USA > Iowa > Kossuth County > History of Kossuth County, Iowa > Part 40
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the hens would walk along the bottom and pick off the lower ones with ease and evident satisfaction.
The methods employed in the endeavor to prevent the growing crops from being totally destroyed were many. Long ropes, to which rags but few inches apart were fastened, were dragged over the grain to frighten the hoppers and keep them on the move; deep furrows were plowed around the crops and then partly filled with hay which was set on fire after the hoppers had settled upon it; tar was smeared over long strips of wide sheet iron and then shoveled off and burned after it had been stuck full of the little torments, and these long tarred sheets were sometimes dragged over the fields by a horse attached to each end. It is very doubtful if all these contrivances combined did the least particle of good, for no matter how many of the little destroyers were killed their loss did not seem to lessen the number. If a thousand times the number had been exterminated the crops would have been eaten up just the same. D. H. Hutchins during a later scourge patented a destroying machine known as the "hopper dozer." It was a contrivance on wheels which the team pushed ahead of it through the grain. In front was a 'long flat box covered with open slats in such a way that the hoppers in jumping up against them would fall through into the box where they could easily be destroyed. The machine was too un- wieldy to be pushed over the plowed ground rapidly enough to prove any great benefit. Many still remember how Mr. Hutchins' mules struggled to push it along, and how awkward they were when turning it around.
Notwithstanding the hard times that were brought on by the grasshopper invasion, more women appeared on the streets in silk dresses, on Saturdays dur- ing that period, than have ever been noticed since that time. As strange as this may seem to some, there was a forced reason for this singular display of silk gowns during those distressing days. The women had worn their calico dresses to shreds and were too poor to buy new ones. Each, however, had an old silk dress of which she had become possessed in by-gone days, perhaps a part of her wedding attire, which she had laid away as a relic of the past. It was dug out of the bottom of the trunk and brought forth to answer the purpose of a go-to-town dress. Those seen on the streets were of a great variety of old styles, but all presenting the folding creases in them. Flounces, tucks, frills, yokes, pleats, ruffles, shirred skirts, big sleeves, tight sleeves, long sleeves, short sleeves, full skirts, scant skirts, pointed waists, low necks, high necks, square necks and no necks-all were in evidence when the grasshopper eggs came to town as the only trading property that could be found.
In this vicinity these grasshopper or locust invaders went no further east than Hancock county. Mason City people, at least many of them, refused to believe that any species of the grasshopper family could fly more than ten or fifteen feet without lighting. In other words they believed the reports were ex- aggerated. Some of them found out their mistake, when they came over to Hancock county and saw the barrels of tar unloaded at the depot and the rolls of sheet iron on hand, and heard their own friends tell about the destruction. When the pests had done all the damage they could do around here they went north into Minnesota, but returned in a few days as if to take a last look at the field of their conquest. Shortly after they arose as though by command of some recognized authority and started southeast. The papers reported that
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the last seen of them was when they were flying over eastern Georgia on their way apparently over the ocean.
Grasshoppers have invaded the county a couple of times since then but in no such numbers, in the writer's opinion, as were here, in 1873-4. In 1876, they came too late to do serious damage, but they were here in time to deposit their eggs in their little felt sacks. The young ones hatched out in the spring, but the cold, damp weather rendered them too inactive to do much harm. They were numerous enough, however, so that C. B. Hutchins in a short time cap- tured a barrel of them for Governor Larrabee, who wanted to render them as an experiment to see if the product would prove to be of any benefit. His experi- ment proved a failure after the barrel of captives had been received by him. Mr. Hutchins tells as follows how he managed to capture so many before the tens of millions took their flight during the first week in July :
"Along about sundown the hoppers would climb up the grain stalks and roost as near the head as it was possible for them to get. I took four sticks, nailing them together, making a frame about eight feet long by two feet high, to which I nailed cotton cloth, making a large sack with the frame for the opening. I hitched a horse to each end of the frame, and my man rode one horse and I the other and we trotted them through the standing grain. The motion caused the stalks of grain to bend backward throwing the hoppers into the sack and in a very short time we had a barrel of hoppers. We had to make several hauls for the barrel full but I do not think it took over a minute to catch half a bushel of them."
