the supply might be continued to the others. In the main pipe between these branch pipes and the boiler, was fitted a large cock, by which the steam supply to all the tanks was regulated. The last that was known of Chiha he had gone up the steps to turn steam off. He may have made a mistake and turned it on. There was a pressure of fifty pounds in the boilers, the tanks were intended to carry fifty pounds; they may have been straining at a less pressure and an access of force by an unintended supply of steam may have exploded No. 3. But with that tank burst, the boiler pressure upon the other ceased instantly, then why did they follow if it were a steam explosion ?

The testimony of those who saw the explosion at a distance of from a quarter to a half mile, is unanimous upon the red glare heretofore spoken of. Our opinion is that it was a chemical explosion, fortified by these premises :

The straw is pulped by the use of chemicals, lime and acids, muriatic and sulphuric, we believe.

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The immense force of the explosion could not have been gathered on a fifty pound pressure.

The red glare was the combustion of the gas.

The explosion of more than one tank, with a notable interval between, demonstrates that it could not have been steam, for, when No. 3 blew up it carried the main pipe with it and cut off all boiler pressure, then how could the others have exploded?

It was gas. No. 3 was more heavily charged than the others and it exploded first and most forcibly, and the others followed in rapid succes- sion, the gas combusting as it came in contact with the air.

This " chemical theory " as to the real cause of the explosion was pub- lished in the State Press at the time, and is fully concurred in by this his- torian.

COLLATERAL INCIDENTS.

The pearl barley mill stands to the south, and its north wall was moved about an inch.

Mr. McCann, the superintendent of the paper mill, had just stepped out of the mill and was standing on the west front about five feet from the line of the explosion. He says that tank No. 3, went straight up through the roof to an altitude that made it look no larger than a bucket, and Sin- ton was on top of it. An estimate based upon the relation of the size of a bucket to the true size of the tank, shows the tank to have reached a hight of 512 feet, from which Sinton fell and pierced the roof of the build- ing where he was found.

Some people in the city noted two distinct explosions. Buildings in the city were jarred; in one or two cases doors were jarred open, and the foliage of trees was seen to tremble and rustle. The first conclusion, from this combination of noise and motion, was that an earth quake had passed.

THE INQUESTS.

Two inquests were held. The first during the night, Coroner Murray summoning as a jury, Col. Graham, J. M. Sheets and John H. Clark. The jury found that Bechtel, Gilmore, Chiha, and Smally came to their death by the explosion of bleaching tanks in the Coralville paper- mill.

The second jury, consisting of John H. Clark, J. R. Hackett, and W. W. Kirkwood, sat this morning and reached the same finding in the cases of Sinton and Tierney.

[From the Daily Press of Saturday, July 24.]

Gilmore's body was sent to sepulture in the country grave yard, starting at 4 o'clock this morning.

A funeral program for the interment of the others was issued this morning, in English, German, and Bohemian, as follows:

FUNERAL NOTICE.

The funeral of Walter Sinton, Frank Chiha, Herman Bechtel, Joseph Smally, and Patrick Tierney, will take place from Coralville, on Sun- day, July 25, 1875, at 2 o'clock.

The services by protestant clergymen, and by Fathers Rice and Emonds, will be held at Coralville before the above hour, after which the proces-

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sion, marshaled by Col. Harvey Graham and John Xanten, will move to the Catholic Cemetery and Oakland, to be joined at the iron bridge by civic societies on foot, and to separate for the respective burial places at the public well on Fairchild street. The public is invited to attend these obsequies.

The German Benevolent Society, the Ochotnik, Bohemian Society, and St. Patrick's Benevolent Society, will meet the procession at the bridge. Let there be such an expression of public sympathy upon this occasion as shall emphatically express all that the public feels.

The mills were promptly rebuilt, and now (1882) still continue to be one of the most important manufacturing enterprises in the county, and still owned by Mr. Close.

IOWA CITY'S HISTORIC WIND STORM.

