USA > Pennsylvania > Luzerne County > Wilkes-Barre > A history of Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania : from its first beginnings to the present time, including chapters of newly-discovered early Wyoming Valley history, together with many biographical sketches and much genealogical material. Volume IV > Part 59
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The census report for a decade ending December 31, 1890, brought con- siderable elation to county and city alike.
Luzerne county, showing a loss in the previous census return due to the erection of Lackawanna county on a part of its former territory, and then stand- ing at 133,065, showed 201,203 for 1890.
The city of Wilkes-Barré, although indicating a much smaller gain in numbers, showed a greater percentage of increase than even the splendid record of the county. In 1880, the city's figures were given as 23,339. In 1890, they were recorded as 37,718.
The completion of a modern new office building on the site of the old Hollen- back homestead at the corner of River and Market streets, marked the early months of the year 1890. This pretentious structure, rising six stories in height and containing the first passenger elevator of the community, was opened to tenants on April 1. Its erection showed the confidence in the future of the com- munity that was a characteristic of John Welles Hollenback who had succeeded to the estate and business enterprises of his kinsman, George M. Hollenback.
The title conferred on the building, by which it is still designated, was the Hollenback Coal Exchange and it was for many years the tallest of the com- munity's structures. In 1907, four additional stories were added to keep pace with the growing demands for office space, and the city's first building intended exclusively for office occupation is still doing valiant service although in com- petition with many more modern buildings of its kind.
The same year was to find the name Wyoming perpetuated among the Commonwealths of the nation .*
On the day upon which the formal celebration of the entry of the new state of Wyoming into the union was being held at the capital city of Cheyenne, Wesley Johnson then secretary of the Wyoming Commemorative Association mailed to Governor Warren of the Commonwealth, a copy of the memorial
*According to a recent publication, the name Wyoming and the fame of the region of its origin is perpetuated in one state, six counties, forty-two townships and many additional hamlets and boroughs of the United States.
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volume report of the 100th year exercises of July 3, 1878, accompanied by the following explanatory communications:
"Wilkes-Barre, July 23, 1890.
His Excellency, Gov. Warren, Cheyenne.
" Dear Sir:
"As the new Wyoming has now advanced to the dignity of statehood, I have taken the liberty, as Secretary of the Wyoming Commemorative Association, of forwarding to you, the Governor of the 44th Commonwealth, a copy of our memorial volume containing a correct report of the 100th year commemorative observance of the battle and massacre of Wyoming, July 3, 1778-1878.
"Old Wyoming feels justly proud of the honor of having given her name to a member of the great sisterhood of States. May the child namesake emulate the example of the mother, Wyoming, of bloody memory, and in all things show itself worthy of bearing the name of the
HOLLENBACK COAL EXCHANGE-1890
beautiful and classic valley here in Pennsylvania, so rich in patriotic memories, immortalized by the poetry of Campbell, as portrayed in the life of his ideal Gertrude, endeared to our people by the 3d of July massacre, and the sad story of Frances Slocum and her life-long captivity among savages; and withal, bearing within its ample bosom untold wealth of anthracite, not second in importance to the commerce of the world to the rich goldfields of the Black Hills of your own Rocky Mountain State.
"I have the honor to be yours respectfully,
"WESLEY JOHNSON, Secretary."
The following response was received in answer to this communication: "July 30, 1890.
"EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, Cheyenne, Wyo.,
"Mr. Wesley Johnson, Secretary Wyoming Commemorative Association
"Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
"My Dear Sir:
"It is with much pleasure that I acknowledge the receipt of your valued favor of the 23d inst., also a copy of your memorial volume containing a report of the 100th exercises in memory of the battle and massacre of Wyoming, July 3, 1778.
"The volume shall be deposited in the archives of the State of Wyoming, and I thank you for myself and on the part of the State for your kind thoughtfulness in forwarding it.
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"The 44th, and the youngest State of the Union, sends you greeting, and confident assur- ance that the child and namesake will ever emulate the virtues and patriotism of the mother- the Wyoming of that historic valley of bloody memory.
"The State of Wyoming may not develop such wealth of anthracite coal as has the parent, but the new State has a known area of bituminous coal amounting to more than 30,000 square miles.