In 1911 the county was again invaded by the flying pests. Their appearance high up in the air towards the sun reminded one of similar scenes in 1873 and 1874. but those seen on the ground or in the fields did not seem to have the form, color, size or destructive tendencies of the first invaders. They ap- peared more like the native hoppers, but where so many came from is not known to a certainty. While it is true that they damaged the fields of small grain so that the yield was very light and the quality poor, it is also true that they worked months to render the crops in this condition. There were enough of them on certain fields to have completely destroyed the crops in a few days if they had worked in the same way and with the same greediness that those did in 1874.
While the grasshopper scourges devastated the county and left the citizens in financial distress, they were after all blessings in disguise. That is espe- cially true of the 1873 invasion. Prior to that time farmers depended almost wholly upon their scanty crops to meet their obligations in maintaining their families. There were but few cows and they were mostly of a scrubby order. But little attention had been paid to making butter for the market and less at- tention had been given to the grading up of herds. Immediately following that particular scourge there was a right-about-face in the methods of farming. More became interested in cheese factories, butter making and in selling cream. More cows were kept, herds were improved in quality and other farm animals increased and were better cared for. In a few years a marked change through- out the county was noticeable. That change was a fortunate one. From that time on the farmers annually had something to sell besides wheat, oats and corn to raise money to meet their necessary expenses. Moreover they soon had fat bank accounts which they never had before.
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DESTRUCTIVE CYCLONE IN 1894
The cyclone that passed through the county from east to west on the even- ing of September 21, 1894, was the only storm of the kind ever known to have visited this immediate section of the state. Those who lived along the line where it swept through with terrific force, or those who witnessed the many scenes of desolation during the week following this memorable event learned what the word cyclone means. The loss of property was great but the own- ers, who escaped with their lives, no doubt have long before this recovered from their financial embarrassment resulting from the disaster. The loss of life, however, can never be recompensed.
This electrical "twister" appears to have originated in the region of LeMars and to have exhausted its force on reaching the vicinity of LeRoy, Minnesota, after making a sweep of over two hundred miles. It entered the county at A. H. Bixby's on the southwest corner of section 30, in Lotts Creek township. Go- ing eastward it passed through sections 29, 28 and 27, then it turned north a little leaving the township after passing through sections 23 and 24. Entering Union between sections 19 and 30, it next went one mile east through section 29, then on a line a little north, passed through sections 21, 22, 23, and 24 where it crossed the river and left the township. Coming into Plum Creek, on section 19, it kept eastward for a couple of miles and then going in a northeasterly direction went through sections 16, 11 and 12. It crossed the line and entered into Wesley at the northwest corner, on section 6, then it went eastward for about three miles near the boundary line between Wesley and Buffalo. Next it crossed over into the latter township where it went through sections 33, 34 and 35. At this point it turned nearly north and after passing in that direction for a couple of miies left the county on the east line of section 24, Buffalo township. Clipping the northwest corner of Hancock county it proceeded through Winnebago and Worth counties and then crossed to the extreme northeast corner of Mitchell county. The little town of Le Roy, a few miles beyond this point in Minnesota, was the last place to suffer damage or loss of life from the effects of the cyclone. This town also was the only one through which the storm center passed on the entire route of destruction.
This storm occurred during the week of the fair, and on an evening when the Call opera house had a large audience to hear and see the drama that was being presented. Suddenly there came the startling report that the storm had killed several people and that scores of homes had been swept from the earth. The next morning the roads leading to the scenes of death and destruction were lined with teams conveying those who were anxious to become informed in regard to all that had happened on the evening before.
