|
Chapter III
Pictures included in this chapter are of The Great Tornado of 1860,
and John A. Kasson
The greatest tornado that ever swept over Iowa was
formed from a hail storm which was first seen on the prairies of
Calhoun and Webster counties, on Sunday, June 3, 1860, at about
half-past three o’clock. The day had been sultry with the exception
of an occasional slight breeze. The wind continually shifted from
one direction to another, and after blowing for a brief time,
disappeared. As the day advanced the heat became more intense and
not a breath of air was stirring. It was noticed that the cattle and
horses in the pastures were uneasy and walked about throwing their
heads into the air as though disturbed by some unusual apprehension,
they would follow along the fences seeking a place to get out. The
birds gathered in the groves and shade-trees about the houses. The
dogs were seen snuffing the air as though someone or something
unusual was approaching. I was living on a slightly (sic) prairie
elevation form which could be seen groves at a great distance to the
west and southwest.
The air seemed unusually clear and the trees near Tipton, a distance
of seventeen miles, were plainly visible, a thing that had very
seldom been known. At about five o’clock, we noticed in the west
just appearing above the horizon, banks of light-colored clouds in a
long triangular line reaching from far in the north away to the
south. Very slowly they arose and in half an hour we could see below
them the darkest blue-black continuous cloud that I remember to have
seen, reaching the whole distance from north to south. Soon a light
haze of a bluish-green tint began to be visible in the atmosphere.
At this time the air seemed to be most profoundly still and
oppressive. The uneasiness of all domestic animals increased. Those
running at large upon the prairie ranges were seen approaching the
settlements in anxious haste. As the long line of clouds slowly
arose, the lower portion, which seemed to touch the earth, became of
inky blackness. We could now faintly hear long continued rumble of
thunder and for some time sharp tongues of lightning had been
visible. The atmosphere, the haze and the rising bank of clouds had
a weird unnatural appearance and the oppressiveness of the lifeless
heat became almost unendurable. It was now noticed for the firs time
that the light-colored upper clouds, which resembled the dense smoke
of a great prairie fire, were rapidly moving from the north and
south toward the center of the storm cloud, and, as they met, were
violently agitated like boiling water descending in a rapid movement
to the black cloud below. We were all now intently watching this
strange movement, something we had never before seen, when the
thought flashed across my mind—this is a tornado! The cloud had now
been in sight about three-quarters of an hour and the vivid flashing
of the lightning and steady roar of the thunder were continuous.
The wind came in gusts from the east, changing to the
south, and again suddenly veering to the north, then dying away into
a dead calm. The cloud was now rising rapidly and trailing below it
seemed to be an immense funnel, the lower end of which appeared to
be dragging on the ground. We could hear a steady roar, very heavy
but not loud, like an immense freight train crossing a bridge.
Looking toward a grove some three miles distant in the path of the
black trailing cloud we saw high up in the air great trees, torn and
shattered, thrown by the force of the whirlwind outside of its
vortex and falling toward the earth. My family had gone into the
cellar, which was of large rocks, upon which rested the balloon
frame house. I stood close by the outside doorway, ready to spring
in if the fearful black swaying trail should come toward the house.
It appeared to be passing about half a mile north of us. The sight,
while grand and fearful, was too fascinating to be lost unless the
danger became imminent. The roar was now awful, and a terrific wind
was blowing directly toward the swaying, twisting black trail, which
seemed to be sweeping down into the ground. It was now coming
directly toward the log house of my nearest neighbor on the north,
and I saw the family run out and down a steep bluff of Rock Creek
and cling to the willows. Suddenly the funnel rose into the air and
I could see falling to the earth, tree tops, rails, boards, posts
and every conceivable broken fragment of wrecked buildings. We
watched the angry clouds as they swept by toward the east. It was an
awe-inspiring sight. The whirlwind column which had so suddenly
risen from the earth seemed absorbed and lost in the rolling,
tumbling mass of clouds that overshadowed the eastern sky. The sight
was appalling as the cloud of inky blackness settled down to the
earth again in the distance, sweeping on with a mighty power,
glowing with a thousand forked tongues of lightning as the very
earth seemed to tremble beneath the incessant roar of thunder. No
pen or tongue can convey to the mind a true picture of the frightful
sights and sounds that lurked in the rear of that irresistible
tornado as it was then gathering greater power of destruction to
overwhelm and crush the town of Camanche.
