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| Cortland Standard block. |
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| Messenger House. |
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| Main Street and Court Street intersection, Cortland, N. Y. |
Cortland
Evening Standard, Wednesday, September 30, 1896.
AWFUL WIND STORM.
ALMOST A TORNADO VISITS CORTLAND IN THE
NIGHT.
Hotels,
Factories and Houses Unroofed—Grandstand at the Fair Grounds Wrecked—Trees Uprooted—Chimneys
Blown Down—Many People Frightened—Some Strange Freaks.
Cortland was last night visited by the most
terrific wind storm that it ever experienced. There were no indications of it
in advance and no one was prepared for it. The weather forecast yesterday said
that there would be heavy rain last night, and the looks of the sky justified
the prediction. At about 5:30 the rain came and the storm was sufficiently disagreeable
all the evening to drive from the streets every one who was not obliged to be
out.
The wind gradually came up and blew in
gusts, but it was not till after midnight that it got in its best work. At
first it lessened to a considerable extent, but this was only to catch its
breath for a new blast. About 1 o'clock it began to make things jingle, and
from that time till after 4 o'clock there was little sleeping done in this
town.
Well built houses that have never quivered before
any storm that they ever fell in with, shook and trembled last night, and in
many cases their inmates were trembling more than the houses did. Trees bowed
before the blast and turned up their roots to the weather. Branches were torn
off and chimneys were scattered broadcast over a large area. During the earlier
part of the storm the rain beat against the windows in sheets, but later on
this stopped entirely and there was only the shrieking of the gale and the roar
of the elements which continued till after 4 o'clock when the force of the storm
seemed to have spent itself.
This morning the streets presented a pitiable
appearance. When the cyclone dropped down on Cortland in August, 1890, doubtless
the wind was as hard as this, but in that case it cut a narrow swath diagonally
through the village. This storm was wide spread. It affected the whole village
and the country round about.
During the height of the storm a large portion
of the tin roof on the Squires building was rolled up and dumped into Tompkins-st.
A few minutes later there was an awful crash from the direction of the
Messenger House and all the great tin roof upon that splendid hostelry rolled itself
up into a cylinder and was caught up by the wind and swept clear off the roof.
A spectator said that the tin seemed for some seconds to be sustained in the
air by the wind, and then it plunged down into the center of Port Watson-st.
Three chimneys were demolished while the tin was rolling itself up. The house
was full of guests at the time and they were frightened half out of their wits.
The tin roof of the livery stable of M. H. Kingman, behind the Messenger House,
was also torn off and rolled itself into the back yard of the Messenger House.
The tin roof of the brick barn of Z. Rogers next John Hodgson's blacksmith
shop, together with the roof timbers were blown off. The tin roof of the
residence of F. J. Doubleday, corner of Church and Port Watson-sts., was torn
off and blown up Church-st. nearly to the First M. E. parsonage, where it
wrapped itself about one of the large elm trees.
A huge elm tree in front of the residence of
C. L. Kinney on Port Watson-st. fell to the north, smashed the edge of the
piazza and the roof and just missed landing on the house itself. Part of the
tin roof of Samuel Keator was torn off. The tin roofs of E. A. Fish and Harrison
Wells were both loosened, but neither was taken off. Mrs. Mary T. Murphey had
several windows smashed in her house on Port Watson-st.
Both smokestacks at the works of the Cortland
Door and Window Screen Co. were blown down. One was smashed beyond hopes of
repairs, the other one can possibly be put together again. The works are shut
down until at least one new stack can be put up again.
The south brick wall of the boiler room at
the works of the Cortland Forging Co. was
blown in and destroyed. This is an old wall that went through the [year ago] fire, but was
thought to be strong enough to stand. When this wall was destroyed the wind had
full sweep under the new roof, but so far as discovered it has not started a
hair.
At Cooper Brothers' foundry three windows were
blown in and carried sash and all ten feet behind a pile of plank. Only three
lights of glass in these sashes were disturbed and only two of these were broken,
the third falling out upon the ground unbroken. A henhouse near the foundry 10
by 25 feet in size and about 10 feet high was lifted up bodily and thrown
twenty feet against a barn and is badly twisted. One hen was killed. A rear
piazza of Lester Cooper's house was torn off.
