Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1890-07-18
A Big CYCLONE.
GEN. FREMONT JOINS THE
GREAT MAJORlY.
General Fisk the Great Temperance
Advocate Dead.
Terrible Loss of Life and Property
Near st. Paul.

A few minutes before five o'clock Sun
day afternoon threatening storm began
to collect in the region of Lake McCarron.
two or three miles north of St. Paul
Mimi, soon taking on the rotary motion
and the terrible appearance of tina cyclone.
When the storm struck the little lake the
boathouse was lifted up bodily and over
turned into the lake, and boat-load of per-
sons We're given similar treatment. Other
buildings were demolished or badly
wrecked.
The passengers on the st. Paul & Du-
luth train were approaching Gladstone
when they observed the cyclone forming,
and watched its whirling motion with in
terest, rather than fear or excitement.
Not so with the engineer, however. He
saw the threatening aspect of the sky, and
with a startling look ahead TO see If it
was clear, he took a firmer grip on the
throttle and the engine leaped forward
under his touch. His judgment and quick
Judgment undoubtedly saved the lives of
the whole crowded trainful, for the twist
ing, terrifying devastator crossed the track
scarcely more than minute after the
train had passed.
The place where the cyclone struck the
ground and caused loss of life was on the
shore of Lake Gervais, whereJ. II. Schur-
mier of st. Paul had summer cottage in a
little basin, where Simon Good was also
located. The funnel-shaped cloud swooped
down on them and demolished the dwell
ings, and number of other buildings in
the same neighborhood. The camp of Col.
Helleher and large party also of ST. Paul
were blown down, but the party all es-
capped injury. In the wreck of the Schur-
mier house, however, five were killed and
ten injured there and at the Good cottage.
Following are the killed: Mrs. j, II.
Schurmicr and Charles Schurmier of ST.
Paul, and Rev. Mr.. Phncfier of Brennan,
Texas, who was visiting item: George
Miller of the First National bank of St.
Paul; pete Schurmier's driver, whose last
name was not known. The bodies of Mrs.
Schurmier, her son and Mr.. Phneiler have
nat yet been found.
1t is said that the cyclone was confined
TO district only three and half miles
long, ond that the worst damage was with
in limit of half n mile.
Late advices from Lake Gervais indicate
that the loss of life at that point may
reach so. The man who had charge of the
boathouse says that he had rented out not
less that Is boats before the storm burst.
There were not less than two people in any
of these boats and some contained three or
four persons. The keeper says that since
the cyclone passed over the lake nothing
has been heard of any of the boats or their
occupants.
Mr.. and Mrs. Schurmier were sitting
near the door of the cottage at Lake Ger
vais when the whirling winds picked it up.
Mr.. Schurmier was dashed against tree
and frightfully mangled, every bone in his
body being broken. Mrs. Schurmier was
buried beneath the debris of the adjacent
cottage, and her head was pinned by heavy
timbers. Simon Good was struck by a
piece of flying timber and the falling limb
of a tree twisted from its roots, dashed
out his brains as he fell bleeding TO death.
A widow named Mullaney and her four
children. the eldest a boy IL years of age,
ran to the shore of the lake when they saw
the storm cloud approaching. The mother
and her children lay fat on the sand hop
ing against hope that the cyclone would
pass them by. The swift revolving cloud
picked up the little family, and, in its en-
brace, they were carried out into the lake
and drowned. The bodies of Mrs. Null
laney and her second son were recovered
by grapplers. The bodies of the two other
children are still in the depths of the lake.
Strange to say, group of cottages, all
With. one hundred yards of the Schurmier
and Good domiciles, escaped the storm al
though their occupants almost died of
fright as they saw the awful devastation in
progress around them.
All the telephone and telegraph wires
were Frustrated, and few small buildings
We're wrecked. Bridges on every road
leading out of st. Paul were washed out by
the torrents of rain that preceded the
cyclone, and the damage to property, to
say nothing of life, will be enormous.
TWO HUNDRED DROWNED.
A dispatch from Minneapolis, Mimi,
Sunday says the steamer Sea Wing in re-
turning from Lake City with about $50
people aboard, where the state encamp-
ment of the state militia is in progress,
with barge in tow, were in the middle of
the lake of Lake City when the cyclone
struck the city. The boat became unman-
agable at once. The barge was cut loose
and after an hour drifted to shore with
about 20 people on board. The other 200
or more were drowned. Among the dead
are some of the best known and most
prominent people of Red Wing and vicini-
ty. A number of bodies are already
washed ashore. The storm did great dam
age to property in and about Lake City.