When we recovered from the terrors inspired by a narrow
escape from instant destruction, a few of us followed the path of
the tornado to learn something of the devastation wrought. Night was
fast approaching and we hurried along the trail marked by the
tearing up of the young grass and growing grain, broken rails, fence
posts pulled out of the ground, shattered limbs of trees, the whole
covered with a slimy coating of mud. When we reached the grove we
found great trees torn up by the roots and swept into piles in
ravines as though carried there by a mighty flood. Other trees had
been caught by a rotary power and whirled around and around until
they hung by a mass of fine splinters to their stumps. Others, green
and full of life, had been entirely stripped of their bark even into
the small limbs. Nothing could better show the irresistible rotary
motion of the whirlwind. Beyond the grove we followed the fearful
path thickly strewn with the shivered and splintered fragments of a
neighbor’s house until we reached the cellar, all that remained of
the family home of two hors before. Several of the inmates were
terribly injured, while others had strangely escaped. We returned
home dreading to hear the tidings that were sure to come from the
east and west. At ten o’clock that night we were aroused by some
emigrants who had been caught in a part of the tornado many miles to
the east and were so terrified by the dreadful scenes they had
witnessed that they fled form the horror, too dazed to realize that
they were out of danger. We learned form them that twelve miles
east, in Clinton County, houses and barns had been swept away,
scores of people killed and mangled, animals killed and strewn over
the farms and along the highway, and the roads obstructed by
shattered trees. Day after day the news came of death and desolation
until this was finally known to be the greatest tornado which has
ever swept over nay Northern State.
Investigation showed the storm to have gathered in
eastern Nebraska as an ordinary thunder shower, about one o’clock
p.m. an hour later it passed over Sioux City, where the rain was
very heavy, with but little wind. In Hamilton County it was
reinforced by other heavy clouds, which were driven toward it by air
currents, and the hailstones increased in size. The clouds came
together from different directions and the rotary motion developed.
Column-like masses of cloud depended from time to time and the
volume of wind increased as it bore southeastward into Hardin
County. New Providence was a little country village in the south
part of the county, and was largely settled by Quakers. Most of them
were at an afternoon meeting some distance south of the town, out of
the track of the storm, which had now become a tornado with its
trunk-like trail dragging on the ground. It struck the village from
the northwest; eleven houses were torn to pieces and several persons
injured. It passed south of Eldora and crossing the Iowa River at
Sanderson’s mill, swept a clean path through the woods and passed on
through a corner of Marshall, Tama and Benton counties, in a
direction to miss most of the settlements. The destroying funnel
appears here to have risen, as little damage was done. As it
approached Linn, near Palo, two funnel-shaped clouds settled down
toward the earth and the work of destruction began anew. These
clouds were several miles apart, passing Cedar Rapids, one on the
north and the other on the south. The storm passed near Bertram and
just missed Mount Vernon. At Lisbon, the freight depot, a large
warehouse, and a freight train of ten loaded cars were completely
destroyed. The north branch of the tornado now passed into Jones
County branch passed through Greenfield and Rome townships. The
southwest branch of the tornado swept through the north part of
Cedar County, destroying fourteen houses and one church, killing ten
persons and wounding twenty-two. About five miles east of the
Wapsipinicon River the two branches united and a broad black column
again descended, which now swept on through the south part of
Clinton County with a wider sweep and accelerated force. With a
propelling power driving it eastward at a rate of seventy miles an
hour and a rotary motion of inconceivable velocity the storm
proceeded on its work of destruction. In many places the path of the
tornado was from eighty to one hundred and sixty rods in width and
this track was left a desert waste. Scores of people were killed and
mangled and beautiful homes swept out of existence.
