In the Spring of 1877, Charles and Nettie Shelden moved to the Odebolt area and settled 4 miles south of Odebolt. The lived in Wheeler Township Section 13. These would be my Great, Great, Grandparents and the Grandparents of Winnie Paul Scanlan. The next Spring on Easter Sunday, April 21, 1878 deadly tornados ripped through Iowa and is on the list of Iowa deadliest. At 4:30PM a tornado ripped through Storm Lake killing 10 and injuring 40. At 4:40 PM a tornado killed 17 and inured 29 mostly in Sac County. It is reported that it carried a cow 10 mile. The following is an excerpt of a letter Nettie wrote to her sister Emma describing a tornado south of their home. This is published in the "History of James Coquillette and Celestia Wayne Burnside Coquillette" 1891
Written by Emma Flint.
"The storm of today beats all that I ever saw. I think we will long remember this Easter Sunday. This morning when we got up the sky in the West looked very bad. It was perfectly green and before long it began to hail. This lasted quite a while. The hailstones were about as large as Hickory nuts. It broke two window lights for us. Then it rained real hard for a while and then stopped. About four o'clock it commenced to hail again, and we found hailstones as large as goose eggs. Now that it is strictly true and no exaggeration about it. Then we noticed a dark cloud in the South with a narrow neck reaching down to the land. It soon began to whirl around. I never saw anything like it before in my life. It traveled in a northeastern direction whirling as it went along. I was some afraid it would come to us but it did not.
P.S. Monday morning.
I must tell you some more about the whirlwind we had yesterday. It passed only three miles South of us. We have heard of four families this morning who are houseless, the wind having torn their houses all to pieces. Isn't it dreadful? Charlie is going over to see if he can help them some. I expect it looked as it did when the tornado blew our schoolhouse down in Illinois. We watched the cloud as it passed from sight. It looked as though it touched the ground and whirled around all the time. We have five window glass broken. Nettie"
Charles and Nettie Shelden
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