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  Tornado Sweeps Thru Auglaize and Allen               
        County.
                    _______
 THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS WORTH OF DAMANE DONE TO    
 PROPERTY AND SEVERAL PERSONS ARE HURT.
      _______
 Storm Passes Thru Yoder Westminister, Hume   and
 Buckland and Traveled North East Ward.
      _______

   The worst wind and rain storm that has visited
   Auglaize and Allen County for many years passed thru
   Westminister, Hume, Yoder and Buckland last Monday
   evening at about 8:30 o'clock.  The storm is
   described as the worst experience the people of that
   community ever went thru.  The storm traveled at a
   velocity of 90 miles and hour. A reporter says that
   Buckland was practically isolated as a result of the
   heavy rainfall which followed the teriffic gale.  All
   access to the Auglaize county town was cut off when
   the Auglaize river overflowed its banks and flooded
   the streets and surrounding highways. The tornada was
   preceded by lightning and a cloudburst. Person
   reports seriously injured are: Mrs. Loretta Van
   Fleet, Yoder. Mr. and Mrs. J. Riley Buckland. Mrs.
   Loretta Van Fleet, 60, was seriously injured when the
   cyclone swept over the Van Fleet property and razed
   house, barn and outbuildings.  Mrs. Van Fleet and her
   husband, John were seated at the table.  A deafening
   crash was heard outside, Mrs. Van Fleet ran to the
   window to see horses and cattle stampeding from the
   ruins of the barn.  Then the house shook, a blast of
   air shot throuhg, lifting Mrs. Van Fleet and
   catapulting her through a window.  She was badly cut
   about the neck by glass.  She was ta   A freak of the
   tornado was witnessed on the Van Fleet property.  A
   cow hurled from its stall in the wrecked barn, was
   found half-buried in the flooded pasture adjoining.
   The Van Fleet home, a ruin of caved in walls, was
   virtually on an island, surrounded by a lake more
   than a foot in depth.

   A horse was killed in the destruction of the barn on
   the farm of Ferris Chapman on Sealts road.  The
   corncrib on this place was lifted hight in the air by
   the cyclone, and the yellow cobs littered the yard
   and road adjoining for a radius of fifty feet.
   Telephone poles and broken wires, stretched across
   Yoder road in many places, greatly impeding the
   progress of the police car and the ambulances of
   Williams & Davis and Cantwell which responded to the
   call for help. The entire counrtyside, with the
   exception of the roads, was under water last night.
   Hundreds of trees were blown dowm and many fine
   orchards destroyed.  The people of the countryside
   around Yoder were dazed at the unprededented calamity
   that had visited them. The barn on the farm of John
   A. Jacobs, opposite the Van Fleet home on Yoder road,
   was razed and the cattle injured by falling rafters. 
   An automoblie, parked in the drive, was carried 100
   feet in the path of the gale, finally being wrecked
   under a giant oak that fell athwart the roadway. "I
   was sitting at the table when I heard a noise like
   the crack of a gun outside."  Jacobs, who is 89 and
   who had lived on his estate there since 1859, told a
   reporter.  "The front door flew open and the wind
   carried my chair from under me and threw me against
   the table.  I rose and ran to close the door, when
   that beech tree crashed onto the porch roof.  Never
   in all my long life in Allen County have I seen such
   a night as this," Jacobs said. Jacobs' left foot was
   severly sut be falling plaster.  He still had a
   smile, however, despite the happening of the night.
   C. A. Ebersole, residing on the Center road, 1/2 mile
   southeast of Yoder, reported that his barn was blown
   to the ground.  Neighbors of Ebersole's -- Lew
   Armstong and Steve Brown--reported like catastrophes.
  Farmers residing near Westminister also suffered. 
  Phillip Ulery reported that his barn was blown-down,
  and valuable farm machinery destroyed,  Farms of
  Charles Eberle and Frank Rabe and the Scott place, all
  near Westminister, where in the path of the tornado. 
  The residence of the Scott place, unoffupied, was
  moved 30 feet off its foundation.  A horse was killed
  when the barn on the farm of O.F. Marshall a mile
  south of Yoder, was demolished.


----
Gwendolyn Hardesty Oliver
OHGenWeb Coordinator
ohio@usroots.com