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 4
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But it was only a moment that anyone had to note the peculiar sensations incident to the remarkable phenomena of which so many were unwilling witnesses. "It was like a long-drawn moan," as someone described it, and all was over, but the results left behind in destruction of life and property are seldom accomplished in so short a time. They who were left to gaze upon the scene of desolation must have been struck with a horror simply indescribable.
As the storm struck Pomeroy it was traveling in a southeasterly direction, parallel with the Illinois Central railroad track. After taking the full row of houses on the west side of Seneca street, south of the track, it veered southward about a block, then turned again and went a little south of east, mowing everything clean in its pathway, which, as has been before indicated, was about four blocks in width and through the most densely populated resi- dence portion of the town. Imagine, then, if you can, the
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feelings of the survivors who first looked over this field of desolation - where only a moment before was a city of homes and scenes of life everywhere, and now not a build- ing, a green tree, nor a thing of life to be seen - every- thing absolutely flat on the ground. [Those who were on the outer edge of the storm's track and were first to get out and look over the ground after the storm had passed, claim that even the men and animals who were not seri- ously injured were apparently stunned for the time being, and that not a living object arose to view for the space of several minutes.] .
Nor was there a sound to be heard for a short time but that made by the rain, which fell in blinding tor- rents. No wonder that nearly every survivor who viewed the scene wondered if he were the only one left in the whole city to tell the tale of wholesale slaughter and devastation ! But it was not long until signs of life- in many cases accompanied by pain which would have made death preferable - began to be manifest throughout the ruined district. There were plenty of sights and sounds to greet the two important senses now, but they were such as to increase the terror of the situation rather than to diminish it. Here one found a poor unfortunate pinned to the earth by fallen timbers ; over there a woman with bleeding body and broken limbs clasping her child in a close embrace - everywhere shouts for help and cries of pain rising above the noise of the raging elements. The rain continued to descend on the sad scene in veri- table sheets, accompanied by hail, and while this added to the discomfort of the wounded and dying and retarded the progress of rescue work, yet it undoubtedly saved many from a worse fate, for the piles of ruins would surely have been swept by flames but for the very heavy fall of water both before and after the tornado did its work.
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The comparatively few able-bodied men left in Pome- roy were very soon on the field of desolation, carrying the wounded to places of safety and administering to their comfort with all the means at hand. This work, of course, had to be done without any attempt at organiza- tion - everyone doing whatever came in his way to do. And the amount of thorough and effective work done that niglit is marvelous. Before II o'clock - in less than four hours after the disaster - every wounded person in whom the breath of life remained had been removed from the ruins to some sort of covering that afforded pro- tection from the storm. And much of this work was accomplished in the face of difficulties whichi, under ordinary circumstances, would be insurmountable. Men carried bodies in their arms several blocks with apparent ease, that they could scarcely have lifted at any other time, finding their way over piles of débris and avoiding open wells and cellars, in spite of the darkness - and most of the time the storm raging so that one could- hardly travel against it with no impediments in the way. To accomplish successfully the work done men's finer feelings had to be deadened in about the same proportion that their physical strength and energy was augmented for the occasion. Some with hearts as tender as a woman's would pass by the bodies of friends known to be dead, with hardly a thought, to render succor to a mangled one yet alive whom, perhaps, they hardly knew. The telegraph and telephone wires being down, it must have been two hours or more before much outside help arrived, but messengers were sent by horseback to Man- son and Jolley, and the male population of those towns turned out almost en masse in response to the call for help. Fonda was also notified by a special train sent up, and an army of workers brought down from there. As
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has been said, the wounded were all housed by II o'clock that night, and the dead bodies had also been all removed from the ruins before sunrise the next morning. Rumors were afloat throughout the country of dead bodies being found as late. as two or three days after the storm, but these were pure canards. One well-meaning Des Moines man told through the press of being on the ground the day following the catastrophe and pleading unsuccessfully with the guards to allow him to head a posse of men to go into the swept district and search the ruins for the dead bodies which he knew must be there. This gentle- man was simply the victim of his own unduly excited imagination. Every soul in Pomeroy on the night of the storm had been accounted for some hours before, but had he gone to those in charge of relief work they would have given him plenty to do in the way of alleviating suffering or caring for the dead. It may be said, in extenuation of the thoughtless wrong he did those who had done and were doing such valiant service here, that others were assailed by the same emotions experienced by him, upon first viewing the wrecked district. One could hardly believe that out of the hundred or more homes so completely wrecked a human being could emerge from any of them alive, and at first thought it would seem that there must be many yet buried in the débris - that it could not possibly have been all gone over in the short time that had elapsed. But in so many cases people were apparently blown from their houses in one direction, while the buildings went over and beyond them, or in another direction, and in other ways persons had escapes from death which seemed miraculous, that it was simply incredible how so few were buried or pinned down beneath the ruins.
