1886 — May 14, Tornado Outbreak, esp. Cary/5, Celina area/5 and Dunkirk/8, Ohio — 17

— 17 Grazulis. Significant Tornadoes 1680-1991. 1993, p. 640.
— 6 Jay County, IN to Mercer County, OH, F4, 2000 [8 pm]
–1 State line farmhouse leveled.
–5 Northwest of Celina, in farm homes.
–11 Hardin/Hancock/Wyandot counties F3, 2330 [1130 pm]
–~8 Dunkirk, Hardin County
— 5 Cary, Wyandot County
— 17 Ohio Historical Society. “May 14, 1886: Deadliest Tornadoes of the 19th Century.”
–~17 Schmidlin and Schmidlin. Thunder in the Heartland. 1996, p. 239.

Narrative Information

Ohio Historical Society: “May 1886 was a deadly month in Ohio weather. Floods killed 28 people at Xenia on May 12th and two days later, on May 14, 1886, Ohio’s deadliest tornado outbreak of the 19th century occurred. Early reports were of a single 110 mile tornado path, but later research showed it to be three separate tornadoes. The destruction was impressive and prompted the Cleveland Plain Dealer to proclaim “Nothing like it has ever been known in the history of Ohio.”

“The first tornado entered Ohio about 10 P.M. north of Fort Recovery and ended near Celina in Mercer County. Six people were killed as farm houses were leveled along the path. Three churches and a school were blown down. The next tornado touched down at 11:20 P.M. at Dunkirk in Hardin County and traveled 20 miles into Wyandot County south of Cary. This tornado leveled a brick school, dozens of farm houses, and many barns. Eleven people were killed near Dunkirk and Cary. The third tornado touched down at midnight west of Attica in Seneca County. There were no deaths, but a gravestone was lifted and flung against a barn one-quarter mile away. Fence rails were driven six feet into the ground and entire orchards were uprooted in Seneca County.” (Ohio Historical Society, “May 14, 1886: Deadliest Tornadoes…”)

Newspaper

May 17: “Special dispatches to the Cleveland papers of Sunday give accounts of a terrible cyclone that passed through Mercer, Hancock, Seneca and adjoining counties, between the hours of 10 o’clock Friday night and 2 o’clock Saturday morning, by which many lives were lost and millions of dollars’ worth of live stock and property destroyed.

“The storm struck Mercer county about 10 o’clock Friday night, on the Indiana line, for a width of a quarter of a mile, everything was leveled to the ground, houses, barns, fences, forests, crops, all were swept to atoms by its mad fury. It that county thirty dead bodies had been discovered, and many more persons injured up to Saturday night, but telegraph wires are down and it is difficult to gather full particulars.

“At Wabash on the L. E. & W. great destruction was wrought and several lives lost. Hundreds of families were in a few moments made homeless, stripped of everything. In Auglaize county adjoining, a like swath of ruin was mown by the raging elements, but not so severe as in Mercer.
“Hardin county next suffered, a portion of the town of Dunkirk of 1,300 inhabitants in the north eastern corner of the county was swept away and several persons killed.

“In Wyandot and Hancock counties a large amount of property was destroyed. Carey suffered considerably, as did South Carey, Whartons and Blanchard, in Hancock county. Several were killed. One man after the storm had passed raised up the fallen roof of his house from over the cellar to find his five children alive and uninjured beneath.

“The storm entered Seneca county midway between Mexico and McCutchenville in Seneca township, and the destruction in that section was terrible. Almost everything in the storm’s path was utterly ruined. So complete was the devastation that fowls were picked up with not a feather on them.

“Ezra Houck was found dead by his barn. In the townships of Eden, Melmore, and Bloom a great deal of property was destroyed, many buildings blown down and timber, fences, and crops for a width of a half mile swept away. The tornado next struck about three miles from Attica in Venice township and on the track of the B. & O., where it crossed was found the barn of D. C. Myers, which was taken up bodily from its foundation, and with its heavy iron door carried fully a quarter of a mile. It is thought that the destruction in Seneca county will exceed $100,000.” (Sandusky Daily Register.” “Terrible Cyclones in Hancock and Seneca Counties.” 5-17-1886, p. 1.)

Sources

Grazulis, Thomas P. Significant Tornadoes 1680-1991: A Chronology and Analysis of Events. St. Johnsbury, VE: Environmental Films, 1993, 1,326 pages.

Ohio Historical Society. “May 14, 1886: Deadliest Tornadoes of the 19th Century.” Accessed 3-4-2020 at: http://ohsweb.ohiohistory.org/swio/pages/content/1886_tornadoes.htm

Sandusky Daily Register.” “Terrible Cyclones in Hancock and Seneca Counties.” 5-17-1886, p. 1. Accessed 3-4-2020 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/sandusky-daily-register-may-17-1886-p-1/

Schmidlin, Thomas W. and Jeanne Appelhans Schmidlin. Thunder in the Heartland: A Chronicle of Outstanding Weather Events in Ohio. Kent State University Press, 1996, 362 pages. Partially digitized by Google at: http://books.google.com/books?id=QANPLARGXFMC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=&f=false