· Wind storms are common enough, but occasionally one occurs of such unusual severity that it will do to keep, as a sort of historic way-mark in the rushing tide of events. Iowa City had her most memorable wind storm at about six o'clock, on the evening of June 20, 1877. The following graphic account of it is from the Iowa City Daily Press of the succeeding day:

At six o'clock yesterday evening a little bank of blue cloud lay on the horizon; rain and storm have been so frequent of late that no attention was paid to this, except to surmise whether or no it would interfere with the University exercises. At seven o'clock there were indications of trouble. The line of cloud closed over the western horizon, and rolled up a foamy crest of white fleece, prognosticating a heavy wind. In fifteen minutes more the air trembled, though there was no breeze, the trees moaned softly, and a deep "sough" rose from the west, like the muffled roar of a distant waterfall, or the tread of an approaching army. Louder and deeper it grew, until suddenly the air grew thick with dust and leaves and debris, and the storm was raging through the streets. It may be worth remembering in this connection, that the rate of the wind was a little over a mile per minute. The clouds of dust rolled through the streets, and hanging a dun pall over the whole city. At this moment the streets were crowded with people hastening to the chapel. They were driven in stores, unable to face the storm that carried before it bits of wood and clay, pelting like black hail: boxes, barrels, boards, shingles, signs, awnings, and branches of trees swept down the streets; everything moveable borne forward on the wings of the blast. At twenty-five min- utes past seven, when the storm was at its height, a dull, heavy roar, and a trembling of the ground told of a great shock, and on Clinton street the cry went up that the spire of the Presbyterian Church had fallen. Chim- neys uncounted were blown down, trees by the hundred were uprooted, or lost their limbs, and the grass and grain bowed to the earth. The wind did not blow in a direct line, nor did it possess a real circular motion; but came now from one, then from another point, with a short, jerky, twirling motion, nearly as powerful as the actual cyclone. The duration of the gale was not over fifteen minutes, during which time but little rain fell.

The damage done by the storm was great, the most serious being the destruction of the Presbyterian Church spire, with a portion of the front of the building. The spire was carried away completely as far as to the wood-work, and the entire east, together with most of the south walls,

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the west and north walls, poured down bricks into the gallery and audito- rium of the church, throwing down the east side of the gallery wall, and carrying it, with part of the gallery flooring and stairways, down into the basement, tearing away all the east floor of the lower hall. The spire fell almost directly east, across Clinton street, the finial breaking down a panel of Mr. T. J. Cox's fence. The spire was so demolished that had it not been for a few sections of the roof it could not have been identified. With the spire came the great bell, weighing 2,874 pounds; this struck on its side, but received no damage, beyond breaking the iron yoke to which it was suspended. The spire fell entire, and did not break until it reached the ground. One of the great timbers drawing back toward the building, thrust a hole through the east wall of the tower. The damage to the church will not fall short of six thousand dollars, and perhaps, all things counted in, frescoing, ceiling up, and rebuilding, it will reach seven thou- sand. The spire was built on the church in 1869, and the bell put in place the same year. The extreme height of the spire from the ground was one hundred and fifty-three feet; one hundred feet of the tower fell, leav- ing but fifty feet remaining.

The Congregational spire suffered severely by the storm; the west and north walls are cracked, the stone arches on the windows are moved out of place, and the spire itself has been moved several inches out of the perpendicular. Mr. P. P. Freeman's barn was unroofed, and part of the brick walls blown in. To speak of chimneys and trees carried away would be to give a directory of the town.

The big barn of Mr. E. C. Lee, West Lucas, was moved off its foun- dation. In Coralville, Mr. Val. Miller's big corn crib was blown over on the track. The hay barracks of Alden Fletcher and Jabez Stevens were blown down. All the fences around Coralville were laid flat. Ham's big bulletin board, at the old iron bridge, fell before the wind. The barn of Mrs. W. D. Conrad, just above Deitz & Hemmer's mill, was demolished without serious injury, except depriving the great flocks of pigeons of a home. When the wind had passed there was a deluge of rain that lasted several hours.

Of narrow escapes from personal injury there were many, though none so thrilling as that of Mr. C. L. Mozier. He was driving down Clinton street in his carriage, (the horse on a gentle trot) and when directly in a line with the spire he happened to cast his eye upward and saw a sight that might well chill the blood with fear-the tower leaning toward the street at an angle of twenty or thirty degrees, directly above him. He dropped the lines, and shouted to the horse; had there been a second's balk, had the horse hesitated a moment, he would have been crushed beneath the great mass. As it was, he felt the ground shake under him as the hind wheels of the carriage stood on the crossing, so close that for a moment he thought the carriage was falling a wreck beneath him. It was, indeed, a narrow escape, and one that Mr. Mozier will remember while life lasts.

