A DEATH DEALING WIND.
Grand Forks, Dak., Visited by a Terrific Hurricane Which Does Immense Damage.
Houses and Business Blocks Torn From Their Foundations and Smashed Into Fragments.
Three People, and Possibly More, Killed and a Large Number Badly Injured.
A Train Blown From the Track
Special to the Globe.
GRAND FORKS, Dak., June 16. – At 3 o’clock this afternoon a hurricane of unexampled fury came on the city from the west, accompanied with hail and darkness, leaving in its wake wrecked homes and business houses, and tearing down the upper stories of the magnificent university of North Dakota. Worst of all, it is feared that many lives are lost and numerous persons injured. It was not a cyclone, but a straight wind. The roar drowned that of the thunder, and bent the young trees to the ground, while on the river shores it uprooted many large ones. For half an hour it raged with terrible ferocity, the air being filled with flying boards, tin roofs and cornices, toppling chimneys and portions of dwellings. No man dared venture out to escape from the trembling buildings or see how his neighbor fared. The storm continued nearly an hour. All the streets presented
A DOLEFUL APPEARANCE
and were filled with wreckage. The city hall, the Griggs house, Devoy’s middle temple, Furres’ art gallery, Finke & Gocky’s block, and the Herald printing house were either dismantled or had one side blown out in the street. Many residences are partially torn asunder. The base ball grand stand was rolled over into the street. Grosvenor & Cole’s machine buildings are all torn down. Hunt, Holt & Garner’s hall was damaged and the valuable plate glass fronts demolished at Franklin’s palace and other buildings. Most people who had cellars took refuge there. The Cadet rink was totally demolished and the railroad restaurant of Climer’s also, the inmates escaping miraculously. The train from the North was blown from the track five miles out, and many hurt. Drs. Duggat and Herriman went to the scene. The Starbird residence
WAS BLOWN DOWN.
Mrs. Follette, Mrs. Davis, her mother, and Cora Starbird, aged twelve, were killed. Mrs. Starbird escaped uninjured. Mayor Holmes and Mr. McClellan saw the house fall, and in the midst of the storm commenced work with axes to cut their way to where the dying and dead lay mangled. The house of Mr. Tatton was also demolished, Mrs. Tatton being seriously hurt and their little boy and girl injured. There is not a tin roof in town uninjured. Later from the university shows that the cupola was torn off the west end and demolished. The museum was destroyed and the roof also. The wife and four children of Jake Andrews were badly hurt, and two are not expected to live. The machine-shops of the St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba were destroyed, and eight or nine persons injured, one fatally. Mayor Holmes has issued orders to Marshal Hennessy to look up all sufferers, and see that they are cared for. The train from the North is just in. One many is missing but none are seriously hurt. The storm did not extend west very far, but spent its fury in the city and to the north. Mrs. Campbell, Mrs. L. D. Bissell and a daughter were
BADLY HURT,
Mrs. Campbell fatally. Mr. Bissell was at Minneapolis. Mrs. McIntosh, a neighbor, was seriously hurt. All the wounded and homeless were taken to the Northwestern hotel, where refuge was offered free by Ald. Bennett. The train from the north had the cars blown over twice. Among the wounded are Ed Anderson, proprietor of the Scandinavian house, badly hurt of the head and breast; Capt. Kennedy, of Minto, head terribly bruised, now at the Richardson house undergoing operation; George Budge, slight cut in the head; James Twombly, of Minto, finger broken. In East Grand Forks the McCaffery house and other buildings were destroyed. In the former Elic Gummerson, of New York Mills, Minn., was killed. His head was crushed. Miss McConnell had an arm broken. Another lady’s leg was broken. Mrs. Follette, who was killed, was the wife of Charles Follette, engineer of the steamer Pluck, of Moorhead. Walker’s saw and planing mills were damaged considerably. The smokestack was blown in the river. Trees are strewn in abundance all along the river. It is reported that the storm was quite severe at Manvel and Ardoch to the north, where buildings were blown away and many injured. The storm did not go farther east than Fisher, which escaped with the loss of a wind mill. The Andrews family had their house literally torn to pieces and they were carried 100 feet with flying timbers. The mother’s condition is critical and the children and injured internally. Ed Forney’s house was overturned, his wife injured and two children were carried 150 feet and not hurt. One of them, six years old, was carried across the railroad track and lay there during the whole storm. John Bellaway, of Drayton, had his
SCALP BADLY CUT
and ribs broken. The cars which blew off the track lay a few minutes and rolled over again, which caused the injuries. C. A. Myerstrom, the carpenter of the St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba shops, is dangerously hurt about the head. His wife is at Fergus Falls. A meeting was held in the Presbyterian church this evening to aid the sufferers, who lost all, even their clothing being stripped from them by the storm. Up to this hour three are dead, two dying, five in a critical state and ten others injured more or less seriously. The Exposition building, costing, $5,000, is scattered over the prairie. The Catholic church is nearly ruined. Halver Loyland, a student at the university, was struck by lightning and killed. The university damage is $10,000. The losses to buildings, residences and furniture is estimated at $100,000. One of the injured on the train lives at Reynolds, this county.
Source:
The Saint Paul Daily Globe
Friday Morning, June 17, 1887
Volume IX, Number 168, Page 1