Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2024 All Rights Reserved USGenNet Data Repository Please read USGenNet Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott for the USGenNet Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ =========================================================================== Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== Effingham (Illinois) Republican Friday, 5 June 1896 DEATH'S CARNIVAL Long Lists of Killed and Injured by Monday's Cyclone In Its Passage Through Michigan - Miles of Territory Utterly Devastated, and the Track Thickly Strewn with the Mangled Bodies of the Victims Detroit, Mich., May 27. - The cyclone which devastated the northern portion of Oakland county Monday evening swept a path half a mile wide and 16 miles long from west to east, clearing the earth of nearly everything movable. About forty persons were killed outright and fully that number were injured, some of whom will die. The cyclone first struck the earth six miles west of Ortonville and passed half a mile north of that village. In these six miles of devastated country before Orton- ville was reached, 15 persons were killed and about twenty injured, some fatally. The first house to feel the effects of the storm was that of JOSHUA JOHNSON. The storm had not attained all of its fury and the building was only partially demo- lished, MR. JOHNSON escaping injury and his wife and baby being only slightly injured. A mile further east stood the home and barns of WILLIAM MITCHELL. Not a trace of them is left but the foundation walls. MRS. MITCHELL, her son CLAUDE and a baby, JAY MITCHELL, nine months old, were instantly killed. The father was seriously bruised and internally injured and will probably die. A big sliver was driven square into the center of his forehead. All of his stock were killed. DON, another son, is seriously hurt. There is nothing but foundations to show where the home of ABRAHAM QUICK, who lived across the way from MITCHELL stood. Six occupants of the house were killed, and one was seriously injured. PRESCOTT WILKINS, one of those killed in the QUICK home, had reached there on a visit but an hour before the cyclone tore its way through. The home of HENRY FLAMBOY was destroyed and himself, his wife and two children seriously injured. A mile east of FLAMBOY'S the cyclone demolished the house of JOHN PORRITT. The death list in this house reaches four. The wind cloud passed on and next wrecked the home of BENJAMIN WESTBY. MR. WESTBY, his wife and two children were buried in the ruins, but were gotten out with severe injuries. JOHN PROST was the next victim of the storm. His house was completely wrecked and his wife seriously hurt. The home of JOHN MILKIE, on a line with Ortonville, was unharmed, but his barns were wiped out. MR. MILKIE and his son, JOHN, aged 18, were in a barn when it was demolished. The son was instantly killed and the father is in a critical condition. In the next half dozen miles, between Ortonville and the little settlement of Oakwood, the cyclone seemed to lose some of its force, or the farmers living in that section were particularly lucky. The cyclone traveled the road as straight as an arrow's flight, spreading out or contracting as it went along. About eighteen farm houses were destroyed in the line of the storm from Ortonville to Oakwood, but only two persons were killed. Four others were probably fatally injured, and eight or ten more or less seriously hurt. The cloud struck Oakwood almost without warning, and there is little left of that village to-day. The Metho- dist Episcopal and Congregational churches, the town hall, practically all the business houses and most of the residences were left in ruins. Nine persons were killed in the village and many injured. The three mile stretch from Oakwood to Thomas is a scene of heartrending desolation and wreckage. Every- thing in the path of the cyclone was leveled. In and around Thomas, the death list is large and many are injured. After completing its work of destruction at Thomas, the cyclone evidently separated, one section going northeast and doing an immense amount of damage be- tween Thomas and Dryden, in Lapeer county, and the other following a southeasterly direction to North Oxford. After leaving North Oxford, the path of the south- east cyclone is marked at intervals until Mount Clemens is reached, where great damage was done and many persons injured. After passing Dryden and Whigville in Lapeer county, the next heard from the other storm was in Sanilac county, 30 miles away, at the village of Amadore, which was nearly swept away. The funnel-shaped cloud struck a mile west of the village and in a path half a mile wide and six and a half miles long, to the shore of Lake Huron, every building was more of less damaged. ===========================================================================