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 5
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THE CAVES SHOW GOOD RESULTS AGAIN.
M. F. Mullan had a pleasant home at the northwest corner of Oswego and Third streets. Among the credit- able improvements on the premises is a well-built cave, for which Geo. Hamilton, a former owner, is responsible,
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and to whose fear of tornadoes several persons, perhaps, now owe their lives. Mr. Mullan was not looking for a bad storm on the evening of July 6, but his family became a little uneasy and, in company with Gus Peterson's family, went into the cave. The storm seemed to blow over, however, and they returned to the house, but soon a gust of wind broke off the limb of a tree near the house and all then repaired to the one certain refuge from so-called cyclones. As they went into the cave they closed only the inner door, and, excepting the patter of pebbles on this door, no unusual noise was heard until the upper door slammed shut. In fact there was something oppres- sive in the atmosphere which made even their own voices sound far-away and unnatural. It was thought this con- dition was due to the closeness of the cave, and Mr. Mul- lan, for purposes of better ventilation, opened the doors of the cave. This was within two minutes after they had entered, and upon looking out it was found that the storm had passed, and all buildings about them were leveled to the earth. A number of people more or less badly wounded were found in that vicinity and as many as could be accommodated were taken into the cave, and after making them as comfortable as possible Mr. Mullan went to his drug store, where he found that the whole south wall of his brick building had fallen out. The other side of the store was practically undisturbed, how- ever, and Mr. Mullan was occupied the balance of the night in dealing out stimulants and other medicines needed by the afflicted, and in helping to dress the wounds of those who were brought to the hotel near by. The only persons in the drug store during the storm were Otto Hittenmark, the clerk, and Sam and Dave Lovchinsky, who had run up from their clothing store several doors south, when they saw the cloud coming. All three were
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about to leave the drug store, when the front came crash- ing in, and this was immediately followed by the south wall going out, and the storm was over. The store build- ing which the Lovchinskys had deserted was picked up and carried west fifty feet and utterly demolished, although the meat market building next south, a higher and less substantial building, was left standing. Those saved in the Mullan cave were Mr. and Mrs. Mullan and son, Gus Peterson, wife and two children, Gritina Hanson, domes- tic, and Gene Gould.
At the Saltzman home, just north of Mullan's, was another cave which afforded protection to a number of persons, but some who were there were deceived by the brief calm preceding the hard storm, and went into the house, and death claimed one victini. The persons here were A. Saltzman and wife, Mrs. Harlowe, the Lovejoy and Prange families, from across the street, C. R. Spil- man and Ernest Sisco. Those who were in the house when the storm struck were Mr. and Mrs. Saltzman, Mrs. Harlowe, Albert Prange, and Spilman and Sisco. As the house was lifted from its foundation and burst asunder, Mr. Spilman, who was on the north side, dropped down just inside the foundation wall; the others went with the house and were scattered promiscuously about the yard. Mrs. Harlowe, the aged grandmother of Mrs. Saltzman, was found dead near the door of the cave. Ed Saltzman had a bad cut on the head, but the others were not seri- ously hurt.
Mr. and Mrs. Lindblad, living on the corner north of Saltzman's, went into their cellar when the first blow came, but returned upstairs, and a moment afterward their house was moving up and down and to the southward like a frail bark upon the ocean. The building was carried fully a block before breaking asunder and spilling
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out the occupants. Mr. Lindblad, though in a dazed condition, found his two children and carried them to the Saltzman cave. After arriving there he supposed some- one had carried him to the place. Mrs. Lindblad was found by C. W. Alexander pinned down by a wrecked roof, near the Lowrey home. The dead body of a man unrecognizable to Mr. Alexander was beneath the same roof, and upon its being lifted up two other persons came out unhurt.
C. W. Alexander's home, at the northeast corner of Second and Oswego streets, was in the current from the northeast that took out the Lovchinsky store on the east side of the same block. His house was not carried away, but was badly wrecked. The back part was demolished and the family were driven into one of the front rooms, which proved to be the only room in which they could have remained without great danger of being struck by timbers or flying missiles. The only one injured was Mr. Alexander, a piece of glass cutting his foot. One of the freaks of the storm was noted here. Although the general direction of the wind at this point seemed to be from the northeast, yet a door from Mullan's barn, in the opposite direction, was hurled through the bay window of Alexander's house, and the front of the house was jammed full of sticks. The box elder trees here were twisted and stripped of their bark and laid flat on the ground without being broken off.
