, 1888-07-21
THE GREAT FLOOD.
Latest Estimates of the Loss
of Life and Destruction.
Scenes of Desolation at Wheel
ing and Triadelphia.
A Visit to the FloOd-Stricken
Districts.
The Flood at Wheeling.

~'~Ay -'N" -&NN0N pONANp hf
been found. The money losses footed up
$l50, 1850. The greatest loss of life wa
along Wheeling creek and at Triadelphia.
A search this morning resulted in the
discovery of a number of bodies near the
latter place. Most of them were found
among the drift which collected at Elm
Grove. The body OF William CASTOR,
aged 60, a prominent and wealthy citizen.
was among them. His wife's remains
were found two miles below hanging on a
barb wire fence. Charles Caulbell of the
Wheeling NeuS Letter, aged 30, was
found among the driitwood. Mrs. Jane
Fay and her two grown up daughters,
Alice and Mary, were discovered a short
distance below Triadelphia, and the bodies
of two brothers named German were
found in a meadow, where they had been
hurled by the furious waves.
Later reports from Triadelphia show
that the destruction there is more thrill
ling there than anywhere else. Fifteen
families are homeless and saved nothing
but what they had on. Half of the vii
lage, which had eco inhabitants, was
swept away, but all except those named,
escaped to the hills. The storm extended
sixteen miles east OF West Alexander,
Pa, and the scene along the way is one
of desolation and inconceivable horror.
Where the Triadelphia school house, a
large building of six rooms, stood, is a creek
which is now a raging food and not a yes
tige of even the foundation of the school
remains. The whole south halt of the
town has disappeared as clean as if it
never existed.
The Wheeling relief committee, which
recently raised funds for the Rowlesburg
sufferers, expended the balance for pro
visions and sent them to Triadeiphia. The
Pittsburg division of the Baltimore &
Ohio road is practically destroyed for ff-
teen miles. The Western Union Tele-
graph company lost forty miles of wire
and most oftheir poles.
Reports are coming in from all parts of
Ohio county indicating that the storm
was more disastrous to life and property
in the country han in this city. The loss
of life in Wheeling is known to be ten,
with a number reported missing. Cald-
wells run, which passes through the
eighth ward of this city, was the scene of
the greatest havoc. Three houses were
swept away and all the inmates drowned.
They were Mrs. Barbara Stencil and son,
Herman Stencil, Alice and Annie Win
zert of williamsburg. o., nieces of Mrs.
Stencil, John Holman and Mrs. Thomas
Hawley and four children. Her husband
was in the yard and was swept 100 yards
down the stream, but managed to reach
the bank in safety. Onlytwo bodies have
been recovered-Alice Winzert and Mrs.
Stencil. Mrs. Johnson, a widow aged 60
years, residing at Clinton, this county,
died from fright at the havoc wrought by
the food. Among the drowned is the
sheriff of Marshall county. Two ceme-
teries were washed cut and the collins
with the bodies foated down the river.
A personal visit to all the food-stricken
sections OF the vicinity by an Associated
Press reporter to-day showed, so far as it
was possible to cover. the field, that last
nights accidents, obtained even from
hearSay, were more nearly correct than
was to be expected, considering the ex-
element and confusion which prevailed
and the wide area which suffered devasta.
ton, but as was feared points not reached
last night show, if possible, a worse state
of affairs than those that were accessible,
that the work of the fearful flood was but
feeblY portrayed. The line of the Pitts
burg division of the Baltimore & Ohio
railway will have to be practically rebuilt
from Elm Grove to the Pennsylvania
state line.
DIX idIRG dIu CUSlly DIluptS were
washed away, and the track lifted from
the roadbed and twisted in all conceivable
shapes for miles at a stretch. At some
places it is impossible to discover where
| the roadbed has been, while with the ex-
ception of only an occasional gap on the
high and solid ground the entire bed is
badly washed.
A revised list of the fatalities in and
about this city foots up twenty. four. The
impossibility of reaching the worst dam
aged localities cannot be appreciated.
Wheeling creek is still dangerously swollen
and the roads washed away, and bridges
caved in.
Telephone and telegraph wires are all
down and it is impossible TO give any
details of the losses to. night for the reason
that those who suffered cannot estimate
their own loss, and every resident of the
low grounds in the entire valley suffered
damage ranging from 800 to 81, 900,
while even those on the hills lost valua-
Bile crops, fences, etc.
The Baltimore & Ohio company losses
will reach $3.50, 600 at low estimates. The
%county's loss in roads and bridges and
school houses will be at least $780, 600, the
Wheeling Natural Gas company $40, 900,
the Natural Gas Company of West Vir.
ginia Sc, 500. These with all minor losses
will bring the total, it is believed, up to
| about 5 5000, 900.
PITTsBURG, July 2O.-The great storm
at Wheeling last night shut off all rail
road communication between this city and
hat place. The Baltimore & Ohio and
Pan Handle roads are beth blockaded and
it will be some days before traffic is en-
tirely resumed. The damage on the Bal
timore & Ohio railroad is mostly due to
washed out bridges and land slides for a
distance of fifteen miles between West
Alexander and Wheeling, where the
storm burst with fury. The track of the
storm presents a scene of devastation and
destruction. Trees lie across the track
where they were blown, wires are down
and frequent lard slides impede the work
men who are trying to clear the tracks.
In this stretch of territory which suffered