Six Die in
Strong Wind Storm (1949)
----Source: Colby Phonograph (Colby, Clark County, Wis.)
Thursday, 13 Oct. 1949
The heavy wind storm which hit Colby and Wisconsin Monday resulted in
six deaths, property damage and many a big headache. In the Colby area,
shingles were blown off buildings, machine sheds and barns were damaged,
window panes were broken and telephone and electric light poles fell
down. With poles down, and, at times no electric current, the girls at
the Colby telephone office operated the switchboards under difficult
conditions.
Property damage in Wisconsin ran into millions and the death toll
mounted to six. The dead are: Two unidentified men who drowned in
Pickerel Lake in Oneida county; John Boxill, age 23, when a sail boat
capsized on Lake Mendota, near Madison; Albert Bolle, age 53, killed
near Antigo when the wind plucked off a barn door and smashed it against
him; Henry Gauerke of Ixonia, age 80, was electrocuted when he touched a
live wire which had been blown across a road; Herman Krueger, age 66, of
Evansville died of a heart attack as he tried to reach the shelter of
his car during the storm.
Thorp Tornado
---Source: Scrapbook of Clarabelle Foster - Contributed by Mary
Burton
Trees Uprooted in City; No Persons Are Injured
THORP – A tornado flicked down in two places near here Saturday
afternoon, killing six head of cattle, hundreds of turkeys and wrecking
three barns. There were no injuries.
Larry Lundholm, manager of the Midland Co-op here, said he and a group
at the co-op saw the tail of a black cloud swoop down and then back up.
“The black cloud was about 1,000 feet high,” Lundholm said, “with a long
tail. We didn’t think it was going to come down, but it sure did. It was
a tornado all right.”
The six animals, five heifers and a bull, were killed by a falling barn
on the Ray Raether farm, about two miles southeast of here.
The storm hit at 4:20 p.m.
Barns were also destroyed on the Duane Smasel and the Mrs. Edith Heimnan
farms, 1 ˝ miles west of here on Hy. 29.
The dead turkeys belong to Eugene Wilhelm. The birds are scattered over
15 acres on two ranges.
“We haven’t had time to count the dead and hurt ones,” Wilhelm said,
“the loss could be anywhere from 100 to 1,000….and I would be surprised
if it is 1,000 all told.”
He said the turkeys are covered by insurance. He has 22,000 birds,
12,000 of them on the two ranges that were hit by the storm, and 10,000
on the home farm, about a mile east of where the tornado touched down.
Damage was also reported on the Bob Kingery and Jabe Niedzwiecki farms.
In Thorp, dozens of trees were uprooted and one chimney was blown down.
Electric power was out on the south side of the village.
Highway 29 was blocked by a huge elm on the Wilhelm farm.
“That tree had stood there for 75 years,” Wilhelm said. He pointed to a
huge grain elevator that was lying on its side. “That’s never wriggled
before in five years of storms,” he noted.
Mrs. Heiman, 67, was home alone when the storm hit.
“I heard an awful noise as I was going for the cellar,” she said. “I
looked out the window and saw the barn was gone and then decided it was
time to go below.”
“The Awful Noise” came from a huge barn timber that was lifted from the
barn to the roof of the house, 50 feet away. The timber is made of three
2 by 14 inch planks nailed together and is 20 feet long. It is lying on
the roof of the house where it was tossed like a match stick.
A metal windmill was keeled over on the corner of the house. It had
knocked a window from a porch.
Also down on the Heiman place are a machine shed and tool house. The
barn collapsed around a hay baler and other equipment inside, including
a rubber tired wagon that was over turned.
On the Smasel place, the barn was not in use this year. The Dale
Andersons and the Videll Boardmans live in two houses on the farm. Mrs.
Anderson and three of her children were home alone when the storm hit.
“There was such a racket with the windows shaking and everything we
didn’t hear the barn go down,” Mrs. Anderson said.
Smasel is a grandson of Boardman, 83, who helped his father build the
fallen barn 61 years ago.
Boardman said his wife, Nellie, 72, looked out the window and saw boards
flying around the house.
“Look the barn is down,” Boardman quoted his wife. “Then I looked,” he
said, “and sure enough, the damn thing was just lying there – all flat.”
Sheriff Ray Kutsche from Neillsville, along with other Clark County
officers were on the scene, keeping traffic clear on the highways. The
sheriff said the area was hit by heavy rains a few minutes before the
winds struck.
The storm is the fourth to hit the Thorp area since May 22, Lundholm,
the co-op manager, said there are now about 50 barns down in the area.
He pointed to one, about a mile across the field from the Heiman place.
The new barn was untouched by the storm and bright sunshine, just an
hour after the storm, gleamed from the new green shingles, half covering
the hip roof.
At the Heiman place, also, Lundholm pointed to a huge oak that was
stripped of its leaves from the top, half-way down. Next to it was
another oak, untouched.