Lizzie Cook, a little girl who lives on the fair ground, was met by the storm-cloud in the center of the railroad bridge; she had her arms full of bundles, but letting go of them she clung to the rods and bolt-heads on the side, bracing herself against the timbers below. She saw her bundles carried across the stream by the wind, alighting on the show-ground. When she reached home the prints of the screw threads on the rod were plainly visible on her hands.

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HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY.

The gale surprised the excursionists at the Woodside boat house, but did no harm beyond putting many of them to considerable inconvenience, and detaining some of them until after 10 o'clock.

The damage to the crops, especially corn, was quite severe. In Coral- ville many sheds were unroofed and trees uprooted. The storm seems to have been compressed in quite a narrow path, generally on the line of the river.

SNOW BOUND.

During the first week of March, 1881, Iowa City was snow bound. A terrible snow storm had blocked all roads, and no railroad trains had passed over the Rock Island road for four days; the B., C. R. & N. had been trainless for over a week. Trains had been abandoned and hun- dreds of people from all parts of the state who had gathered in the city to be present at the commencement of the medical schools were compelled to prolong their visit indefinitely. Iowa City was only connected with the outside world by means of the telegraph. On Saturday, March 5, the Republican issued a "snow bound edition," filled with the telegraphic news of the week, and columns of personals, telling who was "snowed in" at the city and where they belonged; also who was snowed out of the city and where they were supposed to be, waiting and watching across the blockade.

THE GREAT FLOOD OF 1881.

In June and July, 1881, Johnson county experienced heavy rains and high water, beyond anything of the kind since 1851-just thirty years before. From the reports of the State Press we compile such details as seem to have a live historic interest. Of the storm on June 29, 1881, the report says:

Monday night's rain fall was the heaviest ever known here. The storm broke upon the city at about midnight, gently at first, and all the time without wind, but with water fall of increasing intensity until there were no rain drops, for it came in solid sheets.

In the city, aside from the filling of uptown cellars, the damage was limited to the lines of Ralston creek and Market run. On Ralston the first damage done was below its junction with the long slough which runs into it from the southeast, crossing the Muscatine road near the old Con- nelly place. The two streams joined and destroyed bridge number 23 on the B., C. R. & N. road. The stream carried off the sidewalk bridge on the Avenue at Mr. E. Hughes', flooded the gardens, rose mid sides to the horses in Mr. Welch's stable on Mr. Patterson's lot, swept Mr. Beranek's garden at the Johnson street crossing, and rose to a depth of eighteen inches in his house; washed the B., C. R. & N. freight depot nearly off its feet, and weakened bridges 24 and 25 on the same line. The damage on Market Run, aside from some extensive chicken drowning, began at Bloomington street in the destruction of sidewalks and bridges. At Market street, the old stone arch bridge built in 1857 by Starkey & Boartz, was swept out, the opening was insufficient for the sudden flood and its freight of drift. The water gathered above the bridge on Pisha's lot to such a hight that it finally went clear over the street, carrying away the dirt cover over the arch, when the structure broke and went out with

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a roar like thunder, the heavy stones floating like corks half way across the park. This sudden flood released sped to the Jefferson street bridge south of the park and carried it out, swept out-houses and small buildings, left the Avenue bridge intact, but took out the foot bridge and poured into the flat bounded by the old banks of Ralston. There it left the horses and cow in Col. Trowbridge's stable swimming, drowned one pig in his pen and floated another out alive, rose to the chins of Stertet's tall mules in a stable in the rear of the old Reynold's lot, floated several piles of Por- ter's lumber from south of Trowbridge's up on the Washington street fill and turned the old bed of Ralston east of Gilbert street, into a lake of several feet deep. On the bank of this lake stands the Berryhill house, a brick building. Mr. Jack Reeder and family occupy its under story. Mr. Reeder had left his cow tethered to his wagon by a sixty feet rope. He was in bed and asleep when he heard some one call out that his cow was drowning. He jumped out of bed into water up to his knees. Before he could get his wife and child up stairs the water was over the bed. South of the B., C. R. & N. passenger depot the flood routed out Uncle Boone, the colored man, and his numerous family and they waded out to the high ground. The damage to city on bridges, etc., is about $1,000, that to the road and private property about $5,000.

