The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1879-06-03
THE WESTERN TORNADO.
Further Details of the Disaster.
THE DAMAGE EVEN GREATER THAN
AT FIRST REPORTED.
The Severest Cyclone Ever Known in the
Section.

New YORK, June 2.-Scientists are puz-
zled to account for the Kansas storm All
the bodies were covered with thick BLUSH
sulphurous mud; clothing was stripped off, or
torn to shreds, shoes torn off the feet, and the
bodies burned and blackened fearfully.
Horses, cattle and hogs were caught up on
Harris place and carried a long distance and
dropped, crushed out of all shape.
A Kansas City despatch says five persons
were killed and nine badly injured at Frank
fort; five persons killed in Ottawa county and
seven injured; three killed in Stockdale and
two near Randolph.
In Barnard county the cyclone came from
the southwest and moved in direct line
toward the northeast. 1t first struck the
dwelling of Tom Smith, seven miles from
Barnard, on the Andrew & Nodaway Com
pany's line. The house was demolished, and
it then moved a swath over field and tim
Der lot an eighth of mile to a farm house
owner by G. X. Montgomery and occupied by
a German named Schmidt, which was torn to
shreds and scattered broadcast. Mrs. Schmidt
was probably fatally injured, and Miss Lizzie
Davis, about 9 years of age, also in the house,
sustained serious wounds 1t then destroyed
farm property for a distance OF one and a
quarter miles, where it encountered the old
Sixteen Hile House on the Maryvllle and
Savannah road, large building formerly
used as a hotel and wiped it from the EARTH
The inhabitants, Mr.. Phelps and family
escaped and were blown into hedge. 1t then
went one and half mile to Turner's, a new
house built this summer at cost of $1,000
Not stick stands. 1t was lifted up and
carried one-sixth of mile, dashed to the
ground and destroyed. The family had left
the house.
Two hundred yards distant the tornado
reached the house and barn of Henry Harmon
1t was as weak and impotent in the grasp of
the cyclone as one made of paper. Neither
house nor barn remain. Two sons of Mr.. Har-
mon in the barn were badly injured. Har-
mons loss exceeds $500. 1t then crossed the
river near the Benson House, which it missed
by a few yards, but cut roadway through the
timber About mile north of Barnard it paid
its respects to the property of widow Sarah
Goforth, carrying away one end of the barn,
taking off her stable, twisting away her orch
ard, and missing the dwelling by a few feet;
in fact, throwing loop completely around it,
destroying property on all sides of it, but with
out hurting single on its roof. 1t then
crossed high road and struck the dwellings of
Frank Conlin, two in number Both of these
houses were on the same line. One was COM
pletely demolished and the other carried about
80 yards from its foundation and dashed a
broken mass to the earth One mile further
on stood the one and half story house of Lem
Robinson, occupied by Guilford Richards. 1t
stood in a four acre lot, but not a plank is re-
manning inside the fence. 1t crossed the
most of the way through timber, where it APP
pears to have raised and disappeared Moth
ing is known of it to the northeast of that
point, although when last seen it was moving
in direct line for Conception, in Nodaway
| county, a Catholic colony, where there is a
| large cathedral.
| Dead horses, cattle and hogs are to be found
! all along the line Huge trees 2 and 3 feet
| in diameter are twisted away, and in one in
| stance the gale swept along the bed of ra-
vine and lifted out of its narrow walls every
| stick of timber and carried them away. The
! bed of that ravine looks as if it was swept by
| fire. Wagons and agricultural instruments
| We're carried for miles, and every article that
| contains iron is broken and twisted out of all
| shape. The effect of this cyclone strengthens
the opinion that these storms electric forces
| and not wind.
AT daylight Mr.. Snodderly of Barnard no
| ticed what he describes as heat drawing water
| up into the air in miniature watersdouts whe II
| they disappeared. He also says immense mum
| bers of fish came to the surface of the streams
| and stuck their noses out of wgter as if suffer
| ing for air.
| With the widely separated section of coun-
| try visited it is impossible to make an est
mate of the loss in dollars and cents, or of the
| crops in Kansas. The list of killed will reacf
| 80, while the destruction to farmers, in the
shape of crops, houses, fences, farming nipple
ments, etc., cannot be known for weeks. It il
| the most destructive storm ever known in thi
section, and the prediction is made that NOR,
| will follow, as the season SO far has been no
and sultry and the country is dry and needs
| rain.
| ATCHIsoN, June "a committee of sur
! geons and citizens sent to Irving Saturday. re
! turned and report the dead all buried and tn,
| wounded tenderly cared for The destruction
| of property foots up very large. No reliabl,
| estimate can yet be formed Hundreds O
houses were destroyed and crops in the path O.
the cyclone were utterly destroyed When i
| passed Blue river it lifted every drop of water
| and passing over a creek scoopod it dry.
| ST. JOSEPH, June AT Irving, Kansas, sc
deaths are certain and 80 are badly wounded
| Fifty families at Frankfort are houseless and
| destitute. At Sabetha 70 to 100 are destitute
| of everything. In the vicinity of Beattie
bedding and clothing are badly needed.