At the factory of the Cortland Specialty Co. the tin roof was torn off
and thrown down upon the Lehigh Valley tracks. The smokestack was torn down and
broken.
The Howe Stove Co., the Excelsior Top Co.
and the Ellis Omnibus Co. were unscathed.
A section of roof about forty feet square
upon the blacksmith shop of the
Cortland
Wagon Co. was torn up and laid over back upon the roof which was uninjured.
The tin roof was torn off the wood shop of
the wire mills of Wickwire Bros., and a considerable portion of the roof of the
front building which is 165 feet long was torn off.
The factory of the Cortland Mfg. Co., Ltd.,
lost its tin roof.
The splendid grand stand upon the fair ground
is in ruins. The roof was totally demolished and all the open space between the
seats and the track is covered with kindling wood. This stand was erected about
six years ago at a cost of over $4,000 and was the finest grand stand in this
section of the state.
One of the most peculiar freaks of the storm
was at the old carriage factory between Cortland and Homer once run by the Knights
of Labor. There are two buildings which stand side by side. Each is two stories
high and about 30 by 50 feet in size. The north building is undisturbed,
but the south building is nearly destroyed. The whole second story including roof
and going down as low as the tops of the first story windows was picked up
bodily and was thrown completely over the top of the north building and landed
in the field in a state of collapse forty feet north of the north building.
In this connection it may be noted that the
spire of the Congregational church in Homer was badly stripped of slate on the
north side, while the south side was undisturbed. The wind all came from the
south east and nearly all the damage done to buildings was on the south or
south east side.
The big water tank on the top of Prospect
Hill also came out second best in its effort to withstand the storm. The tank
is cylindrical, is forty feet high, forty feet in diameter, and holds 375,000
gallons of water when full. It is made of the best boiler plate steel riveted. At
a point twenty-two feet above the foundations there is a horizontal break two
feet long and above this the steel is bent over toward the north at an angle of
nearly 45 degrees. Superintendent Taylor has set J. D. Keeler and a force of
men at work trying to spring the frame back to its place. In that event the
break can be patched. If this cannot be accomplished a new top will be
required. In any case no one need fear a shortage of water, as the tank is
still all right to a height of twenty-two feet, and all that will be required is
more frequent pumping at the pumphouse.
The roof was torn off the house of C. H.
Stone, 6 Blodgett-st., and chimneys were swept from the adjoining houses of C.
L. Whiting and John Dillon.
The scuttle was blown from the roof of the
Pomeroy-st. school and the top of the storm door was torn away.
The house of Mrs. Mary E. Gardner, 18
Owen-ave., lost its roof.
In the house of Coon Brothers on Hyatt-st.
the entire casing and sashes of a large double window was torn out and blown
half way across the street. The entire front of the house was loosened.
A large maple tree fell on the house of W. J.
Greenman on N. Church-st. and did considerable damage.
The piazza of Geo. W. Edgcomb's house on N.
Church-st. was damaged.
A small smokestack at the Lehigh Valley car
shops was blown down. The freight house at the station lost part of its roof.
A house belonging to James S. Squires at 25
Duane-st. lost half of its roof.
Part of the roof of the foundry of the McKee
& Webb company was blown
off.
Many
slates were torn off the Baptist church.
Slate from the spire of St. Mary's Catholic church
were blown across Grant-st. and into the house of Mrs. C. H. Jones on the north
side of the street, breaking windows up stairs and down stairs.
A barn near the water tank on Prospect hill
was blown down flat.
A section of plank sidewalk 150 feet long in
front of the premises of R. J. Lucus was picked up bodily and turned bottom
side up in the street. Between the original location and where it was found are
a number of trees fifteen feet high. The sidewalk must have been lifted clear
over them.
An evergreen tree at the corner of Tompkins
and Water-sts. fell through a chamber window breaking the glass.
Half of the roof on Byron Crane's house on
Frank-st. was blown off.
