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 7
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STORY OF A STORM.
John Pierce's house, in the southeast part of town, was moved several feet and the roof taken off. The fam- ily all dropped in the cellar as the house went and were saved. Everything in the house was destroyed and they had to seek shelter at a neighbor's that night. J. S. Pierce, wife and baby were with them.
I. W. Wills' house, on the east side of Moody & Davy's addition, was on the southern edge of the storm's track and was taken one hundred feet northeast, where it collapsed. Mrs. Wills and the three children were left among the ruins of the house, but Mr. Wills was carried two rods farther on. One boy was taken up for dead, but finally recovered. Mrs. Wills walked two blocks to a neighbor's house, although one of her legs was sprained in three places, and she was not able to step again for a week or more.
Uncle John Terrill's garden, vineyard and orchard just east of Geneva street, were laid waste by the tornado and Uncle John himself had quite a close call. He was trying to hold an outer door against the storm, when a 2 by 6 timber came crashing through the door, peeling one of his hands slightly and grazing his vest, and passing out through the other side of the house. The roof was taken off the house and the walls spread apart several inches. Mrs. Terrill was with her son and wife in their cellar, a short distance away. This cellar was boarded on the sides, the boards being fastened to the joists of the house above. The house was taken away and the side walls of the cellar went with it, but the occupants escaped injury.
At Mrs. Randall's house, Mrs. Randall and two sons and Frank Prange and wife were at supper when they heard the roar of the storm, but too late to reach a place of safety. The house was taken some three or four rods
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northeast and demolished. Mrs. Randall was badly hurt on the liead.
DEVASTATION ON THE FARMS.
On the hill just southeast of Pomeroy, Richard Hodds had a fine truck and fruit farm, but the storm left it in a badly dilapidated condition. Aside from the damage done by the wind directly to buildings, trees and grow- ing crops, the hill acted as a sort of back-stop for the débris swept out from the village, and the little farm was completely covered with boards and sticks and broken pieces of furniture, machinery, wire fences and every other thing imaginable. Mr. Hodds' house seemed to have been struck first by a current from the south, which moved it about six feet, then the main force moving east- ward carried it two rods in that direction. Mrs. Hodds reached the cellar just in time to be struck on the head by a joist as the house moved off. Charley Sorenson, the hired man, was taken out of one of the doors of the house into a grove about fifty feet north, then lifted by the wind a second time and carried six rods east. He received a bad wound in the back, and his body seemed to have been burned. A small board shelf was taken out of the Hodds cellar and hurled into one of the west windows, breaking a mirror on the opposite side of the room it entered.
The fine farm buildings of J. H'. Rickles, one-half mile east of town, were completely wrecked and at least one-third of his crops destroyed. The family found safety in the cellar, although Mr. Rickles, in going to a cupboard drawer for his money and papers, came very nearly being caught. The house was caught up bodily and carried about twenty rods, then scattered in fine pieces, some parts of it having been found two miles
H
URGICAL
SURGICAL HEADQUARTERS AT POMEROY.
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away. The larger barn - a new one just completed was carried first a short distance northwest and caused to describe a circle, returning again southward, and its splintered timbers. scattered over the pasture. The corn- crib and granary were taken with the rest and their con- tents strewn broadcast over a large area of the farm, and many hundreds of dollars' worth of the latest improved farm machinery were broken and twisted into all sorts of' forms and shapes, some of the ruined parts being found more than a half mile away .. Mr. Rickles' meadow land was so nearly covered with débris that the hay crop was almost entirely destroyed.
The track of the tornado was discernable for a distance of two miles east of town, and then the destructive forces seemed to have been dissolved in air. The final work of the monster was the destruction of the homes of Carson Duise and John Beckley, two children of the latter hav- ing been killed. The Beckley house was built of sun- dried brick, and the children were buried beneath its crumbling walls.
7
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STORM NOTES AND COMMENT.
STATEMENT OF MR. L. W. MOODY, CASHIER OF THE POMEROY EXCHANGE BANK.