As it neared the town of Camanche, the appearance of the
storm was awful beyond description. The light of day was blotted out
and the roar of the elements stilled every voice and blanched the
cheek of the bravest. No escape seemed possible. Many families ran
to the cellars, while others huddled together and clung to each
other in their terror. The fury of the united tornadoes struck the
village at seven o’clock in the evening. One who visited the ruins
the next morning gives the following description of the sights:
“Amid the devastation that met the eye and is utterly
indescribable, wherever a few boards hung together were gathered the
survivors, some slumbering, others sitting in despair mourning the
loved and lost; some nursing the wounded, while many lay dead side
by side in rough boxes in a building. The tornado had swept through
the town a quarter of a mile wide, literally prostrating everything
before it. The town was not a mass of ruins, but it looked as though
the houses and their contents were literally scattered. There were
fragments of what had been houses everywhere. All that was left of
Camanche was a few houses and all of these injured. No houses were
left in the direct track of the tornado, and those at the edges were
riddled as if by cannon shot. In many cases broken timbers had been
hurled through houses, carrying death and destruction. Eleven store
buildings fronting on the river ere piled in ruins, and much of them
with their contents were swept into the river. There is not a
business house in the town left unimpaired, and nearly every one was
totally destroyed. The scene was appalling and cannot be described.”
Thirty-nine business houses were totally destroyed,
beside two churches and two hotels. Fort-one persons were instantly
killed, and more than eighty lacerated and mutilated in every
conceivable form. Of the three hundred and fifty dwelling houses in
the town not fifty were left uninjured, and eight hundred and sixty
persons were homeless. Crossing the river the tornado struck Albany,
on the Illinois side, swept on eastward through the entire State,
killing eleven person, wounding more than fifty, and destroying an
immense amount of property. Crossing Lake Michigan north of Chicago
we last hear of it in Ottawa County, Michigan, where it had
exhausted its destructive power as a tornado after having traveled
more than four hundred miles as a whirlwind, and a hundred and fifty
miles additional as a sever hail, rain and wind storm. When it is
remembered that in 1860 the larger part of the country over which
the tornado passed was sparsely settled, the magnitude of this
greatest storm that ever visited the northern latitudes can be
realized.
From the most reliable information obtainable, the
following estimate was made of the destruction of life and property:
Hardin County—Killed 7, wounded 27, houses destroyed 37.
Loss $75,000
Linn and Marshall Counties—Killed 22, wounded 51, houses
destroyed 26. Loss $175,000.
Cedar County—Killed 9, wounded 30, houses destroyed 8.
Loss, $15,000.
Jones County—Killed 9, wounded 30, houses destroyed 13.
Loss, $30,000.
Clinton County—Killed 74, wounded 155, houses destroyed
168. Loss, $450,000.
Illinois—Killed 26, wounded 53, houses destroyed 60.
Loss, $200,000.
Total—Killed 141, wounded 329, houses destroyed, 312.
Loss, $945,00.
Many of the injured died of their wounds, bringing the
fatalities up to nearly two hundred. The storm crossed the Missouri
River at Sioux City at about two o’clock p.m., on Sunday, striking
Camanche at seven and reaching the northeast corner of Ottawa
County, Michigan, at about midnight, a total distance of about five
hundred and sixty miles in ten hours, or an average velocity of
fifty-six miles an hour. But it was observed that during the time
the storm traveled as a destroying tornado it swept over the country
at a velocity of about sixty-six miles an hour. It is estimated by
several meteorologists who made careful investigation to ascertain
the velocity of the circular motion of the wind which wrought such
fearful destruction, that it was at the rate of about three hundred
miles an hour, or something more than that of a cannon ball fired
with a full charge of powder. Among the incidents of the passage of
the tornado, which led to this belief, were the following: scores of
live hickory and oak trees were found in the path with the bark
entirely peeled off, even including that on the small limbs;
hundreds of chickens were found stripped of every feather. Sills of
houses were found driven endwise into the side of ravines so far
that it took tow or three teams to pull them out. Oak shingles were
driven through the sides of houses and barns fast in to the trunks
of trees. Spokes were torn from wagon wheels and driven into the
bodies of people and animals with fatal effects.
The Republican National Convention assembled at Chicago,
on the 16th of May, 1860, for the purpose of nominating
candidates for President and Vice-President. Unusual interest was
aroused throughout the North over the meeting of this convention,
for there was a belief widespread that if the action was wise and
harmonious, it was possible to elect a Republican President. So
great was the desire of politicians to become members of the
convention that Iowa Republicans sent thirty-two delegates, while
entitled to but eight votes. Among these delegates were John A.