"With assurances of highest regard, I am your most obedient servant,
"FRANCIS E. WARREN, Governor."
While the Wyoming valley and contiguous portions of Luzerne county have never been free from storms and other meteorological disturbances, it remained for the year 1900 to record the most deadly and devastating tornado in the history of the community.
Pearce in his Annals states that the first recorded hurricane or tornado in Luzerne county moved from west to east over a portion of the county in 1796. It did considerable damage, according to this report, to buildings and crops in its pathway and in the upper Lehigh region was so destructive of forests that older residents whom he knew in the early forties still referred to the district affected as "The Great Windfall." He further asserts that the Wilkes-Barre- Easton road was practically blocked along a considerable portion of its length by fallen timber and that Luzerne county "appropriated $250 towards the ex- pense of clearing same." The present writer has not been able to find any authorized expenditure for this purpose in existing records of the county, but it is probable that the stories of early residents, upon which the Pearce narrative is based, were substantially correct in other particulars.
As to whether this first of the community's severe storms was a straight- away wind capable of much destruction or whether it possessed the more de- structive twisting features of the tornado, no record seems to exist.
The violent gale of February, 1824 which, as has been mentioned, hurled a considerable portion of Wilkes-Barré's first bridge from its piers and landed the shattered superstructure on the ice beneath, possessed no cyclonic tendencies and did no other damage in the neighborhood.
Although considerable doubt as to the exact date upon which it occurred was long in dispute among contributors whose early recollect!ons were stirred by storms in later years, it is of authentic record that a destructive wind, with marked cyclonic characteristics, visited the Wyoming valley in the summer of 1835. Both Pearce and Plumb fix the exact date as July 3, 1835, although they differ as to whether this is the same tornado which practically wiped out the settle- ment of Razortown or Providence, now within the limits of Scranton .*
*Under the caption "Cyclones of Early Times" a contributor to the Wilkes-Barre Record, signing himself "W. J.'' makes the following comment on the cyclone of 1835 (erroneously reported as 1834) of which he claims to have been an eye witness :-
"Probably the first serious blow that visited the Wyoming Valley since its settlement by Europeans, was in 1807, when the Wilkes-Barre bridge was hurled almost unbroken on the ice. But this was not a cyclone like the one that devastated a portion of the city on Tuesday, but, properly speaking, only a severe winter gale.
"Coming down later, I think it was in 1834, about the first day of July of that year, that we were again visited by something like a cyclone or tornado, the same that caused the destruction of the village of Raxorville. Not much dam- age was done here in the old borough, as the path of the destroying visitors seemed to be along the base of the Wilkes- Barre Mountain, at what is now Ashley and on the Moyallen farm of John McCarragher at the junction of Hazle Street and Park Avenue, where several barns and other outbuildings were torn to pieces by the fury of the winds, and as I remember, the wreckage of boards and shingles scattered all along the base of the mountain as far north as the Laurel Run. Many trees were uprooted and lay prostrate, but as the path of the storm was through an uninhabited region, the destruction of growing timber was the only evidence of its fury. The path of the tornado, or by whatever name it might be called, seemed to be in a direct line up the valley along its eastern side, passing back of Pittston and entering the Lackawanna Valley at about the month of Spring Brook, touching lightly on its way further north, nor striking Hyde Park at all, but exerting its expiring force on ill-fated Razorville, now a portion of Scranton City. Hyde Park and Razorville were at that time bustling villages on the stage route between Wilkes-Barre and Carbondale. Scranton proper was only Slocum Hollow and of little consequence. At Razorville there was a new Methodist Church in progress of erection. This was almost totally demolished, and nearly every building in the village suffered more or less, many of them being unroofed and sustaining otherwise serious damage.
I was but a boy at the time, but I well remember that there was considerable excitement when the Carbondale stage came down next day and the passengers reported, perhaps slightly exaggerated accounts, (as is sometimes seen in this day), of the destruction of Razorville. There were no daily papers in those days, nor telegraphs, not even wide- awake reporters to display the known facts in flaring headlines next morning, with losses greatly magnified; and I doubt whether the newspapers of the day gave more than a meager passing notice of the disaster."
