USA > Minnesota > Stearns County > History of Stearns County, Minnesota, Volume I > Part 79
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The high school building at Melrose was destroyed by fire March 21.
The Catholic Church and parish house at St. Nicholas, about five miles from Cold Spring, were totally destroyed by fire May 17. The loss was given at $75,000, with $15,000 insurance.
S. W. Gordon's residence at Sartell was struck by lightning and set on fire May 24, being totally consumed with its contents.
The Sauk Rapids Creamery was totally destroyed by fire, August 27.
The Melrose Brewery, valued at $50,000, was completely destroyed by fire on the night of September 9. It was owned by the Melrose Brewing Com- pany, which carried only $10,000 insurance, the loss therefore being heavy.
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CHAPTER XXXII.
CYCLONE DISASTERS.
Cyclone of 1886-Ruin and Disaster Follow in Wake of Terrible Storm-List of Those Killed-Acts of Heroism-Minor Atmospheric Disturbances- Severe Damage Done at Various Times By Wind and Storm.
The Cyclone of 1886. April 14, 1886, is written as the saddest, the most terrible day in the calendar of St. Cloud. Where at noon had been comfort- able homes and happy people, a few minutes after four o'clock was to be seen the track of desolation upon which rested the pall of death. The irresist- ible forces of the air taking the funnel-shaped form of the cyclone, ploughed their way through a part of the city, leaving in their course wrecked dwel- lings and lifeless or mutilated bodies. The lower part of this besom of de- struction touching the earth, twisted and writhed as though it were the tail of some monster serpent reaching out to gather within its folds the things, animate and inanimate, destined to be crushed to death or into shapeless ruins. It came without warning, except such as might have been given by a heavy, oppressive atmosphere. It was seen to form not far from the North Star Cemetery, about a mile southwest of the city, the upper tongue-like cloud not yet joined to that which rested upon the earth. But they soon united and the storm center increasing in proportion, moved in a serpentine course toward the northeast, through the western limits of the third and fourth wards, striking with about the middle of its width the Manitoba freight depot; then turning north of the Catholic Cathedral and of Lieutenant-Gov- ernor Gilman's place and crossing the river, it continued its work of death and destruction in the village of Sank Rapids where its most terrible effects were felt. The movement of the cyclone was anxiously watched by hundreds of people in the business section of the city, as with a sullen roar and cease- less whirl it moved slowly and unsteadily forward, as if uncertain at times in which direction to turn, and there were many persons who dreaded lest its course might finally swerve southward, which would bring it among the costly business blocks and crowded streets of the heart of the city. The air was filled with pieces of boards and parts of roofs torn from the build- ings, which came in the path of the storm.
It was a sickening sight which met the gaze of the people who rushed out in the direction of the freight depot. Here by the end of a car lay a man terribly mangled about both head and body, dead. A little distance be- yond, was another, with a fearful hole driven in his forehead, gasping with his last breath. Near by another was being carried away, both legs crushed through above the knees. Farther out, where the dwellings had been, were mattresses on which lay-here four members of one family, all terribly man- gled; there three more, one dead. A mother with her babe in her arms, was crying piteously as she followed the men carrying away the body of her life- less boy. A young girl begged to be allowed to see her mother, whose man-
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gled body had just been taken from the ruins of her house and wrapped in some bed clothing and whose face she could not have recognized had she seen it. To the right and to the left were wagons converted into ambu- lances taking the injured to the hospital, or the dead to a place where the bodies could be cared for. The living and the dead were still being extricated from the ruins of what had been their homes. The faces of the dead and injured were covered with blood and dirt, so as to be scarcely recognizable. Such buildings in the path of the storm as had not been wholly demolished, were dragged and broken and twisted into all conceivable shapes-some completely overturned, others turned partly around, others slid forward from their foundations, others careened to the right or the left, and so on. It was a scene of horror and desolation, with its mutilated bodies and wrecked build- ings presenting the aspect of a battle field on which the conflict had just ceased.
