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Democratic Watchman, January 24, 1913, page 4
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH STEEPLE BLOWN DOWN IN SATURDAY'S STORM
During a fierce rain and wind storm which passed over Bellefonte Saturday afternoon the steeple of he Presbyterian church was blown down, part of the slate roof blown off of the Presbyterian chapel and more or less damage done throughout the county. Following an hour's sunshine the storm began about 2:30 o'clock, and was accompanied with thunder and lightning. The rain poured down in torrents and the wind was a raging tornado. During one, of the fiercest blows the tall steeple on the church started to fall full length but when at an angle of forty-five degrees it broke in the middle and the top doubling back saved the M. I. Gardner house across the street from being demolished. As it was the steeple reached far enough to knock a two-foot hole in the roof and smash into kindling wood the end of the porch. Mrs. Cyrus Strickland, Mrs. Gardner's mother, was standing in the bay window of the Gardner house when the steeple fell, but fortunately not even a pane of glass in the window was broken. One or two big stones from the coping of the steeple crashed through the roof, of the church and knocked the plastering off the ceiling but did not break through the joist. When the steeple fell Herbert Beezer, son of Mr. and Mrs. George A. Beezer, with another boy, was standing in the southern doorway of the church, having taken refuge there from the storm, and neither one was injured. The same hurricane of wind that blew down the steeple tore off about one-third of the roof on the rear end of the north side of the chapel and hurled it against the house occupied by Dr. Edith Schad, breaking the side porch and some windows.
The Presbyterian church was completed about the year 1872 and had the highest steeple of any church in town. At one time it was considered in a dangerous condition but it was afterwards anchored with cables on the inside and it has not been very long ago that a building inspector pronounced it safe. At that, residents in that locality have always felt uneasy and will no doubt sleep better at nights now that It is down. The damage to the church and chapel will amount to about $2,500, which is not covered by insurance. The damage to Gardner's house will probably be about $250.
The above constituted the main damage done in Bellefonte, although there were a number of windows broken, limbs blown off of trees, etc. Joe McCulley, driving one of Shuey's delivery wagons, was on his way to Lyontown with a load of groceries was caught in the storm and wagon, horse and all were blown over and rolled down an embankment. Fortunately neither horse nor driver was hurt, nor the wagon very badly damaged.
The storm went in streaks and one of them passed over Benner township in the neighborhood of Shiloh where the entire roof was blown off of the Henry Walters barn. The barn is 150 feet long and wide in proportion so that the damage is considerable. A portion of the roof was blown off the barn on the Oliver Witmer farm near Shiloh, and an addition which Clay Witmer recently built to his barn up Buffalo Run was unroofed. One of the tenement houses on the Brockerhoff farm along Buffalo Run is also minus a roof as a result of the blow. Considerable damage was done at Tyrone, where several houses were blown down, but nobody hurt.
Raymond Johnson, of Milesburg, aged nineteen, is in the Altoona hospital with a fracture of the left leg sustained in the storm at Bellwood. The roof of the P. R. R. machine shop blew off there in a bad wind storm recently, and heavy corrugated tin is now being placed on the building. Johnson, with other workmen, was beside the building when the gust came on Saturday. The heavy pieces of tin were lifted like so many bits of paper, and the workingmen went running in all directions for safety. Johnson was unable to escape and was struck just above the left ankle by a piece of metal six feet square.
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