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The cyclone, or more properly speaking, tornado of 1835 originated some where in the neighborhood of Fishing creek and left well defined evidences of its destructive course through Huntington and Union townships. It then appears to have lifted, to again descend upon the Wyoming valley near Ashley where considerable destruction of crops and buildings, including a schoolhouse, resulted.
From Ashley, the whirling cloud mass moved along the base of Wilkes- Barre mountain and reappeared, according to the more reliable accounts, in the Lackawanna valley. No loss of life is recorded as a result of this tornado and damage pertained more to forests than otherwise owing to the fact that but few settlements existed in its pathway.
Again on June 29, 1874, an unusually severe wind storm visited Wilkes- Barré, accompanied by extraordinary electrical manifestations. The press of the time mentions the fact that "George Werner, a miner employed in the Maffet mine was struck by lightning when a mile and a half underground and severely but not fatally injured. The lightning followed the railroad track into the mine."
Further mention is made of the incident that wires of the South Street bridge span appeared for a time to be "masses of flame" and the telegraph office, then in the First National Bank building, was visited by "balls of fire which in quick succession entered the wires and harmlessly exploded." The force of the wind of this storm was reflected in the demolition of scaffolding around the court house on the Square which fell "with a terrible crash." The storm of 1874, like that of 1824, seems to have combined no elements of the tornado in its limited scope and the damage done was insignificant.
The well defined tornado of 1890, for some unknown reason, almost par- allelled in its path of destruction the first recorded cyclone of 1835.
It originated a few miles west of Benton in Columbia County and, in a path averaging some five hundred yards in width, hurled itself in an easterly direction across the townships of Huntington, Union, Hunlock and a portion of Lehman in Luzerne County, leveling everything in its path. When within a short dis- tance of the village of Lehman, the funnel shaped clouds lifted, apparently crossing over the river range of mountains without doing damage and then descending, a few minutes later, upon the helpless Wyoming valley at a point opposite Plymouth, it gathered force for its course through Wilkes-Barré.
Still traveling in a generally easterly direction, the funnel shaped mass of clouds and debris ploughed its way almost directly through the city but, instead of following the river as its predecessor had done, the cyclone moved through the southerly portion of Plains township and seemed to exhaust itself in the western Poconos near Bald Mountain.
In a pamphlet "Notes on the Tornado," published in 1891 by the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society, an authoritative account of this cyclone was set forth by Prof. Thomas Santee which, together with an appendix on the damage done in Wilkes-Barré, compiled by Harry R. Deitrick, had constituted the text of addresses delivered before the Society, December 19, 1900. Going over the entire course of the storm before preparing his address, Professor Santee secured the testimony of hundred of witnesses of the phenomenon, a synopsis of which gives the present day reader a graphic picture.
The day in question had been warm but not unseasonably so. Many who noticed the peculiar cloud formations in the early afternoon stated that a low
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and very open stratum of clouds was moving rapidly northward, while a higher mass of darker clouds was travelling southward at a lesser, but, nevertheless, unusual speed. Shortly before the cyclone broke, a heavy thunderstorm pre- ceded it almost throughout its entire course. Once launched in the Greenwood valley the first damage of the storm was done at the farmhouse of Theodore Lemons. At this time, although heavy black clouds resembling "the smoke of a huge fire" were seen, they did not resolve themselves into a whirling mass until in the neighborhood of Fishing creek, after which, wherever they reached the ground, devastation was complete, the mass "moving faster than a railroad express and roaring fearfully."
One peculiar development of the cloud mass as it swept eastward near Cambra was its separation into two distinct cloud funnels which continued their destructive ways, but were again united into one funnel shaped mass in a short time.