At Richard Brandes' place, north of Alexander's, the front part of the house was taken and the family were left unhurt in the back part. Mr. Brandes' jewelry store, down on First street, had the front broken in and con- siderable damage was done to goods, besides some being stolen, it is thought.
On the northwest corner of the block in which
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Alexander and Brandes lived, is Joseph Hudson's resi- dence property, and back of it, facing First street, his liv- ery barın is located. Mr. Hudson was just completing a new residence on the corner, but the family were yet living in the old house, which had been moved over one lot south. Neither of the houses were damaged to any considerable extent, and none of the family were hurt, although Mrs. Hudson had quite a narrow escape. She and Arthur Hudson were on the way from the old house to the cellar of the new house, when one of the chimneys tumbled down and would have struck her fairly had not Mr. Hud- son pulled her out of the way. The livery barn was left standing, although racked considerably. A section of the shingled roof about twelve feet square, on the west side, was taken out almost as smoothly as a carpenter could have done the job, and the windmill and tower on the front end were torn down. At the rear of the lot, and detached from the main barn, was a smaller barn which was crushed into fine pieces and the ruins piled up fifty feet west of where it had stood. A swell-box sleigh and a hay rake, which were in the loft of this barn, were very slightly damaged.
In the first block south of Second street, along Oswego street, the first house on the corner, the home of Solomon Johnson, was only partially taken out. But Mrs. John- son happened to be in the part taken and was quite badly hurt. The next two houses - Prange's and Lovejoy's - were wrecked, but the families were in the Saltzman cave and escaped uninjured. The home next south was that of J. P. Lundgren, and the lives of Mr. Lundgren and his daughter Ollie were claimed by the merciless elements. Mrs. Lundgren and Miss Augusta were picked up a half block away, severely but not fatally injured.
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Another tragedy was enacted in the block above men- tioned. August Forche's residence, at the corner of Oswego and Third streets, was in the line of the storm's most awful display of destructive powers. No semblance of what had existed by virtue of man's labor or ingenuity was left to mark the spot. The storm seemed to come in two distinct waves here. At the first the windows were shattered and much of the furniture was carried out through the openings thus made. One of the children was also blown out by way of a window. Then the whole house was picked up, crushed like an egg shell, and the pieces scattered far and wide, some parts of it being found three blocks away. Mr. Forche, who was ill and had been bedfast for several months, was killed. Mrs. Forche and three of the children were carried into Mullan's gar- den, on the opposite side of the street, and another child was found a block and a half distant in another direction. All were more or less seriously injured.
DESTRUCTION OF THE DAVY HOME.
