Source: Wheeling Register, Wheeling, West Virginia - Volume: 23  Issue: 311  Page: 3
Dated: Monday, May 17, 1886
STILL ANOTHER.
A Cyclone Visits Dunkirk, Ohio, Yesterday.
Several People Killed and Others Badly Injured.
A Terrible Storm Sweeps Over the West
Devasting Almost Totally All Towns in Its Path.
Innumerable Accidents and Loss of Life
Occur in Many Towns - Valuable Buildings Demolished.
     Forest, O., May 15 - About midnight a terrible cyclone passed over the country about two miles west of this place, leaving death and destruction in its wake.  Young forests were blown down and huge trees whirled through the air; farm houses and outbuildings were demolished and scattered like straws.  A train on the Pittsburgh and Fort Wayne road, which left Chicago at 3:15 p.m. yesterday had a narrow escape from being blown away.  As it was, a large tree was thrown against a coach, which injured at least a dozen passengers.  One man's leg was broken and his eye gouged out.  The storm seemed to take its course along the Blanchard river, and the track is strewn with cattle and debris of ruined buildings.
     DEADLY WORK.
     Shortly after twelve o'clock the storm struck the town of Dunkirk, Hardin county.  Dunkirk has a population of about thirteen hundred souls.  The first think known there of the danger was the terrible roaring noise.  Nearly every one was in bed at the time, but few having been awakened.  The cyclone lifted many buildings from their foundations and wrecked them completely.  Others were unroofed, and the screams of human beings could be heard above the roar of the elements.  It is not known yet how many were fatally injured, but four were picked up dead.
They are:
     William McElree.
     Mrs. Rufus Leaz,
     Two McElree Children
     Eighteen wounded persons have already been found.  They are being cared for at the homes of friends.

ANOTHER TOWN STRUCK
     CLEVELAND, O., May 15 - A special just received from Carey Wyandotte county, Ohio, states that seventeen buildings were destroyed at that place by the cyclone last night.  Six persons have been found dead at South Carey.  A large house containing several persons was completely destroyed.
     It is not known how many were hurt.  Much damage was done to fruit and trees.  Telegraph wires are down in almost every direction.  A farmer from the eastern part of county says the damage in that section was very great, but no particulars have yet been learned.

    KENTON, O., Sept. 19 - [Special] - At 6:30 this morning a disastrous and fatal wreck occurred on the Pittsburg, Ft. Wayne & Chicago railroad about half a mile west of Forest, in Hardin County, on which one man was killed, another badly.  Injured and thousands of dollars' worth of property destroyed.  A freight train left Forest going west and  when a half mile out broke, leaving three cares behind.  Another freight a double yeader, was following heavily loaded with coal, machinery, oil, merchandise and one car containing a quantity of dynamite cartridges.  A dense fog prevailed preventing the engineer from seeing any distance the second train struck the cars that the first had dropped with full force.  The jar exploded the dynamite.  The train was completely wrecked and Ed Baugh, fireman on the rear engine, so badly injured that he died soon after.  Many barrels of oil were broken and caught fire, the flames spreading fast and soon the entire mass of broken cars and contents were burning fiercely.
     About 8 o'clock another explosion of dynamite occurred, this time injuring Wynn Lyons, the engineer on the last train, seriously but not fatally.  The force of the explosion was terrific.  Persons living twelve miles distant heard its noise and felt the jar.  Telegraph wires were all torn down, trees stripped of their branches as if a hurricane  had passed and timbers were blown hundreds of yards away.  A barn close by was utterly demolished and an immense hole hollowed out in the ground.  No water could be had save what was brought in the engine tanks from Forest and Dunkirk and the fires were allowed to burn out.  The two engines are ruined and about twenty-five cars and their contents destroyed.  The loss will probably reach $50,000.  Trains were sent over the Indiana, Bloomington & Western railroad to Kenton, thence over the Chicago & Atlantic westward.  Fireman Baugh, who was killed, and Engineer Lyons' injured, both are from Fort Wayne, Ind., and leave families.
(Found at Genealogy Bank - Transcribed by Sharon Wick)

Busy Ghost in Ohio Hardin County Armory the Scene of Its Operations, Spook Opens Doors
     There are uncanny doings in the Hardin county armory at Kenton, Ohio, and according to common report, the handsome structure is haunted.  The armory is used by company I? Second regiment, O. N. G. and the offices of the Hardin county surveyor and probate judge are on the first floor.  The building is lighted by electricity.  The uncanny demonstrations consist of unearthly laughs, sounds as though heavy bones were being dragged across the floor, and a number of similar demonstrations, including a mysterious opening of locked doors.
     A few evenings ago a party, consisting of William B. Strope, first lieutenant company I; Corp. Ned F. Stevenson, William Alt, William Watson, Lucien Brown and the Chicago Inter-Ocean correspondent, made an investigation.  In order to more easily detect any attempt at practical joking, the rope, by which the large arc lights which illuminate the drill floor are turned on and off, was carried up into the gallery, where the watchers took their station, leaving the drill floor vacant.  By these means the arc light could be flashed on in a second, and every nook and cranny of the old floor lighted up brightly.  Previous to turning out the lights the whole floor was gone over from cellar to roof, and every door and window tightly locked.
     The watchers then retired to a small room off the gallery and waited.  There was nothing doing until almost midnight.  Suddenly one of the party said: "Look at that door!"  Although it had been tightly latched, it was slowly swinging open as though some unseen force as pushing it.  One of the party arose and, closing the door, stationed one man on the outside, while he saw that it was locked from the inside and the key removed.  He had no more than taken his seat until it opened as before.  This time it was allowed to swing all the way open, and as it struck the wall, out of the darkness of the drill floor came a laugh that can be described no other way than "nerve chilling."  The man who held the rope that lighted the lamps gave a quick jerk.  In his haste, both arcs and incandescents were thrown on, and with their brilliancy the laughter ceased.  There was nothing whatever on the floor.  Although the nerves of the watchers were somewhat shaken, the lights were again turned out.
     The lights were allowed to remain on for a few minutes and French chalk was spread all over the floor.  In spite of this, as soon as the examination was made, the chalk was undisturbed by any footprints.
     At this point another inspection was made of the locks on the doors and windows.  There was no possible way for anyone in the building to escape.  The party then went together and explored the whole building once more.  Even a coal pile was turned over in the cellar, but nothing whatever could be found.  While the party was downstairs the footsteps and other noises above them on the drill floor could be heard, but the chalk was again undisturbed.
     The watch was continued until one o'clock in the morning in the storeroom.  The noises continued at intervals, and the door refused to stay shut unless there was a heavy box against it.  As the party left the building the laughs reechoed through the empty halls.
     The spooky demonstrations began to be noticed last fall.  The county surveyor and a force of his men were at work late one night when they heard a noise in the main part of the building.  Thinking that someone had broken in and was trespassing they made a search but found nothing.
(Found at Genealogy Bank - Transcribed by Sharon Wick)