USA > Iowa > Clinton County > Wolfe's history of Clinton County, Iowa, Volume 1 > Part 39
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69
About two miles northeasterly from Wheatland the two tornadoes, as if impelled by a mysterious affinity, united, presenting a scene that the historian shrinks from attempting to describe lest the endeavor seem like hyperbole. The monstrous amalgamation could be fitly described only by Victor Hugo. Eye-witnesses affirm that the southern tornado ceased its advance and en- larged in dimensions until it towered from the earth to a sightless distance in the heavens. For over a minute it remained stationary. The lowering clouds of the northern tornado rushed into its embrace until the latter had been fully absorbed, swelling its bulk to a portentious size. Then the huge mass, now bellying out and swaying like an inflated balloon, rose from the ground with a roar like the voice of many waters and down-pouring floods, swept over a grove, and then, descending to the ground, whirled onward with unparalleled swiftness and power, accompanied with a constant corruscation of dull phos- phorescent lightning. Between De Witt and Camanche, twenty-eight per- sons were killed and fifty-one wounded. South of De Witt, it swooped upon the Parsell House, and then swept the farm of Thomas Hatfield, where no less than sixteen persons perished. Among the victims were James Foster, Henry Foster, Mrs. Sarah Foster, Matilda Foster, Catherine Henry. a Maynard child, Alexander Gregorie, wife and daughter, Sarah Hatfield, N. R. Walrod, wife and two children, Jesse Parsell, John Klindt and wife, Mrs. Meyers and three children, Isaac Smith, Hatfield Fry, David W. Millard, a Winne child, a . Jones child, Robert Boyd and an unknown German. On Tuesday the dead who were killed in that section were buried in the presence of a vast concourse at De Witt, whence the wounded and destitute also received unwearied aid and generous succor.
In its route through the rather thinly settled district just west of Cam- anche, a number of farmhouses were razed. Thomas Thornburg and others had just time to collect their families and place them in cellars, as their dwell- ings were swept from above them.
At Camanche, a mellow but rather sultry June Sabbath was drawing to a close. People were engaged in the usual quiet avocations of the day and hour, a rather threatening horizon attracted no great amount of attention, and even a sudden darkening of the air did not create the same apprehension that it would at any other time than about sundown. But, with magical rapidity, a murky curtain spread over the western horizon, grew and towered like a
Digitized by Google
404
CLINTON COUNTY, IOWA.
solid wall built by the Genii of the air, and, approaching with a portentous appearance, that fascinated with fright all who saw it, advanced upon the doomed town as suddenly as a locomotive at full speed appears around a curve, and, in an instant, a torrent of midnight blackness, charged with mis- sles, bristling with electricity, so laden with water and hailstones as to be almost solid, and rumbling like ten thousand swiftly-driven chariots, embraced everything in a deafening and blinding chaos.
The fury of the tornado may be known from the fact that it lasted at Camanche only about two or three minutes, yet, during that brief period, the village, containing some twelve hundred people, was almost totally destroyed. A volume could be crowded with instances of the strange freaks and resistless power of the tornado. One very singular point was the almost entire absence of furniture from the wrecks. Here and there a chair round or table leg could be found, but that was about all. Trunks, clothing, beds, carpets and all kinds of furniture, including even stoves, absolutely vanished. All re- maining from the numerous buildings destroyed could have been packed into a small bedroom. The rest went into the river, or was strewn for miles over Illinois prairies. The tiler's jewel of the Masonic lodge was blown even to Ogle county, Illinois, where it was picked up by a lady and worn as her breast- pin for some time, before its identity was discovered by one of the craft. A plank, two inches thick, effectually closed the door of Walldorf's new hotel. by driving in a slanting direction through the door and floor of the building. The lower story of a store on First street was cut away as smoothly as if sawed, and blown into the river, when the upper story settled down in its place almost uninjured. The front of a frame house in the upper part of the town was whisked away, leaving the furniture uninjured, while in Mr. Park's house the windows were blown in and the furniture crushed to kindling, and yet the house stood, only slightly injured. Partial destruction occurred only on the outer edge of the tornado. In its direct course the destruction was absolute. One citizen said that his first realization of the power of the storm was in seeing a horse come flying through the air at about twenty feet from the ground, followed by a cow at about the same height. and which must have been carried over three hundred feet. Mr. Butler saw his stable carried away over the tree-tops, leaving his horses on the earth floor attached to their rack. Two horses were blown from the front of Westfall's store into the middle of the river. A large raft was going down the river, endeavoring to reach shelter on the west bank as the whirlwind arrived. Of the twenty-six persons thereon, the three who escaped said that all they knew about it was, that they found themselves in Illinois, but whether they got there by land, air or water,
Digitized by Google
405
CLINTON COUNTY, IOWA.
