BIG SEPTEMBER TORNADO-1893

LATTNERVILLE, HAUSER, FOUST, BREITBACH, LATTNER

Posted By: Cheryl Locher Moonen (email)
Date: 1/31/2017 at 19:49:44

The Dubuque Telegraph, Sept. 22, 1893
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BIG SEPTEMBER TORNADO
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ROOF AND WINDOWS BROKEN
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Haystacks Scattered and Trees Blown
Down – it Swept a Path Eight Miles
Long and a Mile or More Wide –
Lasted but Five Minutes – Much Rain
Accompanied it.
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At four o’clock yesterday afternoon a tornado struck the village of Lattnerville, in Dubuque County, fifteen miles west of this city. The afternoon had been very warm and sultry, with a clear sky. All of a sudden a big mass of white clouds came up from the west, and within five minutes a terrible storm of wind and rain struck the village and surrounding country. The wind blew at a tornado’s pace for five minutes, and then died away. During the same time the rain fell in torrents, and afterwards for some ten minutes more in a drizzle.

Considerable damage was done to property by the tornado, but no one was injured so far as learned. At Lattnerville the barn of Ernest Hauser was unroofed and his shed blown over. The windows of the woolen mill of Jacob Lattner were badly broken, but no other damage done, though feared for a time. The door of Jacob Breitbach’s barn were torn off its hinges. Haystacks were scattered in all directions. The wind seemed to lift the hay straight up into the air and then separate it into a wide space, some this way and some that. Trees were blown down both and Lattnerville and for a mile or so north.

The storm seemed to sweep a path from Lattnerville eight miles east to the Seven Mile House, trees being blown down, haystacks scattered and perhaps other damage done. The storm traveled in a direction slightly north of east.

Noah Faust, of this city had a narrow escape. He was on the road with a team and buggy just coming into Lattnerville. He saw the white cloud fast approaching and hurried to a stable. He had just unhitched his team when the storm struck the place, lifting up his buggy and overturning it.

The path of the tornado seemed to be quite wide.

The same storm struck Dubuque about 4:30. While the wind blew in gusts it was not especially severe, the only damage being a few limbs of trees being blown down. The rain was quite heavy, lasting for some fifteen minutes. North of the city the clouds were heavier and blacker then here.

From inquiry by the Herald it seems that the tornado did not strike any places west of Lattnerville, as Epworth, Farley, Dyersville and New Vienna.

The Central Telephone Exchange reported last night that it was impossible to get connection with a number of outside toll stations, the wires having been blown down. Many wires within the city were blown down and crossed.