Kasson, William Pen Clark, Henry O’Connor, James F. Wilson, William
B. Allison, Alvin Saunders, C. F. Clarkson, J. B. Grinnell, William
M. Stone, C. C. Nourse, Reuben Noble, H. M. Hoxie, N. J. Rusch,
William P. Hepburn, Jacob Butler and William Smyth, all of whom have
since attained prominence in Iowa and the Nation. John A. Kasson was
the Iowa member of the Committee on Resolutions, and he, with Horace
Greeley, formed the subcommittee which drafted the platform of that
famous convention. Iowa divided its vote between William H. Seward,
the great Antislavery leader and statesman, and Abraham Lincoln, who
had recently won national fame in a series of political debates with
Stephen A. Douglas. The platform was an able document, defining the
principles of the party of freedom in clear and vigorous terms which
aroused great enthusiasm throughout the country. The nomination of
Abraham Lincoln, a typical representative of the West, was received
with general rejoicing in the Mississippi Valley. The defeat of
Seward was a sore disappointment to the radical wing of the party
which gave Lincoln, however, a unanimous and loyal support.
The Democratic National Convention, which had been held
at Charleston, on the 23d of April, had divided into two factions on
the issues relating to slavery. Delegates from the extreme Southern
States demanded that the platform declare that neither congress nor
territorial legislatures had power to abolish slavery in the
Territories, nor prohibit the introduction of slaves therein, nor
impair the right of property in slaves by legislation. Ben. M.
Samuels, of Iowa, presented a minority report indorsing the
Democratic platform of 1856 on the subject of slavery. The minority
report was adopted by a vote of one hundred an sixty-five to one
hundred and thirty-eight, whereupon the delegates from Alabama,
Mississippi, Florida and Texas, and a portion of the delegates from
Louisiana, South Carolina, Arkansas, North Carolina, Delaware and
Georgia, withdrew from the convention. After a session of ten days
the convention adjourned to meet at Baltimore on the 18th
of June. When it reassembled a portion of the delegates seceded, and
those remaining nominated Stephen A. Douglas for President and H. V.
Johnson for Vice-President. The seceders held a convention,
nominating John C. Breckinridge for President and Joseph Lane for
Vice-President. Another national Convention was held at Baltimore,
May 9th, by delegates from twenty States representing the
Constitutional-Union Party. It adopted for a platform the
Constitution, and declared adherence to the union of the States and
the enforcement of the laws. John Bell was nominated for President
and Edward Everett for Vice-President.
The old Whig party had now disappeared, and is no more
heard of in American politics. Slavery, the crime against
civilization, had no longer use for a party of compromises but
demanded the support a protection of the National Government. The
Republicans sternly—and the Douglas Democrats mildly—resisted such
demands. The constitution-Union party was neutral and the
Breckinridge Democrats were aggressive in support of slavery. All
minor issues were overshadowed and the great conflict between
freedom and slavery aroused the most intense interest of the entire
country.
The Republican State Convention met at Iowa City, May
23d, 1860, and nominated Elijah Sells for Secretary of State; J. W.
Cattell for Auditor; J. W. Jones, Treasurer; C. C. Nourse,
Attorney-General; A. B. Miller, Register Land Office and George G.
Wright for Supreme Judge. The resolutions indorsed the platform and
candidates of the national Republican Convention.
The Democratic State Convention was held at Des Moines
on the 12th of July, and nominated the following
candidates for State officers: J. M. Corse,
(1) Secretary of State; G. W.
Maxfield, Auditor; J. W. Ellis, Treasurer; Patrick Robb, Register;
D. F. Miller, Supreme Judge. The convention indorsed the candidates
of the Douglas wing of the Democratic National Conventions and
declared for economy in State expenses, a revision of the
Constitution and radical changes in the banking system.
The campaign was a warm one, the candidates for electors
took the field and advocated the respective platforms of their
parties with vigor, arousing enthusiasm and fierce antagonisms,
which resulted in bringing out a large vote. The result was the
election of the Republican candidates by the following vote:
Republican average vote………………70,300
Douglas Democrats average vote……...55,000
Constitution-Union average vote………1,750
Breckinridge Democrats average vote…1,035
Republican plurality …………………...15,300
The Republican State ticket received an average
plurality of 13, 670.
In the First District, Samuel R. Curtis, Republican, was
elected to Congress over Chester C. Cole, Democrat. In the Second
District, William Vanderver, Republican, was elected over Ben M.
Samuels, Democrat. Iowa had now become one of the firm Republican
States and as long as American slavery was an issue in politics her
people continued to stand for freedom.
__________
Footnote
-
Corse became a distinguished officer
in the War of the Rebellion.
|