or what was the fate of their companions, they were unable to say. The terrific momentum of the storm was best illustrated by a shingle stuck through the sides of Waldorf's store. The shingle, a cedar one, of ordinary size and thickness, struck on the butt end, in a direction directly opposite to the general course of the cyclone, and was forced through clapboards, lath, and plastering, without at all breaking. This incident also shows the rotary motion of such winds.
The chimney of Mr. Anthony's house, weighing nearly a ton, was taken off and deposited in the garden ten feet from the building, in a perfectly up- right position, without a single crack to show that it had been disturbed. Mr. Ralston, living three miles west of Camanche, saw the black column of destruc- tion directly advancing upon the house and sent his family to a small grove of locusts, with directions to lie on the ground and cling to the trees. While lying there they saw the house taken and carried about twenty rods west and returned to within a few feet of its original location. It was then, as Mr. Ralston expressed it, "rubbed out as you would rub a snow-ball between your hands." not a fragment remaining. At De Witt, where the course was due east. a building with a whole family in it was carried from the east to the west side of the highway, and deposited without so much as breaking the crockery.
The most incredible instance of the cyclone's power was furnished by Mr. Reed, of Bertram, Cedar county. A large rock weighing over twenty tons, about twelve feet by eight and six. was imbedded in the bank of the Cedar river, only about eighteen inches of it projecting, the rest being firmly imbedded in the clay. The impact of the wind was so enormous that it actual- ly wrenched the rock from its bed and turned it over like a chip, end for end, till it surmounted the bank and was carried about one hundred yards. In many places, plowed soil was wholly blown away, as if washed off by a freshet : and, in several authenticated instances, the freshly turned prairie sod was wholly swept away. Wagons were torn in pieces, and wagon tires straightened out perfectly flat.
At Albany, on the opposite side of the river, people were preparing to attend the Sunday services, and some had actually started from their homes. Looking from its elevated site toward the west, they saw the storm-demon approaching, in his pavilion of darkness, and in guise that paralyzed the stout- est heart. Futile attempts were being made to secure doors and windows when the aerial hammer smote the then thriving town, killing five persons and wounding scores more or less severely. The town was almost as thoroughly destroyed as Camanche, though, either owing to the heavier missiles being dropped in the river, or a larger proportion of the people having time to escape
Digitized by Google
406
CLINTON COUNTY, IOWA.
to cellars, the loss of life was' happily much lessened. Only about twenty dwellings were left upon their foundations, and but one available place of busi- ness. A bell was swept from the belfry and found quite a distance away, un- injured except for a nick in the rim.
In Albany the total damage to houses, barns, etc., was reliably estimated at $73,715; to personal property, etc., $18,000; total, $93,715. In Garden Plains, Portland, Union Grove and Tampico, considerable damage was done. but few fatalities resulted. About seven hundred people were rendered home- less in Albany.
Some of the tornado's effects were as singular and capricious as on the other side of the river. Upon the roofs of several houses, the shingles were stripped off in fanciful shapes, leaving upon others a single covered spot. Others were entirely unshingled. One small frame building was lifted from its foundation and carried about a square, around another building which was torn to pieces, and then let down uninjured, within six feet of the destroyed building. On each side of the path of the storm fiend. the evidence of his power was visible in the shape of fragments of buildings, lumber, goods, splintered furniture, valuable papers, books, etc.