The following additional account pertains to the July storm and flood, from a week to ten days after the foregoing:

June had been showery this year, but the streams were not kept full, though the ground was supersaturated. The June rains closed with the great fall of the 27th, and there was hardly any more rain in the Iowa river water-shed until Sunday, July 10, when it began at Marshalltown, distant by river from Iowa City about 200 miles.

The rain began here on Saturday night and was very heavy. Next day the local drainage raised the river about 14 feet. On Monday it began to fall and by Tuesday night had receded five feet. Then began the second rise, the great flood initiated at Marshalltown, which had swept 200 miles of bot- torn lands, inundated three cities and reached us hungry for more spoils. All day the water rose. About ten o'clock it crossed the causeway to the lower bridge, and two hours later it swept over the much higher approach to the Centennial bridge. The water rose, crept, crawled up and up, until it was twenty-two and a half feet above low water level, had cut off travel over the bridges, and made the river in many places five miles wide.

The first building to move was Dietz & Hemmer's grain house, stand- ing near their mill, a mile north of the city. When it moved into the stream the water was within five feet of the floors of the two iron wagon bridges and that near to the bottom cord of the Rock Island railroad bridge. In the emergency Mr Hemmer ran to the river and put out crews in a half dozen skiffs and they, by dint of pushing and pulling, got the house out of the current, and ran it upon a high point just north of the east end of the Centennial bridge. Here it was in constant danger of swinging into the stream, and attacking the bridge. The causeway is at that end of the bridge, and if the house could be swung into the water on the upper side of that it would be safe. Messrs. Gil. and Frank Fletcher went out in skiff's, chopped through and fastened ropes around the corner posts; these were made fast on the shore. The Rock Island company sent up its bridge gang, and by their help, when the water rose so as to

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float the house off the point, it was pulled in to the east bank and made safe. This bit of good work saved the county about $35,000 of bridges, and the Rock Island company as much more, for the house was loaded . with five tons of grain and mill-feed, and would have swept the channel. The village of Coralville, one mile up stream from this city, suffered severely. All of its lower part was deserted; about twenty houses were inundated. The manufacturers there suffered. The river-wall of M. T. Close & Son's great paper-mill fell in upon the machinery, and the dam was greatly injured by channelling around its east end.

Mr. Frank Fletcher's ice-house on the bank suffered a considerable loss. Between Coralville and the city Mr. Wm. Berger's ice-house was not only emptied, but floated off and destroyed, and Mr. Warner's large ice-house near Dietz & Hemmer's mill was emptied.

Fortunately our city stands high above all possible floods, with only a small part of its homes below the cruel line of inundation. That lower part was covered, driving about twenty families to higher ground. At the foot of the Dubuque street hill, below the Rock Island railroad track skiff's debarked for voyages all over the bottom, to the glass works, pack- ing house, and distillery, all of which, however, were above the flood line, and suflered no injury.

The damage is inestimable. The bottom farms through Madison, Penn, Monroe, Jefferson, Newport, Lucas, Liberty, Pleasant Valley, and Fremont townships were laid waste.

When the flood was at its height on Tuesday Mr. John P. Dostal brought his steam yacht down from the club grounds near Butler's land- ing, entered Coralville under full speed and steamed right down the main street in front of the paper-mill, across Clear creek bridge, over Dietz & Hemmer's dam, and landed at the city. His steamer was covered with flags, and the daring voyage was the sensation of the day. Coralville was short of provisions and telephoned an order to Mr. Hummer's wholesale grocery. The goods were put upon the steamer and delivered on the up trip. This is an incident to remember, for half a life-time will probably pass before another steamboat is seen in the streets of Coralville.

In connection with the above accounts of the watery wastefulness of 1881, the following historic reminiscence was published:

THE PIONEER FLOOD OF 1851.

