The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1892-04-22
JARRED THE SLOPE.
A Vigorous Seismic Tremor
Shakes Up California.
WINTERS AND VAOAVILLE RUINED.

Much Destruction Wrought in the VII
cinity - Walls Cracked and Thrown
Down, Houses Moved Out of Place,
and Streets FILLED with Debris-Peopie
Reused Out of Their Beds to Seek
Safety In the Open-No Fatalities, Few
People Injured, But S1,OOO,OOO in
Property Destroyed-The Tremble Felt
'Frisco-Details of the Havoc.
VAcAvILE, CAL April 2O.-This town
seems to have been the center of a great
earthquake shock. Main street presents
picture that beggars description. The
thoroughfare is blocked with brick, lum-
Der, mortar and tangled wires. There is
not brick building on the south side of
the street which was not more or less
wrecked, and some of them are total
loss. The shock struck the town at just
2:49 o'clock a. m. and lasted fully three
quarters of a minute. The vibrations
were at first from the southwest to north
east, and then changed suddenly to north
and south.
Effect of the Seismic Tremor.
Fronts of buildings tumbled into the
if struck by a Kansas cyclone, and the en-
tire population rushed into the streets.
That there were no fatalities is little short
of miraculous, though there were a num-
Der of very narrow escapes. The fronts
are out of the Odd Fellow hall, Masonic
hall, Chittenden's grocery store, Hacke's
hardware store, Rambo's cigar store,
Reams & Thomas grocery store and Joe
Donovan's barber shop. Davis butcher
shop was total loss.
Buried Under Brick and Mortar.
Will Patton and Tom Rogers were sleep
ing in the rear room, and were buried be-
meath the brick and mortar, but escaped
alive and almost unhuit. Ray Benefits
saloon is also n total wreck. 1t was a two
story brick, and three young men were
sleeping in the upper story. The front and
sides of the structure fell outward, leaving
the beds setting on the verge. j. M. Mil
ler's drug stole, Hewitt's jewelry estab-
lishment, and Blum Bros grocery were
greatly damaged.
A Fine Block Wrecked.
Platt block, the finest in town, was al
most totally destroyed. In this block
were located the Opera hall, postoffice,
Wells-Fargo office, Crystal Bros. dry
goods store, c. r. Madd's grocery, Enter
prise office and McCabe's tin shop. The
Brunswick house, large two-story struct-
ure, j. w. Kennedy, proprietor, suffered
severely, almost every inch of plastering
being shaken from the walls of the lower
story. Some of the citizens have made
figures on the to6al loss in town and esti-
mates place it at from $150,000 to $500, 000
One Man Severely Injured.
The residence of Carl Yates, about three
miles from Vacaville, was almost totally
demolished. Rev. o. o. Felkner, of San
Jose, was visiting there, and was very Sc
verely injured. He was frightfully cut
about the head and face, having no less
than a dozen wounds. The residence Of
w. j. Dobbins, near town, is complete
wreck. Miss Lou Dobbins was caught
by the falling debris, but escaped with a
fracture of the hand and few painful
bruises.
Don't Know How They Escaped.
Fred Hatton's brick house was also de-
stroyed, the occupants escaping they can't
tell how. Mrs Davis residence, one mile
sonth of Vacaville, was completely wreck
ed, the occupants having a close call for
their lives. j. A. Malone's frame build
ing on Main street was turned and thrown
three feet toward the north by the vio-
lence of the shock. His daughter had her
arms badly injured. Never before was
there such visitation to beautiful Vaca
valley, and there is feeling of gratitude
that no loss of life attended the disaster