Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes Co., O. [Ohio]) 1870-1895, 1871-07-27
POWER OF A STORM.
A Railroad Train Blown from the
Track. -l. .l.-

A Railroad Train Blown from the
u Track. -ll-
The telegraphic reports in no way
exaggerated the tremendous force OF
the storm which recently devastated
a portion of Nebraska. In the
country near Omaha serious mis-
chief was done. A number of peo-
pie killed and a vast quantity of
property destroyed. The house of
a farmer, j. t. Jester, was lifted
bodily from its foundation by fu-
rious blast and whirled through the
air five rods or more, stunning and
bruising the frightened inmates. In
the same town nearly every house
was unroofed, the wind tearing the
roofs off like pasteboard. For miles
the fine cornfelds and wheat fields
have been ruined. Says the Omaha
Herald.
"a procession following the
corpse of Lewis P. Thompson was
overtaken by the tempest about four
miles west of this city, Mr.. Ireland
was one of the first to see it coming
and, being strong man, he jump
ed out, hoping to be able to hold
the carriage to the ground. But
his efforts were fruitless, the vehicle
being twisted out of his grasp, and
overturned.
Nearly every team was lifted bod
lily from the ground.
A carriage,in which Mrs. Thomp-
son, Mrs. Ireland, Mrs. Scott, and
other near relatives of the deceas-
cd, were riding, was capsized.
The hearse ran down into a hol-
low where shelter was afforded. One
lady wds taken up rom the ground
and carried a distance of twenty
feet in the air before she could re-
gain her feet. The men could not
stand up, but were thrown about
at the mercy of the wind.
The afternoon train on the
Fremont and Elkhorn Valley Rail
road was struck by the storm, be
tween Scribner and Crowell, and the
three coaches were lifted from
the track, thrown down the embank-
ment, and turned upside down in
the ditch.
One side of the engine was lifted
eight inches from the track, but the
coupling broke, and it fell back
again. Nearly every passenger was
injured. .r...
John McClary of Norfolk, receiv'
ed a fractured skull; his wife was
bruised beyond recognition; their
son, ,Johny had his skull fractured.
Robert E. Farley's shoulder was
dislocated.
The left arm of DR.. A. G. Beebe
of Blair was broken above the ell
bow.
Conductor McLeod's shoulder
was broken. $3.50 a
Lew. Reed of this city was on the
train but escaped with only slight
bruises. But one mile from the
wreck of the train, the house of
Nathan Austin was picked up by
the wind, carried about 100 feet,
and torn completely into pieces.
Mr.. Austin was crushed to death in
the wreck by falling timbers. His
daughter escaped with her life,
though she. was severely injured.
The Union Pacific Railroad express
train, which had drawn up to the
water tank at Lone Tree, was back
ed away from the building when
the approach of the storm was
noticed and not moment too soon
for the windmill and building fell
Immediately afterward with fearful
crash.
AS the storm swept about the
train, shaking it tremendously, the
employees of the company hurried
through toward the sleeping-cars,
which were considered the safest |
from being the heaviest, and they
said that the passengers were near
ly all on, their knees praying. for
mercy. for not one expected to es-
cape alive.
Immense hail-stones fell at this
point, and a dispatch received from
there said that none were smaller
than a conffee cup.
One was found that actually meas
ured twelve inches in circumference.
In the city, twelve houses were
blown down and destroyed. The
roof was torn from the back side of
the depot; the kitchen of the hotel
ives blown down; the telegraph poles
were torn from the ground; a box
freight car, standing on side track,
was demolished, the frame blown
over an embankment, and the truck
was taken up by an opposite oarrent
of wind and thrown on the main
track; piles of lumber were whirled
In every direction.
The operator telegraphed that "a
woman was picked up by the wind
and carried a quarter of mile at |
the rate of thousand miles a min
ute."
A gentleman named E. Phelps,
living near Lone Tree, was killed, his
daughter fatally injured, and every
member of his family more or less
bruised.
The storm there continued about
ten minutes,and its track was about
ten miles in width; within that linn
it, every field of grain was entirely
destroyed. At Blair, the Sioux
City and Pacific round-house was
blown down, ,and the watchman, with
his son, narrowly escaped from the
ruins with their lives.
Mr.. Boston's house, about one
mile from the town, was torn to
pieces, but fortunately no person
was injured. The loss in buildings
and crops, which is immense, cannot
now be estimated, and it is probable
that further loss of human life will
be repeated.
A fascinating youth of Louisville
was recently very badly "sold' by