The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-06-01
The Desolation in and About the Croft
Observation-Disclosures Astonishing
Freaks of the Wind.
Closing Sessions of Western Yearly
Conference of Friends.
Ex-senator David Davis and Bride Return
from the West-Notes and Gossip
in Two States.
INDIANA.

When he saw the storm approaching, John
Croft called out for all to run to the cellar,
and all succeeded in getting there save Fred.
Foster, George Croft, Mrs. Williams and
babe. To better understand what follows,
the house will be briefly described: 1t was a
story and half frame. On the north side
was porch with west end open. The cellar
stood under the dining-room at the south
west corner, the door to it going out of the
dining-room. Other rooms were west and
north of this. Fred. Foster, who had been
hunting and stopped to escape the storm
and George Croft were on the porch when
the cyclone came. 1t is not known whether
they had started to the cellar, but it is pre-
sumed not. Mrs Williams had started and
was in the dining-room; Mrs. Croft had just
started down and was on the top steps. The
others were in the cellar. Not one of those
who escaped can describe what followed
There was an awful crash and all was over.
The neighbors as soon as the storm passed,
looked out and saw that John Croft's nous e,
which occupied commanding position, was
gone, and they began to gather in from
every direction TO learn what had happened.
The alarm spread and soon the whole neigh
borhood was in. In the confusion and hor-
TOR no one can tell who was found first. OF
those not in the cellar only Mrs. Croft es-
capped with her life, and it is still uncertain
whether she will get we'll.
Fred Foster and George Croft, it would
seem, were picked up bodily from the
porch ana carried nearly quarter of mile
80 he ef nd -,
field. No pieces of timber were very near
them. Foster was not mangled, and seem
inely the fall must have killed him. He
struck on his back and shoulders, and a
hole can still be seen in the field made by
his body when he fell. He was laying
on his back and stretched out when found
His gun was found short distance from him.
George Croft was carried about the same dis
lance. He was not much worse bruised than
Foster. Mrs. Williams was carried about as
far as the young men, but in a different di-
rection. She was directly east of the house
in meadow. Her body was frightfully
mashed and broken, there being not bone
4unbroken. She was discovered by Isaiah
Burger. Her little babe, which she had in
her arms at the time the cyclone struck the
house, was found lodged in the top of fallen
apple tree near where the house stood. Its
little head was crushed and its body badly
bruised and broken. The babe was three or
four months old.
Of the house. not a splinter is left on the
spot it once occupied. 1t is swept clean, and
even part of the cellar wall is torn down
Fragments of the house and furniture are
scattered over the country east for miles. In
( the large fields near pieces of studding ioists
stills, Notwithstanding, bits of broken dishes
fragments of furniture, crooks, kettles and
8all the many things that go to make up a
house and furnish it are found. A bed-tick
was found five miles away and a pillow
known to belong to this family was found at
Lancaster, seven miles off. A number of
apple trees were near the house, These are
pulled out by the roots, not broken off, and
the bark is peeled off as though they had
been dragged on the ground great distance,
but these trees were not carried away
Many of them were dropped down
near where they stood. In the
garden the vegetables are rddled
probably by hail. OF two long fences on
each side of lane, running up to the house
from the east. not one rail laws on top of
another, and nearly all were carried away.
Some of them are standing upright in the
fields, driven in like stakes by the force of
the wind. A number of chickens had their
heads neatly wrung off by the whirlwind.
Otherwise their bodies were not mangled
The pump was taken out OF the well and car
rled no one knows where An Excelsior
reaper was carried about 800 feet and drop
ped, picked up again and carried about
twenty feet further 1t is very much broken
mp. A wheel on the sewing machine was
broken in two and the halves found one half
mile apart. wagon was torn to pieces.
About one-third of tire, more than one
inch wide and nearly if not quite, a quarter
of an inch thick was picked up nearly a
4 quarter of mile away. II was broken
squarely in two and twisted out of all resem-
blance to what it once was. y
An amusing incident occurred in Lancas-
ter, ora little ways out. 1t issomething SINH
lar TO that in an Iowa cyclone, where the
s house was carried from over the heads of a
family and left them sitting at the table eat
ing. William Coates was at home with his
wife and three or four children. The house
was removed down to the floor by the wind
standing by the bed when it commenced
& giving way Coates ordered his family to lay
down on the floor They did so, and he
seized the feather bed, bedclothes and all,
threw them over his devoted family and got
on top of the pile to hold it down. All went
we'll until the wife's curiosity, like that of
Lots wife, and likewise of nearly all other
women, got the better of her and she must
needs loIk out to see how things were pro-
crossing. She received her pay. flying
piece of weatherhpo riding clipped her on the
head. She was only slightly hurt but was
the only one of the family that was injured
in the slightest
Closing Sessions of the Western Yearly Con-
ference of Friends.
Special to the indianapolis Journal.
BLooMINGDALE, May 3l.-Josiah Morris,
superintendent of Bible schools, made his
annual report. 1t is difficult to secure well
qualified, willing and energetic teachers. We
need more consecrated workers. Only zine
schools out of seventy-nine in the Yearly
Meeting were discontinued during
the winter The secret of sue
cess lies in thorough preparation. The
teacher who reads and prays daily over his
lesson becomes SO enthused with the beauty
OF the subject that he is delighted with an
opportunity for telling it to others.
The following question was referred to a
committee GLOW can we reach that nor.