The Clinton Herald of June 9th gives a graphic description of how the doleful news was received at that point, as the messenger galloped onward, under circumstances as worthy of the poet's commemoration as "The Mid- night Ride of Paul Revere," and as dramatic as the headlong race of the courier announcing the bursting dam at Ousely Reservoir, to the people in the path of the torrent, which Charles Reade so vividly describes in "Put Yourself in His Place :"
"The storm was over at Clinton. There had not been much wind, and the torrents of rain which had deluged our streets, converting them into canals, had ceased falling. The air was soft and balmy: a few stars were glimmering through the fleeting clouds, and occasionally the full radiance of the moon would illuminate river and town and the farther shore, and then, gliding behind a cloud, leave all again to the mournfulness of doubtful star- light. Far away in Illinois, the storm still raged. the violently flashing light- ning adding a weird beauty to the scene. We sat, looking from an open window and listening to the mournful call of a whip-poor-will, upon the island. when a man on horseback came dashing furiously up the street, and . scarcely drawing bridle, cried out in an excited voice, 'Camanche is destroyed by a tornado, and half the inhabitants are buried in the ruins! Send down all your doctors, and materials to dress the wounded!' Without waiting to be questioned. he dashed on, repeating his request wherever he saw a group
Digitized by Google
407
CLINTON COUNTY, IOWA.
of people. In an instant our town was all' excitement. The courier's man- ner was evidence of his sincerity. All were eager to render any assistance in their power. Superintendent Milo Smith was at once sent for, and immedi- ately despatched all the handcars at hand, and gave orders for a train to at once be prepared to carry to the spot all who desired to go. The steamboat 'Queen City' at Lyons was at once placed at the disposal of our charitable neighbors. Meanwhile, every vehicle was put into service, and soon a hun- dred willing hearts and hands were speeding along as an advance force. By this time the storm had fully passed away, the moon shone bright and un- clouded, and as we dashed over the sandy road, now washed hard and firm, and could notice no signs of destruction on the way, we almost hoped we had been the victims of some heartless joke. We were, however, soon confirmed in our apprehensions. As we approached a house in the suburbs of the village, a man rushed out and hailed us; 'Are you the doctors?' We found here three little children, who had been brought with broken limbs from the village. After assuring the distressed family that the doctors were following. we pushed forward, with our worst fears confirmed.
"God save us from ever seeing again such a sight as that village pre- sented. To describe it would be impossible. No conception of the scene could be formed except by seeing it, and once seeing it would haunt the mem- ory forever. Although almost as' familiar as Clinton's streets, a particular quarter of the town could not be recognized.
. "It was with great difficulty that we picked our way over fragments of buildings, fences and loose materials of all kinds to the few shattered frag- ments of houses that still remained upon First street. Here were chiefly gathered together the dead that were found, and the wounded who still lived. Parents were weeping for their children and children for their parents. Here a husband bent sobbing over his dying wife, and here a mother, with frantic joy, pressed to her bosom the child she thought was lost and found to be alive: Many seemed blessed with a calmness from on high; many were beside themselves, and many were bewildered and overcome with stupor. Here we could not stay, we could be of no service, so we rushed on as a relief to join the eager souls who were toiling like giants, removing the rubbish in search of other victims: Hereafter, in lonely hours, in the still watches of the night, and in feverish dreams will come to many minds the vivid recollection of that sorrowful scene. The ruins strewed around. the hideous distortions of the dead, the mangled bodies of the living, the multitudes of eager, grimy work- men, the peaceful summer night, and the clear moonlight overhead, form a grouping never to be erased from the minds of any who were present."
Digitized by Google
408
CLINTON COUNTY, IOWA.
All night the work continued. The next day, free special trains ran every two hours loaded with persons to assist and attend the wounded, care for the dead and feed and clothe the survivors. From the country all about teams poured in a continual stream, for these same purposes. Early in the day a mass meeting of the citizens of the county was held, and a committee. consisting of N. B. Baker, Milo Smith, A. R. Cotton, Benjamin Lake and Horace Anthony, was appointed for general purposes. Sub-committees were appointed for special objects, and some degree of order sprang from the chaos which had previously reigned.
By night, it was ascertained that the following were among the dead: G. C. Westphal, wife and child, Hannah Curran, Mary Greenleaf, A. Hoeft. Elizabeth Rathbone, D. Waggoner, D. Stolenburg, Mrs. Amelia Davis and son, Philip Peper, Margaret and Mary Fass, Eli Millions, George Burnham and wife, Mrs. J. Stolenburg, Theo. Arpe, H. M'Kendricks,. L. D. Bigelow, Jacob Meyle, Augustus Meyle, and a Meyle child. Mary Knapp, a child of G. W. Chase, child of W. White, a Smith child, and a German girl known as Liza.
