Harrison Storm and Leota Cyclone and Fire- 1909, 1912 or ?

Harrison Storm and Leota Cyclone and Fire- 1909, 1912 or ?

By ANGELA KELLOGG-HENRY

Cleaver Managing Editor

When I mentioned not a lot of photos of the Leota area exist to Julie Berry Traynor she sent me two photos of an interesting weather event in Leota. The cards were sent between Julie’s grandmother’s sisters. Their parents were at Leota at Dunham’s Mill at the time. Surely such a catastrophic event was mentioned in the newspapers.

Since we don’t have an archive of the Cleaver before 1930, I searched in the Clare papers for news articles and found none. I put this research to the side until last week when I found a clipped-out article from the Cleaver in a scan of a scrapbook shared with by a local family. Julie’s family postcards put this event in 1909, a reliable date as they were mailed but the news clipping has a handwritten date of 1912.

The Clare Sentinel reported a cyclone in Gladwin County in July of 1912. No mention of any such cyclone/fire in Harrison or Leota in the Clare Sentinel or any other paper of the time. It’s hard to know whether the event in the postcards is the same event in this clipping that may be from 1912.

The clippings marked 1912 read in part:

About half past five Sunday afternoon a storm broke over the city of Harrison which surpassed in violence anything within the memory of any of the present inhabitants. The storm was first seen in the northwest as a dark thundercloud and approached at a great speed, catching nearly everyone unprepared, so sudden and unexpected was its arrival. A short period of rainfall, during which the downpour was so dense that it was impossible to see buildings across the street, was followed by a violent wind and a terrific bombardment of hail, the whole being accompanied by lightning. This lasted about ten minutes and then the storm was gone as quickly as it had come.

LEFT DESTRUCTION -IN IT’S WAKE

An immense around of damage was done by the wind and hail, particularly the latter. Losses in the city consist chiefly of window glass, but in the country nearby every garden, orchard or farm in the path of the storm was devastated, many farmers very near the city losing several hundred dollars each. The destructive force of the hail flattened every standing crop to the earth and then tore it to shreds. Many fields of cultivated crops now appear entirely barren, not a sign of the former vegetation remaining. All trees in the wake of the storm stand gaunt and bare; except for the few bright green shreds of leaves still left upon them one might think late autumn had arrived. In the streets of the city the hailstones lay in great piles, like snow drifts. A few unfortunate persons who were caught out in the country without shelter were seriously bruised by the descending ice.

WIND ALSO WROUGHT HAVOC

The high wind also worked its havoc. Signs, chimneys, and small buildings all gave way to it; limbs of trees and even the trees themselves were broken off and thrown to the earth. About twenty trees are reported to have fallen in the city park. Like the hail however, the wind wrought its greatest destruction in the country. Several large barns were demolished including those belonging to Edmund Bailey, Fred Draub, Dan Lockwood, this one having been just completed., Chas Shingles, John Hansler, and Gideon Morrow. Eight barns are reported to have been destroyed in Grout township, just over the Gladwin county line. In fact, our neighbors on the east seem to have suffered much greater damage that we…

The Bell Telephone Co’s trouble man, however, reported a place not far south of here where the line wire was fused by lightning so that for a long stretch not a piece over ten feet long remained.

On account of so many business places being windowless, the municipal lighting plant was run all night Sunday and the following special officers patrolled the streets until daylight: City Marshal Crigier, Frank Hochstetler and Ed Booth.

Among business houses Hughes Bros. and M. Fanning are probably the heaviest losers, the former’s large window frontage facing the storm proving disastrous, and the latter’s roof over the west half of the block being badly torn up. Mr. and Mrs. A. S. Young, Mr. and Mrs. N. Lyon, and some friends were in the ice cream parlor in the Mott building and narrowly escaped serious injury when the large front windows gave way. The empty lower floor of the Masonic building was the only one on the south side of Main street whose windows all remained intact. [The building still stands as the John J Carton Lodge today]

The materials used to cover broken windows are many and varied. Main street presents a ridiculous appearance with so many windows patched up. The local supply of glass was exhausted early Monday morning but the merchants have ordered large quantities which are expected to arrive in a few days. Meanwhile oil-cloth, linoleum, lumber, muslin and pasteboard are doing temporary duty on the windows.

EVEN THE CLEAVER GOT IT

The Cleaver office front windows were smashed and everything inside, desk, typewriter, paper cutter, newspaper press and a little paper badly soaked. Prompt action prevents any serious damage to the machinery. A few volumes of the files of the paper were pretty wet but by no means destroyed. The large sign on top of the building, the highest in town, was blown away. The office clock was stopped at 5:35.

EVERYBODY SMILING

It was a pleasure to note the general optimism which prevailed through the city after the storm. People stood about in groups, viewing some piece of ruin or other, laughing and joking over it as it cost nothing. Everyone wore a smile-some even indulged in grins. “Ain’t no use in cryin’ over it.” a remark of one old citizen, seemed to express the popular view of the matter. One brave woman, her arms sore and bruised from the pelting hailstones, remarked, laughing, “such an event brings people closer together, anyway-it gives them a common subject for conversation.”

Such good-nature in the face of great losses is a tremendous asset. Up and at it! The Weather Bureau, or Fate, or old Boreas, or whoever was responsible for the storm, will have to come harder than that to discourse the citizens of Harrison!

If you have any information or family photos of this event please contact Angela Kellogg-Henry and at the Cleaver office, 989-539-7496 or by email at editor@clarecountycleaver.net.

© Clare County Cleaver