The hills in and about the cemetery form a sort of basin and here the cyclone apparently had its birth. For a space of about three hundred yards in diameter the trees were uprooted or twisted off, gravestones thrown flat and fences demolished. Crossing over "Calvary Hill" in a path about one hundred feet wide, it wrecked the small Catholic chapel and badly injured the near-by crucifix. Next in its course was Nicolas Junnemann's farm house, which was left a heap of ruins, and Mr. Junnemann was the cyclone's first victim, while his wife was dangerously injured. The first house struck within the city limits was John W. Tenvoorde's, the back part of which was torn away and his fine grove of trees were twisted off nearly to the ground. Across the street stood John Schwartz's two-story brick dwelling house, the front of which was sliced off as though by the keen edge of some monster machine, leaving exposed the contents of the rooms. Here the path of the tornado was about two hundred feet wide and increased until by the time it reached the Manitoba depot the width was six hundred feet, taking in its fearful embrace during its course, half a hundred or more buildings, which were totally wrecked or more or less damaged. In many instances there was nothing left to show where a house had stood, and the prairie was covered far and wide with the debris of the demolished buildings. Most of the dwelling houses were one story or one-and-a-half story buildings, and not a few of them were occupied by two or more families, so that while the value of the property destroyed was not so great, the number of persons rendered homeless was much larger than would ordinarily be the case.
When the cyclone struck the Mississippi river, after having completed its work of destruction in this city, it appeared to be almost motionless at first or moved so slowly as to seem to hang over the face of the water, then beating it to the right and left and licking up what came in its way, the monster crossed dry shod, as it passed on to the doomed village of Sauk Rap- ids, on the other side, first crushing half of the wagon bridge spanning the Mississippi at that place. The first building in its way was Stanton's large flouring mill, which was left a heap of ruins. It next took Demeule's store and the Northern Pacific depot; then sweeping on through the main business part of the place, left but one important business house standing, Wood's store,
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which was badly damaged. Court house, church, school house, postoffice, newspaper offices, hotels, dwelling houses, all went down under the fierce and relentless power of the storm. Streets were blockaded with the wreckage so as to be practically impassable. The list of dead in a village of about a thousand inhabitants was a terrible one, including some of the leading county officers and prominent citizens. The pecuniary loss was overwhelming.
Leaving Sauk Rapids the cyclone moved northward in the direction of Rice, a station thirteen miles distant. Some four miles southeast of this was the farm house of Charles Sehultz, where a merry wedding party was gath- ered, a daughter of Mr. Schultz's having been married to Henry Friday, chairman of the board of supervisors of the town of Langola. Thirty-five persons were in the house when it was struck by the fury of the storm and totally wrecked. Ten persons were instantly killed and a number of others severely injured, one of whom afterwards died. Among the dead were the groom, and the Rev. Gustav J. Schmidt, pastor of the Evangelical Church, of St. Cloud, and his wife. The Rev. Mr. Seeder, pastor of the Two Rivers dis- trict, was found out on the prairie, with both legs broken.
Continuing on from Benton into Morrison county, the storm struck the town of Buckman, where were two fatalities, William Dellmeier, a farmer whose buildings were totally destroyed, and his wife seriously injured, and Fred Clark, employed on C. B. Buckman's farm. Several other farm houses were destroyed or injured in that vicinity. A few miles north, W. II. Drake's house, in Pierz, was swept away, and a young lady, Hattie Randall, of Fort Ripley, a visitor at the house, was killed. At Fish Lake the cyclone raised, then dropped near the headwaters of the Platte river, and finally spent its force at Sullivan lake.
Relief quickly came from all directions. A special train from St. Paul brought a number of physicians and surgeons from that city, Minneapolis and intermediate points, and another train brought others from Fergus Falls and the cities between that place and St. Cloud. Contributions of money, pro- visions, clothing and supplies on the most generous scale, came from near and far. Local committees, men and women, were engaged both at St. Cloud and Sauk Rapids, to nurse the sick and wounded and distribute the supplies. A general committee, composed of A. Barto, Sauk Centre ; O. C. Merriman, Min- neapolis; Channing Seabury, St. Paul; John Cooper, St. Cloud, and C. B. Buckman, Sauk Rapids, was appointed by the proper authorities to have con- trol and oversight of the expenditure of the money and supplies contributed, the erection and repair of buildings, etc. The work of restoration was quickly begun and carried forward with all possible dispatch. The general committee as well as the local committee devoted themselves earnestly and untiringly to their duties, earning as they deserved the thanks alike of citizens and suf- ferers. In all, 109 buildings had been destroyed, valued at $176,300, and the contents $114,300, making a total of $290,600. The number of losers in St. Cloud was seventy-nine, of whom seventy-one were persons who supported themselves and their families with their daily wages. At Sauk Rapids forty- nine of the buildings destroyed were business or public in character, shops, etc.