Many others afterwards died of their wounds, and many more bear on their bodies scars, and in their minds equally indelible memories of that awful evening.
The funeral services over the Camanche dead on the Tuesday following were most solemn and impressive.' Over two thousand sympathizing friends and neighbors were present, and frequent outbursts of grief amid the deep hush that pervaded the assemblage attested the profound feeling of the stal- wart men as well as tender-hearted women. The twenty-five coffins were ranged in front of M. Dunning's bank, where the services were conducted by Revs. Freer, Edminston and Youngs, of Camanche; Hebard and Brindell, of Clinton; Knyett and White, of Lyons, and Gleason, of Low Moor. The im- mense concourse then, forming in procession, moved to the old burial grounds. where the bodies were committed to the long row of graves prepared for them. there to slumber till awakened by a more pervading and awful trumpet blast than even that of the fatal storm in which they perished.
Wherever flew the news of the awful disaster, generous hearted men and women anticipated the appeals of stricken humanity and contributed liberally to the relief of the bereaved, afflicted and destitute sufferers. Not only did Clinton and Lyons vie with each other in measures of relief, but from all over the country, from the great marts of Chicago and New York to remote hamlets, came contributions. At Clinton, on Monday evening, was called a meeting to co-operate with the general meeting at Camanche.
Digitized by Google
409
CLINTON COUNTY, IOWA.
Messrs. W. H. Lunt, Simeon Baldwin, Lucius Howard, C. H. Toll and G. F. Lovejoy were appointed a committee, on subscriptions, and three hundred and fifty dollars was raised on the spot. The Clinton and. Lyons ladies, inspired with the same spirit that afterward developed during the war the great sani- tary fairs, devoted themselves to preparing food for the destitute, supplies for the wounded and clothing for the naked. (Many victims actually had had their clothing completely stripped from their persons.) These noble women, whose works were sanctified with the very spirit of Dorcas, made hundreds of new garments, besides following the Savior's injunction to divide their own raiment with the unclothed. The reception rooms of the Iowa Central presented the appearance of the workrooms of a large ready-made clothing establishment. Chicago ladies also contributed from their wardrobes. Dubuque, Davenport, Le Claire, Keokuk, Rock Island, Moline, Savannah, Mt. Carmel, and, notably Wheatland, sent generous contributions. Meetings were held and liberal collections taken on steamers and railroad trains. The Masonic bodies nobly obeyed the charitable precepts of the craft, and the German portion of the community came energetically forward to the aid of their kinsmen. The large hearted Rev. Robert Collyer was the fitting bearer of the munificent Chicago relief fund, and as he moved among the sufferers, his cheerful presence brought scarcely less encouragement and comfort than his gifts. Pre-eminent among the local good Samaritans was Milo Smith, both as an individual and as superintendent of the railroad, and the afore- mentioned committee, of whom N. B. Baker, as chairman, displayed the same capacity and energy that subsequently distinguished him as adjutant-general. They were ably aided by the distributing committee, Messrs. C. H. Toll, O. A. Anthony, Horace Anthony and T. W. J. Long. The irretrievable disaster was not without a certain compensation in knitting together the different por- tions of the community, and also illustrating some of the most shining and benevolent qualities of human nature.
At a meeting in Chicago two thousand and eighty-five dollars were raised. A poem was composed for and read on the occasion by Benjamin F. Taylor, who has since become nationally celebrated for his glowing prose and brilliant verse.
There are no reliable figures as to the amount of pecuniary damage done by the tornado at Camanche. Indeed. that seems immaterial, compared with the suffering and loss of life, the wreck of hearthstones, and disappearance of family heirlooms and keepsakes, and the town suffering irretrievable dis- aster.
Accurate enumeration, however, showed that there were totally destroyed
Digitized by Google
410
CLINTON COUNTY, IOWA.
no less than ninety occupied dwellings, sixty-three barns and stables. five warehouses, several new brick blocks, two hotels (one, a three-story brick, fifty-six by ninety-six feet, being shattered to atoms), two churches and thirty- six places of business, in addition to twenty-three sheds, ice houses, etc. There were more or less wrecked, seventy-six occupied dwellings, twenty-four barns, sheds, etc., a school house, two warehouses, a flour-mill, and two saw-mills, besides twelve other places of business. Probably three hundred thousand dollars, would not have covered the loss that could have been replaced.