“That was no ordinary wind that did that,” Lundholm said. “It takes a
real funnel to strip a tree like that.” And Sheriff Kutsche nodded in
agreement.
Unity Fire (January 1909)
----Source: Colby Phonograph (Colby, Clark County, Wis.) Thursday, 28
Jan. 1909
Unity Has $30,000 Fire
Nearly an Entire Business Block Wiped up in Early Morning Fire
Unity was visited early Friday morning by one of the worst
conflagrations in its history. Fire started in the hardware store of
Button & Mumbrue and before it was finally gotten under control it had
consumed nearly a block of business houses and caused a fire loss of
about $30,000. While it is impossible at this time to correctly estimate
the several losses the following schedule will be found nearly correct:
Aug. Weide, butcher shop, loss $3,000. No insurance.
Peter Fritz, buildings, $5,500. Insurance, $2,000.
Zell Brothers, general store, loss $8,200. Insurance, $6,000.
Button & Mumbrue, loss $4,000. Insurance $2,000.
William Ewert, saloon, loss $3,000. No insurance.
Register office, loss $1,100. Insurance $600.
H. Kops, hotel and saloon loss $3,000. No insurance.
H. J. Kohlhepp building, loss $2,000. Insurance $1,000.
The fire was discovered by H. R. Zell about 2 o’clock a.m. at that time
the entire two story double front hardware store occupied by Button &
Mumbrue was a mass of flames and the fire had already communicated to
the double front building occupied on the first two floors by Zell Bros.
general store and by P. Fritz & Co. with a flour and feed store, the
second floor was occupied by the “Register” and by Wm. Zell as a
dwelling. Both buildings were constructed of pine and burned like
tinder. A hard fight was made to save the Ewert property but account of
being so close to the other buildings and an unfavorable wind, the well
fought battle was in vain. The Forest House located immediately north of
the Ewert property was also soon aflame and the attention of the firemen
was turned toward checking the progress of the fire south, a stand was
made at the post office and after a fight that is a credit to the
firemen and citizens the fire was checked.
While this is a bad blow to the village the right spirit prevails and as
fast as the debris can be cleared away work on the new buildings will be
started. It is to be hoped that brick structures will take the place of
the burned ones. The high rate of insurance on the old pine buildings
was so high that some of the owners carried no insurance and practically
none of them anywhere as near as much as they should.
Through the kindness of big hearted John White and son of the Marshfield
News who put themselves to much trouble to assist a brother in distress
we are able to come out in a *** Note: The rest of the article was cut
off and was not available at the time of transcription.
Unity Fire (January
1909)
----Source: Colby Phonograph (Colby, Clark County, Wis.)
Thursday, 28 Jan. 1909
Unity Has $30,000 Fire
Nearly an Entire Business Block Wiped up in Early Morning Fire
Unity was visited early Friday morning by one of the worst
conflagrations in its history. Fire started in the hardware store of
Button & Mumbrue and before it was finally gotten under control it had
consumed nearly a block of business houses and caused a fire loss of
about $30,000. While it is impossible at this time to correctly estimate
the several losses the following schedule will be found nearly correct:
Aug. Weide, butcher shop, loss $3,000. No insurance.
Peter Fritz, buildings, $5,500. Insurance, $2,000.
Zell Brothers, general store, loss $8,200. Insurance, $6,000.
Button & Mumbrue, loss $4,000. Insurance $2,000.
William Ewert, saloon, loss $3,000. No insurance.
Register office, loss $1,100. Insurance $600.
H. Kops, hotel and saloon loss $3,000. No insurance.
H. J. Kohlhepp building, loss $2,000. Insurance $1,000.
The fire was discovered by H. R. Zell about 2 o’clock a.m. at that time
the entire two story double front hardware store occupied by Button &
Mumbrue was a mass of flames and the fire had already communicated to
the double front building occupied on the first two floors by Zell Bros.
general store and by P. Fritz & Co. with a flour and feed store, the
second floor was occupied by the “Register” and by Wm. Zell as a
dwelling. Both buildings were constructed of pine and burned like
tinder. A hard fight was made to save the Ewert property but account of
being so close to the other buildings and an unfavorable wind, the well
fought battle was in vain. The Forest House located immediately north of
the Ewert property was also soon aflame and the attention of the firemen
was turned toward checking the progress of the fire south, a stand was
made at the post office and after a fight that is a credit to the
firemen and citizens the fire was checked.
While this is a bad blow to the village the right spirit prevails and as
fast as the debris can be cleared away work on the new buildings will be
started. It is to be hoped that brick structures will take the place of
the burned ones. The high rate of insurance on the old pine buildings
was so high that some of the owners carried no insurance and practically
none of them anywhere as near as much as they should.
Through the kindness of big hearted John White and son of the Marshfield
News who put themselves to much trouble to assist a brother in distress
we are able to come out in a *** Note: The rest of the article was cut
off and was not available at the time of transcription.
See Also:
Clark County Newspaper Items
Index
Crime News
