USA > Wisconsin > Vernon County > History of Vernon County, Wisconsin, together with sketches of its towns, villages and townships, educational, civil, military and political history; portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens > Part 41
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the little one was found buried in the ruins. There was also a young lady in the bloom of youth brought in a corpse; it was a Miss Gillett.
A family named Barstow, consisting of six
persons, received a terrible visitation. Mr. Barstow himself and wife and mother-in-law, Mrs. Drake, were brought in mortally injured, the brother-in-law, a Mr. Drake, was found dead in a field near the destroyed residence of R. C. Bierce, and little boys were left homeless orphans. Mr. Barstow died the same night, and the wife and Mrs. Drake were removed to the hospital improvised by the citizens the next day, where after lingering in great pain for several days, they died. Places were found for the boys, I think, with some distant relatives. Mrs. W. S. S. White, wife of the register of deeds, was brought in with a broken leg and remained in great bodily suffering for ten days, when she also died. On every side were heard the cries of suffering and distress, and for a week were seen the tears of lamenta- tion and woe. The loss and destruction of property was at first little considered, so great were other calamities. The blow fell so sud- denly and unexpectedly that those who escaped had time only to feel emotions of grati- tude for their own safety and that of their families and sympathy for the afflicted and dis- tressed.
There was a silk dress found near New Lis- born, in Juneau county, belonging to Mrs. Dr. H. G. Weeden. A dwelling house door of Joseph Buckley was found in the mill-pond at the village of Hillsborough ; and his army dis- charge was picked up two miles from Viroqua, near the residence of J. Wallace. Articles of clothing and pieces of damaged furniture were found miles away from the scene of the disaster.
VI .- STATEMENT OF H. M. ISHAM.
On the 28th of June, at about half past 3 in the afternoon, I was in my brother's house, on section 3, in township 12, range 5 west, in
the town of Jefferson, where my brother, Cas- sius B. Isham, came in pretty brisk, saying: "It is the worst storm coming I ever saw in the west," when just at that moment the house (a log one) began to go. The roof went first, and then a good part of the logs. Besides my brother, there were, in the house at the time, his wife and four children, and Mary Rowe. My brother was some hurt, and one or two of the children. His wife, also, was slightly injured. A few logs were left remain- ing. We all had all we could do to hold on to the logs that were remaining, to keep from be- ing blown away. It rained considerably at the time.
I had ten or a dozen steel traps up in the loft, and they were all blown away and never found. A trowel was found a mile and a half away be- longing to me. The clothing, bed-clothes and articles were blown out of the house and never recovered. A spinning-wheel spindle, found sticking in the siding of a house in Viro- qua, wasrecognized as belonging to my brother. This was the first house struck by the tornado. It was repaired afterward, and stood several years, but is now demolished. It stood about 100 rods south of the town line, which runs to the south part of Viroqua. The roaring of the wind was very loud, and the clouds very black. The air was full of leaves and vegetation, that seemed to be whirled up from off the ground.
The next house east of my brother's that was struck was on seetion 2,in the same town, belong- ing to Morgan Neff. It was blown to the ground. I wentto Viroqua immediately after the tornado passed. I stopped at Neff's on the way. I had to walk about three miles and a half in a straight line before reaching Viroqua. Arriv- ing at the village I assisted the sufferers the best I could the rest of the day.
VII .- NATHAN COE'S NARRATIVE
I was living in Viroqua on the 28th of June, 1865, when the great tornado devastated a large part of the village. My dwelling was on Main street, where Joseph Buckley now lives-that
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is, on the same lot. I was in the court house when I first noticed a strange appearance of the clouds. There seemed a very black cloud in the south, but a white one in the north. James Lowrie was county treasurer, and William Keir was at the moment paying his taxes. He and I were looking west, and the treasurer was „attending to his books facing us. I saw the two clouds through the west window, which was up at the time, come together. They whirled around, presenting an appearance of a white streak and a black one in a spiral form. I remarked, "Those clouds are getting pretty badly twisted up." Lowrie looked around, and shutting up his book, exclaimed: "I am going home," at the same time closing the window.