Half of a shingle roof on the house of a
farmer named Oakes on the Virgil road was blown off.
Out in the country bad damage was done. D.
E. Kinney west of the village reports that his windmill was blown down, from
twenty to thirty fruit trees uprooted, as many shade trees, and roofs of sheds
and barns badly damaged.
A passer between here and McGrawville
reports only five apple trees standing in the large orchard of Fred Conable, all
the others being down.
Fences on farms were blown far and wide. On
the Wickwire farm last night a force of men had to be turned out to catch the
horses which were running at large after the fences went down. The same is
reported of cows at other farms.
The windmill of A. B. Benham on North Main-st.
was blown down.
A barn on the farm of Fred Hatch south of
the village wan unroofed.
One hundred and fifty lights of glass were
broken in Hopkins' greenhouse on Groton-ave.
So many trees were blown down on the gulf
road near Kinney's cider mill that it was impossible for some time to get through.
In this report no attempt has been made to
note trees blown down or chimneys off. There was scarcely a house in town this
morning in which chimneys were either not off or were damaged. Every street was
full of fallen trees or of branches off trees. The corporation men were busy
for several hours opening up the streets. Telegraph, telephone, fire alarm and
electric light wires were down.
A lineman asked E. D. Foote to help him lift
a telephone wire. Foote was a little afraid of the wire and lightly touched it
with his fingers. It had crossed an electric light wire somewhere and was alive.
He was thrown violently to the ground and could not get his hand off the wire.
The lineman seized him and pulled him away. He was all right again in a half
hour, but his fingers were badly blistered. Had he laid hold of the wire in the
beginning and got the full force of the shock he would probably have been
killed.
A horse belonging to J. D. Brown stepped on
a live wire on Elm-st. this morning and was thrown, and lay fifteen minutes
before he could regain his feet. Another horse belonging to a party unknown had
a similar experience on Court-st. Every one should be careful about live wires
at such a time. It is a safe rule to let all wires wholly alone.
The telephone service in Cortland is pretty
badly crippled. Wires are down so that none of the outside towns can be reached
yet. Manager Nolan has been busy since 5 o'clock this morning getting the local
lines in shape. This morning only a few instruments could be used and as soon
as the electric cars began to run most of these were burned out.
The Western Union telegraph service is also
badly crippled. Manager O. K.
George
succeeded in communicating with Binghamton at 3:10 this afternoon, the first
outside place.
The D., L. & W. was behind in arriving from
the south by reason of an accident detailed in another column.
On the Lehigh Valley there was no communication
by wire with the west before noon. The train arrived from Canastota at 11:30,
having been due at 8:56, but it was not permitted to go on west as there was no
way of finding out the whereabouts of the train due here from the west at 9:48.
The latter train arrived just before 2 o'clock and proceeded to Canastota, and then
the other train went on to Elmira.
It is likely that very much of the damage here
in town is here unrecorded, as it has been impossible to cover every case, but
the instances mentioned above will give an idea of the violence of the storm.
 |
| D. L. & W. R. R. train. |
KILLED IN A WRECK.
COAL TRAIN
ON THE D., L. & W. R. R. CRASHES INTO A TREE.
Had Been
Blown Across the Track Below Messengerville. Fireman Killed Instantly. Engineer
Escapes Uninjured.
A southbound coal train on the D., L. &
W. R. R. crashed into a large hemlock tree, which had blown cross the track one
mile below Messengerville, a little after 4 o'clock this morning. The engine
and three cars were tumbled down the embankment and the fireman was instantly
killed.
The train was in charge of Conductor Duffey,
Engineer Carpenter, and Fireman Edward
Delanty. The train met the trackwalker at Messengerville, who had just come by
the place where the wreck occurred, and the track was then clear. As the train
approached this place, Engineer Carpenter saw the tree lying across the track
and at once reversed the engine, but the train could not be stopped and struck
the tree, throwing the engine and four cars from the track. The engine and
three cars continued on at least 100 feet before toppling over to the edge of
the river. There was no one in the engine at the time but the engineer and
fireman. The latter was in the left side of the cab and as the engine struck on
its side the unfortunate man was pinioned between it and a large log lying
there. Death must have been instantaneous for he was found lying on his breast
entirely crushed in and the right hip badly crushed. His entire body was badly
scalded by the escaping water and steam. Engineer Carpenter jumped for his life
and was uninjured, save a slight bruise on the right arm. The three cars that
went down the embankment were gondolas, loaded with crushed stone. One gondola
was thrown from the track, but remained upright.
