Olmsted County, Minnesota Tornado

Elgin, Viola, Quincy, Cascade, Oronoco

July 21, 1883

A TORNADO of extraordinary severity swept over the northwestern part of this county on Saturday, July 21, 1883. Its origin was traced as far west as Spink county, Dakota, where the storm is said to have occurred about 6 o’clock in the morning, being a combination of rain, hail and wind, killing two people, seriously wounding a number of others and destroying the claim shanties and improvements of many settlers. Its course was eastward, almost along the boundary line between Kingsbury and Brookings county, at some points ten miles wide, striking Minnesota in Lincoln county and hitting the neighborhood of Lake Benton, Sleepy Eye, New Ulm and St. Peter, the principal damage being to the crops. At Mankato, Waseca and Meriden a number of buildings were destroyed. An east-bound passenger train was blown from the track near Owatonna and twenty-five persons were injured. Alan K. Williams and Miss Zickrick, of Rochester, and Miss Blakeslee, of Pleasant Grove, were seriously injured. At Owatonna many buildings and the fair grounds were damaged and a man was seriously injured. At Mantonville the court house and a barn were unroofed and on several farms in the neighborhood buildings were destroyed or damaged; one person, Mrs. Norton, was fatally injured and in the county of Dodge about twenty were wounded.

The storm struck Olmsted county, at noon, on the west line of Kalmar township. A new home of Richard Middleton was destroyed, and Mrs. Middleton, who had retreated to the cellar, was killed. A farm a mile from Middleton’s was destroyed and the occupant, George Arnold, his wife and his aged mother were severely hurt; one daughter was scalded and another had her leg broken. William Chilson’s buildings were destroyed, but the family escaped.

L. Young’s home was destroyed, but he said he could not say he was destitute, for he had some flour and a ham. Henry Witsey lost all his property, but none of his family was hurt. The house, and its surroundings, of J. Rud and his wife, an elderly couple, were swept away and they were badly bruised and disabled. A large barn on the farm of Thomas Jorns was unroofed and a hundred tons of hay were destroyed. Frederick Portier’s barns were unroofed and hay and other property destroyed. At Jacob Grassle’s two barns were destroyed and parts of them carried half a mile. The roof of a barn was divided, half of it going to the northwest unbroken, and the other half going to the northeast and breaking into thousands of pieces. Thousands of trees in the heavy timber were blown down. A new barn, belonging to John Hoffman, was destroyed and a log barn unroofed.

Going northward the storm followed the town line between Cascade and Oronoco, eastwardly eleven miles. In Cascade township the barn and all outbuildings on the farm of C. Kimball were wrecked; all the buildings on Martin Kolbe’s farm and a new barn on the farm of P. Koul were destroyed. In Oronoco township the brick school house, at Stone’s Corners, was blown away, leaving the floor with a cabinet organ standing unharmed. At E. Clason’s, everything was gone except the main part of the house. A large barn and a fine orchard were swept away. The buildings of D. Waldron and E. J. Gates escaped with less damages. The home of James Fleener, with all its contents, was destroyed. Mrs. Fleener, who was ill, was much shocked. Mrs. Mary Crofoot lost house, barn and everything. Every building of C. J. Hubbard was destroyed, and his wife badly hurt. Mr. Hubbard had placed his children in the cellar and thought he had jumped in himself, but the building had moved and he found himself under it. Mrs. Jones had nothing but the foundations left of a new house and new barn. Andrew Nickells lost every building and all their contents. A farm of E. Clason, occupied by Carl Ruebel was stripped of buildings and trees. D. Sonnenberg’s house, barns and all their contents were destroyed. Mrs. Sonnenberg and two children were badly hurt.

G. Podolske had a new house torn to pieces and a house built of large logs scattered as if the logs had been weeds. Mrs. Podolske and a daughter were seriously bruised. John Klu, a neighbor of Podolske, lost only his kitchen, and into the upright part of his house he gathered the families of Sonnenberg and Podolske, making with his own family, twenty-four persons, eighteen of them children and five in bed with wounds and bruises. On the farm of A. Joselyn every one of a grove of large burr oak trees, surrounding the house, was destroyed.

In Haverhill township a stone school house was demolished. The home of F. McIntyre, opposite the school house, was almost destroyed. He was in bed, an invalid; his leg was broken and his head and face cut. His wife was badly injured. Charles Simonds, a blind man, was carried a hundred feet; a harvester was carried two hundred feet and the barn was carried a hundred feet and set down in the timber. The stone residence of Fred Harvey and the frame residence of George Harvey were both totally demolished. Out of five wagons on the farm only one was useable. Their mother, an elderly lady, was nearly buried in the ruins of the stone house. E. F. Dodge and his wife started for their cellar; Mrs. Dodge reached the stairs and he was entering the cellar door with a baby in his arms when the house was lifted from the floor, carried eighty-five feet and left standing with Mr. Dodge and the baby inside, unhurt. The house and barn of Sumner Snow was torn to pieces and the furniture and dishes scattered over the farms. W. H. White’s barns were badly damaged. C. E. Stacy’s barn and crops were greatly injured. A house of Thomas Brooks, occupied by Joseph Hines, was badly damaged and moved two hundred feet from its foundation; on an opposite farm, an expensive hog house, sheds and cribs were blown away. The largest piece left of the Fitch school house was the black board. Amos Welch lost a wind mill; P. Walker lost a granary and sheds and W. Southwick a barn and sheds. A house, occupied by August Berendt, was destroyed and all its contents scattered. The family, including six children, escaped.
There were nineteen dwellings destroyed in the county, several of them being of the best of farm houses, and thirteen barns, many of them large and well built structures. And there were three school houses destroyed. There were eleven houses and nine barns unroofed and moved from their foundations, making, in all, fifty-five structures destroyed. These were estimated to be worth, with their belongings, $44,000. The storm swept over 17,000 acres of land, 13,000 of which was under cultivation. The loss on crops in the county was estimated at $65,000. It was believed that the total property loss was not less than $110,000. Twenty families were rendered destitute. Only one person, Mrs. Middleton, was killed outright, but three others were believed to be fatally injured. Twenty persons were so injured as to require medical or surgical attention. The number of casualties was marvelously small.

Passing into the adjoining county of Wabasha, the storm wrought greater havoc, striking Elgin, a village of about two hundred and fifty people, destroying or badly injuring every business building and leaving scarcely a habitable residence. There, as in Olmsted county, the casualties were comparatively very few. One woman was killed, another had her skull fractured, an old gentleman’s thigh was broken, a child’s spine was injured and several persons were slightly injured.

As in all such cases, relief for the unfortunate was prompt and liberal. Meetings were held in Rochester, committees were appointed and contributions collected throughout the county, the county commissioners appropriated $470. About twenty-five hundred dollars was raised within a few days and more later, so the immediate wants of the needy were supplied. Viola township also contributed $500 for its neighbors of Elgin.

A most appalling calamity was the cyclone that struck the county, and especially the city of Rochester, Tuesday evening, August 21, 1883, just a month to a day after the one that so nearly destroyed Elgin.

History of Olmsted County, Minnesota by Joseph A., Leonard; Chicago: Goodspeed Historical Association, 1910, pages 140-150 Search for your ancestors in this book Use this Free trial.

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