Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1888-07-27
Twenty-Five Lives Lost al
Wheeling by Cloud Burst.

WHEELING, W. Va, July 19.-
Wheeling was visited this evening By
a calamity the full measure of which
will not be known tonight, but it is
certain that not less than twenty-five
lives were lost.
A storm had been threatened all
afternoon, and at intervals drops of
ice cold rain fell, but nature seemed
10th to commence her work of de-
struction, while still banking up
heavy and threatening clouds ali
along the western horizon. At 6
o'clock the storm burst in the north
west, and for the ensuing two hours
rain fell as it never fell before in
Wheeling. 1t seemed as though a
water-spout had been turned loose
upon the city, and the streets were
transformed In ten minutes time into
swift running torrents which no man
could breast in safety.
AS soon as the size of the storm
and its capacity for mischief were full
ly realized in the city there was the
greatest anxiety as to the fate of the
people living in the various narrow
valleys throughout the interior of the
county, and especially along the val
leys of Caldwell and Bogg runs,
two small streams which debauch in
to the city from the narrow valleys
Both of these streams have large
population crowded along their banks
in the immediate vicinity of the city
Hardly had the rain ceased when the
waters of Caldwell run began to rise
with fearful rapidity. At O'Clock ii
was a babbliDg brook which child
could ford; at it was a raging tor
rent 20 feet deep and 200 feet wide,
and as it entered the city limits il
swept through a hundred houses
with irresistible fury. Half a dozen
families were swept away, among
them the residences of Mrs. Thomas
Howley and Mrs. Herman Stensel.
There were in the Howley residence
Mrs. Howley and her four children
three boys and one girl. All were
carried with the house and drowned.
At the Stensel home there We're Mrs.
Stensel, the mother. the son, Her
man, a daughter and two nieces,
Misses Alice and Annie Wangard, oi
Miltonsburg, o., who were visitors.
All these were likewise lost, as was
also John Homer. who was opposite
the house ON horseback at the time,
and went to the assistance of the
family. This makes eleven lives lost
at this spot alone.
In the city about O'Clock large
crowd gathered on the Market street
stone bridge and on the wooden Bal
timore and Ohio bridge near by to
watch the seething food in the creek
AT two minntes of 8 o'clock the mid
die pier of the railroad bridge was
swept away, but the people seemed
to think there was no danger and con-
tinued to crowd the bridge. AT
half-past 9 the bridge suddenly sank
into the creek, taking twenty to tbir-
ty people with it. 1t is impossible
to obtain the names of the drowned
to night, but only ten are accounted
for, and it is pretty certain that not
less than ten are gone.
Nothing approaching the storm of
this evening ever occurred within the
memory of the oldest inhabitant.
Six houses on Caldwell's run are
gone The list will doubtless be in
creased. The Pittsburgh, Wheeling
& Kentucky division of the Pitts.
burgh, Cincinnati & St. Louis road.
is budly washed at places, and at
other places covered foot deep. The
Ohio river trestle at the creek is
gone. Numerous bridges are de-
stroyed. Sewers burst in several
places. The roads were washed so
as to be impassable. The natural
gas mains were broken and lengths
of l0-inch iron pipe washed bodily
away. Street-car travel is stopped
by the debris on the tracks.