One peculiarity of the tornado was the singular belt of calms that in some stages of its progress appeared to flank it on either side. while at the same time there must have been a tremendous agitation in the upper regions of the atmosphere. At some farm houses back of Clinton and Lyons, it was noted that the tropical pour of rain that occurred at the same time fell per- pendicularly and there was not a breath of wind. At the same time pieces of debris, some large boards, fell from the upper air into adjacent fields. Their edges were splintered and ragged, showing that they must have been brought from a distant point, and by a fierce wind far above the low and heavy rain- clouds. The rumble of the storm was distinctly heard at Charlotte, sixteen miles distant.
The most reliable authorities estimate the total number of killed by the storm in Iowa at one hundred and thirty-four at least, and over two thousand. five hundred people must have been rendered homeless.
STORM OF 1876. r
On March 10, 1876, Deep Creek was traversed by a furious storm which was probably a true tornado. At least it certainly assumed the shape of one. and though it fortunately missed doing damage as extensive as that inflicted by those that crossed the southern part of the county. gave some most alarm- ing evidences of its power. It also manifested some rather peculiar meteoro- logical features. The day had been wonderfully hot and sultry for so early in the season. Late in the afternoon, the rotary center, it is presumed, formed somewhere to the southeast of De Witt, and moved in a northwest direction, striking the farm of Thomas Cavanaugh, five miles from De Witt, and pass- ing thence toward Charlotte, providentially passed to the southward of the village. injuring the places of Thomas O'Toole: John McGary and Paul Engler very considerably. twisting up trees and carrying fence-rails and boards in its vortex, but seriously harming neither life nor limb. Its noise was so loud as to be alarming to those who did not see it coming, and it was heralded by
Digitized by Google
4II
CLINTON COUNTY, IOWA.
sharp thunder and lightning and tremendous hail. Coursing diagonally through Waterford and Deep Creek, its center passed close to the house of Thomas Watts of the latter township. A considerable and abrupt rise in the ground to the windward of his house and barns would have been thought a sufficient protection from the most furious ordinary storm. Mr. Watts and a domestic, who were the only persons in the house, lost consciousness from the shock the wind gave the house, which, though not destroyed, subsequently appeared to have been moved in four different directions in less than as many minutes. Two hired men had sought shelter in the solid barns, which were totally wrecked. One of them took hold of an iron reaper, thinking thereby to anchor himself against the blast. But he narrowly escaped being crushed by the machine. which was found resting upon him at some distance from where it stood. His companion was nearly smothered in bulk grain, the singular phenomenon of 1860 being repeated, of a building blowing away and leaving hundreds of bushels of loose grain heaped upon the ground. Many horses, cattle and swine were killed by missiles, or by being dashed against the ground or fences, and fowls were, as in the more southern whirlwinds, stripped of their plumage. A short distance to the northwest were the farm and dwelling of Fenton Dolan, seemingly protected, even more perfectly than Watts' place, by being under the lee of a steep knoll. But again the wind, like water pouring over a dam, swooped down upon and destroyed the house, Mrs. Dolan being severely hurt. Her's was the worst injury done by the. storm to any person, though narrow escapes were numerous and the panic great. . As if satisfied with its work at Dolan's, the tornado, rising so sudden- ly that it spared outbuildings only a few rods beyond in its track, rose like a gigantic bird in the air, to again seek terra firma many miles beyond the Missis- sippi, destroying the town of Hazel Green, in Wisconsin, almost as com- pletely as the disaster of 1860 did Camanche. Probably thirty thousand dollars would not cover the money loss inflicted in Clinton county by this storm, yet the people through whose territory it passed considered that they had escaped quite cheaply.
Governor B. F. Gue, in his history of Iowa, published in 1904, had col- . lected many additional statistics concerning this awful tornado and he gives a table of losses from which we extract the following :
Hardin county, killed 7, wounded 27, houses destroyed 37, loss $75,000.
Linn county, with. Marshall county, killed 22, wounded 51, houses de- stroyed 26, loss $475,000.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.