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DESTRUCTION AND DEATH IN DETAIL.
The first residence in Pomeroy struck by the storm was that of William Shneck, being the first house south of the railroad track on the west side of Seneca street. Mr. Shneck had a small cave, and he and his wife and baby, accompanied by their neighbors, Oliver Toll and wife, and four children, Mary Toll, Alfred Oleson, and Mrs. John Larson and baby, took refuge there when they saw the storm approaching, and escaped unhurt. The Shneck and Toll buildings were taken.
The next house on the same side of the street was 'William Billings'. It was demolished, but the occu- pants-Mr. and Mrs. Billings and five-year-old son, Mr. B.'s father and Mrs. B.'s father and sister- went into a hole under the house and were saved.
The beginning of the numerous tragedies enacted in Pomeroy at this time was at the house on the corner of the next block south, the home of Silas Rushton and family. The family consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Rushton, a son and daughter, Charles and Mabel, aged four and two years respectively, and a brother of Mrs. Rushton, Willie Pruden, aged nine years. A neighbor saw Silas Rushton standing in his door about five minutes before the stormn struck, and it is presumed that the rest of the family' were in the house and had no thought of their approaching doom. The house was torn in splinters about them. Silas Rushton was killed instantly by the flying débris, Mrs. Rushton had one leg broken in two places and was otherwise injured. She died in hospital at Sioux City some two or three weeks afterward. A large sliver penetrated the skull of the boy Charlie, and he died the following night. Willie Pruden had his jaw-bone broken and a sliver run through his nose and into the
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throat, but his injuries were not fatal. The daughter Mabel was not seriously injured. She went to Sioux City with her wounded mother, and upon the death of her remaining parent was adopted into the family of Mr. C. L. Hebb, an employé of the Sioux City Journal for the past eighteen years. Mr. and Mrs. Hebb are excel- lent people, and little Mabel will receive the benefits of a refined home and all the love and attention that could be given by a father and mother to their own child. "
George T. Johnson and wife saw the storm coming, but not in time to seek a place of safety. Mrs. Johnson took their little girl in her arms, and Mr. Johnson held the boy, and they all clung together. The house was completely wrecked and carried into the next block south, the occu- pants going only as far as the street. Mr. Johnson received a cut in the back of the head, and Mrs. J. was bruised on the head and back, but the children were not seriously hurt. Their household effects were scattered and ruined, about the only articles found in condition to be used again being a curling-iron and a watch and chain. The watch was in a vest that was torn to shreds, and when found the chain was buried deep in the earth ; yet nothing about the watch was broken.
A SINGULAR INCIDENT.
Henry Rosine, wife and two children, living across the street north of the German Lutheran church, gained their cellar in time to see their house taken from over their heads and dashed into kindling-wood some distance away. Dan Homan, wife and three children were also in the cellar with them. Homan's daughter had a leg broken. None of the others were seriously hurt. Here was enacted one of the peculiar incidents which some persons not familiar with the freaks of tornadoes find it
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difficult to credit, but the persons who vouch for this are known to be truthful, and there is no reason to doubt their story. Mr. and Mrs. Bottine, an aged couple, lived across the street east and a little north of Rosine's. Their house was completely demolished and the two old people were carried across the street and set down in Rosine's cellar, unhurt. The most singular part of the incident is that the chair in which Mrs. Bottine was sit- ting when the storm struck their house was carried with her, and she was not removed from it in alighting.