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In St. Cloud the total death roll was twenty, of whom seventeen were killed outright and three more died from their injuries. The roll was as follows : Killed-N. Junnemann, Jacob Shortridge, Ed. Mehan, C. F. Andrews, Mrs. Anton Tremp, Mrs. Mary Stein, Jennie Junglen, Mary Junglen, August Junglen, Lena Zins, Frank Zins, Joseph Guiskoffski, Mary Streitz, Frank Omerski, John Waldorf, infant child of August Kroll, an unknown yonng man. Died from injuries-William Shortridge, Mrs. Bartel Fehr, Anna Sie- bold. The number of injured was seventy-five.
At Sauk Rapids the death list numbered thirty-eight. Those taken dead from the ruins were: Edgar Hull (president German-American National Bank, St. Cloud), John Renard (county auditor), G. Lindley (register of deeds), A. E. Schuber (druggist), A. W. Lake, Henry Behrens, S. Sorenson, Ernest. O. Albrecht, Mrs. Mattie Fink, John H. Fink, August L. Fink, Otilla Fink, Maurice St. Cyr, Ollie Carpenter, Mrs. W. E. Davee, Mrs. Pappenfus and her three grandchildren, Mrs. Samuel Fletcher, Louis Landre, Clara Berg, Ella Berg, H. Chalgren's daughter, Amelia Woelm, Antonia Woelm, Eva Templin; died from injuries, Abner St. Cyr, Andrew Walstrom, Mrs. Schober, William Barlyk, Mrs. Barbara Ganzkopf, Mrs. Winslow Pappenfus, Fred Balgusky, Lulu Carpenter, C. Kalinowski's child, E. G. Halbert, St. Paul. In addition sixty-four persons were more or less seriously injured. The body of August Schuler was found about three miles from the village in the direction of Rice's.
The killed at the Rice wedding party were: The Rev. Gustav J. Schmidt, Mrs. Schmidt, Henry Friday (the groom), Charles Schultz, Miss Schultz, Mrs. W. Gaumnitz, Mrs. F. Vogt, Mrs. Teaman, John Sauers, Mary Trabant ; died from injuries, Louisa Schultz, a sister of the bride. The others who were injured recovered. The total number of known deaths from the cyclone was seventy-three.
The final report of the general committee showed that the total contribu- tions in cash amounted to $90,159.47. This does not include lumber and sup- plies, which would make the total of the contributions over $100,000. Num- ber of new houses constructed, 66, costing $26,070.87; number damaged houses repaired, 33, costing $3,825.37; number securing allotments of material, 35, $10,641.55; miscellaneous relief cases, 66, $11,962.45. Of the amount ex- pended, St. Cloud received $21,253.15; Sauk Rapids, $30,975.03; Rice, $2,752.20. Among the contributions were the following: St. Paul, $28,457; Minne- apolis, $23,405; St. Cloud, $10,000; Rochester, $3,600; Brainerd, $2,200; Du- luth, $1,800; Winona, $3,683; Faribault, $1,244; Stillwater, $1,000; Sauk Centre, $1,000; Melrose, $290; St. Joseph, $229; Cold Spring, $154; Clear- water, $203; Chicago, $560; New York City, $202; Indianapolis, $200; Dakota, $445; Wisconsin, $35; Boston, $25. The largest individual contribution was James J. Hill, $5,000; J. S. Kennedy, of New York, gave $1,000; W. D. Wash- burn, Minneapolis, $500; D. C. Shepard, St. Paul, $300; Dr. A. E. Senkler, St. Paul, $200; Edward D. Adams, New York, $1,000.
Edgar Hull, president of the German-American National Bank, of St. Cloud, who was among the killed at Sauk Rapids, left the city about an hour before the storm, with E. G. Halbert, of St. Paul, state agent for the New
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York Life Insurance Company. They were in front of the court house when the crash came. Mr. Hull died almost instantly and Mr. Halbert at his home, in St. Paul, the third day afterwards.
S. P. Carpenter's little daughter, Lulu, at Sauk Rapids, seeing the cyclone coming, seized the baby in her arms and rushing out of the house, caught a tree with one arm, holding the child with the other. A splinter torn from the wrecked building, was driven with terrible force through her body as she lay on the ground. When she was carried away in a dying condition the brave little girl said, "Yes, mother, but I saved the baby."
