Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1883-06-14

4
west of Delbert Utt's all the fences and
bridges had been swept away and a
great deal of damage done. Leaving
here the newsgatherers continued on to
BRITISH HOLLOW.
Here, in this quiet little town, the ele-
ments appeared to have done their
worst and as one can't down the hill
the main street looked as though it had
just come out of an encounter with an
able bodied tornado and was hardly in
q condition for another round. Lumber.
sections of sidewalk, agricultural imple-
ments and debris of every kind occu-
pied the street and told where the tor
rent had been. The two heaviest suff-
erers from the flood were Mr. VIM.
Morhrenberg and Mr.. H. C. Smith
The entire northeast corner ofthe saloon
owned by the former was washed out,
and few moments more would have
landed in the branch totally democrat
lied. Fortunately the storm did not
last long enough for this. Mr.. Smith
is a dealer in agricultural machinery
and had a fine, large stock, stored in
q warehouse, owned by Messrs. Emery
and Stevens, beside heavier machinery
stored under sheds outside. All of this
is damaged more or less. That stored
in the outside sheds was taken up by
the angry torrent and whirled away
down stream, some of the cultivators
being found on q debris pile nearly
three miles away.
As an evidence CT the fierceness of the
flood is noted its encounter with a heavy
Champion self-b inder which was fasten-
ed under a shed to a heavy post AS
the machine weighs about fifteen hum
bred pounds it might well be supposed
to be safe. But it was taken up, the
post broken off, and the machine car
ried the distance of a hundred feet and
deposited alongside another building
considerably the worse for wear. The
damage done to Mr.. Smiths stock will
be great. Speaking of the storm and
its fury, that gentleman said, Il have
been washed out twice before, but
never saw so severe q storm come on
such short notice. On my way down to
recover my machinery this morning /
saw rocks which would weigh twenty
tons that had been rolled around by the
flood as if of no account. In Cava-
naugh's field there is five thousand
loads of brush and debris piled up. 1t
is a sight to see'' Mr. Thos. Stevens
united with Mr.. Smith in saying that
during his residence of forty years in
the place he had never seen so bad n
flood with so short storm.
Mr.. Elijah Pedlar, blacksmith oc-
cupying Mr.. Stevens rock shop, was
another sufferer from tho ravages of the
flood, which filled the shop almost to
the top of the bellows and covered
everything with dirt and slime. Mr..
Pedlar's mother, Mrs. Joel Pedlar, was
equally unfortunate. Her house stands
on the main street and the flood stood
two feet deep on the floor. Fortunately
her daughter was about to move TO Du-
buque and had the carpets up and the
greater portion of the furniture stored
in store adjoining, otherwise the dam
age would have been much 9 eater.
| Other sufferers whose names were
learned were Mr.. Peter Binder, who
recently purchased the store of Mr..
Jas. Webb, and who had his cellar
filled with water; Mr.. Thos Vogelsburg,
wagon-maker whose stock and tools
were badly damaged by the water
which covered the floor of the shop
several feet deep; and Mrs. Phillips who
suffered the loss of the entire fences
around her garden.
West of the village, on the road lead
ing into other parts of the town, three
bridges have been carried away, which,
with the damage done to sidewalks and
culvert, will foot up handsome bill.
1t was estimated by those best compet-
ent to judge that the damage done in
this village and vicinity would amount
to nearly two thousand dollars.
Mr.. Chas. Vincent in conversing
about the storm thought the hail and
rain lasted about fifteen minutes and
was of the opinion that if it had lasted
another fifteen minutes the whole town
would have been swept away. Others
thought the duration of the storm some
what longer, but all were agreed that
had it continued for many minutes more
nothing could have saved the center of
the village from destruction. Vines
and fruit suffered here as elsewhere from
the hail, some of which was described as
being large as hens eggs, while the re-
mainder was about the size of filberts.
! The damage ostock was light, the only
loss reported being very fine COW
owned ny DIR. Henry Gillian.
IN PoTosI.
Evidences of the flood began to accu-
mulate almost as soon as one struck the
head of the hollow leading down into
this thriving town. and passing down
through the street all the crossings over
the branch were seen to have been car
ried away, while two or three hundred
pound rocks, which had to be lodged &C.
casionally, showed where the flood had
been. While Potosi does not suffer
near SO badly as British Hollow, it is es-
timated that the snug sum of three or
four hundred dollars will be necessary
to make good the damage done to cul-
Verts and roads. The storm here was
governed by the same general features
as in the two other villages. The same
sudden change in direction of the wind,
: and the sharp. terrible down-pour OF
rain and hail. Several parties testified
to having picked up hail stones as large
as hens eggs, which were described as
: being in appearance much like rock
} candy. ragged and uneven, instead OF
! presenting theusual Grounded appearance