Practically demolishing Harveyville, where several people had sought shelter in a barn, the first fatality was reported when Thomas Bruckle, one of the destroyed barn's occupants was almost instantly killed. The force of the storm near this point was illustrated in its treatment of a house occupied by the large family of George Smith, a well digger. The house was picked up by the funnel shaped mass and carried some two hundred feet intact when, passing over a ledge, the clouds seemed to have tired of their burden and the house was dropped a distance of over fifteen feet, the force of the fall demolishing it almost entirely. Members of the family were carried with the house the entire distance, several of them sustaining serious but not fatal injuries when the final crash came. Near Muhlenburg, the storm's second fatality was recorded when Mrs. Ledatia Wilkinson was killed and Miss Mamie Burns, a neighbor, was so seriously crushed by flying timbers that she died next day. After crossing Hunlock's creek, the storm path gradually narrowed and at Harvey's creek it became only a partially marked course, entirely disappearing about two miles southwest of Lehman village, where, as one witness described it, "the funnel went to pieces precisely as a little whirlwind goes to pieces on a summer's day, and sailed away to the southeast."
From the time record of clocks which, at various points along the course, had stopped when the storm struck, Professor Santee estimates the rate of passage to have been practically a mile a minute, damage being done within a few seconds time at any given point.
A few moments later in the Wyoming Valley, the same storm or a second one of similar character seems to have adopted a method of procedure quite in keeping with recorded events of the earlier cyclone. At Nanticoke, it appeared to be a heavy wind doing but little damage and without the twisting tendencies it was soon to develop. Peculiar, also, was the fact that instead of following the river or the base of Wilkes-Barré mountain as storms usually are accredited with doing, the cyclone of 1890 moved entirely independent of usually recognized controlling causes. When near the Hanover Green cemetery, the first funnel shaped mass of clouds became observable moving in an easterly direction. Near Petty's woods, the cloud mass turned northward and entered Wilkes-Barré along the line of the Delaware and Hudson tracks to Franklin street. At this point the path of destruction had reached some three hundred yards in width. Between Main and Franklin streets, from Wood to Academy, some of the most
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severe damage of the storm was in evidence. At Academy, the course of the storm turned again toward the east, crossing to St. Nicholas Catholic church on Washington street and onward to the Lehigh Valley railroad station where it again verred to the north, passing out of the city limits near Five Points.
In the city proper the storm seemed once again to divide into two main channels of damage, especially where, as Professor Santee notes, "the tornado seemed to rise from the earth or where it was descending and before it reached its closest sweep to the ground." The alternate rising and falling of the cloud mass was distinctly noticeable in its tendency to crush trees and buildings downward at points in its descent while otherwise its lifting force was plainly marked when the cloud mass arose. These points of descent and ascent were frequently not
ROAD
RIVER
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SHADED DISTRICT SHOWS CYCLONE'S PATH
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SCALE OF MAP
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NOW FAST END.
The Path of the Cyclone.
COURSE OF THE TORNADO OF 1890 [shaded area]
far distant from each other. At the Hazard Manufacturing company plant on Ross street the crushing tendency was plainly noticeable in the partial destruction of one of the large brick buildings, while at the Brown block on East Market street, a lifting power was marked in the destruction of almost the entire roof without material damage to the building itself.
Another curious tendency of the storm was its apparent ability to lift itself over mountain ridges only to descend, a few seconds thereafter, to the bottom of even narrow valleys.
Without entering further into a description of the peculiarities of the cyclone which impressed its many witnesses in various ways with its phenomena, we may proceed to recounting its effect upon Wilkes-Barré.
The exact time when the storm worked its most severe damage within the city limits is possibly best recorded by the clock in the Pennsylvania Railroad telegraph office which stopped at exactly 5.31 P. M. at which time the building in which it was contained was partially destroyed. This was substantiated by several officials of the road.
Within the city limits, the following were killed:
"Bergold, Jacob Olean, Frank Schmitt, Eddie
Fritz, John Henaghan, Mrs. James
Thompson, Nettie
Frantz, Adam Hannapple, George
Kern, Joseph
McGinley, John Martin, Evi
Rittenmeyer, Peter
Szobal, Andrew
Vandermark, Berlin"
CONYNGHAM AVE
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JACKSON ST
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NORTH
NON TH
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LENIGN VALLEY A R
LEHIGH & SUSQUE HANNA & R
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COURSE OF
STANTON
S. MENADE
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HOLLENDACN CEMETERY
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McGinley, Mrs. Eliza J. McGinley, Baby
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In addition to some thirty-five persons who sustained minor injuries but were not admitted to hospitals, the following were listed by the various insti- tutions to which they were taken as seriously hurt:
Barrett, Mrs. McNulty, John
McAvoy, Mrs. Margaret
Fulrod, Frank
Volkrath, Frank
McGinley, Mary
Housch, John
Fry, George
Newsbigle, Isaiah
Long, John
Henaghan, Miss
Welsh, Franklin
McGinley, James
Linn, Fred
Unknown employee of
D. & H. R. R. Co.
The property damage of the storm proved a difficult matter of computation due to the fact that building permits for restoration and repairs were not then required within the city. Conservative estimates placed the damage close to a million dollars, half of it within the city and the other half distributed along the remainder of the storm's path. After leaving the city and for the remainder of its course, the damage was comparatively slight due to the fact that no settle- ments fell in its pathway. That the casualty list was not much larger was one of the most fortunate outcomes of the disaster.
In the building of the Hazard company, for instance, crushed to a mass of brick, timbers and broken machinery, some twenty men were working.
With the passing of the storm other workmen immediately searched among the ruins from which cries of the injured emanated. An improvised hospital was arranged in an adjacent undamaged building and to this the killed and injured were rushed as they could be reached. John Fritz proved the only one killed outright and while fifteen others sustained injuries consisting largely of broken limbs and severe cuts, only two of such appeared among the severely injured list of the hospitals.
Humanitarian echoes of the cyclone were quickly in evidence. Early in the evening it became known that the entire city would be in darkness for at least one night. Members of the Ninth Regiment N. G. P. voluntarily repaired to their unroofed armory on South Main street and offered their services as guards or for purposes of rescue.
Those reporting were divided into squads and the city was divided into districts for patrol duty.
The Board of Trade met the same evening and a committee consisting of T. S. Hillard, E. T. Long and C. Ben Johnson, with F. V. Rockafellow, treasurer, was authorized to solicit what became known as the Cyclone Relief Fund, the sum contributed aggregating $11,025.
In a subsequent report, the committee in charge complained of the number of applicants who, suffering no damage themselves, tried to impose on the Fund, thus depriving those who needed its help of such assistance as could be rendered. Equally it censured another class of citizens who, having their wants relieved to a certain extent, complained without reason that others had received a larger allowance. In spite of many such unpleasant handicaps, the work of the commit- tee seems to have well performed and in the end a balance of some $600, remaining after all worthy cases were cared for, was equally divided between the Christian Benevolent Association and the St. Vincent de Paul Society as a concluding feature of the committee's work.
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CHAPTER XLVIII.
PASSING EVENTS OF THE NINETIES-BOARD OF TRADE ACTIVITIES-BOYS INDUSTRIAL ASSOCIATION - SUCCESSFUL FIGHT FOR NEW POST OFFICE- WELFARE INSTITUTIONS TAKE FORM-IREM TEMPLE-LATTIMER RIOTS-NINTH INFANTRY N. G. P. ORGANIZED-SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR-INDUSTRIAL STRIKES-THIRD RAIL SYSTEMS COM- PLETED-PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT'S VISIT-WILKES-BARRE CELEBRATES-PARK DEVELOPMENT-A NEW COURT HOUSE-MATERIAL PROGRESS OF THE NEW CEN- TURY-BORDER TROUBLES-THE WORLD WAR.
"The perfect historian is he in whose work the character and spirit of an age is exhibited in miniature. He relates no fact, he attributes no expression to his characters, which is not authenticated by sufficient testimony. By judicious selection, rejection and arrangement, he gives to truth those attractions which have been usurped by fiction. In his narrative a due subordination is observed; some transactions are prominent, others retire. But the scale on which he represents them is increased or diminished not according to the dignity of the persons concerned, but according to the degree in which they elucidate the condition of society and the nature of man. He considers no anecdote, no peculiarity of manner, no familiar saying, as too insignificant for his notice which is not too in- significant to illustrate the operation of laws, of religion and of education. Men will not merely be described, but will be made intimately known to us."
Macaulay.
For the remainder of this Volume, embracing a period from the early nineties to the outpouring of men and treasure in a titanic world struggle more than a score of years later, the action will be more rapid than has been possible
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in earlier Chapters and events will be classified with greater brevity. For the most part, the record will deal with incidents fresh in the minds of many sub- scribers to this History.
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