Our storm of July 6, 1893, occurred in the evening about 7 o'clock. The day had been very hot and sultry, and several persons had remarked that this was a breeder of cyclones, but there was nothing unusual to be seen until about half-past 5 o'clock. Then a heavy bank of clouds could be seen in the west, and they seemed to be moving almost directly eastward, although the wind was blowing a stiff breeze from the south or southeast. By 6 o'clock the storm began to look very bad, and by half- past 6 it was very apparent to everybody that there was going to be a bad storm, and many persons felt confident that a cyclone would pass through the country. The cloud came up suddenly from the west and the wind increased in velocity from the south and to the front of the storm, and to the south of the village could be seen a great horn projecting in front of the cloud, and from an atmosphere that was nearly clear the clouds seemed to rush to that point. In other words, the clouds seemed to be an attraction that gathered clouds from the clear sky, and this new-formed vapor ran to the face of the cloud in a northerly direction, and made a current that seemed to be coming from the northwest against the wind. At this time there seemed to be three currents- one bearing due east, slowly, but with irresistible force ; another coming from the north, high up in the heavens, and when it struck
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the eastern current being carried east ; and then a heavy wind blowing from the southeast. At about fifteen minutes of 7 it began to rain heavily, and at this time the writer, who had been watching the storm, was driven into the house by the rain, and found the family in the cellar, and went there himself. There was a window in the north part of the cellar that one could look out of, and the trees that stood forty feet from the house, being from five to six inches through, were almost, if not quite, wiping the road with their branches by the force of the wind from the south, and the rain was falling in torrents. It was not possible to see any great distance. It rained in this way perhaps ten minutes, and then the wind suddenly changed and blew as hard from the north. After waiting a few min- utes and watching it, the writer concluded that had there been any cyclone it must have passed, and came out of the cellar and passed through the house toward the east part of it. In passing through the house and looking to the south, it gave me a good view of the part of the town swept by the tornado, but the rain was falling . in such torrents that it was impossible to see two hun- dred feet in that direction. The way it looked can be fully expressed by saying the sight was the same as when in bathing in clear water and you open your eyes and look at the objects in the bottom of the lake or river. We, of course, could see farther, but could not see far enough to see any of the town. After passing through two rooms and before entering the third, the window in the east end of the house came in with a crash, and the same instant the large windows in the south part of the house went out. There was no time to speak of between the coming in of the one window and the going out of the others. It formed a current through the house, and the sensation and looks were nearest like a
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jet of steam escaping of anything that I can think of. All the inovable furniture in the house started for the window as though in a hurry to get out. The shock was like a sharp wave striking a body, and was just as soon over. Within three seconds a second wave struck the house, but not quite so hard as the first one, and within five seconds more all was comparatively quiet. I rushed to the window and looked out, and the storm had cleared away enough so that I could see that the buildings on the opposite side of the street were gone. With a word to my family, who were still in the cellar, that the storni was over, but that a part of the town was blown away and that there were certainly persons who needed help, I left the house without my hat and ran across the street, where I could get an unobstructed view of the ruins. The rain was still falling in torrents at this time, and there was a large quantity of hail mixed with it. By the time I had gone one hundred feet the rain seemed to lift off the ground and give one a view of the ruined district. At a glance one could take in about fifty acres of ground that had been thickly covered with fine dwellings and churches. In all of this space there was not a living thing to be seen. There was not a house nor a pile of débris that was three feet above the ground, and there was absolutely nothing to see. The thought that first occurred was, "My God, all these people are killed !" Within perhaps five seconds we noticed a horse strug- gling to its feet, then we could see a person creep out from under a pile of débris, then others, until soon the place was alive with human beings. The work of rescue had begun. People were unrecognizable from the fact that they had been rolled in the dirt and beaten full of mud by the storm, and that the clothes of nearly every- body had been almost stripped from their bodies. People
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were blacker than any set of coal miners or ditchers that one will see in a lifetime. The mud was absolutely ground into their faces, and their clothing was torn into shreds. This was caused by the parties being rolled on the ground and struck by flying timbers and sticks. Those who were in cellars, of course, escaped much better than those who were in houses, but their faces were col- ored so that you could scarcely tell them, and many of them had their clothing badly torn, and everyone had been drenched with the ice-cold rain. Everybody was making a noise. Strong men were crying and calling for help, women were moaning and holding on to some friend, and children of all ages were lying stretched on the ground or partially covered with timbers, and calling for help, providing they had strength left to call. The rain had been so heavy that the ground was nearly shoe- top deep with water, and some of the wounded children were very nearly drowned by the flood.
