The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1881-09-16
A TORNADO OF FLAME.
Particulars of the Terrible Michigan
COnflagratiOns-AppaIling Destruc-
ton of Life and Property.

X OVAAAAn8 NntAUUS-Appd11AmX UG8tIUC1
ton of Life and Property.
DETROIT, Mich, Sept. 9.
The scene of the terrible tornado of fame 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 Ieft-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 it,
on the map, lie Tuscola and Sanllac counties,
side by side, Sanilac to the eastward. Bad Ak
is in the center of Huron county, and is the
county seat, and Caro- is in the center of Tus-
cola county, and is the county seat Each of
the three counties has about twenty-four town.
ships Six miles square. r.
The Ioss OF life and property Is immense. A
dispatch from Lexington says that dead
bodies are being brought in from all 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 q field of buckwheat, but
ne 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 a terrible state of affairs exists at that
point. The entire section of the country living
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 Dayies
Corners, came home badly burned with card
attached to the 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 off 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 ellison, and
two women, recently from Canada, names un-
known.
The Rev. 2. 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
reporter graphic and fearful description of
eye-witnesses. On his way to Port Huron by
the Narrow-Gauge railroad it was noticed that,
In some places, the railroad track had
proved an effectual barrier to the flames.
which did not find fuel in the gravel of the
road-bed. In other places, however, it burned
the ties and twisted and destroyed the rails,
which had to be replaced. In other places It
had leaped clear over the road, and taken o 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, it pre-
sented to the view the aspect of a burned
desert of ashes and smoldering embers, without
q sign OF animal or vegetable life, a country
abandoned by God and man, and to wh;ch 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
pc 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 it and re-
mained 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 q red, and by O'Clock it
was so dark that people were compelled to take
lanterns to find their way out of doors. Mr..
jerks, a eli-known citizen said that he passed
his hand back and forth BEFORE his face and
could not see. Tho fearful darkness continued
all 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. - ~ A u es@
Many Thought the end of the world was at
hand, 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,
blackened and shapeless remains OF
the poor victims. This awful condition
continued all 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
smoke -and-ash- begrimed faces OF the people.
1t was sweet as the breath of God, and was ac-
copied as thankfully.
The scenes of horror in the woods were too
frightful for any pen to portray. The dead
were found everywhere, very rarely recogniza-
BILE, and in most cases undstingushable as hui
man beings. Many were mere masses of burnt
file h.. 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 undistinguighable heap of
roasted and blackened blocks of flesh. where
they fell together, overwhelmed by the rushing
hsmes. The manifold horrors of the calamity
we're multiplied by fearful tornadoes, which
cut of retreat in every direction. The awful
beat of the atmosphere raised the smoke
little from the ground, and it hung above the
III III
light, and leaving tko 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 q tornado and carried
bodily a quarter of q mile away and then
pushed down again to start the flames in a new
quarter. In this way helpless fugitives flying
Tor life were 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 he 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 neighbor, 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
found in heap, charred beyond recognition.
John Ballentine, OF Verona Mills, says that
hfty-three lives were known to be lost in the
neighborhood of Sand Beech. The fire sud-
denly reached Verona Mills on Monday, and
the town was soon wiped out The wind was
so strong that Ballentine and wife were picked
up and blown fifteen or twenty yards.
woman and her husband were found lying
against tree, dead, the woman being partly
delivered Of q child. The devastation
caused by the fires Of 1871 is nothing
in comparison to the fires of the past
few days. In the vicinity of Richmondville
Western, Forester and Marcer townships relia-
BILE information leads one to say that upward
of 800 persons persisted in the flames, There
was no escape for them. The woods and
ground were so dry that no warning of danger
was given. Faster than race-horse came the
fire. 1t would embrace house or 9 barn with
its contents and away to the next. Persons
who have been through the terrible ordeal
say that in ten minutes from the time the
fire struck there would be no vestige of house
left.
A correspondent says: ST have just returned
from trip through the burned district, end
description OF the sights would make the read
er's blood turn cold. In many instances
men, women and children were found living on
their faces in the road, where they had fallen
when overtaken by the frs Children were
lying on logs, where they had clambered for
safety There was no finding each other when
oroa conaro%od took rofr,<ra ,,r,lI~n -.