The first great flood after the white settlement of this valley occurred in 1851. That rise came after a wet season that kept the stream about full, and one that was unexampled in the violence of its rains. deepening to a waterfall early in August of ten inches in twenty-four hours! The water rose to the west side of the University campus, which was then the state-house yard. There were but few houses on the bottoms, but they were deluged. In one on the second bench, occupied by Mr. T. W. Wil- son, the water rose two and a half feet, expelling the family. The Indians during that flood pointed out a high-water mark one foot above the high- est point reached, which was, at this place, twenty-five feet above low-water mark. Within a few weeks of thirty years the flood of 1851 has been duplicated.

THE STEIN MURDER AND SUICIDE.

Nov. 5, 1881, a man known as Anton Stein, but whose real name proved to be A. Skierecki, enacted a horrible tragedy in Iowa City.

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He was thirty-seven years of age. He came to America in 1877, and to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in 1879. In June, 1880, he courted and married the widow of Mr. Goering, at Cedar Rapids, the daughter of P. Hess, a Ger- man family that settled in Iowa City in 1862.

Stein's wife commenced a suit for divorce, charging extreme cruelty and gross neglect, and such other charges as are usually made for grounds of divorce. On the 2d day of November, 1881, the suit was heard before Judge Hedges, in the Johnson county court, and a divorce was granted to her. The State Press gave the following additional particulars:

Stein passed that night at his boarding house, Mrs. Spryng's on south Dubuque street. He rose late last Saturday morning [Nov. 5], dressed himself elaborately in a suit his wife's money had bought, and asked for breakfast. The landlady told him it was too late for breakfast, but he could have a cup of coffee. He took this and left the house a little after 8 o'clock. He next visited Mr. Boal's office, and had such a threatening air that the office boy, who was alone, locked the door. Mrs. Stein was living with her father and mother, on Market street, next door west of the Union bakery, in a modest one-story house, built by the late Geo. L. Ruppert for his venerable father. Stein was under injunction of the court to keep away from this house. From Mr. Boal's office he went to Luse's shoe shop, where Mr. Hess worked, and finding him there at his bench, went straightway to the ungarded house, to seek his prey in the defense- less woman and little children. The house has a front room, entered by an outer door in the southeast corner; next north of the front room is a bed room and sort of sewing room and snuggery, and north of that the kitchen, which opens to the east on a pleasant porch. Lizzie was in this kitchen, tending to her house plants and singing over the congenial duty, for she was young, of kind and gentle heart, and a mild temper and innate ladyhood that were not scarred deeply by the miserable mistake of her unhappy marriage. The shadow of Stein was cast athwart the window, and he raised the latch and entered. She cried to her mother "er kommt ?" " He comes," and turned to face him. He asked her to bring him a book which was in the middle room, and belonged to him. She went for it, and returned with it and his mother's picture, which she handed to him first. The cold-blooded wretch took in his left hand the picture of the woman who bore him, and armed with a glitterering knife sharpened to exquisite edge, with his right hand stabbed at the bosom of the woman he had at the altar sworn to cherish! The old mother was away in the little front room, and ran to fight for her child. Lizzie struggled with all the desperation of the strong young life which was draining from stab after stab. At length smitten by twelve wounds, the floor slippery with her blood, she fell, and the wretch knelt upon her breast and finished his butchery by nearly severing her head from the body. Rising he turned upon her mother, and gave her a ghastly gash in the throat, not severing the windpipe or artery, however. Mrs. Hess ran then into the street, bleeding terribly, and screaming, for in that intense fight with the bloody butcher, the only words spoken had been the two, "I will," uttered by Lizzie just as the swift knife was falling upon her. The alarm, from mouth to mouth, and by many telephones, speedily gathered a great crowd. Stein stood for a moment in the door, menacing the crowd. Dr. Lytle pushed past him. He re-entered the kitchen, stood for a moment

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History of Johnson County, Iowa, containing a history of the county, and its townships, cities and villages from 1836 to 1882, Part 51

Author: Johnson Co., Ia. History. [from old catalog] Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Iowa City, Iowa. Number of Pages: 980

Author: Johnson Co., Ia. History. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Iowa City, Iowa.
Number of Pages: 980