In one instance I met a woman with two children and her husband trying to make for shelter. The man was absolutely naked to his waist and his back and shoulders were completely covered with blood which was running in streams. One child's arm was broken and the woman was terribly hurt, but she was the one who furnished the pluck for the party. The man insisted that he could go no farther and that he wanted to lie down and die, but she said : "No, we must go." I took the two children in my arms and told the man to take hold of one arm and the lady hold of my other arm, and in this way we man- aged to get into shelter. There had been perhaps five minutes that the rain seemed to let up, but at this time it commenced again and the wind blew furiously from the northwest, and hail fell that seemed to me to be larger and thicker than any I ever saw before - perhaps, owing
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to the fact that I was without a hat and well loaded down, I realized it more pointedly than ever before. It was utterly impossible to make headway against this storm and we had to drift quartering with it until we reached shelter. I immediately returned to the ruined district and found a boy with a broken arm and his head cut open who, I thought, was dead but finally noticed that he breathed and then took him up in my arms. I then looked around and heard a woman scream a few rods front him and went to her, and she said to me, "O, My God,
my legs are broken ! but where is my boy ?"
I told her
that I would hunt him if she would hold the head of the little fellow I had in my arms, and she did so, and I went in the direction she pointed to look for her son who was a boy about six years old, and found him dead. I turned him over to make sure he was dead and then returned to her and told her that he was dead, that nothing could be done for him at the present time. She then said, " Oli, where is my girl?" and added that she must be some- where in the direction of the boy. I went to look and finally heard a faint cry perhaps fifty feet from where the boy lay and toward a ditch. I ran there and found the girl with a broken arm and otherwise injured, and almost drowned in the ditch. I took her carefully in my arms and carried her to her mother, who then inquired for her husband. I told her that her husband was beyond all help, as he lay dead perhaps fifty feet west of where she was. I then took the children in my arms and carried them to a house that was partially blown down and laid them on the floor. By this time other persons came to me and with the assistance of one of the men we carried this woman to the house where I had left the children. It seemed afterward that the boy, whose head this lady had held, was the son of the father and mother whom I
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had assisted a short time before to a place of shelter, and they did not find the boy until midnight. By this time I had become thoroughly exhausted and was unable to carry anyone, and I went across the ruined district in a southeasterly direction. When I got perhaps fifty rods from my house on a level piece of ground I for the first time became aware of the extent of the storm. Every- thing in the western and southern portion of the town was absolutely gone. I then hurried on to the residence of our assistant cashier, Ezra Davy, and soon learned that he was among the missing. The Davy family lived in the extreme southeastern portion of the town and as soon as I arrived there I met Mr. W. E. Davy, a brother of Ezra, and he said to me, "Lew, here the folks are in a pile. Ben is dead, and the other folks are badly hurt and we cannot find Ezra." I went with him to where the folks were and saw the brother lying dead and a sister fatally wounded, and their mother, aunt, uncle and cousin all in one heap and covered with carpets and such things as could be picked up to protect them from the merciless storm. The rain was now descending in torrents accompanied by hail. These people had been in the fiercest of the storm and their backs, shoulders and arms were absolutely destitute of clothing and were cut with flying sticks until they resembled pieces of raw beef more than the bodies of human beings. Soon a team came and I took my coat and wrapped it around Katie Davy's bare and bleeding shoulders and helped to lift her into the wagon. We then placed as many more in the wagon as we could possibly get there and they left with their load for my home. I then went to look after Mr. E. O. Davy and found him lying on a pile of lumber with a rug thrown over him. The party who had placed the rug over him said it belonged to him and seemed as
