Shelby County
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By far the worst tornado, however, the county has ever experienced, so far as men know, was that of Easter Sunday, March 23, 1913. This storm struck Shelby county late in the evening, one branch of it beginning to do damage near the poor farm, about three miles south of Harlan, and continuing to wreak great havoc in a northeasterly direction through Center, Douglas and Polk townships. Another branch of the storm damaged houses and barns and destroyed trees about a mile and a half south and southeast of Defiance, and in various parts of Westphalia and Union townships, running thence in a northeasterly direction. There were other isolated instances of damage by the storm on this same evening at various places in the county. This tornado was a part of the terrible storm which killed nearly a hundred persons in the city of Omaha, demolished six hundred houses and partially destroyed or badly damaged eleven hundred twenty-nine others. In considering this storm, therefore, there is incorporated in this description much of what was soon at Omaha by trained observers, because it is likely that the phenomena noticed there were characteristic of the storm here.

The Shelby County Republican of March 27, 1913, contained the following very complete account of the tornado in Shelby county:

"Sunday was a fairly warm day, dropped down in the midst of a season that has been colder than usual for the time of the year. All day quick-flying clouds raced across the sky northward. During the afternoon the clouds thickened and increased their speed, and their under surfaces were tinged by the sickly green color which presages storm.

"Near six o'clock in the evening Postmaster Reynolds, noticing the portentous weather conditions, 'phoned to an assistant at the postoffice, where the official barometer is kept, asking for a statement as to its reading. At that time it registered 29.22. It may have been lower, or gone lower later on. In any event, that reading was almost a full inch below normal and indicated that this locality was right in the midst of a danger zone.

"Rain began to fall in the neighborhood of six o'clock. The fall increased in intensity, accompanied by a considerable electric display and some hail. Between six and seven, two considerable tornadoes chased across Shelby county. The more destructive one started in the neighborhood of the county farm and tore away across Center and Polk townships, disappearing into Audubon county. The lesser one originated in Westphalia township, preceded northeast through Union and Greeley, and continued through into Crawford county.

"The path of the storm through Center and Polk townships is clearly defined, and is marked by wrecked homes, barns, outbuildings, uprooted or broken trees, and all the other evidences of the destruction worked by the demons of the air when they get busy.

"At the poor farm outbuildings were wrecked, trees were uprooted or broken, the brick walls of the home were cracked, and the premises were Strewn With debris.

"This condition marks practically all the territory from that point to the home of J. C. Nyrup. At the Nyrup place a large barn was demolished, and practically all the buildings except the house were destroyed. Mr. Nyrup and his men were in the barn when it went, and had a miraculous escape.

"All the barns on the Nels Mathiesen place were wrecked, together with the outbuildings and trees. C. N. Stoffersen lost a big barn and a second was unrooted. The fine new home withstood the blast without injury. Everything on the Wickersham place, occupied by O. G. Ruffcorn, was taken except the house. All these people escaped injury.

"A cattle barn was destroyed at the C. W. Daws place, the fine evergreen grove was badly broken, and the farm was strewn with debris. Roy Daws was in the barn when it was wrecked. The building was simply lifted and carried away, leaving the cattle standing in their stalls. Roy hiked for the house and was struck by a flying timber as he ran. The timber took him broadside on. Had it come head on, it no doubt would have gone through him. He was considerably bruised. Next morning the debris was two feet deep over some of the ground he ran over.

"N. E. Juhl's house was carried from the foundation and one end of the barn was blown in. Little damage, save the destruction of some smaller buildings, was done at the H. W. Littleton farm. The large plate glass windows were blown in and when this happened Mrs. Littleton joined the rest of the family in the cave. Center school house, Center township, was almost entirely destroyed. The wall, almost intact, lies leaning upon and above the foundation. The balance of the building, torn into splinters, was scattered over the surrounding country. A barn was unroofed at the south place on the Gooding farm, occupied by George Terkelsen, but the home escaped. Some barns were also unroofed at the George H. Miller home farm.

"The north place on the Gooding farm, occupied by Marinus Terkelsen, was swept clean. House, barn, outbuildings, trees, cribs, stacks, everything went. The family had just gotten into the cave as the house went, and a big tree crashed down on the cave door.

