STORM TRACK: September 30, 1987 (Volume 10 Issue 6)

published by Medical Century Co., 1897

Editor's note: Upon the death of his grandmother, Craig Van Antwerp's father found a book of a distant relative who had written about the life and times of being a chaplain in Kansas during the mid-1800's. In the book, Chaplain H.D. Fisher describes a tornado day on July 4, 1860. The following excerpts are from his book.

Chaplain H.D. Fisher, D.D.

A short time prior to the return of my family from Kansas to Ohio, during the very height of the drought, there occurred at Leavenworth, which was then our home, one of those awful tornadoes which are known to characterize unusually long and severe dry weather. It was on the evening of the fourth of July. The day had been unusually hot, so that but little interest was taken in its celebration. The whole face of the earth was parched and burned as if by hot winds from Egypt. Not a drop of rain had fallen for months, and the people were suffering most terribly.

As nightfall became well established, it became apparent that something unusual was about to happen. The horses and cattle were unusually restless, as if apprehensive, the fowls were slow in getting settled on their roosts; even the dogs and cats about the premises showed signs of impending danger, in manifestations of uneasiness and fear. The night birds, flitted swiftly across the lowering sky and the horizon quickly assumed an inky blackness. Out of the awful stillness came a sound as of a rushing torrent, and there soon sprang out fitful gushes of wind which showed that a storm was gathering.

Almost before it was understood that possible danger lurked near, the storm broke in mighty fury and spread wide its destruction. Houses were unroofed and blown down, the county jail was so badly damaged that prisoners were liberated, only to find death in the path of the tornado; trees were torn up by the roots and church spires and roofs were demolished. Three Mile Creek became a raging torrent from a dry ravine in a few minutes, sweeping away a number of houses and drowning a dozen people; such little garden patches as had been nursed through the drought were destroyed by the wind and hail and rain. The inky blackness of the night, only relieved by the most vivid and blinding flashes of lightning, made the situation the more appalling and increased the terror of the already greatly alarmed people.

It seemed as if out of the drought and heat and famine, had come another destroying power to finish the devastation that had been worked on us. It was one of those quickly-come and quickly-go tornadoes which sweep through a narrow stretch of country working a harvest of destruction and death, but which failed to bring permanent relief from drought. And no sooner had the waters which fell from the sky swept off the dry ground into the river beds and been drunk up by the cracked and broken earth, than was the full force of the blight again upon us. The storm which brought its rain was but a mockery; it had also brought death and damage, and had aroused the fears of the people lest more like destruction should come upon them; truly their lot was a hard one, and most truly do I say it was a courageous people who endured such hardships for the sake of home and life and liberty to this great nation.

During that awful tornado, my wife and children were alone, and as they realized the danger, my wife knelt with our three little boys near the kitchen door in prayer; she had chosen a spot in the garden to which they were to fly in case the house gave signs of falling in upon them, and told the boys to cling to her and lie flat upon the ground, face downward, in the furrows between the lines of blackberry bushes which crossed the garden. Thrice her hand was on the door knob to throw it open, that they might flee for safety. But they were spared; our house withstood the storm, and though terror-stricken and all but destroyed through fear, no harm came to us. The providence which had thus far carried us through the tribulations of pioneer life had again come to our rescue, and my family were spared from disaster and death."