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though it had been sent there on purpose to cover this man, for the house in which the rug had been was fully one hundred and fifty feet directly north of where Mr. Davy lay, and the débris all went southeast in that place. We could notice that he still breathed, but his head was absolutely dead and the blood was gurgling in his throat. I turned him on his side and called to him as loud as I could but there was no response. I placed a pillow under his head, took his watch out of his pocket, covered him with a rug and quilt, and left him there for the time being in order that I might assist the wounded to places of shel- ter. I then passed on perhaps six or eight hundred feet, and there found a family with one child dead, and a hus- band and wife and the other children huddled together and unable any of them to move. About this time another party came to my assistance and we carried the children to a house about thirty rods south that was standing. We then went back and carried the lady to this place, and the man himself was able, with the assist- ance of one person, to walk. During all this time it was raining and most of the time the rain was mixed with hail. It would seem to rain hard from three to five min- utes and then let up a little, only to commence again with redoubled vigor. The scene at this house, which belonged to a Mr. Freeman, was beyond description. The floors were covered with the wounded and dying. Men, women and children were lying side by side, and parties who were uninjured were doing everything possible to relieve the sufferers, but it was a case in which very little could be done. I returned from this point slowly and sadly to my _ own home where I had directed that my friends, so far as they could be found, should be taken, and when I arrived there I found that my instructions had been faithfully car- ried out. There were two old gentlemen at my place who
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were badly injured, one of whom, died before morning. There was a man, his wife and babe. The man being uninjured, the babe lying cold in death, and his young wife who within two hours joined her babe, and within four hours more the father of this man had passed away, making three members out of four of one family that were dead. Mr. E. O. Davy had been carried to my house and was still alive, though past all help. We then dressed his wounds and at four o'clock the next morning he passed from earth. When the storm struck his house there was himself, his wife, little girl three years old, a hired girl, also Mr. O'Brien, and wife and child of D. L. O'Brien, in the house. Of this party, Mrs. O'Brien and babe, Mr. O'Brien and Mr. E. O. Davy were killed. Mrs. E. O. Davy, their three-year-old girl and Miss Spies escaped. Singular to say, the little girl escaped with only a scratch on one cheek. Mrs. Davy was quite badly injured and would probably have perished in the storm had it not been for Miss Spies, who insisted that they try and get to a place of shelter. They were able to walk and creep about thirty rods to a residence, but Mrs. Davy says that she fell down a dozen times before she got there and wanted Miss Spies to go on with the babe and leave her, but she refused and stuck to her until they were all in the house. When I saw them, which was about 10 o'clock, they, with another lady who was badly injured, and a man with a broken arm, were the only occupants of the house. The ladies were lying on the floor and were unable to move. We placed them in a bed and did what was possible to make them comfortable, and with good treatment in time they will recover.
STATEMENT OF DR. D. W. WIGHT.
I had watched the storm for half an hour or more. Did not think there was danger until I saw a white or
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light-colored cloud .come up from the southwest and another from the northwest, meeting nearly overhead. The clouds underneath were a blackish-green, which seemed to come rolling in toward the town like waves from the ocean. I did not go into the house until the wind was quite strong. All the people that had gathered at my house had gone into the cellar, but, as I feared my south window would blow in, I stood holding it, when in an instant I saw timbers flying between my house and my neighbor's. It became quite dark. I heard a ter- rible crash and knew that my windows had. blown in. I felt a motion of the house, and I immediately went into the cellar. The plastering on the cellar walls was crum- .bling off, and I only had time to say, "Lay down, the house is going !" I looked up and saw that it was all light, and immediately went up stairs and the tornado had passed, but the storm was still raging. It had all happened in fifteen or twenty seconds at inost.
Before the people were all out of the cellar a messen- ger came for me to go to Thomas Harmon's, three blocks south, where I found Mr. Harmon, wife and three chil- dren ; also Miss Nettie Frost, her sister Ollie being dead at her side. By the time I had given them stimulants, which in their naked, wet and cold condition they very much needed, a few men had arrived, whom I ordered to the stables for teams to take the wounded to shelter.
