Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1889-01-17
THE BIG STORM.
The Number Of Fatalities at
Reading Placed at Thirty.
MORE THAN ONE HUNDRED MORE OR
LESS INJURED.

Fourteen Bodies Recovered Mt Pittsburg
And still Nine are Reported Missing
The Tail End Of the Storm Does Consid-
cradle Damage in Canada - BufalO's
Loss s25O, ,OOO-StOrm News.
READING, Pa, Jan. ia cyclone struck
this city at 9 o'clock Wednesday evening
unroofng houses, factories and residences.
First it touched the Mount Penn stove
works. Here portion of the roof was cut
off as nicely as if done with q pair Of
scissors Then the storm cloud took off a
portion of the roof of J. H. Sternbergh's roll
ing MILL and number of dwellings were un-
rooted
The storm then hurried across the prop.
erty of the Reading Railroad company and
crossed the railroad Here a passenger
car was standing. This was overturned,
and its splinters were scattered in every di-
rection.
Directly on one side of the tracks of the
Reading railroad was the paint shops Of the
company. 1t was a one-story building.
Here about thirty men were painting eight
or nine passenger cars They had been built
at the company's shops in the city at cost
Of 5000 each. The building was struck
sqarely in the middle The cars were turned
topsy y-turvy, while the men were buried I'M
der the debris. Some of the bricks were car
ried a square away. The chamber of each of
the passenger cars was filled with gas, as
they were ready to be taken out on the road
in few days. These exploded, one after an
other, causing the people to run out Of their
houses, thinking IL was an earthquake.
There was considerable gasoline in the build
ing, and this added fuel to the flames Some
twenty of the men crawled out Of the debris.
The building and cars were consumed in
fifteen minutes and nothing was left but
smoking ruins, under which lay the four
human beings burned to a crisp Their
names are John Kahler, Albert Landberger,
Sheridan Jones and George Schaffer. Itwas
rumored that several others had been killed,
but these are the only ones known. Aaron
Dewalt, employe in the paint shop, had his
arm broken and George Knabb was injured
no doubt fatally. The loss to the railroad
company is fully $75,000
The Reading silk mill, which is located a
short distance from the paint shop, was
crushed like an egg shell. There were 200
boys and girls at work in the shop at the
time and they were buried in the ruins.
Many of the employees were hurled into the
cellar under the building Falling walls
burst the water pipes and the cellar was
flooded
At some places the bricks were piled twenty
feet deep, and underneath lay scores Of hu-
man bodies.
About two hundred and fifty women are
usually employed in the mill, but at 4 o'clock
about eighty were relieved from duty for the
day. They returned to their home before the
storm came
The alarm for relief was Immediately sent
out and in a short time thousands of citi-
zens arrived to help out the dead and dying.
The mills ruins have been searched and
all bodies have heen removed. The official
list of the killed furnished by the firm is
eighteen, as follows:
Sallie c. Bickel, eighteen years old.
Amelia Christman, seventeen years.
Henry s. Crocker, twenty y-three years
Sallie Faust sixteen years.
Mary Fitzpatrick, thirteen years.
Tillie Crow sixteen years.
Sallie Harner, fourteen years.
Laura Kershner, seventeen years.
Eva Leeds, seventeen years.
Emma Nester, twenty two years.
John Reber, twenty-five years-leaves a
wife and two children.
Ella Reighthauer, fifteen years.
Lille E. Schaffer, fourteen years.
Sallie Schaffer, sister of Lille, died Thurs
days afternoon from the effects of her in
iuries
Barbara A. Seilheimer, fifteen years.
Sarah Shade, seventeen years.
Taken out alive, but died after being re-
moved to home-William Snyder, twenty
three years, leaves widow and one child.
Sophia F. Winkelman, twenty-five years.
The number of killed was greatly exag
gerated, owing to the confusion and failure
of those who escaped to report the fact
Messrs. Grimshaw are positive no others
were killed. Many of the injured, however,
are in critical condition and it is likely
some will die.
Over one hundred are more or less injured.
Search was retarded from the singular
manner in which the silk mill collapsed 1t
did not blow over, but was bodily crushed
down, falling in upon itself in one mass. Not
vestige of the walls are remaining standing
above the stone foundation. The rafters and
timbers of the flooring projected in all direc-
tions As the building was steam heated the
ruins did not take fire; otherwise many ul-
fOrtunates who escaped must have burned to
death.
Mr.. George Grinshaw, one of the proprie-
prietors of the mill, states that there were,
to the best of his knowledge, about two hun
dred and seventy-ive persons, principally
girls and boys, in the establishment at the
time of the occurrence.
The loss on the silk mill and its machinery
is $4,000.
The tornado wrought terrible destruction
in other parts of the city, and out along the
railroads centering here.
The nut factory of Bontreger & Company
in the Seventeenth ward, was blown down
and a man named Hines killed The loss was
$4,000
A portion of the foundry of Mcintosh,
Hemphill g. Company, on Thirteenth street
was wrecked, as was also house in Ale
gheny.
At Walls station, on the Pennsylvania rail
road, large brick building, owned by the
Westinghouse Air Brake company, was par
TALLY demolished and at Wilmerding, Pa, a
coal tipple was wrecked.
At McKeesport houses were unroofed,
trees blown down and windows smashed
Three houses in course of erection were blown
down. ...f
At Sunbury, Pa, nail mill was partly de-
molished, burying twenty men, A tramp
and G. G. Showers were killed. There are four
missing. -
The only eyewitness to the disaster, so far