The Cyclone at Lyle, Minn.

Research Notes: 
$80,000 in 1897 adjusted for inflation is over $2.4M in 2018
Article Type: 
Accident
Publication Date: 
Saturday, June 12, 1897
Publication Date Is Approx: 
false

THE CYCLONE AT LYLE, MINN.

Strange Freaks in the Whirling Wind-- Horse Blown Eighty Rods and Not Injured.

LYLE, Minn., June 11.-- The cyclone which struck this vicinity last night laid waste a track about 200 yards wide and ten miles long. Thousands of dollars' worth of property is in waste. The barn on the Funda farm was the first to suffer; J. C. Owens's fine residence, barn, and granaries are destroyed. He and his family went into the cellar, and none was injured.

At Howard's all outbuildings were wiped away. Charles Howard, a son, was going from the barn to the house when the wind struck him, and he grabbed hold of a large rock and escaped being carried away. The Woodbury schoolhouse was demolished. Charles Seversin's fine farm property was all destroyed. His skull was badly fractured, and it is feared he cannot live.

William Stipe's farm buildings were picked up and smashed into kindling wood. The entire farmily got into the cellar before the storm struck. Mrs. Stipe, however, was badly injured. Mrs. Berg's new house was next destroyed. At John Johnson's allwere in the cellar when the house was swept from over them, but nobody was hurt. Joseph Wyborney's barn and house are gone, scattered to the four winds. One of his horses was picked up and landed eighty rods distant, and not scratched.

Henry Hanson's buildings are all destroyed and Hanson is a corpse. P. K. Johnson and Hanson's wife and two children are in a critical condition. Johnson was found hanging to a wire very badly cut and unconscious. At Willis Bryan's there is a scene of total destruction. He gathered his family, consisting of a wife and three children, into a corner of the cellar and stood over them. As the house was lifted from above them a stone weighing over 200 pounds rolled down over his back, inflicting ugly wounds and pinning his leg to the cellar floor. Christian Peterson's property is all destroyed, and he cannot live.

Both the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul and the Illinois Central Railroads had a number of freight cars wrecked.

Charles Larson's cottage was destroyed, and he and his wife were badly hurt. For several hours their little twelve-months'-old baby was lost, but it was finally found penned in between some timbers.

There were nineteen persons injured, one killed and three fatally injured. THe injuries of two are doubtful. A careful estimate puts the total property damage at $80,000.