Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1911-03-15
CONTINUED from last week.

CONTINUED from last week.
Near seven o'clock Sunday even
lg, June 3rd, 1860, a party of four
Dung people, of whom | was one,
we're leisurely making our way to
church when we were suddenly
startled by the appearance of a
horseman, who came riding by at
the top of his speed and shouting as
he passed, "Camanche is blown
down"
Immediately my brother William
drove up with his horse and light
wagon on his way to the storm
Hstricken town, eight miles distant.
Making our apologies to the girls
whom we left to proceed to church
alone, we boys jumped into the wa
gon and when we reached Camanche
such a scene of utter ruin lay be-
Il fore us, as | hope no one who may
happen to read these words will ever
be called upon to witness. The
town, unfortunately lay in the di-
rect track of the tornado, which
bad arisen somewhere about Hardin
ounty and sweeping eastward,
gathered in volume and power as it
Gore along, ravaging the entire
country through which it passed.
Marrying desolation and death in its
course. Trees were uprooted and
lcast prone upon the ground, fences
Sand telegraph lines were leveled,
houses, barns and structures of ev-
sery sort were destroyed; men and
women, horses, cattle, almost every
%living thing in the course of the
Storm king was killed or wounded
y was a time of great sorrow, the
like of which had never been known
In Iowa before. Had the popula-
fion Of the state been as large as it
fwas twenty years later when Grin
pell was smitten, the destruction
would have been much greater
Upon reaching Camanche we inn
tmediately set to work joining those
falready on the ground, clearing away
Athe debris, uncovering dead bodies
(which We laid side by side on the
t4or of hotel which had been left
veanding. Men, women and chill
Xdren, bruised and mangled, pitiful
Nsight, heart-rending in the extreme.
"A he wounded were tenderly cared
by loving hands, everything was
aone for them that was possible un-
der the circumstances. All night
long and the next day the good
york went forward until every
fdwelling had been thoroughly
searched and all the dead and in
iured had been found and cared for.
The home of Mr.. W. III. Bennett,
Nfive miles east of Dewitt, was an old
fashioned log house to which was
attached a frame lean-to. When
they saw the storm approaching, the
Family, with the exception of Mrs
Bennett who was in Dewitt at the
time, fastened into the lean-to for
shelter, having no conception of the
destructive force of the storm; that
art of the building however, was
tterly demolished and the family
yuried under the ruins. Mr.. Ben
hett, who was uninjured soon sue
/ceeded in extricating himself from
the debris and in liberating his
M children, with the exception of the
II eldest daughter, who could not at
IN pnce be found. she finally made
IN Il hem k~ow where she was, however,
by wor, ! her fingers up through
fthe shing.es of the roof under which
sshe was buried, when she was
" 1omptly released. Two Of the girls.
Aary and Martha were slightly in
Jured, happily no one seriously. l
S Adid not know till long afterward
Y that at the time / was riding down
" to Camanche that Sunday evening, a
"a young person who was to become
dearer to me than all others was