Occupying the northwest quarter-block facing Third street on the north and Oswego on the west was the home of J. A. Davy. There happened to be no one at home here at the time of the tornado. Mr. Davy and son, Eddie, were in the country ; the little girl, Bertha, was visiting at the residence of George Guy, in the south part of town, and Mrs. Davy and the servant girl, Minnie Stenken, had gone to the Forche residence only about fifteen minutes before the storm broke. Mrs. Davy and Minnie had not left home on account of the storm, however. They had not noticed the threatening cloud and were caught unawares with the others at the Forche place. Mrs. Davy was carried one hundred and forty feet west, being found on the Mullan premises. She was
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taken up for dead and her life was despaired of for some days, but she finally rallied. She was bruised all over her body, but her worst wound was on the head. The left side of her forehead was laid bare to the bone -the wound extending from her hair to just above the left eye -- and her left ear was badly mutilated, and her ear- rings were bent and twisted out of all semblance to their former shape. Owing to the fact that pieces of maple bark were taken from the wound in Mrs. Davy's head, it is presumed that the injury was caused by her being thrown violently against the tree of that species near which she was found. The Davy resi- dence was removed only ten or twelve feet from its foundation, but the second story was swept away and por- tions of the lower walls taken out. The wind forced an opening through the house from north to south, and the furniture of parlor and dining-room was all drawn to the south opening and piled together, with the dining-room table at the top of the pile, looking as though some mis- chievous person had done the work. The silverware and dishes that were on the table were found on the floor, wrapped securely in the table-cloth and practically undamaged. Dishes in the cupboard were also but slightly damaged. The piano was left standing in its place, almost unmarred, although the carpet was removed from beneath it. Southeast of his house Mŕ. Davy had a large barn, and just south of this barn were two others owned by Moody & Davy. These were swept away entirely, the north barn being taken in a northwesterly direction and the others toward the south. One of these barns had a main part 16 by 50 feet in size, the first story of which was built of 2 by 6 scantling laid flatwise and securely spiked, all boarded or sheathed on the outside, and with four partitions built in the same manner as the
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sides. Attached to one side of this main part and extending its entire length was a shed built on heavy posts sunken in the ground not less than three and one- half feet. Of this substantially built structure not three pieces were found yet fastened together after the storm, and none that would measure so much as six feet in length. Yet only one hundred and fifty feet farther south, and that much nearer the center of the storm's track, was an old 16 by 20 frame house, built with no idea of special strength, that was left standing, save that one end was torn out. There were ten or twelve horses in the barns mentioned, and from the complete wreckage made all came out alive. Parties who visited the ruins of the Davy home late that night, after the storm, found the little house dog there savagely challenging the right to enter of any stranger who passed that way.
At Henry Wilson's residence, on Oswego street, between Elm and Maple, Mr. Wilson and his three chil- dren, Mrs. Morris and daughter Maud, Henry Pruine and wife, Annie Tymon and Bridget O'Ryan were in the front room when timbers and sticks began crashing through the doors and windows. All started for the back part of the house, but not all had quitted the room when the building collapsed, burying seven beneath the ruins. Miss Tymon was blown through a window, and was found two rods north of the house in a helpless con- dition. Eddie and Willie Wilson and Maud Morris were also badly hurt, but the others escaped with minor bruises and scratches.
SAVED IN SPITE OF THEMSELVES.
In the first block in Moody & Davy's addition, on the west side of Oswego street, are the homes of Fred Grobe and C. M. Billings. It took a good deal of per- suasion on the part of Mr. and Mrs. Billings to induce
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the Grobes to join them in their cellar, but they finally went in, and doubtless owe their lives to the action, for within a few minutes after leaving their house a barn was blown through one side of it and into the living room. The Billings house was carried away, leaving the occu- pants of the cellar in imminent danger of being struck by flying timbers, many of which lodged in the cellar, but without serious effect. A section of dirt embankment about the house caved into the cellar, burying one of the Billings daughters to her waist.
On the east side of the next block east were the Swed- ish Mission church and a handsome new residence just built by Chris. McCulloch. These were crushed into fine bits; but, being unoccupied, no lives were lost amid their shattered walls.
A LONG LIST OF TRAGEDIES.
But the next three blocks east, along the south side of Harrison street, had their full share of tragedies. In the first the lives of E. O. Davy, J. M. O'Brien and Mrs. Dan O'Brien were taken ; in the second, Tilda Keifer, John- son, Roy and Lena Keifer and Joseph DeMar were killed, and in the third Grover and George Black, Mrs. Michael Quinlan and baby and Ed Doyle received fatal injuries.
The O'Briens went to Ezra Davy's house shortly before the storm, but Dan O'Brien returned to his own house to close some of the windows that had been left open, and when he went to leave again was unable to open the door, so firmly was it held by the suction from the outside. Only one part of his home was taken and he was left uninjured. Those who were at the Davy home were less fortunate. The house was carried twenty feet southwest and dashed in pieces on the ground, and the floor, upon which three persons yet remained, was carried fifty feet
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farther. Mr. Davy and the old gentleman O'Brien were on the east porch and were carried twenty-five feet. south- east.of where the house had stood. Mrs. Davy and Miss Emma Spies were at the west door trying vainly to open it for Mrs. O'Brien. When the house began to move, they both ran toward little Nina Davy and were thrown directly over her when the crash came, and the child was not hurt. Ezra Davy was struck in the back of the head by a heavy timber, and when found was in a dying con- dition. J. M. O'Brien had several ribs broken, besides being otherwise injured, and he died at 6 o'clock the fol- lowing morning. Mrs. Daniel O'Brien lived but a few hours. Mrs. Davy and the little girl, with the aid of Emma Spies, walked and crept forty rods to a place of shelter, although Mrs. Davy was hurt so badly about the hips that she was bedfast for two weeks afterward.