"The same fate attended the buildings on the Mrs. O. O. Morgan place, occupied by W. M. Campbell and family. The men folks had just come in from doing the evening chores. Almost without warning, there was a crash, and the house was gone. The family found themselves lying in the storm, under broken roofs and timbers, and as they lay some of them could see the timbers of the barn and even the horses flying over their heads. One horse was carried a long distance and dropped upon a neighboring hen house, dead. The baby was carried from Mrs. Campbell's arms and dropped in the orchard. It was found unhurt afterward. Their escape was little less than miraculous.

"The twelve inmates of the Campbell house and Marinus Terkelsen and family found their way, after the storm had abated, to the home on the south end of the Gooding farm, where they spent the night. Doctor Smith was called about seven o'clock to go out and attend to their wounds. Strange to say, of the eleven members of the family hurt in some way, none had a cut or a bruise which was at all serious. They suffered more from fright and exposure than they did from their hurts. All the outbuildings and the roof of the barn were taken at the Art Erret place. The roof was taken from the big barn on the J. G. Westrope place.

"The principal damage in the whole course of the storm was suffered in the immediate neighborhood of the Methodist Episcopal church, about a mile this side of Bowman's grove. The church, the homes of O. B. Heflin, I. N. Morgan and Wallace Hubbell were entirely destroyed, and many barns were demolished. On the G. M. Hubbell place, occupied by Wallace Hubbell and wife, the storm made a clean sweep--house, barn and everything was taken. Mr. Hubbell and his family were thrown out in the adjacent yard. As soon as the storm abated. J. G. Westrope found them and took them to his home. They suffered only slight bruises.

"I. N. Morgan's house suffered a like fate, except that the kitchen portion of the home was left standing. The inmates of the building had taken refuge in the cellar and so escaped injury. They also went to the Westrope home after the storm. The Methodist Episcopal church, which stood in the Erret field some ten rods east of the Morgan home, was entirely destroyed. The building would seem to have been driven from its foundation before the storm. The front end, as it was pushed forward, dug deeper into the soil until it could go no further, after which the building collapsed and its debris was scattered over the field for a half a mile or more. Two barns were destroyed at the Z. T. Erret home, but it escaped with slight injury. The public road which runs through the Erret place was so blocked with fallen trees, lumber, hay and miscellaneous debris as to be impassable for teams. These were compelled next day, in passing, to go through the fields.

"The severest loss of all was sustained by O. B. Heflin. His fine new home and all his buildings are total wrecks, the materials of which they were composed scattered far and wide. The family escaped by going to the cellar. They tried first to go to the cave near the home, but could not open the doors to get in. The house went soon after they got to the cellar, and the cellar filled with debris in every nook and corner except the one in which they happened to be. It was a tremendously narrow escape.

"School house No. 1, which stood across the road from the Heflin home, was entirely destroyed and the debris scattered for a long distance. The Swenson home, a short distance north of the Heflin home, was pierced by three tree trunks which were dashed against it. No one was hurt. Alvin Hess had two large barns destroyed entirely. The home was not taken, but it was pierced in several places by timbers which came flying through the air. The roof was removed from the central part of the large barn on the D. Terrill farm. The roofs on the shed parts of the barn were not taken. W. H. Barkman's buildings were badly damaged. Some slight damage was done to the Hugh Wyland place, bought recently from Mat Hansen. No further large damage was done until the storm reached Polk township, some distance further to the northeast.

"The storm would seem to have been quite as severe in Polk as it was in Center, and to have done fully as much damage. It continued diagonally across the township, taking everything in its path.

"In the southwest corner of the township, barns belonging to the old Sam Michaelsen place, to the A. A. Mitten home place, and on the Nelson Hon place were destroyed. A kitchen and outbuildings were taken from the Perry Gaer place. The Chris Michaelsen place, west of Redline, was badly torn up. The store at Redline, owned by William Roberts and his wife, was completely destroyed. The family were in the building at the time, but escaped injury miraculously. The stock of goods, especially the dry goods, was carried for a long distance, and next morning much of the calico and muslin decorated the trees in a nearby grove. The Christian church building at Redline was entirely destroyed and scattered over much ground. Raymond Dent's house was moved and his barns and outbuildings destroyed. Peter Green lost his barn, James Bartleson lost his house and barn, and a child and Mrs. Bartleson were considerably hurt. Jens M. Anderson lost all his buildings and was himself pinned under the ruins of the house. He was in feeble health, in any event, and could not stand the injury, shock and exposure. He died Monday and was buried Wednesday from the Merrill's Grove church. School houses Nos. 6 and 9 were entirely destroyed and Nos. 5 and 8 were much damaged.