Of course we had to go out, as he locked the door of the office. Lowrie went west to his home, but Keir and I came into the tavern, then called the North Star, kept by Luther Polan, now the Tremont House. However, before we reached the tavern, it appeared as if it was raining; it was the water from the Skippen's pond, which we mistook at first for rain. When we reached the North Star, we had hard work to get in, there were so many inside holding the door. Keir got in first, and when I tried I was successful, but my coat-tail was caught in the door, and the pressure against it was so great from those who were holding it, that I could not get loose. Just then I looked out of the south window, and saw the east side of the court house roof go off.
Just at this moment some one said to me, "There are two of your horses coming down the street, and one with a piece of board hanging to the halter." It was a part of the manger where the horse had been tied in the barn. I had, at that time, seven horses in my barn. I then pulled myself out of my coat, the garment being left in the door. I then turned around, gave my coat a jerk, and the door came open.
I looked out toward the south, and I saw the buildings were pretty much all down. I then went directly home. I found the east of my
house gone, and the windows blown in on the north side. I asked my wife if any of the family were hurt, and she replied that there were none. Then I started to go to my mother's home-Mrs. Margaret Coe's. On my way there I met a boy who told me that all my horses were piled up in a heap on the barn floor -the barn was all gone and the floor too, except where the horses were. I had a new wagon standing beside the barn. It was blown away, and I never saw any part of it afterward. Still I went on to my mother's. I found her and my two sisters and Emily and Edward W. Hazen, not any of them injured. My brother, William Coe, had been in the house. My mother and the four children went into the cellar kitchen; but my brother refused to go down, and was blown away with the house.
I found him a short distance away from where the house had stood; the rest of the family by this time, had come out of the cellar. My brother was fast under one of the sills. Mr. Keir went all the way with me from the tavern, and he helped me get my brother out, who was badly hurt. It was eight or nine days before weknew whether he would recover or not; but he finally got well. Five sacks of wheat and some kitchen furniture were blown away from the cellar kitchen, and the clothes of my mother and of the children were pretty badly torn. The chickens around the house were all killed, and most of them had their feathers off quite as clean as if stripped by hand. One of the family garments-a cloth circular-was after- ward found about forty-five miles away, to the eastward.
VIII-JOHN DAWSON'S ACCOUNT.
Before the approach of the storm, the day was very hot, but the weather was threatening, and we could hear thunder for, perhaps, an hour before. I was very busily engaged at the time in my store, which was located nearly opposite my residence, and took little notice of the dan- gerous aspect of the storm until it was very near the village. When I first noticed it, some
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one calling my attention to it from my store door, it appeared to be a confused mass of timbers, branches, stones, leaves, driven among themselves in every direction. The track of the storm appeared to be about one hundred rods wide, and the noise was like the rumble of thunder. In sound and in the dread that it inspired, it was like to a score of giant locomo- tives driving abreast.
It came from the west, and I watched its approach until it reached the nearest dwelling of the village that I discovered. This was the Gard- ner dwelling. It lifted the building from its base, tossed it in air like a toy, and rent it in pieces, scattering the fragments on every side. I watched its course among the houses until it neared my own home. I then saw a two-story building north of my dwelling picked up and thrust over upon my house. There was no time from the first real comprehension of the peril- not a moment to think. There was but one thought, and that was to hug the earth where alone lay our safety. With this intent I leaped from the door and ran out into the street, only to be knocked down by the flying timber. When I recovered myself, the storm was past, and ] rose and walked to the ruins of my house and took my child from its mother's arms and ran back to the store. My wife remained, saying she would see if she could find Mrs. Somerby. My injuries, which, in the excitement were hardly noticed, overcame me in a few minutes, and 1 became unconscious. Because of my wounds and the consequent illness, I did not see the ruins for some time, and can give no account of them. It was a number of weeks before I recovered sufficiently to be around and attend to business. I have never fully recovered. The whole number killed outright and who afterward died from the injuries received, were twenty.
My house was destroyed in this way: The floor was left; all above that a wreck. My wife was slightly injured, but the boy was unhurt.