The home of Samuel Maxwell was directly across the street east of Rosine's. Mrs. R. saw Mrs. Maxwell only a few minutes before the storm. They discussed the threatening indications somewhat and Mrs. Rosine sug- gested that the Maxwells better come over and go in their cellar, but Mrs. M. laughingly replied, "No, I. don't think we'll all be killed before morning." A very short time afterward the house she thought secure was a mass of splinters. Samuel Maxwell and son Alex. were killed, Mrs. M. was very badly hurt, and the little girl nine years old was rendered insane, for a time at least, by the terror of that night.
On the southwest corner of Seneca and Third streets stood the German Lutheran church, a large, substantial structure of which nothing was left after the storm but the big bell. South of the church was the parsonage, occu- pied by Rev. Schliepsiek and family, whose narrow escape is related elsewhere by that gentleman himself. Next to the parsonage was the little German school- house, which was also taken out clean, as was the resi- dence of Henry Geicke, on the corner below. Mr. Geicke was taken from the ruins fatally wounded, and Mrs. Geicke died of her injuries in hospital at Sioux City. The two orphaned children recovered.
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Next south on this side of the street was the cottage of August Hjelm, the family consisting of himself, wife and little girl nine years old. This seemed to be in about the line of the storm's worst work of twisting things. The ruins were scattered in almost every direction. Mr. and Mrs. Hjelm were carried from ten to fifteen rods north of where the house had stood and the daughter was taken twenty rods south. Mr. H. and wife both had bad cuts in the head and were among the wounded taken to Sioux City hospitals for treatment. The daughter was found late that night in a ditch filled with water. It was con- sidered remarkable that she had not. perished, but she soon recovered.
Had the storm not swerved from its course, turning considerably southward, as it struck the west side of town, the residence of L. W. Moody, at the north end of Otsego street, would have been swept out, as well as a good portion of the business part of the town. As it was, the Moody residence was left, although considerably damaged, as were also three more houses south of it, in the next block, the houses of D. Parker, W. E. Davy and Charles Lockie. But back of these, in the same block, the buildings facing Seneca street were swept clean. W. D. Parker lived on the northwest corner of this block, but he and Mrs. Parker had fortunately gone to their son's house-one of the three left standing on the east side of the block. The two families were in the cel- lar when the storm went over and they saw the northeast corner of the house twice raise off the foundation and set- tle back again.
A SUCCESSFUL HOUSE MOVING.
South of W. D. Parker's, on Seneca street, was Ed. Troon's residence, a story-and-a-half structure of good
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size. This house was lifted in the air and carried a half block south, where one side plowed into the ground nearly up to the window sills when it struck, but the house did not fall to pieces. Edwin Troon, his wife, mother and child, and N. H. Trimble, wife and three children, were in the house and none of them were harined. Mr. Troon was one of those who were looking for a storm of unusual severity. He tells of having remarked to Tim Mudge, at about 6:10 that evening, that a cyclone was coming. Tim's only response was, "Well, let 'er roll." After the promptitude with which his permission to "roll " was acted upon on this occasion, Mr. M. will doubtless hesi- tate before again speaking flippantly of the tornado when it is likely to be within hearing distance.
At the honte of James Mellor when the storm struck were Mr. and Mrs. Mellor and two children, Miss Emma Orthman and Mrs. Ed. Rankin. The house was carried across the street in a southwesterly direction, and piled up amid the ruins of the German Lutheran church. The inmates were all badly hurt, but none fatally.
RIDING A ROUGH SEA.
Joseph Keleispe, with his wife and four children, were carried with his house into the next block east and found amid the ruins. Strange to say, none of them were badly hurt. Mr. K. says that the sensation he experienced was as though the house was riding over rolling waves. After what seemed a much longer time than it really was an obstruction was encountered and he found timbers lying across his body. He attempted to remove them and again felt that he was lifted in the air, after which he knew nothing more until regaining consciousness at the place to which he was removed.
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WHERE THE STORM CAVE WAS USEFUL.