A wrecking crew was at once sent down from
Syracuse, and also one from Binghamton. The body of the dead fireman was taken
from under the engine with some difficulty and taken to Marathon, where the
remains were prepared for burial and were taken to Binghamton on the southbound
accommodation train, which went down at 11 o'clock as soon as the track was
cleared.
The track for a distance of 100 feet was
torn up.
Coroner W. J. Moore of Cortland was summoned
and went down on the wrecking train, but decided that no inquest was necessary.
The place where the wreck occurred was just
one mile below Messengerville station, where on the right there rises abruptly
a steep bank for about 300 feet. On the left and about twenty feet from the
track is the river. The log, between which and the engine Fireman Delanty was
pinioned, lay in a hollow and had this not been there the probability is that
the man would not have been killed. The tree, which lay across the track was a large
hemlock, at least two feet in diameter and had been blown down by the high
wind, a distance of 160 feet. The cowcatcher of the engine was broken, but the
boiler remained intact. Two of the gondolas were turned completely over and the
other lay on its side, broken in two in the middle.
The track was cleared and repaired, so that
the southbound train which passes through Cortland at 10:22 was delayed only
half an hour. The train, reaching Cortland at 6 A. M. from the south, was
backed to Marathon and waited there until the passage of the two southbound
trains, and passed through Cortland at 12:15.
Fireman Edward Delanty, who was killed, was
32 years of age, was unmarried, and resided at Halstead, Pa., where a mother
and sister live, having been dependent on him for support.
BREVITIES.
—An account of the storm in McGrawville,
Homer and Tully will be found [page 8] in the letters from those places in other
columns to-day.
—The fire alarm system is so badly crippled
by the storm last night that it will be several days before it can be fully
repaired. There are five breaks in the line that are known of, and doubtless many
more. Wires of different kinds are so badly mixed up that it has so far been
impossible to find out the extent of the damage. In case of fire during the
next few days we are informed by Chief Bosworth that the boxes cannot be relied
upon, and that an alarm should be telephoned in or sent to the engine house
where the bell will be rung by hand.
MRS.
SUBMITT E. KENNEY.
Died
Sunday Afternoon at Her Home in Truxton.
The death of Mrs. Submitt E. Kenney, the widow
of the late Oscar J. Kenney Sunday
afternoon at Truxton, while not unexpected by her immediate family, was something
of a shock to the community. Mrs. Kenney has been more or less an invalid for a
year or more, suffering with stomach trouble which turned out to be cancer in
that organ and was the cause of her death.
Mrs. Kenney was quite a noted character and
was well-known throughout the county. She had a great passion for horses and
could handle the most obdurate of these animals, often times subduing those
which noted horsemen had given up as incorrigible. All horses seemed to be her
friends and would follow her about like kittens. Mrs. Kenney was also noted as
a natural and willing nurse to the sick.
She was born in Rehoboth, Mass., July 31,
1839, and was 57 years old at the time of her death. She was married to her
late husband, Oscar J. Kenney, Feb. 15, 1858, when twenty years of age. Two
children were born of this marriage, B. F. Kenney of Truxton and Mrs. Louise Patrick,
the wife of Otis D. Patrick, who survive her.
During the last year of her life she has devoted
herself principally to her grandchildren, consisting of two bright boys, Harry
and Oscar Kenney, aged 10 and 12 respectively, and sons of B. F. Kenney, and
little Donald, the infant son of O. D. Patrick, aged 18 months, and pretty
little Josephine, a daughter of O. D. Patrick, aged 9 years, who will miss so
much the loving and tender care of grandma. The funeral will be held to-morrow
at 10:30 A. M. at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Patrick, where she died.
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