Their escape was a wonder, considering the tim- ber and other debris which fell around them.
IX .- CHARLES C. BROWN'S RECOLLECTION.
1 was about one mile east of Viroqua at Green's. I was helping Amos Green frame his barn. It was a blustering afternoon; there were strong.indications of a storm. It appeared so threatening that we conclu led to quit work. It- thundered heavily, and there was vivid light- ning. I suggested to the boys, as we had so many steel tools, that I felt uneasy about work- ing there. We had no more than quit fairly, before the storm came on. All but myself went into Green's house; I did not go in because I felt uneasy abont home. I discovered the storm coming --- the ground trembled. We could have seen the storm sooner had it not been that we were behind a heavy grove.
The tornado passed about 200 yards south of me. It had the appearance of a huge top; it was cone shaped. It looked as though it was made up of tar --- it was a black mass. The noise was deafening. Immediately after it passed it was quite calm. I immediately started for town. I had not gone far before I discovered the frag- ments of a school house. Children were run- ning wild in every direction. I was then close to old Mr. Green's residence. He asked me to go over and render assistance to those children who might be found in the rubbish. I went and helped take out six children, some already dead and the residue soon expired. Other help now came and I hurried home.
Most of the children that I met before reaching the ruins of the school house were more or less injured; many had blood on their faces. They were frantic and were running for home. I found the school teacher, a young lady, sitting on the ground with a child's head resting on her lap with very bad gashes in her face. She was so covered with blood as not to be recog- nized. She appeared very cool and rational. The child she held was already dead or was dy- ing. She said all but the six had gone home.
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I wondered how she could know; but she was correet.
When I got home (I was then living with my brother, T. B. Brown, now dead,) the floor of our house was covered with the wounded lying about. There were none dead there however. I reached Viroqua not far from 5 o'clock. It. was the afternoon of June 28, 1865.
In coming in from the country I saw many strange sights. Chiekens with their feathers nearly all blown off; cats wandering half dead; horses lying down with their legs broken. Wagons, honsehold furniture and other artieles strewed in every direction. I should think from all I saw and have since learned, the tornado traveled at the rate of about a mile a minute on the ground.
RECOLLECTIONS OF R. C. BIERCE.
As I now recall the facts, it was at a point about four and one-half miles west from the vil- lage of Viroqua, that the wind had gathered sufficient force to begin to break down and tear up trees. My recollection is to the effect that the first building destroyed or partially des- troyed, was the residence of Benjamin Pieree. This, I think, was a log house, and, probably, was not very large. I think, too, that the dwelling of a man whose name is Cassius B. Isham, was either wholly or partially destroyed before the storm reached the village. As the tornado seemed to move straight to the east from the west, as straight as a line could be drawn, and as its track was only about twenty rods wide, it did not happen to strike many buildings until it reached the village. Then its ruin was triumphant and complete. A Mr. William Vought was living about one-half mile west from the village limits, and in the very pathway of the storm, but I think his house was not injured at all.
I do not remember now the last building that was destroyed east of the village. But after the all-destroying column ceased to hug the ground so closely as to suek up buildings and everything else that stood in its way, it still had
force enough to scatter fences, tear np trees by the roots or break them off. Writing to Prof. Henry, when all the facts were fresh in my mind, I remember now very distinctly that I made the distance about nine miles from the point where it began to destroy trees west of the village to the point where its destruction ceased east of the village. Like a bird of evil omen with black, wide-spreading pinions, it seemed to swoop down from the regions above, smiting first the tops of the trees, and descending lower and lower until it reached the ground, when it swept everything away with rushing wings, and when fully glutted and satisfied with the ruin it had wrought, of both life and property, it grad- nally lifted itself up again, destroying as it rose until it reached the very elouds. A great many acres of valuable timber standing east of Viro- qua was almost wholly destroyed. John White was, perhaps, one of the severest sufferers in this respeet.