W. T. Black and family were dealt with severely by the storm. All were in the house as it was taken into the air and bursted into a thousand pieces, and all were injured more or less- two children, Grover and George, fatally. Mr. Black was carried three blocks away and the rest of the family about one-half that distance. The brick and tile works in the southwest part of town, owned by Mr. Black, were also completely destroyed. As indicating the force of the storm at the latter place, as well as presenting another incident to mystify the scientist who would ana- lyze the peculiar characteristics of the tornado, the cir- cumstance is cited of the water tank used at the tile works having been carried eighty rods in a northeasterly direc- tion, thus crossing the main track of the storm. The tank evidently did not fall apart until it was dropped to the ground, for the hoops lay encircling the bottom part and the staves were scattered near by.
Gust Linder and family, on Otsego street, south of
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Elm, were at supper when they heard the roar of the approaching storm, and before they had time to seek a place of safety the house was whisked away through space and its occupants left maimed and bleeding on the ground a half block to the southeast. All were hurt badly excepting the baby. A stick ten inches long was thrust into Mr. Linder's body at the hip.
Mrs. Anderson, a widow, who lived just north of the Linders, was picked up dead at a point four blocks east of where her house had stood.
A HEROINE AMID THE RUINS.
At the George A. Stewart home, situated half way between Elm and Maple streets, on the west side of Otsego, Mrs. Stewart and her sister, Ollie Frost, were sitting in the front room and Mr. Stewart had just passed through the dining-room into the kitchen when the west part of the house began to crack and give way. Ollie Frost had only time to exclaim : "Mary, what is it?" when the whole house raised and trembled and went in pieces over them. All were carried two hundred feet to the southeast and were quite near together with the ruins of their home scattered about them. Nettie Frost, another sister of Mrs. Stewart, was the first to realize the situation, and the sight that first met her gaze was her sister Ollie lying near her, dead, a stick piercing her body. Mrs. Stewart had held her babe in a close embrace through it all, and the little one was but slightly hurt, but the lady herself had a bad cut in the head and a sprained knee. George Stewart had a broken arm and many bad bruises, and Nettie Frost a punctured wound in the back. All were stripped of their clothing and mud seemed to have been pounded into their flesh. Ollie Frost was engaged in teaching school in a country district
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and was stopping in town only for a week's vacation, it being Fourth of July week. Nettie Frost displayed the characteristics of a true heroine. Although badly wounded herself, she took the dead body of her sister from the ruins and, with a strength which was almost supernatural, she was engaged in removing her unconscious brother-in- law to a place of shelter when stronger arms relieved her of her burden. A curious incident in connection with the death of Ollie Frost was that there was a group pic- ture of the Frost children hanging on the wall of the Stewart home. With the rest of the furniture it. was carried many yards and the picture badly injured, every face being marred but that of Ollie. It was the only " picture the family had of the dead girl.
The residence of Gustaf Dahlgren, at the northwest corner of Otsego and Maple streets, was taken in an east- erly direction, and ruin here was complete. Mrs. Dahl- gren was found in the next street, lying dead. Mr. Dahlgren was badly hurt on the head. John Kuklantz and family, from the northwest corner of the same block, were at the Dahlgren residence when the storm struck, and all were badly hurt. Mrs. Kuklantz had two ribs broken and an ugly wound in her shoulder and another in her leg ; the little girl had a hole in her head and one hand and foot hurt, and Mr. Kuklantz was bruised and had a wound in the back.
SOME QUEER FREAKS OF THE STORM.