This incident had its counterpart at St. Cloud, showing the noble and unselfish spirit often enshrined in little bodies. A young girl, Anna Siebold, as the storm approached, caught up her baby brother, only six months old, and running to the yard, threw her arms around a fence post. Placing the baby between her knees she soothed it and protected it with her own body, clinging to the post. A flying timber struck her, breaking her leg and caus- ing further injuries that proved fatal, but like the other little heroine she had "saved the baby."
Three days after the cyclone a man working in the vicinity of Governor Gilman's residence, saw something moving in the brush, and on making a closer inspection discovered that it was a child, the three-year-old son of Frank Zins. The little fellow had been carried over a hundred rods by the cyclone and dropped to the ground, with a wound in his head, and for three days he had been there. He was taken to the hospital and put in bed with his twin brother.
At the Manitoba depot, St. Cloud, the freight depot, a large frame build- ing, was almost totally wrecked. The carpenter shops and rail repair shops were unroofed. Sixty-two loaded freight cars were on the track, of which a score or more were torn into kindling wood and practically all the others overturned.
The two Shortridge brothers had, but half an hour before, finished their work at the dam and came to the station to work for the railroad company, reaching there just in time to be engulfed by the tornado, both losing their lives.
A safe at Sauk Rapids, weighing a ton, was lifted up and carried across the street, showing no track between where it started and where it was dropped. Thomas Van Etten, of that village, who weighed three hundred pounds, was picked up and carried several hundred feet, escaping with a few bruises but being completely covered with yellow clay and mud.
The sign of the Sauk Rapids depot was found near Rice Station, a dozen miles away, as were a lot of books from the court house. Near the same station had been dropped a stick of oak timber, fourteen feet long and a foot in diameter, part of a load in the Manitoba yards at St. Cloud. The debris of the houses wrecked at St. Cloud and Sauk Rapids was scattered thickly over the fields between those places and Rice's, six miles from the path of the storm.
The singing book used by the Rev. Mr. Schmidt at the Schultz wedding was picked up near Buckman.
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A number of persons whose buildings were wrecked saved their lives by taking refuge in their cellars.
Minor Atmospheric Disturbances. The first storm partaking of the nature of a tornado in Stearns county, of which there is any record, swept through the western townships on the night of July 8, 1869. The most seri- ous damage was done in the town of Raymond. Richard Richardson's farm house, a one-and-a-half story log building, was torn to pieces and the debris scattered about for the distance of a quarter of a mile. Twelve persons were in the house at the time. Mr. Richardson's oldest son, John, a young man of twenty-two, was carried thirty-four rods and dropped to the ground, so badly mangled that for a time his life was despaired of. George, the second son, aged thirteen, was carried thirty rods and dangerously injured. Willie, the third son, three years old, was borne an equal distance and hurled to the ground, dying a few minutes afterwards. Two other children, little girls, with the bed clothing twisted about them, were carried to the opposite side of the building and dropped to the ground uninjured. Anna Wilson, a school teacher, stopping at Mr. Richardson's, was carried a distance of thirty-seven rods and deposited in a wheat field, so bady bruised that for a time little hope was entertained of her recovery. Liberty Raymond, twenty-two years old, the eldest son of L. B. Raymond, for whom the town was named, was earried by the fierce wind almost forty rods and hurled to the ground so terribly mangled that he survived but a short time. The tornado continued its course into Pope county, where a number of houses were blown down and their inmates injured, but no lives were lost. At Sauk Centre the roof of the Episcopal Church was torn from the rafters and carried a distance of ten rods, but no other damage was done.
A severe wind storm swept over this part of the state, May 22, 1873, causing great damage to buildings and property along its path, which was a narrow one. A house six miles east of St. Cloud, owned by James Bigger- staff, and oceupied by Thomas Haigh, was completely wrecked. Half the planks were wrenched from the bridge across Elk river near by. C. F. George's house at St. Francis, was unroofed. At Paynesville an enormous barn, belonging to C. Helmer, was ripped to pieces, while his house was un- roofed, some of the furniture being found a mile away. H. C. Barrett's barn was unroofed and a part of his house swung off its foundation at Clearwater. Much minor damage was done, but no one was injured.
