New Richmond, Wisconsin Tornado
June
12, 1899
Stories of the Cyclone
Stevens Pointers Return from the Scene of the
Wreck at New Richmond
Drs. C. von Neupert,
jr. and F.A.
Walters and Undertakers
H.D. Boston and
C.H. Grant, Mrs.
Margaret Moran and son,
Dan,
returned this morning from New Richmond. They
all tell the most harrowing and heart rending
tales from the scene of the wreck.
Superintendent Horn's
train arrived at new Richmond Tuesday morning at
6 o'clock, 12 hours after the cyclone, and the
people were still searching for the dead and
severely wounded in the wreckage. A few doctors
and help from Stillwater and St. Paul had
already arrived. Every man with a satchel was
regarded as a physician and as
Drs. von Neupert
and Walters
walked up the street from the depot toward the
business part of town they were hailed on every
side and were called upon to attend to the needs
of the injured.
The doctors and undertakers from here took
charge of the work in the Congregational church.
The doctors had many persons brought to them
with broken bones, nearly all compound
fractures, and some were severely cut by the
flying debris. Any of these who needed hospital
treatment were sent to St. Paul. Others were
cared for in the houses left standing.
In the path of the storm, which was two blocks
wide, not the least sign of a building stands
upright, except part of a heavy masonry bank
vault. Many persons, it is believed, who were
only slightly if at all injured, lost their
lives in the fire, or were choked to death with
smoke, penned up as they were in the basements
of buildings.
Hundreds of dead animals, dogs, cows, horses,
were killed or cruelly mutilated.
Dr. von Neupert
noticed one old horse standing in a side street
with all the skin torn off from one side and its
ribs exposed. This and many other wounded
animals were shot.
In many cases houses which stood partly in the
path of the whirlwind were torn in two, as if by
a knife or cleaver, and one part demolished and
the other left standing.
The ground for half a mile on either side of the
town is covered with small splinters of boards.
In many places these are jabbed into the sides
and roofs of buildings just as one would jab a
knife or dagger in a board.
Those from here who remained in New Richmond
over night were A.R.
Horn, J.J. Callaghan, Mrs. Cadman and
Mrs. Van Valkenberg.
Dr. C. von Neupert, sr., Dr. John Phillips, Dr.
G.M. Houlehan, R.H. Mieding, Mr. and Mrs. F.R.
Sellers, Mrs. A.R. Horn and
Mrs. J.J. Callghan
went up on the morning trains.
Stevens Point Daily Journal, Stevens
Point, WI 14 Jun 1899
One More Death
St. Paul, Minn., June 15. --
Patrick Newell,
whose skull was fractured in the New Richmond
tornado, died today at St. Joseph's hospital in
this city, where he was brought on Tuesday. The
others are doing very well, though two cases are
still critical.
Oshkosh Daily Northwestern, Oshkosh, WI 15
Jun 1899
Took Bark Off Trees
Freakish Work of the Wind at New Richmond
Swept as by Flames
Path of the Storm Presents a Scene of Absolute
Desolation -- Strange Escapes and Peculiar
Incidents Recalled
(By Associated Press)
New Richmond, Wis., June 15. -- Words can
give no adequate impression of what that cyclone
of Monday night did to New Richmond. Racing up
Willow river and the Omaha tracks from North
Wisconsin Junction the maelstrom of the air
seems to have deliberately chosen the center of
New Richmond for the most fearful demonstration
of its awful power.
Having mowed down two rows of residences on the
west side of the track the great tornado wheeled
to the east just at the precise moment when its
progress would take it through the three or four
blocks that comprised the business district of
the town. In an inconceivably short time every
structure in this district, frame or brick, low
or high, was crushed tot he earth and the
tornado had disappeared to the northeast after
striking also the east side residence portion of
the town. It rushed away from the village along
the course of the winding Willow river, and as
it left the south bank of that stream and the
environs of the town it gave a parting
expression of its wrath in the stripping of the
bark and leaves and all the smaller limbs from
such a fine grove of trees as it left standing.
Viewed from a commanding point the destruction
is so complete, covers so large a territory and
shows itself in so many forms that it is
difficult to believe that the force of moving,
whirling air was equal alone to the
accomplishment of the task. The bare tree trunks
suggest a fire, and yet, not being charred, a
casual observer would know that the wind had not
brought with it a mass of moving fire.
Entering the town from the south the storm
covered about two blocks in width, and for about
two blocks moved straight north on both sides of
the Omaha tracks, but as the blocks on the west
side were built up with rows of cottages, while
those on the east were not occupied, the
destruction is most noticeable there. Some
thirty or forty houses, all frame, were dashed
to the earth in a twinkling of the eye. They all
have a flattened look, as if the force that
demolished them had come straight down from the
heavens. The roofs are broken to pieces and
spread out over the foundations. Generally
floors adhere to the foundations, but not more
than one dwelling house on the west side in the
center of the storm's path retained its shape.
All the rest were utterly torn to pieces and
pushed down into the earth. The street running
north and south between these dwellings is
entirely overcast with wreckage, but as the
debris is deeper over the sites of the houses,
the two rows of demolished structures look like
two great swaths of houses cut down by some
colossal reaping machine and thrown into
irregular swaths by a hay rake that was more
powerful than careful.