Charles Gutz's house, at the northwest corner of Otsego and Elm streets, was one of the many that were reduced to piles of splinters on the evening of July 6. Mr. Gutz and his eldest son were not at home to witness the tornado's terrible work, and the remaining members of the family saw the oncoming storm just in time to
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gain the cellar and escape facing the flying missiles of death. Evidences of the stormn's varying and uncertain currents were to be seen at this place. The box was lifted from a wagon standing in the yard and carried in a northwesterly direction, while the running gears went in exactly the opposite direction. A stallion was carried from Mr. Gutz's barn and dropped into Mrs. Drummer's cellar, on Ontario street, between Maple and Harrison.
Mr. and Mrs. R. C. Stewart, at the southwest corner of Third and Otsego streets, were in the north room of their house when the current from the northeast moved it several feet, broke in the windows and doors and took out portions of the roof. They immediately started toward the south end of the house, and on the way Mrs. Stewart was caught and held in the cellar-way door and doubtless saved thereby from being struck by missiles which were flying through the room through which she would have passed. The north part of the house was broken up badly, even to the floors, but in the southeast corner room not even the plaster on the walls was dis- turbed. One picture from this residence was found after the storm a mile north of town, and another picture from the same room was picked up a half mile southeast. A buggy neck yoke from the barn of Doctor Wight, at the southeast corner of Otsego and Second streets was carried by the wind and driven through the east wall of the Stewart house, as shown in illustration from a photo- graph. Mrs. Stewart saw a horse lying in the rubbish just in front of their house, directly after the storm, that had been carried there from the next block east. She presumed the animal to be dead, but was surprised shortly afterward to see it get up and quietly begin to graze on the lawn. The Stewart barn was blown away, but their cow was left tied to the manger unhurt. In the
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house a dresser was overturned and piled up among other furniture, but its mirror was not broken.
STRANGE DOINGS OF THE TORNADO DEMON.
On the opposite side of the street, east of the Stewart place, were two residences owned by I. C. Butson, the one on the corner being occupied by Mr. Butson and family, the other by the family of James O'Brien, a mail clerk on the Illinois Central road, who was on his run at the time of the storm. Mrs. O'Brien and little daughter went with some of the Butsons into their cellar when evidences of a tornado were noticed. Mrs. Butson came from the barn into the house about the time the storm struck, and in attempting to close the front door was caught by the suction of the current from the north- west and carried out on the lawn. As she recovered her- self somewhat and attempted to regain her feet, she saw a horse being carried through the air directly over her head. She then crawled on her hands and knees back to the house, where the furniture was moving about over the floors like sheep, and the bedding and other articles were going out of the windows. This was only for a moment, however, when the storm was over, leaving this house badly wrecked while the next one was entirely swept away. The pump had been taken from the But- son well, and within a few inches of the opening thus made Warren Thomas' baby lay, uninjured but for a slight bruise on the head. Out in the garden Mrs. Thomas' two other children -little girls, two and four years old- were found, the elder one dead, the other with a cut in the head and badly bruised. These three children had been carried from Mr. Thomas' wrecked home on the east side of Oswego street, near Elm, a dis- tance of a block and a half. For want of a better place
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at hand, twenty-two people, including wounded, dying and dead, occupied the Butson house the whole night following the storm, although the rain beat in at a score of places and the floors were covered with water and mud.
At S. Culver's place, on the next corner south of But- son's, the family were at the supper table. They had been watching the clouds, but concluded that the storm was going around. Suddenly the house was moved from the foundation and all jumped into the cellar-way, where a broken partition fell over them and doubtless protected them from being seriously hurt. After the storm had passed they succeeded in digging their way out from beneath the pile of débris. All about them was nothing but ruins. Near the place where Mr. Culver's barn had stood were three of his horses in a pile, their manger with them. The rest of the barn was gone. Upon start- ing out to try to relieve the distressed, the first of the wounded Mr. Culver encountered was Mr. Harmon's daughter, whose knee was pierced by a stick. The young lady asked him to pull out the stick, but the sight unnerved him and he was unable to comply with her request. He gave her into other hands and, passing on, soon came across another wounded lady, whom he conveyed to a place of shelter, and after this his nerves were strengthened sufficiently to enable him to do any kind of work that came in his way.
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