The storm before reaching the western line of Lotts Creek had come through Palo Alto doing considerable damage but causing no loss of life. It began its destructive work at Bixby's by smashing his barn and windmill. Then on its course eastward through Lotts Creek it demolished John Ero's barn, twisted the McDonald barn, moved the neigliboring schoolhouse, pulverized Alex Gove's barn, moved Fred Voigt's house several rods and blew his barn to pieces. Buildings were smashed on the farms of Liddy, Higgins, and Gockley and those on the old Ben Clark farm were also swept away. All the windmills in the
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vicinity were ruined. As the storm proceeded eastward it seemed to increase in violence and do damage of a much more serious nature. Robert Stephenson was the first in the county to receive injuries during the raging storm from which death resulted. While endeavoring to hold the door from being blown in, the whole house and all his other buildings were smashed and scattered by the storm. A gash on the back of his head caused his death on the succeeding day. The top of the Larson house was blown off and the two barns on the Peter J. Walker place reduced to a wreck. The schoolhouse in that neighborhood after being smashed to kindling wood was scattered for miles towards the east.
The Barrick family were living on the Durant place, and here too were the neighboring Lee family at the moment when the cyclone struck the house which had in it fourteen persons huddled together in their fear. In an instant every building on the premises had been swept from the earth and several of the two families badly injured. Mrs. Barrick became paralyzed when knocked down by the stove and her husband suffered from a cut he had received on the head. Mrs. Lee's nose had been split by a flying board and her husband's face had been terribly lacerated while the building was going to pieces. Several of the children and the hired man also had been hurt. The injured were taken to the Kargleder barn for shelter, but that too had one side blown out as the storm passed through. At this place the iron pump and tubing had been lifted from the well and carried for some distance. A letter belonging to Carl Barrick was blown from his house when it went to pieces and carried to the vicinity of Osage, in Mitchell county, where it was found and returned to him a few weeks later. Before leaving Lotts Creek the storm pulverized the barns belonging to Kennedy and Baglmair and swept every building clean from the Fred Pompe farm. Among Fred's papers that blew away when his house was smashed was a tax receipt which later was found over in Howard county.
Crossing the line from the west into Union township the storm began its wicked work by wiping the Frink schoolhouse out of existence in crushing it like an egg shell. It picked up Christian Dau's barn and gave it a new location and also destroyed his cribs and windmill. It reached the Geo. Boevers' home just as the parents were trying to get the children into the cellar for protection. The new house was crushed, killing one child instantly and injuring Mrs. Boevers so badly that she died shortly after. Another child was also hurt when the building blew away. The boards from the wreck were scattered for many rods southeastward across the field. The barn of W. F. Jenkinson was lifted up and put in a different position on the foundation. Hay stacks and grain were blown to pieces on the farms of A. D. Barr, Herbert Bailey, Fletcher Hofius, J. B. Hofius and C. D. Ward, these farms being in range with the south edge of the storm line.
The storm center struck the Schenck premises with terrific force, brushing away the house and other buildings as though they had been made of paper. Beneath a pile of boards, several rods from where the house stood, lay Mrs. Myron Schenck, her baby and Horace Schenck, who had lived on the premises since 1856. Myron Schenck was not in the house at the time it went to pieces, but was hanging to a lilac bush in the yard to keep from being carried away. He was on his way to the barn when he discovered the approaching storm and hastened for the house to get his family down into the cellar. Before he could
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reach the house the wind plunged him several rods into the lilac bushes where he was compelled to remain until he could arise to see what had really hap- pened.
Mrs. Schenck and the child, although nearly buried amid the rubbish, escaped with slight injuries, but Horace Schenck was so badly injured that he died shortly after. The hundreds of spectators to the scene of disaster, during the next few days, were surprised to see how little the many rows of preserves and canned fruit, setting in the cellar,. had been disturbed. Even the open cup- boards containing them had not been moved. The schoolhouse near by was completely wrecked and the boards scattered into the Joe Thompson timber for a long distance. The building was a strong one and had to be whirled around several times before it went to pieces. This fact became evident because the marks were plainly visible where one corner of the building cut a quarter circle on the ground every time it went around.