The whole aspect of the town had so much changed that I lost my way in going home. I then visited the wounded at the house of August Prange, where I found four people, two of whom were badly wounded. I next went to the house of Solomon Johnson where, I believe, I found eleven wounded persons, men, women and chil- dren. From there I went to Hudson's stable and sent E. J. Masterson on horseback to Manson for help. Next
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I went to the hotel where I began to dress the wounded that had been brought in, but was soon called away to L. W. Moody's house, where I found Mr. E. O. Davy fatally wounded in the head ; also, Mrs. D. L. O'Brien fatally wounded in the head and chest, both of whom died before midnight. Mr. J. W. O'Brien died before morning.
Doctor Evans, of Fort Dodge, and myself dressed the wounds of Mrs. Davy, Miss Katie Davy, Mrs. Guy, Miss Guy and Miss Bertha Davy. I then visited Niles Brown- ell and Joseph Brownell at the house of J. L. Williams, east of town ; then the house of G. W. Smith and Mrs. Wells, both houses being full of wounded. I then went to the house of E. J. Masterson, where I set a fractured arm for George Stewart and attended others in the same house. From that time until Friday night at 10 o'clock I was going from house to house assisting all who needed help.
EXPERIENCES OF REV. SCHLIEPSIEK AND FAMILY.
Anyone who has not seen a real, live tornado face to face, and especially who has not beheld its workings immediately after it has swept over the unfortunate por- tion of the earth lying in its track, can have no concep- tion of the awe-inspiring, terrible sight it presents. To see such a storm-cloud silently yet steadily approaching, is a sight never to be forgotten. The writer of this sketch had the unenviable occasion to experience and live through one of the most terrible. It was on July 6, about half-past 6, after an oppressively sultry day, when I noticed clouds of a grayish-green hue arise in the west, seeming to be in a turmoil. Contrary to my former cus- tom, I took my family, consisting of my wife and my three children, a niece, Miss Dora Eppler, daughter of
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Dr. P. Eppler, of Cayuga, Illinois ; a ten-year-old nephew, son of Rev. F. W. Heinke, of Marion county, Iowa ; and a daughter of Rev. L. Traub, of Storm Lake, who was making her home with us at the time, to the cellar. After a few moments a strong gush of wind was heard to pass over us, followed by rain ; then all was still. Be- lieving that all danger was over, we ascended the stairs to the living room. Looking out of the west window, I beheld a sight as I had never seen before. A huge black ball, resembling the head of a toppled balloon, seemed to roll toward us. The upper portion of the monster was inky black, with dark green stripes running downward. Between cloud and earth was a narrow strip of gray. Fearing something of a serious nature, it being as dark as night, we hurried back to the cellar. There I had a peculiar sensation. I felt as though I was bathing in water and just barely touching bottom, whilst my ears seemed to be held shut by someone. I wanted to go to the outdoor entrance of the cellar, as I thought the nar- row walls would furnish more protection from falling débris. My wife, however, advised to go to the west side of the cellar. For once in my life at least I do not regret having heeded the advice of my wife. The reason we shall give later. We went to the west wall and crouched down and waited. A terrible wait it was. But only about one minute the suspense lasted. Before we could collect our thoughts I heard a crash as though all the windows in the house were broken at once, and in the next moment I saw daylight above me. But only a moment I could see. My eyes were filled with dust. At the same time I felt a blow on the head and heard a noise as caused by hail. Rain fell in torrents and cleared the air from dust. I opened my eyes and saw that the cellar was almost filled with débris. O, where are my loved
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ones? They move, they speak, and - God be praised - all climb out of the ruins, all unhurt. The blow I had felt was from a piece of the church roof which the good Lord had covered over us as a hen covers her chicks. Where go in the rain and hail ? All around us no house is to be seen. Our house gone, the whole town swept away, nobody living to tell the story but ourselves- these were the thoughts that first came. Seeing a house north of us, we made our way toward it, but found it standing on the street and deserted by its inmates.
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