Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1886-10-18
More Lives Added to the EnOr-
nous List.
DISASTER At JOHNSON'S BAYOU.
Two Whole Towns Swept Away and Only
FOrtes Bodies Recovered.

bic parts Of that section of the settlement,
in which is also situated the postofice
station known as Radford. They are in
Cameron parish on the Louisiana shore,
six miles east of Sabine Pass. The Bay
on is nineteen miles in length and varies
from one to four miles in width. Ridges
face the gulf twelve feet above the sea
level, aud in the rear is q dense and ina
penetrable marsh. The population on
last Tuesday morning numbered twelve
hundred souls. To-day eighty-iVe ofthat
number are counted with the dead. For
ty bodies have been found and consigned
to graves in the shell reefs, while the de-
composing corpses ofthe remaining forty
five lie fostering in the marshes.
Radford was very thickly settled and
~populOus. 1t boasts Of its cotton gin and
cotton and cane plantations. 1t was the
head of navigation and the stores were
many. Principal among these were those
run by J.. PavertO, who also operated a
gin and turned out annually $40 bales of
cotton praduced in that section. The
other stores were owned by A. B. Smith
& Co. and J. Griffith, general merchandise,
and other small merchants constituted the
commercial community. The handling of
cotton and sugar cane produced in that
district was the principal industry. These
ridges composed some of the richest and
most fertile grazing land in the country,
1000 head of cattle and horses being
owned by the thriving community. Com
munication with the outer world was had
through two steam vessels, both owned in
in JOhnson's Bayou and Radf0rd, while q
fleet of trading vessels piled the waters of
the bayou.
Such was picturesque Johnson's BayOX,
or rather q series of ridges over which 200
population were
SCATTERED
on the morning of Tuesday last. Happi-
ness and contentment vas the lot OF the
people until four o'clock that evening.
When the storm descended upon them
everybody took to their homes and waited
with bated breath the fate which they
foresaw. The waters began rising, the
wind swept through the lower stories of
buildings, driving the aflrighted people in
to attics and upon roofs. By 10 O'Clock
the first ridge, which was twelve feet above
the sea level, was ten feet under water.
House after house fell in, CT was
swept away, either burying the
doomed people in the debris or hurting
them into the Kissing waters. Cotton
warehouses and stores next succumbed,
and RadfOrd and Johnson's Bayou were
destroyed as completely as if an invading
army had done the work. 1t was q night
of terror, described by survivors as appall-
ing. People clung to each O-her and
prayed for mercy and for the SOU of those
whose dcspairing shrieks rang on their
ears. For twelve hours the storm ragged
over the devoted settlements and then
there came a lull, when the waters receded
and the storm passed away. Tie survi-
vOrs gathered on the most elevated points,
viewing the scene of desolatioIi around
them. The houses that had stOOC the ac-
ton of the storm were completely Quilted.
There was no food nor drink, silt water
having evaded everything. TAen the
search for the dead began.
Those whose bodies lay pinioned by the
ruins of houses were speedily recovered.
From ont of the marshes more corpses
were taken and likewise buried.
THE DEATH ROLL.
was then made up as follows:
Mrs. FRANK TURNER and two chill
dren.
Locks, wife and seven children.
Mrs. w. FERGUSON and three children.
BRADFORD BERRY and daughter.
Mrs. ALBERT LAMBERT and two chill
dren.
SAM BURwIcK's eight children.
Mrs. SHE'LL VALLEY and four chill
dren.
GEORGE STIvENOR and four children.
Mr.. FRANSHALL, wife and grandson.
MRS. S. CALLER and four children.
LoNZO SMITH and child.
Mrs. TOOCHAKE's four children.
JACOB TOOCHAKE and seven children.
Mrs. HAWKINS and three children.
DR.. GEORGE SMITH, wife and four chill
dren.
All the above were white people. The
following is q list of the colored people
whose bodies have been recovered and
identified:
CLEVER JOHNSON and wife.
JACK LEWIS, wife and brOthec.
RICHARD HAMBRICK, wife and five
children.
THE REFUGEES.
Yesterday morning the regular packet
stern wheel steamer called the Emily p,
arrived al Johnson's Bayou and brought
TO Orange rs many as she could carry
about sixty,people. Not one of them had
ANYTHING but what they stood in, and
many of them were minus hats, shoes,
coats aud dresses. Their wants were
promptly supplied by the people of Orange,
and the refugees were made comfortable
for the night. This Saturday morning
the Emily p. and the steamer Lark will
return, and from thence make regular
trips until all are brought to a place OF
safety. All the people, save a few who
have large stock interests, say they have
abandoned the place forever. They are
descendants of q race of people who IN the
past made JohnsOn's Bayou a vast orange
rrove. Frost zane and ruined them, and
then they turned to cotton and sugar n
stock raising, only to meet the fate Of their
forefathers. OF the 5000 head OF stock
which once the bayou Boosted, 5000 are
drowned. while the remainder will die of
thirst, as all the water is salt.
J.. Spencer, one of the inhabitants OF the
place, saws this is his third storm he has
experienced, having been through the storm
at Morcanthaw in June last, and at Indian
ola in August. He was making a hand
some living supplying Northern and West
ern markets with bird skins and feathers
He loses over 5000 in po.teries. Mr.. SpeD-
Ger was formerly editor of the Blooming
ton I'M PdRtGgrdph. There Is no esti-
mating the loss, as there is no way OF as
certaining the valuations, hence suffice 1t
is to say that thetowns are destroyed and
abandoned.