White Cloud Kansas chief. [volume] (White Cloud, Kan.) 1857-1872, 1871-10-26

PRsnfloess DKsrRUCrleN.
/ Nfshs ef Mssrsr In NsssAeEn Wisesasin.
[Fron the Mari.ette asd PeaAsso Eaeis Extraetl
MARnmfTE, WIS, Oct. II.
| Yesterday morning in company with several
gentlemen from Marinctte, Wisconsin, and Memo
minec, Michigan, We visited the site Of what was
once the beautiful and thriving little village OF
PeshtigO. II contained about l 800 people, and
was one of the busiest, liveliest, and one Of the
most enterprising communities along the bay shore
Standing amid the charred and blackened embers,
with the frightfhly mutilxted corpses OF men, wo-
and fowls-eyery house, shed, barn, ont houses OF
structures Of any kind swept from the earth as
/ with the very hesUn of destYuction--0ur emotions
cannot be described in language n" pen dipped
in liquid fire can paint the scene language I'm
| thoughts that breathe and wOfds that burn,
gives but the faintcst impression of its horrors.
Frum the survivors we CLEAN the following in
reference to the scenes at the village and IN the
| farming region commonly known as the "Sugar
half an hour, death like stiffness hung over the
| doomed town. The smoke from the fires in the
region around was SO thick as to he sitting, and
hung like funeral pail over everything, and all
was enveloped in Egyptian darkness. Soon light
puffs of air were felt; the horizon at the south
east, south and southwest began to he family illn
minated; perceptible trembling of the earth
was felt, and distant roar broke the awful 81
lence People began to fear that some awful ca
lamity was impending but as yet no one even
| dreamed Of the danger.
The illumination soon became intensified into a
fierce, lurid glare; the roar deepened into howl,
if all the demons from the internal pit had been
| let loose, when the advance gusts of wind from
] the main body of the tornado struck. Chimneys
were blown down, houses were unroofed the roof
| of the WO0denware Factory was lifted, large
warehouse filled with tubs, pals, kanakans, keel
ers, and fish kits was nearly demolished, and amid
the confusion, terror, and terrible apprehension
of the moment, the fiery element, in tremendous
inrolling billOws and masses of sheeted fame en-
veloped the devoted iillage. The frenzy Of de-
spair seized ON all hearts, strong men bowed like
weeds before the fiery blast, women and children,
like freighted specters fitting through the awful
gloom, were swept away like autumn leaves.
Crowds rushed for the bridge but the bridge, like
all else, was receiving its baptism of fire. Hun
dreds crowded into the river, cattle plunged in
with them, and being huddled together in the
general confusion Of the moment, many who had
| taken to the water to avoid the flames were
drowned great many were on the blazing
bridge when it fell. The debris from the burning
town was hurled over and on the heads of those
who were in the water. killing many and manning
Others 50 that they gave up in dispair and sank
to q watery grave.
In less than an hour from the time the tornado
struck the town, the village of Peshtigo was an
initiated!
Full one hundred perishcd either in the flames
or i'm the water, and all the property wiped
ont of existence!
In the "Sugar BUSH the loss of life was even
greater in proportion to the number of inhabitants
than in the village. Whole families are destroy
ed, and over thickly settled region in the heavy
hard wood timber, consisting of two or three town.
ships, there is scarcely family but is now left
destitute and mOurns the loss Of some of its loved
ones.
Hon. 1. Stephenson, of Marinette, went yester-
day short distance the road leading to the up
per bush, and counted thirty-seven dead bodies
Another party informs us that he found over
fifty dead one road, and over forty on another.
In the lower bush the trunks of the fallen trees,
lying in every conceivable direction, are strewn
50 thickly over the ground that it must be many
days before the entire region can be thoroughly
penetrated, SO as to bury the dead and succor the
living.
THE NUMBER WHO HAVE PERIsHED
Is not yet definitely ascertained, but enough is
known tOplace first reports far in the back ground.
At Peshtigo village over one hundred were either
burned to death or tlsOwned in the river in their
efforts to escape the flames. The "Sugar Bush
is divided into what is known rs the Upper, Mid
die, and Lower Bush. From what We can learn,
and by cleaning our information from all possible
sources, quite certain that over sixty were
burned to death in the Upper Bush about seventy
five in the Middle, and fully one hundred and
twenty in the Lower Bush, miserabiy, terribly
perishcd.
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t;rs snJ nearly fr vdrd ~Se ny .ne
hnr,aJ n,n .ta!n;tr ~. na e3 th .. ~Gie
;,at;ons av.r I,nn 4, ~. hstor, 90 a.. I'LL
and the wrrtchs,l Survivors irff With nnthm0 TO-
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ali of his st"ct and sunnl;ss H;s h",sa % has haaS
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and is Ias roriar.S thar, Il, .i s.;stn 4, H.
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Vester,,.r M,,,;,,r having IN h;s .h,ro.
con% Of ra;,,oad a,nS",.. was .r.,,s ~ @ T., ,ta,,'
erinS toaetLrr the rem:ns at PrsIi;t', and Il The
;'nssd;Jta ,;.;;t, ani ;J.,t;s vi an. :. ~ .ns
Siacksned cerpses fcr burial. ne was assisted by