1903 Grundy County Storm

DESEELHORST, SHELLER, AIKEN, BURR, ENGELKES, VANDEEST, BUNGER, PLAGER, ALBRIGHT, SNITTJER, MARTIN, BRASTED, ITZEN, FEARER, DAVID, DOAK, HARBERTS

Posted By: Tammy (email)
Date: 11/18/2010 at 09:16:26

Grundy Co. Is Hit Hard

The Stormiest Week in the History of that County

Much Damage Inflicted to Buildings and Windmills

Black Hawk was Nearly a Mile in Width There

Grundy Center, May 29.--The past week has been one of the stormiest in the history of Grundy county. The storm period began in its most severe form last Friday and showed no signs of being over until yesterday. Many of the outbreaks of the storm period were marked by a heavy downpour of rain, vivid flashes of lightning and wind with the force of a hurricane.

The storm of Tuesday forenoon was the most severe and destructive of the entire period. It came from the southwest and passed over a large section of central Iowa and left many wrecked trees, windmills and building in its path.

At the L. B. DeSeelhorst farm it left a total wreck of a large barn 48x60 and did damage to smaller buildings. Several pine trees from six to eight inches in diameter in Mr. DeSeelhorst's grove were broken off like dry cornstalks before a harrow. All of the stock which was in the barn at this place had a miraculous escape. Mr. DeSeelhorst carried insurance on his barn of but $250.

A barn on the George Sheller farm is reported to have been partly blown down.

A large cattle shed on Paul Aiken's place was unable to withstand the onslaught of the storm and it was partly blown down.

A barn on Fred Burr's farm and a cattle shed belonging to John Engelkes were partly wrecked.

Lightning is reported to have struck the barn on the A. VanDeest place and it was burned to the ground. Owing to lack of telephone service reliable reports of the total loss at this place have not been obtained.

The L. Bunger barn near Wellsburg was struck by lightning and the building with two horses was burned.

Windmills are usually a good target for a storm and a number of them went down before it Tuesday. Those who have reported windmill losses are H. C. Plager, P. H. Albright, Sam Snittjer, S. H. Martin, Geo. Brasted, John Itzen, John Fearer, Emery Davis, Perry Doak and D. Harberts.

The wind storm was accompanied by a heavy fall of rain though this was light in comparison to that of Tuesday evening, when for a period of over two hours there was a heavy downpour. The water in the Black Hawk was over its banks and made a stream nearly a half mile in width. It was within a few feet of the highest point reached during the floods of last spring. The railroad bridges now give the water a freer channel and but for this the damage to railroad bridges of last year would have been duplicated. The track about a quarter of a mile east of here was partly washed out and trains were held here several hours until the damage was partly repaired.

Many small wagon bridges and the approaches to larger bridges have been washed out leaving the roads in a poorly passable condition.

The storm was general throughout the county but was heaviest in the northern part. The town of Dike is reported to have been again partly inundated.

The damage to crops has been light and consists mostly in washing out crops and flooding of many pieces of meadow lands.

--Waterloo Daily Courier (Waterloo, Iowa), 29 May 1903