Portage County, Wisconsin

Hail Storm

July 1880

HUGE HAIL.

Which Fell Two Inches Deep on Monday Last.

Scattering Desolation in its Path and Destroying the Crops in the Fair Town of Stockton, already Golden for the Harvest.

Estimated Loss from $75,000 to $100,000.

List of the Losses and by Whom Sustained.

It is entirely safe to say that the most destructive storm, so far at least as the loss of property is concerned, that ever visited Portage county, occurred last Monday afternoon. We refer to the hail storm that struck the town of Stockton at about 8 o'clock on the afternoon of that day, passing over some of the finest farms in the county, and sweeping everything before it with the

BESOM OF DESTRUCTION. The hail commenced falling in the vicinity of Poland Corners, and about the last we heard of it is in the northern part of Buena Vista, a distance of about ten miles. In width it was about four miles, extending from the eastern edge of Lewis Gibb's farm, on the old Amherst road, out beyond Custer. These, however, are the extreme edges, the destruction of property being confined to a strip of country about eight miles in length and three miles in width. On this space,

THE VERY HEART of the town of Stockton, hardly a stalk of corn, a hill of hops, a spear of wheat or oats or a field of potatoes escaped. The district embraces in the neighborhood of 75 farms and if we leave out the hay and rye, which had previously been put in the barn or stood in the shock,

THERE IS NOTHING LEFT. The entire remaining crops on the best farms could be bought for a song, and the song need not be a very good one at that. Everything is battered down and driven back into the earth from whence it came. We happened to be on the freight train Monday afternoon when it run under the storm cloud at Custer, and therefore saw it accomplish its

AWFUL WORK OF DESTRUCTION. The storm came on with a roar, and presently we heard the pattering of the hail stones on the roof of the car. At first they were wide apart, and about as large as good marbles. But as the train sped on they came faster and faster -- exactly like the skirmish firing that precedes an engagement. At first only an occasional shot, which keep on increasing faster and faster, finally culmanating [sic] in one

CONTINUOUS ROAR. As the train moved cautiously on, for with the darkness that the cloud had cast over the earth and the mist that had commenced to rise it was impossible to see more than a few feet ahead, the air was literally filled with chunks of falling ice, many of which were

AS LARGE AS HEN'S EGGS and some much larger. We measured one that was 9 1/2 inches in circumference but hear of others much larger, and have no doubt but ours was a small one in comparison with some. In fact, after seeing what we did, we are prepared to believe most anything -- the story of one gentleman that he picked up one as large around as the

BRIM OF HIS HAT, not excepted. The ground was covered to the depth of two inches on the level, and in places where there was an obstruction they lay upwards of a foot deep. The trees were stripped of their leaves, in many places every pane of glass on the north and east sides of the houses were broken, the whole presenting a scene of

UTTER DESOLATION. In fact large limbs were cut off the trees and the boards and rails on the fences were badly splintered. Large numbers of sheep, pigs and chickens were killed, and many cattle knocked down and stunned. On Tuesday we took a drive over a portion of the section visited by the storm with the view of getting a list of the losses. In this we were only partially successful, as we found that many had come to town after glass with which to repair their broken windows, while others had, like ourself, rode out to view the ruin. Passing out on the road that runs past the stone quarry we found that the first to feel the effects of the storm was the Wagner farm, but only slightly. The crop sof [sic] Henry Seipt, consisting of 20 acres of wheat, 16 of oats, 20 of corn, 6 of potatoes and 1 1/4 of garden, were

ENTIRELY RUINED. Ned Nugent, who is close by, had in nearly 100 acres, all of which shared a like fate. Owen Fehley lost 20 acres of oats, 17 of wheat, 14 of corn, 1 of potatoes, and his hop yard of 4 1/2 acres was badly damaged. A farm near there, owned by a Polander, was also destroyed. We next drove up towards Poland Corners as far as T. W. Anderson's, with the view of starting our notes at the northern limits - Here we found that the fine farms of Mr. Anderson, Matt Heffron and Mrs. Lind, all of which have large hop yards, were quite badly injured, but their loss is as nothing when compared with that of their neighbors to the south.

MR. ANDERSON'S CROPS, comprised 16 acres of hops, 50 of oats, 35 of wheat, and 20 of corn. Mr. Heffron's, 11 acres of hops, 12 of oats, 24 of wheat and 20 of corn. Mrs. Lind's, 5 acres of hops, 30 of wheat, 70 of oats and 20 of corn. The first farm on the north

TOTALLY WIPED OUT was that of D. R. Clements. A cloud from the east and another from the northwest seem to have met directly over Mr. Clement's farm, and from there rolled on, a little east of south. Mr. Clements has one of the largest and best farms in the county, his growing crops embracing 52 acres of wheat, 74 of oats, 18 of corn and 18 of hops, all of which were totally ruined. He also had 15 sheep and 3 pigs killed by the hail, while one of his teams which had been unhitched from the reaper, run to the woods, scattering pieces of the harness in every direction. At this point

A STIFF GALE accompanied the hail and Mr. Clements tells us that large numbers of rabbits and crows were killed. The farm of Patrick Stapleton on the opposite side of the street suffered a like fate -- everything being utterly ruined. Mr. Stapleton was caught out in part of the storm and was quite badly battered about the head and face. The next on the south were the Lukaszevig farms, containing together upwards of 100 acres of grain and two large hop yards, all of which was destroyed. Between here and the railroad John Welch has a forty, which was also badly injured. We next drove over to Timothy Leary's place