When the storm reached the Joe Thompson place it found the family in the cellar, but it preceeded to take out one side of the house, rip off plaster and wall paper from every room and did not leave the premises until it had completely ruined the barn and other buildings. Passing on east it cut an ugly path through the beautiful grove, splitting large branches from the oaks and elms and break- ing off the tops from some of the finest trees to be found in the county. It tore down the pioneer Moore house on the Byson farm, sent a log through his new wagon, then smashed the old landmark Stow building and all the buildings at Michael Reibhoff's except the house. Then on it went eastward in its fury, smashing timber and making destruction of almost everything that stood in its way. The wide swath it mowed through the groves on its passage across the river was marked, not only by the straight opening it made, but by the destruc- tion of a large amount of valuable timber which lay broken and tangled along the way.
Plum Creek township came in for its full share of the destructive work. On the Dan Rice farm a portion of the roof of the house was blown off and all the other buildings ruined. The force of the storm at this point was so violent that trees one foot in diameter were broken off and the tops and heavy lower branches of majestic oaks were detached and piled upon the ground in great confusion. The grove was damaged to such an extent that it never has had the same attractive appearance that it had before that disastrous event oc- curred. The storm proceeding eastward moved the barn of P. T. Ferguson on its foundation, and then visited the M. W. Ferguson farm where everything except the willow hedge was completely swept from the premises. At this point the storm was terrific. One of the horses was lifted into the air and carried for nearly a half mile before being dropped in the corn field. When the house was demolished Mr. Ferguson, wife and baby were blown with the storm through the willows, a distance of fully twenty rods. He clung to his wife, but the baby became separated from them and was found on a portion of the roof crying when the storm had passed over. George Holman's buildings, a little east of this place, were brushed away, leaving but little to show how the premises appeared an hour before. When the roof went off he and his family made their escape over the walls, but one of the children was killed before the fury of the storm had left them. South of this place, Mrs. Peter Larson had
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her skull fractured by being hit with flying boards. Nearby a portion of the roof of Patrick Kain's house flew off, the barn was damaged and his wind- mill, tower and all smashed.
The scene of the wreck on the old William Ward farm, in Wesley town- ship, was one of great destruction. The remaining trees of the grove and the position in which the broken trees and lumber lay, showed that the cyclone at that point was twisting and whirling with terrific force. The house and all other buildings were smashed and their material scattered for miles. The storm center must have struck where the buildings were standing. The family of J. F. Myers, who were living in the house at the time, escaped with but little injuries. At a near neighbor's, Mrs. Fred French was holding one of her children and Miss Etta Welsh the other, when the storm struck the build- ings and brushed them all away. The children were forced from their arms and were found dead several rods from the place where the house had stood. Another neighbor, Mr. Birdsell, was badly hurt when the storm demolished his buildings. The cyclone cut a freak when it simply lifted W. P. Giddings' house and laid it on its side in an orderly manner, damaging it but a very little. This building lay in that position for some time after the storm and was visited by many people in their curiosity.
On the old Sam Colburn farm, in the northwest corner of the township, lived C. D. Dingman and family. His brother, Jacob, from Fort Dodge, was there visiting at the time when the home was torn to shreds and scattered. This visiting brother was lifted into the air and then dropped upon his head with such force that he died instantly. The dent in the ground where his head struck was visible for some time after, a stove door being kept over it to pre- vent its obliteration. Matt Hanson's house and that of Paul Nelson's, in the same vicinity, were brushed . away along with their other buildings. On the north line of the township the Hill house was turned over on its side, and Andrew Cosgrove's barn, along with those of his neighbors', went into splinters and blew away.