"Clarence Jacobsen had his house, barn, silo and all buildings except a small summer kitchen torn to pieces and blown away. Mr. Jacobsen himself was badly cut and bruised. One son had an ankle sprained and was cut across the top of his foot. One horse and a number of hogs were killed on this farm. A. C. Anderson had two large new barns totally demolished and lost several head of stock. Damage was also done to the house and barn of Chris Lansman. He suffered a bad scalp wound and one of his boys had a collar bone broken. Homer Kaufman, living near the creamery, had his house and other buildings destroyed. The barn and other outbuildings at the Liberty Creamery of Peter Peterson, were destroyed, and the creamery taken off its foundation. The house of Aron McCuen was partly destroyed and other buildings demolished. Jacob Olsen had a barn torn down. Mr. Nelson had a broken arm and a bad bruise on the head. Chris Anderson, Sr., had a barn and other buildings destroyed, as did also Chris Anderson, Jr. Damage was also done on the Spiece place and on the farms of Soren Hansen and on the Arney place, the Gunderson farm and also slight damage done on the farms of Thomas Willadsen and Lawrence Olson.

"In Greeley township much damage was done to barns and outbuildings on the following places: Arthur Adams, Mr. Sleister, Frank Miller and Messrs. Kirschbaum. Vrooman and Wetzel. A number of cattle and horses were killed.

"A branch of the storm started in the southwest corner of Westphalia township, continuing in a northeastery direction until it disappeared in Crawford county in the neighborhood of Astor. The following named persons had damage done: John Schmitz, Bertha Sondag. Mr. Leenan, Barney Kenkel, M. J. Langenfeld, M. Kimmen.

"In Union township damage was done to the buildings of Peter Mueller, A. A. Hulsebus, Henry Lamm, George H. Miller and R. Kirschbaum. The farm home on the Thomas Noonan farm, about four miles west of Defiance, was completely demolished. One girl in the family was slightly injured.

"Damage was done also on the farms of A. A. Hulsebus. William Ruffcorn, Dan Quinn, John Hartman, Harm Hulsebus, Alfred Hulsebus, Mr. Wirtz, Joseph Scheuring."

The losses of a large insurance association of Des Moines, Iowa, for the year 1913, covering chiefly the storm of March 23, were as follows for the counties below named: (These sums are, of course, far short of the actual damage done.) Audubon, $6,376.14; Carroll, $7,996.70; Franklin, $12,232.70; Harrison, $10,069.40; Mills, $7,089.32; Pottawattamie, $8,889.55; Shelby countyl $48,419.60. These figures are valuable simply by way of comparison. There were of course other insurance companies sustaining heavy losses.

One of the startling things of the storm was the experiencc of David Mason, the well known liveryman of Harlan. He was returning from Bowman's grove, where he had been to take a teacher out to her country school, and was coming down the hill west of Art Erret's when he was struck by the storm. His team and baggy were lifted and carried over an adjoining fence and Mr Mason was dropped in the road. The buggy was broken to pieces and the horses ran away. Mr. Mason was cut and scratched in a wire fence and lay there under the fur robe until the storm was over.

It seems very wonderful that there was not a very serious loss of life. The destructive character of the storm made it easily possible that there might have been fifty or one hundred lives lost. The cellars were used a great deal and this accounts for the saving of many lives. Only about two dozen animals were killed. Telephone lines were badly twisted and broken. Fences were completely torn down, the barbed wire lying in the highways making travel difficult and dangerous. Many fine groves planted by prairie pioneers were permanently damaged or destroyed, and many a gray-haired man saw ruined in the twinkling of an eye the results of a lifetime of tree planting and careful cultivation, not again in his lifetime to be fully replaced. But the devastated country in but a year's time has rallied in a way to command one's admiration for Shelby county's pluck and faith.

Transcribed by Cheryl Siebrass, November, 2019 from the Past and Present of Shelby County, Iowa, by Edward S. White, P.A., LL. B.,Volume 1, Indianapolis: B. F. Bowen & Co., 1915, pp. 61-67.

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