The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1881-09-16

Particulars 0f the Terrible Michigan
COmflagratiOns-Appa Destruc-
siOn ef Life and Property.

C0mflagrntfons-Ap Destruc-
sion 81 Life and Property.
DETROIT, MICH. Sept. Q.
The scene Of the terrible tornado of flame In
the lower Michigan peninsula may be readily
placed in the mind of the casual reader by the
aid Of the following explanation The southern
peninsula OF Michigan has the form, on the
map, of left-hand mitten, laid on its palm.
The space between the thumb and fingers Is
represented by Saginaw bay. Huron county
forms the end Of the thumb and beneath ii,
on the map, lie Tusoola and Sanilac counties,
side by side, Sanilac to the eastward. Bad Az
is in tho center of Huron county, and is the
county scat, and Caro- Is in the center OF Tus-
cola county, and 10 the county seat. Each of
the three counties has about twenty-four town.
ships SIX miles square
The loss of life and property il immense. A
dispatch from Lexington says that dead
bodies are being brought in from al directions.
1t is estimated that 500 people are homeless and
in immediate want Of assistance. The farm
ers in newer townships lose live stock, houses,
barns, crops, everything. A farmer who Just
came in from Austin township saved his family
of eight children in a field Of buckwheat, but
he says the whole country in that part is total
ly destroyed and many lives have been lost
The loss OF live stock is simply immense.
The older settled townships escaped with but
little loss, but In most OF the newer townships
nothing remains but fre-swept blackened
wilderness,
A dispatch from Marlette, Sanilac county,
says q terrible state OF Affairs exists at that
point The entire section of the country lying
to the north and east Of that place has been on
fire, and the number Of families rendered home
less will reach the hundreds. Up to this time
seventeen persons are known to have met their
death by fire. The horse Of Ira Humphrey, the
mail carrier between this place and Davies
Corners, came home badly burned, with card
attached to tho saddle written by Humphrey,
stating his peril from fire. A relief party
found him on the road dead He was entirely
denuded of his clothes, either having been
burned on his person, or torn of by himself in
his desperation. In the township of Argyle,
Huron county, the following were burned dead:
Paul Wetzel, wife and five children; George
Krotch, wife and three children Mrs. Morris
WEIGH and two children; James Gibson, and
two women, recently from Canada, names I'M
known
The Rev. z. Grenell, Jr., pastor of the First
Baptist Church, OF this city, arrived from Sand
Beach at noon to-day by the Narrow Gauge and
Grand Trunk, passing through most Of the
burned region IN Sanilac county. He gave a
reporter graphic and fearful description OF
the calamity as he saw it, and heard of it from
eye-witnesses. On his way 10 Port Huron by
NhrTOW-0duSo ThlIOdu III Was Inat,
In some places, the railroad track had
proved an effectual barrier to the fames
which did not find fuel in the gravel of the
road-bed In other places, however, ii burned
the ties and twisted and destroyed the rails,
which had TO be replaced. In other places 1t
had leaped clear over the road, and taken n new
start on the other side. For the most part, it
got across in some way, and the spots of I'M
burnt country were small, few, and far between
From the car-windows, all the way 1t pre-
sented TO the view tho aspect of q burned
desert OF ashes and smoldering embers, without
Q sign Of animal or vegetable life, country
abandoned by God and man. and to which it
was impossible to imagine any one returning
The telegraph poles had all burned, and the
wires had been reset upon any stick that could
be found, and, for long distances, were merely
laid along the ties beside the rails.
One Of the most singular and appalling phe-
nomena accompanying the calamity was the
awesome darkness which preceded IL and RS
NAMED until all was over The experience OF
Sand Beach will illustrate that OF the whole
lake shore. At sunrise Monday the air was as
clear as usual At p. m. the people began to
observe singular copper-colored appearance
Of the whole armament. A little later this
deepened to red. and by o'clock il
was 80 dark that people were compelled 10 take
lanterns to find their way out Of doors Mr..
jerks, q wel-known citizen. said that he passed
could not see. The fearful darkness continued
oil the afternoon, with an occasional rift,
through which the rays OF the sun darted fur
lively with unnatural brightness, to be sue
ceeded Immediately by still more binding
blackness.
Many thought the end OF the world was at
haDd, and were filled with terror. The horrors
OF the imagination were soon intensified by the
approach of the flames, the stories OF the uni
versal desolation to the west Of them the
dread that they we're fated to frightful death,
and then by the arrival of the charred,
blsckened and shapeless remains of
the poor victims. This awful condition
continued al along the shore until Wednesday
morning at o'clock, when the wind, which had
been blowing steadily from the west turned
suddenly from the north, carrying the cool,
moist air OF the lake to the fevered heads and
acknowledgement faces of the people.
1t was sweet as the breath of God, and was ac-
cepted rs thankfully.
The scenes Of horror in the woods were too
frightful for any pen to portray. The dead
were found everywhere, very rarely recognza-
BILE, and in most cases undistinguishable as hui
man beings Many were mere masses Of burnt
flesh, which fell apart when touched, and in
very few could sex or age be distinguished.
From one body the head fell when it was lifted
up; from another, that of q young woman,
the leg separated and hung suspended by
the tendons. In some places families were
found reduced TO an undstinguishable heap OF
roasted and backened blocks OF flesh. where
they fell together, overwhelmed by the rushing
flames. The manifold horrors of the calamity
were multiplied by fearful torpadoes, which
cut off retreat in every direction. The awful
heat Of the atmosphere raised the smoke a
little from the ground, and it hung above the
earth in an impenetrable mass, shutting out all
light and leaving TIE poor creatures below
helpless and blind, until the fire caught them
and closed their agony in death. Now and
then flames shot up in tremendous masses,
which would be seized by a tornado and carried
bodily a quarter of mile away, and then
pushed down again to start the flames in a new
quarter. In this way helpless fugitives flying
for life we're penned in by seas OF flame,
and roasted like rats in cage. One farmer,
few miles from Sand Beach, who was plow-
ing with oxen, on noticing the approaching
darkness, and thinking no had plenty OF
time, waited to turn his cattle and horses loose.
He then hurried to the house, and, finding his
wife gone to a neghbor, took two children him.
self, and gave three others in charge of his old
est daughter Before they got many rods from
the house the flames had got before them. He
hurried of in another direction with his two
youngest, but the girl pushed on over the burn
ing grass with the other three. He escaped.
! The bodies of the other four were afterward
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