Buffalo township was not on the program to be slighted by the visit of that notable storm. After seriously damaging Wesley township property the whirling cyclone entered Buffalo and swept away the buildings on the Martin Larkin and Otto Britton farms, and in wrecking Albert Rockow's house killed a two-year old child by driving a splinter through its head. Nearby the school- house, like many others, was reduced to kindling wood and scattered over the prairie. Joseph Elwell's barn went down burying nine horses in the debris, but none were killed. Joining him on the east was the home of William Schweppe on section 24. He and two of his children lost their lives when the house went down in a wreck. His wife also was badly injured by the falling timbers. Claus Edens, in that neighborhood, not only lost his buildings but a child also when the house went down in a collapse. Across the line, in Han- cock county, John Bingham's house was blown down and then consumed by the fire.
While the cyclone was passing through the county another formed a few miles northeast of the village of Wesley which was supposed to have joined the other before the destructive work was ended. This second whirling monster in going northeastward, smashed Moses Castler's house and carried him and
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DESTRUCTION OF THE SCHENCK SCHOOL IN THE GREAT CYCLONE OF 1894
SWEDISH BAPTIST CHURCH OF SWEA TOWNSHIP
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his wife a distance of thirty rods, landing them in a willow hedge with all their clothing torn from their bodies. They were each over seventy years of age when they met with this cruel treatment. Both were seriously injured and he died as a result, a few days later. Their neighbor, Thomas Tweed, when the house went down, had several ribs broken, his wife, both arms broken, and his aged mother and two of his children were killed. Eighty rods east, A. J. Tweed's house was carried across the road and then smashed. His wife's arms were broken and his two children so badly hurt that one of them died soon after this terrible experience.
That such a destructive cyclone ever passed through this county seems now like a dream. It was the unusual, the unexpected and withal the unwelcomed. Where houses were demolished, groves destroyed and life extinguished as the result of the storm, much remained for many years to bear evidence of what happened September 21, 1894. Even today in some places the swath the storm mowed through the native groves can be traced by close observation. While our citizens are fortunate that only one such disastrous storm has visited this section of the country, that they may still be more fortunate in not experiencing a repetition of that disaster is the earnest wish of all.
A STRING OF FIRST EVENTS
The first settlers in the county were Asa C. Call and his brother, Ambrose A. Call, who arrived July 9, 1854, and slept that night in the grove, near the present farm residence of D. W. King, in Irvington township.
Asa C. Call and Ambrose A. Call were the first to make claims to land of any who came to settle. These claims were made during the last week in July, 1854. They included the Algona town site and much of the timber near by.
In the absence of Asa C. Call, Ambrose A. Call with the help of one, W. T. Smith, erected the first log cabin, during the first week in August, 1854. It stood a short distance northwest of the present Chubb farm residence in Cresco.
The first death occurred in this cabin, September 26, 1854. Father Mahuren, a minister of the Christian denomination, who lived in the southern part of the state, came to the cabin in very poor health, and after lingering for a couple of weeks died. Malachi Clark made his coffin with puncheons which he split from basswood logs. The grave was not far from the cabin.
The first elk killed by any settler was shot on November 27, 1854, on the west side of the river, near the center of what is now Cresco township. This noble monarch of the forest went down, pierced by a ball discharged from W. H. Ingham's rifle, at the close of an exciting chase. D. E. Stine, of Cedar Rapids, was the other member of the hunting party. They discovered a herd of about a dozen elk in the morning, west of where the old Jones home is situated in Riverdale, and by wounding one of them caused it to separate from the others and become the victim of the chase.
No one white woman was the first to tread the soil of Kossuth, as five came at the same time on August 27, 1854. These pioneer women were Mrs. Eliza Maxwell, Mrs. Rachel Clark, Elizabeth Clark (Hackman), Mrs. William G. Clark and Mrs. Samantha Persons.
The first township to receive settlers, as now organized, was Cresco in the fall of 1854.
Vol. 1-20
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The first stack of hay put up in the county was in September, 1854. The work was done by a surveying party of which D. A. Haggard was a member. It was built on a spot of ground about one mile east of where the Collar home is located in Ramsey township.
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