As the tornado passed through the village, and it may have been so outside the village, there seemed to be side currents coming in from the northwest that provel destructive. The court house stood two blocks, or more, north of the direct track of the storm, but it was unroofed. Dr. E. W. Tinker ocenpied the house now occupied by Capt. John R. Casson, and to the rear of it stood his barn. The barn was destroyed and a valuable horse was killed; but I do not remember now that either his house or other houses in that immediate vicinity were much, if any, injured. Probably, the current that unroofed the court house struck the old Buckeye house, then occupied by J. M. Rusk's family, and tore off the north wing of the build- ing; and either this eurrent or the one that struck Dr. Tinker's barn, struck the residence of A. K Burrell, it being the house more re- cently, and, perhaps, now occupied by Il. P. Proctor, Esq., and moved it from its founda- tions some six feet northeast, so that when Mrs. Burrell, after the storm was over, went to the door, and looking out, saw where the cistern
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was, she exclaimed: "I declare if the storm didn't blow our cistern away!"
As for my own individual experience in that trying time, I can well say that I dislike to re- call it; but, if it will add anything to the value of the history you are compiling, I will give it.
My office at that period was on the lower floor of the south wing of Tate's store building as it stood at that time. I
was very busy that day drawing complaints for the foreclosure of some tax deeds, and I noticed nothing peculiar about the temperature of the atmosphere or of the clouds until the wind began to blow so hard through a sonth window that was open as to scatter my papers all about my office and I got up and closed the window and sat down to writing again. So lit- tle was I anticipating a violent storm, I did not even take the time nor the trouble to look out and see what the clouds were like. It was but a moment, however, apparently, before a gust of wind came in at the door which opened to the east, and blowing the papers all off my table a second time. I got up and closed the door, gathered up my papers and sat down to my writing again. At this time my son Fred- die, then seven years old, came running into my office, just dismissed from school, and plead with me to go home with him. He said there would be a dreadful storm, and most all the school children had run into the jail. I tried to quiet him down by telling him I thought the storm would be over in a very few minutes for my position in my office was such that I saw nothing of the fearful gathering of the clouds that held within them such terrific power for de- struction. It was growing dark in my office and I told Freddie we would go into the store and stay until the storm was over. We passed into the store and found a good many people in there and more came running in. I passed back to the farther end of the store building where there was a window overlooking the court house square. Then I noticed for the first time how dark, threatening and heavy the clouds were. In
a moment more other men came rushing into the store; all of a sudden there was a terrible roar, and amidst it I could hear the shrieks of women and the frenzied calls of men; the store was full of people that had rushed in; the strong building began to tremble and creak; some sprang to the doors and others to the windows to hold them in; a wave of blackness almost as impenetrable as the blackness of deep midnight swept along. In that blackness I could bare'y see the tall liberty pole that stood in the court house square bending and sweeping round and round until the ball on the top seemed to touch the ground; the shurbbery all seemed to lie flat on the ground and to twist round and round in circles; the air was full of flying boards, shingles and rubbish that went sweeping by the window where I was standing and looking out on the dire drama that was be- ing played outside; I could hear them striking against the building, but over and above all was that indescribable, that unearthly roar, and brooding over and around all was the alnost impenetrable darkness.
All this was but for a moment, comparatively speaking. The spirit of the storm was as swift as it was terrible, in passing over the doomed village. The winds died away, the clouds lifted, and from the window, where I stood through it all, I could see that the court house was un- roofed, the liberty pole was gone, the shrub- bery had all disappeared, and the trophies of the storm were lying around everywhere. The store doors were opened and the people began to pass out. I went to the door and looked out, and at a distance, apparently of two miles east of the village, I could see the whirlwind, tor- nado, cyclone, or whatever people might see proper to call it. It was a dark, perpendicular column, in fact, it was intensely black and im- penetrable, moving steadily on to the east, roar- ing as it went. Of its diameter, I had no means of judging, but it reached from the ground to the clouds, and I could see the clouds coming from every direction like race horses, and all
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were drawn down into the terrible vortex. One moment, that awful black, moving column would sink down and down, drawing every thing from above with it, and anon it would rise up and up into the heavens, and then it would spew out its gathered stomach full of rubbish which would go scattering off on the the wings of the wind.