Gus. Peterson, of the firm of Williams & Peterson, had the lucky foresight to go over to M. F. Mullan's place with his family some ten or fifteen minutes before the main storm struck. The women folks all went into Mr. M.'s cave when the first flurry came, but came out again. It was soon' seen that something more serious was at hand, however, and all then went into the cave. They evidently had no time to spare in gaining the place of safety, for as they descended, the peculiar pressure upon the ears was experienced which betokened the withdrawal of air from about them, although the cause was not real- ized by them at the time. They had been in the cave but a very brief time when Mr. Mullan went to the door and startled the little party with the intelligence that there was not a house in sight in the town. The home of the Petersons, which they had so lately quitted, was among the piles of ruins, and they went out to rescue and succor the many with whom fate had dealt even less kindly than with them.
Just south of Mr. Peterson's lived Henry Nieting and wife, whom some of the neighbors warned about the approaching storm, suggesting to them the advisability of going to the cellar, but they failed to heed the advice and both were killed. The last seen of them alive was a moment before the storm, when they were engaged in mov- ing some potted plants out of the storm into the house.
At August Schnell's home, in the same block, the family went into the cellar, and their neighbor, Henry Werefe, with his wife and two children, went with them. The house was swept away from above them and much débris was flying through the air, but the only one of the party that was hurt seriously was Mr. Werefe who was
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hit with a stone and received a bad cut in the head. Pieces of stone were taken from the wound weeks after- ward and his recovery was very slow.
L. Loll, wife and four children lived just across Seneca street, opposite the tile factory. They were in the cellar when the storm came and all escaped injury except Mr. Loll, who was struck by some missile from the tile works and his collar bone and one rib broken.
NARROW ESCAPES AND QUEER INCIDENTS.
At the home of Jolin Reis on South Oswego street, at the time of the storm, were Mr. and Mrs. Reis and five children, Mr. Reis' mother who lived next door, and Eugene Fitzgerald, wife and four children, whose resi- dence, across on Seneca street, was completely demolished. The Fitzgerald family went into the Reis cellar, but Mr. F. came out again to look at the storm and saw the wall of the house on the side where he stood coming toward him. He jumped through a window and landed safely in the cellar again. Mr. Reis went to close the west door of the house and was drawn out into the street. At about this time the east wall of the house went out and the elder Mrs. Reis was carried out to where the barn had stood. The barn had been blown away, but a parlor stove that was sitting inside the barn remained in its place and the old lady caught hold of this and was saved from being taken any farther. She was badly bruised but not seriously hurt. Some of the family who were in the house were saved by dropping between the foundation wall and a rain barrel, immediately after the wall of the house went out. Heavy timbers fell directly over thein but found a resting place on the barrel. In an upstairs closet of Mr. Reis' house stood a bundle of sixteen win- tows, each window containing eight 12 by 16 panes,
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These windows were blown down into the yard in a pile and out of the entire lot only four panes were broken. This incident may be said to illustrate, though it does not explain, how many persons went through the storm with- out being seriously injured.
Jacob Paap and wife were not apprehensive of any- thing serious in the way of a storm, although it became suddenly so dark that Mr. Paap started to light the lamp, but before he had accomplished this the house and family were scattered to the winds. Mr. Paap was found four rods east of where the house had stood, holding to a telephone pole, with three bad cuts on his head, his left arm dislocated, and a stick driven into his left hip which was not taken out until several weeks afterward. His wife had a mashed ankle and had been carried a half block from the house, while the baby was found a full block away, uninjured, save that her body, from which all clothes had been torn, was covered with mud and dirt. This little one was one of the last taken in alive that awful night. She was cared for by Mrs. Rankin, land- lady of the Richards house, and seemed to suffer no special inconvenience from the terrible exposure.
William Fitzgerald and wife, an elderly couple, living at the corner of Seneca and Harrison streets, had a small cave with a shingled roof, which they went into before the storm came. They were sitting on a pile of coal in the center of the place, when Jacob Paap's house, from across the street, west, was carried that way, tearing off the roof of their cave and digging a trench about three feet in depth where it struck the ground six or eight rods farther on. Both of the old people were struck by tim- bers, Mrs. Fitzgerald having an arm broken, and Mr. Fitzgerald a shoulder broken and a stick run under his arm and coming out behind the shoulderblade. The old
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gentleman was almost blind, and his experiences in the storin increased his infirmity.
