Kelley & Story County, Iowa Tornado
June
17, 1882
Des Moines, Iowa, June 19.- Mail
reports from Story County represent the damage
by the cyclone of Saturday night as very
serious. Several buildings were swept away at
Kelley. All the buildings on the farms of
J.A. McFarland
and William Templeton
were obliterated. Further east all the buildings
on 16 farms were swept away. Two school-houses
in Nevada were demolished. The Story County
farmers who lost everything in goods, furniture,
stock, and horses are
B. J. Everett, L.D. Tooker, B.F. Chapman, George
W. Hempstock. L.D.Thompson, Benton Carring,
and Mr.
Whitney; those who suffer
considerable loss are
Ira Baker, E. Matthews, Edward Pierce, William
Matthews, George Halley, S.J. Alderman,
and A. V. Norris.
The school-house in Albany was carried away. All
growing crops in the track of the wind were
destroyed, and cattle, horses, hogs, and poultry
were carried long distances and deposited dead.
Mrs. L.D. Thompson's
little girl was killed and she herself had an
arm broken. G.W.
Hempstock had a broken leg, and his
wife and child are injured internally.
The New York Times, New York, NY 20 Jun
1882
The demon cloud crossed over into Story
County near the town of Kelly [sic], near which
place it destroyed seven houses and barns. Here
it lifted and went east three miles, when that
terrible tail swooped down again, destroying the
farm house of John
Peterson, as well as his barns and
eight head of cows. Two more residences still
further east met the same fate.
Mr. McFarland
lost his barn and team of horses. The latter
were carried many rods and dashed to the earth
lifeless. Everything movable at this place was
taken. The cloud swung half a mile east to the
residence of Mr.
Templeton, taking it, and then,
lifting over Skunk river, struck again two and
one-half miles east of the river, destroying
twelve houses between there and the village of
Maxwell. Near McFarland's
residence the cyclone struck a pond grown up
with strong grass.
A STRIP OF EARTH
and grass thirty feet wide and one hundred feet
long was torn out of the pond to a depth of
three feet.
The causalities reported are the killing of a
child of Mr. Thomson,
on the Skunk, and a broken leg to
Mr. Hemstock,
east of Kelly.
Three miles west and one mile south of the
track of the first storm another storm formed,
destroying at the start three residences and
barns. It then passed through the timber on
Walnut creek, cutting a swath one hundred and
fifty feet wide, leaving only stumps and slivers
of trees, taking many up by the roots. After
going through the timber the cloud lifted, and
no further track can be found of it in that
county.
The Ohio Democrat, New Philadelphia, OH 29
Jun 1882
Transcribed by Sherry
McClellan. Thank you, Sherry!
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