During a severe wind storm on the afternoon of July 6, 1879, three spans of the large and substantial wagon bridge aeross the Mississippi at Sauk Rapids were lifted from the piers by the wind and thrown into the bed of the river. The bridge had been built the previous year at a cost of $26,000, and but for the anchorage would in all probability have withstood the storm.
A cloud which assumed the regular cyclonic appearance, funnel-shaped with dragging tail upon the ground, passed over this vicinity on the after- noon of Sunday, May 30, 1909. It appeared first in the southeast; crossed the Mississippi river below the Tileston mill; struck the sheds of the St. Cloud Granite Works, west of the eity, where the greatest damage was done, the buildings and machinery being badly injured at the ball park, near the
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grandstand, a number of boards were torn from the fence; after which it went on towards Sauk river, there losing its force. It was seen by thousands of people, many of whom, with recollections of the terrible visitation of 23 years before, were filled with fright. But this eyelone was but a miniature of that, although capable of doing vast harm had its progress been impeded, which fortunately was not the ease, and the damage done was inconsiderable, no person being injured. The camera fiends were in their glory and a num- ber of pictures were taken from different localities, showing the form and progress of the eyelone in its course toward final disappearance.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
SIOUX UPRISING.
Inception of the Outbreak-Agency Attacked-Country Devastated-Ft. Ridgley Attacked-Situation in the Minnesota Valley-Minnesota Aroused-Birch Coulie-In Northwestern Settlements-Anxiety as to Chippewas-Need of Supplies-Sioux Driven from the State-By C. F. MacDonald-Stearns County Events-Hole-in-the-Day Murdered- Early Indian Encounters.
A history of Stearns county would not be complete without some account of the great Sioux Indian outbreak of August, 1862, following which small parties of Indians invaded the county, thereby creating intense excitement and alarm, causing the equipping of citizen soldiery, building of bloek houses, and making other preparations for defense should attaeks be made. In all American history, even from the date of the first arrival of whites upon the western hemisphere, there is no parallel to this fiendish and bloody massacre of pioneer settlers of Minnesota. Indeed, in Volume 3, "Minnesota in Three Centuries," it is stated, "More white people perished in that savage slaugh- ter than in all the other massacres ever perpetrated on the American conti- nent. Add the number of white vietims of the Indian wars of New England during the colonial period to the list of those who perished in Wyoming and Cherry Valley and to the pioneers who were killed in the early white oecu- pation of the West and South, and the aggregate falls far short of the num- ber of people of Minnesota who were slain by the Sioux in less than one week in that memorable month of August, 1862." While the accuracy of the foregoing may be questioned, it is a fact that the number so slaughtered far exceeded the total of all the Minnesota soldiers killed in battle or who died of wounds during the Civil and Indian wars.
Inception of the Great Outbreak. The inception of the Great Sioux Out- break, the spark which ignited the powder magazine, was due to a wrangle among a hunting party of young Indian hunters near Acton, on August 17. A farmer's hen's nest, and a "dare" to rob it led to reflections upon indi- vidual courage which reached such a heat that, to prove their bravery, four
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of the party proceeded to settlers' homes and shot and killed three white men and two women, Mr. and Mrs. Robinson Jones, Howard Baker, Viranus Webster and Clara D. Wilson. Realizing that these murders would cause their arrest and severe punishment, they rapidly proceeded to Rice Creek, near the lower Sioux agency, informed their relatives, and an immediate uprising was decided upon. Little Crow was asked to lead; he at first hesi- tated, and then consented, saying: "Trouble is sure to come with the whites sooner or later. It may as well take place now as any time. I am with you. Let us hurry to the agency, kill the traders and take their goods."
At this date there was a great deal of bad feeling among the Indians towards, and dissatisfaction with the Federal government. Their annuity payments were long past due and they were suffering for want of sufficient food. The fact that many white men had enlisted in the Union army and gone South, had led many Indians to the belief that they could drive the whites out of the Minnesota Valley and from their former hunting grounds. This was the situation when the young Indian murderers reached their band at Rice Creek near the lower Sioux agency, where the Indians had gathered some months before to await the annuity payment.
In his "History of the Sioux War," I. V. D. Heard, an officer on Gen. Sibley's staff, says of conditions early in 1862:
"The Indians were grievously disappointed with their bargains. They had now nearly disposed of all their land, and had received scarcely anything for it. They were 6,200 in number and their annuities when paid in full, were hardly $15 apiece. Their sufferings from hunger were often severe, especially during the winter previous to the massacre."
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