W111. McName's house, on Oswego street, was among those most completely wrecked. Mr. McName, his wife and two children were in the house when the storm struck. They were carried some two hundred and fifty feet away. McName liad a gash cut in his head, and all were bruised more or less, but none fatally or very seri- ously hurt. But Mr. McName's mother and stepfather, the Arnolds, who lived next door to him, were killed. He found his mother's lifeless body lying amid the ruins within five minutes after he had seen her alive and well and had been conversing with her. Mr. and Mrs. Arnold were found nearly a block east of where their hoine had stood. In going about to assist those who needed help immediately after the storm, Mr. McName found Mrs. Blomberg with a stick piercing her foot, pinning her to . the ground ; both eyes were badly hurt, and three fingers crushed.
At the residence of A. G. Blomberg, on the night of the storm, were Mrs. Blomberg and three children, Mrs. Blomberg's sister, Miss Mary Soderstrom, and their cousin, Miss Linda Oleson. They were where the storm did its worst work of destruction, but all escaped with their lives. Miss Soderstrom was left lying in the street with a broken arm. Near her was the little girl, three years old, with her scalp torn back four inches and the bone crushed in the open place. Mrs. Blomberg, Miss Oleson and the two other children were found two blocks away. Miss Oleson had a broken arm, and the little girl was found with a scantling cruelly pressing her head into the moist earth, and the skin torn back from one of her cheeks. She was taken up for dead, but good care finally restored her, after four days of unconsciousness.
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STORY OF A STORM. 65
The baby was found in a furrow full of running water, but besides a few scratches her only injury was occa- sioned by her having bitten off the end of her tongue. Mr. Blomberg was at his store on First and Oswego streets during the storm. He and his lady clerk were standing at the west front when they heard the north front crash in, and at about the same instant the west front went out, and they were carried two hundred feet down and across the street, where both succeeded in grasping a firm hold upon a pump which stood in their way. They escaped with no injuries.
IN THE VERY JAWS OF DEATH.
At the home of Banker J. H. Lowrey, at the south- west corner of Oswego and Third streets, Mr. L.'s parents, Mr. and Mrs. G. C. Lowrey, his little girl and the domes- tic, had a very narrow escape. They had been in the cellar, but returning upstairs, all had passed into the sit- ting-room, except Mr. Lowrey, who was standing in the hall, when the storm struck. The second story of the house was cut off clean, portions of the lower walls were taken out, and the second floor came down over the heads of the occupants of the sitting-room, but they were saved from being crushed beneath its weight by a chair and couch intervening and upholding the heavy timbers until they could be rescued from their unpleasant situation. Mr. G. C. Lowrey was left free and unhurt, in the hall, and none of those in the house were seriously injured. Ruins from three different directions were found in one grand pile on the Lowrey premises. Mr. L.'s barn, from the south side of his lots, was lodged against the house, so that one of the horses stood with his head through the kitchen window ; then the ruins of Gus Peterson's house, from the next block west, had been deposited amid the 5
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broken parts of the wrecked barn, and over all was piled the ruins of M. F. Mullan's house, from across the street north. Mr. Lowrey's driving horses were both killed, his double carriage was wrecked, and of the single carriage 110 trace could be found. J. H. Lowrey was at the home of Mrs. Wells, at the corner of Third and Cayuga streets, during the storm. There considerable damage was done, but the buildings were not completely wrecked. Mrs. Wells' house was moved a little, the windows came crashing in, and, with great difficulty, Mr. Lowrey suc- ceeded in closing and bolting the front door, just in time, it was thought, to avert still more serious disaster. After the storm had subsided Mr. Lowrey hastened to his own home and was grateful to find that his people were all alive. After liberating them from the ruined house he engaged with the others who were left able-bodied in the work of relieving the distressed so far as was possible, not stopping for sleep for a period of forty-eight hours. Mr. Lowrey's bank was made headquarters for relief work, for some time, and permanent treasurer of the relief fund. As indicating something of what a busy place this bank was, it is noted that the outer door of the building, which had been removed by the storm, was not replaced until six weeks afterward. The place having been open both day and night during that period, the loss of the front door was hardly realized. It is said that the handling of the relief fund alone made as much business as many small banks transact altogether in a whole year.
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