I do not remember that it rained while the storm cloud was passing over, but soon after, the rain began to fall. As the thought that my property had been touched by that dark mon- ster, I had seen so plainly, did not once enter my mind, I was in no hurry about leaving the store, but I remained there with Freddie until the rain ceased, then we started for the house.
When I got out of the store, the first thing I noticed, was the ruins of J. A. Somerby's house piled up in the middle of the street, in front of where McKee's store stands, and somebody stood there looking at them, then I saw that the store of H. Nichols & Sons was gone, all there was left of it was the lower floor, and L. W. Nichols stood there surveying the ruins. The next evidence of loss that I noticed, was when I reached the residence of Mrs. Thomas Fret- well; she stood in the middle of the street, cry- ing and wringing her hands. Her house was very badly demoralized.
From Mrs. Fretwell's I went directly home, and it seemed to me as though I saw my house standing there, intact, until I got on to the very grounds. Like every one else, I was dazed, bewildered, thrown off my balance. The fact is, no two persons saw things just alike then. The first thing that recalled me to a sense of the real situation of things, meeting my little son, Arthur, then just over three years of age, run- ning around and calling for "Ma!" His clothes were nearly all torn from his body, he had a great swelling on his forehead, where he had been hit by something; he was plastered all over with dirt and blood was on his face, his hands and his feet. When he saw me he cried out, "Pa, where's Ma." I replied, "I dont
know, my son; dont you know where Ma is?" and he answered in his childish way, "No; where is her?" Then I began to realize the true condition of things. For a moment the inexpressible silence of complete desolation reigned. My house was gone, my wife was gone, buildings, fences, trees, all were gone. Only two hours before, I had left that home, a place bright and lovely to me; then all darkness, silence and desolation. Owing to my slowness in leaving the store after the storm was over, many of the villagers had rescued from the ruins of several destroyed houses, the injured, dead and dying, before I got to where my house stood, and several men were there looking for my wife when I got there. It was an hour per- haps, before my wife was found. She was found at last, by Comfort Richardson, lying insensible between two floors of the central portion of the house. These floors had been carried bodily from where the house stood, in a southeasterly direction from the street and on to the lands of Dr. Weeden. The finding was in a measure accidental. As we were threading through the ruins that lay thick all around, Comfort, being Dear the floors thought he heard a groan. For some time we looked around without finding her, when Comfort, noticing that the upper floor pro- jected some over the under floor, he stooped down and looked under, and he saw a portion of the skirt of her dress hanging down. By calling a number of men to our aid, we raised the upper floor sufficiently to get her out. She was taken to the residence of Deacon Trow- bridge where Dr. Tinker dressed her wounds. It was some hours before she was restored to consciousness, and several days before she so far recovered as to be able to help herself. A wound she received on her head, was the final cause of her death, so her attending physicians said. She never fully recovered from the ef- fects of that wound, and I could see that yearly and monthly, she was growing weaker physi- cally, and her mind, too, suffered some, towards the last, and on Monday evening July 19, 1874,
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as she was sitting by my side in church, she was stricken with paralysis, and she lingered until twenty minutes past 4 o'clock in the afternoon of Saturday, July 25, when she breathed her last.
It may not be amiss to relate briefly what my wife toll me she saw and felt before she be- came unconcious. It was a very warm day, and she was engaged in ironing, in the kitchen, when the wind began to blow quite hard, and she saw from the appearance of the clouds that quite a storm was like to happen. She went up stairs and into other rooms below, to put down windows that were up; as there were several rooms, this ocenpied some time. Having closed all the windows she started for the kitchen again, and by the time she reached the door opening from the dining room into the kitchen, the wind was blowing so hard that the house began to tremble She noticed that Arthur had crawled under the kitchen table and was lying flat on his face. Phineas Drake, a man that was sawing and splitting wood in the wood house, had come into the kitchen and stood with his hands against one of the windows, and he re- marked that he "thought the wind would blow in the windows." At that moment she heard a jingling, as of breaking glass, and she knew nothing more until she came back to conscious- ness, after having been carried to Mr. Trow- bridge's house. She fell where she stood, by the door between the dining room and kitchen.
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