Contrasting with this appearance of having been
crushed into the earth as if by some mighty
tamping machine from above, are the very obvious
results of forces that plainly exerted
themselves upwards, circularly, spirally, and in
fact, in every direction. Many of the trees have
all their remaining limbs bent upwards and the
bark was most often peeled from them from the
roots upwards. Their poor stumps of limbs are
the hanging places of a lot of miscellaneous
rubbish, which varies from a costly piece of
lace to a strip of tin roofing. Then, too, the
myriads of small slivers, pieces of boards,
planks, roofs of houses, bedsteads, trees,
clothing, machinery and furniture, which are
strewn everywhere, show how the tornado caught
up objects of great weight, and how it tore them
to pieces while it was grinding structures down
into the earth.
When the great whirling cloud of death and
destruction came upon New Richmond,
Mrs. Wears,
wife of the mayor, was on Main street. Before
she thought of taking refuge the twisting,
grinding, crushing, blasting storm struck down
upon the town. In the fearful volleys of debris
that rushed through the air and amid falling
walls and buildings she crouched unharmed, not
even bruised. On the right of her and on the
left two men gave up their lives under pitiless
blows from wind-propelled missiles.
In is a singuar [sic] fact that while there are
many buildings in New Richmond which were not
touched by the storm, all the business houses of
the city have been completely wiped out. Not one
remains. To make matters worse, total
destruction overtook the electric light and
water works and the city is left in the darkness
and without water. This adds to the difficulty
of prosecuting the work of recovering the
remains from the ruins. The city also suffered a
financial loss by the destruction of the Main
street bridge across Willow river.
Of all the hair-breadth escapes that were
recorded, none surpassed that of
Miss Lottie Johns.
She was standing in the front part of her
father's store when the collapse came. A few
minutes later, after the terrifying crash and a
succession of blows which mad her think that her
end had come, she found that she was in a sort
of a cavity in the ruins, comparatively unhurt,
and was quite able to crawl out without
assistance.
Two pretty little Maltese kittens escaped from
the ruins and were playing hide and seek all day
yesterday while the dead were being taken from
the ruins.
Of Mike Heffron's
body nothing was found except some ashes which
were lying with his suspenders.
The body of an unknown boy was so badly charred
that, though the workers were near it all day
and their eyes had rested on it many times, it
was not until six o'clock last evening that it
was recognized as a body and taken to the
Catholic church.
There are many in the village who believe that
when the waters are drained out of the mill pond
it will be found that many persons were swept
into it by the storm. It is conceivable that
such is the case, for an immense amount of
debris was deposited there. Nothing could be
done yesterday in the way of search, because the
river rose rapidly, and though the sluices in
the dam were opened, the level of the mill pond
was not lowered.
Oshkosh Daily Northwestern, Oshkosh, WI 15
Jun 1899
Relatives of Oshkosh People Killed
A cousin of E.A. Bauter Meets Death at New
Richmond -- Others Missing
E.A. Bauter,
in the Fox river improvement office, lost a
cousin in the terrible tornado at New Richmond,
Wis. In the list of those who were killed and
whose identity is known appears the name
Dwight Porter.
That is the name of Mr.
Rauter's cousin, and as he was the
only Porter residing in the town at the time of
its destruction, there is little or no chance
for a mistake. Mr. Bauter has received no word
as yet from the family of the deceased.
Mr. Porter
was a young man, not over thirty years of age,
and was married but a few years ago. He was a
farmer by occupation.
The name of O'Connell
among the known dead has caused some
anxiety to John
O'Connell, city lineman of the fire
department, as he has a brother located
somewhere in that section of the country. The
name given in the lists, however, is
Henry, while
Mr. O'Connell's brother is
Frank O'Connell. It is now thought
that the dead man is not the brother of the
Oshkosh man, as it is likely word would have
reached here by this time.
Dr. Provost
had a relative by the name of
Dr. Wade
killed at New Richmond.
Oshkosh Daily Northwestern, Oshkosh, WI 15
Jun 1899
The news of the disaster was brought here by
J.A. Carroll,
a travelling man from New Portage, who was
stopping at the Nicollet Hotel in New Richmond
when the cyclone struck. He saw the
funnel-shaped cloud as it came up the principal
street, and took refuge in the basement of the
hotel, which was completely wrecked, together
with every other business house in the city. In
terrible sheets of rain following the tornado
Mr. Carroll and his comrades succeeded in
recovering the proprietor
Charles McKennon, wife and one
child, from debris, and they also removed the
laundry girl, who was so seriously injured that
she will probably die. They also removed two men
named Barrett
and Newell,
who were very severely injured. Mr.
Carroll drove to Stillwater by team for relief,
and the train with doctors will leave here at
13:15 a.m. Mr. Carroll further says that fire
followed the tornado, and that what was left is
being consumed by fire. Many people are
doubtless killed, and the damge will run into
hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The Nebraska State Journal, Lincoln, NE 13
Jun 1899
Transcribed by
Heidi Kreutzer. Thank you, Heidi!
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