NEAR THE CATHOLIC CHURCH and found that his crops, comprising 40 acres of wheat, 30 of oats, 20 of corn, and 5 of potatoes, as well as his hop yard of five acres, had been totally destroyed. The hail had also badly damaged his wind mill. Wm. Leary was out in the field reaping, and when the storm was coming up started for the barn. But he was a little too late: the hail caused his team to run away, and one of the horses ran a rail into his stomach and was killed. Mr. Leary was also quite badly bruised by the hail. John Keef, who lives near Mr. Leary's lost about half his crop. M. Dawson, whose farm comes next on the north and south road that crosses the railroad at Custer, lost 40 acres of wheat, 25 of oats, 20 of corn and 4 of potatoes. Among those who live on or near this

LINE OF ROAD are Moses Leary, Pat Ryan, Joseph Owen and James D. McHugh, John Coniff, Chas. Van Hecke, M. Ryan, John Lewis, J. R. Pattee, M. F. and Burt Winslow, Lawrence Breitenstein, E. H. Vaughn and C. L. Rogers. Not one of these farms escaped; the loss on all is total, but we found it impossible to get the loss sustained by each. John Lewis lost 38 acres of wheat, 18 of oats, 40 of corn, 6 of hops and 6 of potatoes. The loss to Joseph McHugh was 30 acres of wheat, 20 of oats, 25 of corn and 5 of potatoes. J. R. Pattee lost 30 acres of standing grain, 4 of potatoes, and had 20 acres of grain in the shock, which was badly beat out. He also had 100 fruit trees killed, 50 of which were well loaded with fruit. E. H. Vaughn lost 8 acres of wheat. The hail at this point were very large. In fact they seem to have

GROWN LARGER as the cloud went south, some of the largest falling in the extreme southern part of the town and in the northern part of Buena Vista. Mr. Vaughn had a bull knocked down by the hail and C. L. Rogers a cow, both of which were so severly stunned that they did not recover for sometime. Our information in regard to the destruction below Mr. Vaughn is quite meagre, but we learn that a good deal of damage was done as far south as the farms of John Finch and W. S. Arnott. Valentine Laughlin informs us that his crops suffered considerable. On the

AMHERST ROAD the ice commenced its work of destruction on the west at Mr. Gibbs' place and extended cast beyond the farm of Mr. S. Spaulding. Mr. Gibbs lost 40 acres of wheat, 30 of corn, 1 of potatoes and 3 of hops. Mrs. Crosby, James Tovey, Henry Ward, Luther Hunter and Mr. Thorpe had everything swept away. John Finnessy lost about 80 acres of crops and Tom Finnessy about 60 acres. William Leonard about the same. Mr. Spaulding lost 30 acres of wheat, 16 of oats, 20 of corn, 2 of potatoes and 25 of timothy. Pat Corrigan, we learn,

LOST EVERYTHING and Lally Brothers suffered considerable, but their place seems to have been about the eastern limit, though the storm swept as far to the south - east as the farm of Thos. Clements. On the road that runs south

FROM MRS. CROSBY'S, Mrs. Dolly lost about 50 acres of crops. Only part of the farm of S. H. Parmenter was struck, but he lost 25 acres of wheat, 12 of rye, 16 of oats, 7 of oats and rye, and 4 of corn. Mr. Parmeter weighed some stones, one of which weighed one pound. Henry Cate's farm was stripped clean, his loss including 30 acres of wheat, 25 of oats, 40 of corn and 10 of hops. N. Blake lost a large field of corn and other grain. Thomas Thompson suffered a severe loss, as did the Higgins Brothers also. H. O. Warner, Gus Carver and Henry Willard suffered severely. G. Kussman's upper place, on which one of his hop yards is located, was destroyed. Pat Keefe and P. O'Brien also came in for their full shre. [sic] We have here given such information as we were able to gather, but no doubt many have been missed. So far as the

DESTRUCTION OF SHEEP, hogs, calves and poultry is concerned we have not attempted to particularize. More or less of these were killed on every hand. Neither have we attempted to give the damage to the residences. It is sufficient to say that hardly a house in the district mentioned escaped more or less damage. Windows were broken out and in many cases the hail stones took the shingles off and went clear through the roof. Farm Machinery, such as reapers, cradls, &c., as well as wind mills, were broken by the hail, and altogether the loss is one that Stockton will not recover from for years to come. Some of the best farms we have mentioned have not enough, aside from the hay, to keep a cow over winter, and the people are already

DISPOSING OF THEIR STOCK. It is of course very difficult to give an intelligent estimate of the loss, in dollars and cents, and therefore we will not even venture to guess. It is large enough, Heaven knows. We have heard it estimated at from $75,000 to $100,000.

EAST OF PLOVER. Plover Correspondence of the Journal. A terrible hail storm passed just east of our village last Monday afternoon doing considerable damage to crops, cattle, trees, buildings, &c. Jas. Bremmer had fourteen lights of glass broken out of his new dwelling. Mike Clark had several sheep and one hog killed by having his back broken with chunks of ice. One hail stone picked up two hours after the storm, measured twelve inches in circumference, and one of the section men the next morning picked up a young iceberg that was nine inches in length. The eastern bound train on the G. B. & M. met the storm about five miles east of here. The hail smashed the head-light and all the windows on the north and front side of the cab. The engineer was obliged to stop the train until the storm passed. The hail fell as near the village as the Haztwell farm.

The Stevens Point Journal, Stevens Point, WI 31 July 1880

Transcribed by Tammie Miller.  Thanks Tammie!

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