Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-07-15

floating amid heaps of boards and house
timbers. Here probably will be found the
bodies of the missing, as they could not be
found in the stacked-up boards and furni-
ture on land. Asan illustration of the force
of the wind. an iron pump and twenty-five
feet of iron pipe we're torn from the well in
front of the Good residence. twisted, bent
almost double and deposited fifty yards
from the well. On the edge of the water is
a pile of boards covered with turf lifted
from q swamp 200 feet away. Strewn
all about are pieces of furniture, books and
stoves. The wells and cellars are filled
to the top with building debris, and in
Schurmeier's cellar lie the .mangled re-
mains of horse. The ground about these
houses has the appearance, from distance,
of having been gone over with pillow,
while from this point on to Gutzke's, trees
are blown down in vast numbers and crops
are demolished.
AT LAKE GERvAIsE.
At Lake Gervaise the dead and missing
are: Peter Nielsen, George ]. Miller, Rev.
DR.. Phaefie, of Brunnen. Tex; Mrs. ]. n.
Schurmeier Charlie Schurmeier.
Thesights about Lake Gervaise are awful.
The sites of Good and Schumacher cottages
were marked only by their foundations,
while the ground for radius of an acre or
more is strewn with debris of all kinds.
Near the cellar of Schurmeier the house
lies drive well with twenty feet of cast
iron pipe, which was literally torn from
the ground. while in the shores of the
lake, fully 100 feet away. is piano which
formerly stood in the parlor of the cottage
Huge trees, some of them three and a half
feet in diameter, have been broken off close
to the ground and are scattered about in
all directions, articles of wearing apparel
are to be seen sticking in trees and bushes
half q mile away.
In the swamp near the lake shore are
numbers of splinters and boards, sticking
bolt upright like field of corn. All along
| the road from Gervaise to Vadnais houses
| have been more or less damaged. Some
| have half the shingles torn off the roofs,
others chimneys blown down, and others
whole sections of the buildings carried
away. Nearly all the houses and hotels in
| the vicinity have been turned into tempo
rary hospitals.
At Paul Mellette's residence, at Little
Canada, are Moses Me.acon, his wife and
| three children, all of whom are seriously
| injured.
at Kohlmanns Hotel are Minnie Mess
| and Joseph Bernard. Miss Mess is suffer-
ing intensely from a wound in her chest
made by an iron spike, which was driven
| almost through her body, and her recovery
| is impossible.
A camping party was on the southeast
shore of Lake Gervaise. They ran from
| their tent and sought the shelter of the
overhanging bank just in time to save their
| lives. Their tent and all its contents were
swept into the lake.
The number of persons injured at all the
different points is large, and the list is being
| made up slowly.
]. s. Shurmeier has recovered sufficiently
| to be able to relate what he knows con-
corning the storm. They had noticed the
storm brewing, and as it came upon them
he had risen to close window which the
| storm had blown open. The next thing
| he knew he was twirled about in the air at
rapid rate. On coming to lis senses he
found himself near the edge of the lake.
| Making his way up from the lake he came
across the remains of his son-in-law, G. J.
| Miller. and afterward those Of Pete, his
| coachman. He does not know anything
of those in the cottage with him after he
had risen to close the window.
The storm struck the French settlement
| half mile north of Little Canada, COM
| pletely demolishing five houses and
slightly iDjuring the occupants.
| AT Frank Gutzke's place, on the south
east shore of Lake Gervaise, beside himself
and family of four, there were about
twenty visitors who had sought shelter.
| The cyclone struck the house and lifted it
bodily from the foundation, but fortunately
not one of the inmates were injured.
The storm really commenced between
Snail and Turtle Lakes, and passed over
them, striking the northern part of Little
Canada; thence on to the Schurmeier and
Good cottages, across Lake Gervaise to
Gutzke's place; thence in a northeasterly
direction to farmer William Browns place,
where it lifted and disappeared. Its track
quarter to one-half mile in width.
| The bodies of Mrs. Schurmeier and her
son Charles and Rev. Mr.. Pbaekple have
not been recovered up to a late hour to-
| night. 1t is almost certain they are at the
| bottom of the lake.