Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1880-04-28
An Entire Town Destroyed by
Storm and Fire.

field No, was blown down by a ter
rife wind storm last evening and then
burned, resulting in frightful loss of
life. The telegraph wires are all down
and nothing direct from the scene of
the calamity can be obtained at present
From passengers who passed through
Marshfield on the St. Louis Il San
Francisco railroad, at O'Clock last
night. few facts concerning the ter
rible disaster are cleaned. A man
who came to the depot at the edge of
the town while the train was there
reported that at $50 hurricane struck
that place and leveled all that part of
the town laying west of Centre Square
fat to the ground. The debris imme-
diately took fire in several places, and
the flames could be seen at some half
dozen points by the passengers an the
train.
Forty dead bodies had been taken
out, and many more were supposed to
be buried in the ruins or burned up.
There were also many living still i'm
prsoned in the debris of the fallen
buildings. All the physicians of the
town were killed excepting two, and
there was great need of doctors to at
tend the wounded, of whom, it was
said, there were some two hundred.
A relief train with twenty physi-
clans and nurses and full supplies left
Springfield, Missouri, this morning for
Marshfeld, and probably other trains
will arrive during the day The storm
was general in Southwestern Mis-
souri,, and other places probably suf-
tered some damage, but as the tele-
g'aph wires are all prostrated, no ad-
vices have been received. Violent hail
and rain accompanied the wind.
A telegram from Springfield via
Vinits and Kansas City to C. M.
Rogers, General Manager of the St.
Louis Il San Francisco Railroad, SAYS
hurricane pissed a few miles south
of Springfield about o'clock last
night, doing an immense amount of
damage and killing a great number of
people. Fifty deaths are reported on
the James River, six miles south of
Springfield, and great many persons
are missing.
The train dispatcher of Conway,
fourteen miles this side of Marshfeld,
reports arriving there from Springfield
at IL O'Clock and says he found a ter
rible looking country from North Riv-
er, seven miles west of Marshfield, to
the latter point. Trees three feet
through are torn entirely out of the
ground; telegraph poles are twisted off
and everything wrecked. The town of
| Marshfield was demolished Brick as
well as frame buildings were torn We
| did not see more than half dozen peo-
pie as we came through that town.
The place seemed deserted. The doe
tors and nurses who came on our train
from Springfield, about twenty In num-
ber, went from the depot alone to hunt
up the people, there being no one at
| the depot to receive them. We sent a
a relief train from Lebanon to Marsh
field at daylight this morning with
about fifty doctors, nurses and helpers
and full supplies of provisions, clothing
and medicine stores, also material for
repairing the telegraph line The line
is down at different points between
Springfield and Conway, perhaps ten
miles altogether
A special to the Post Dispatch from
Lebanon says: The tornado which
caused such frigbtful havoc at Marsh
field last night, passed entirely through
Green and Webster counties. Follow
ing the course of the James river in
north-easterly direction, it struck the
ST. Louis Il San Francisco Railroad in
four places and left it near Franks Sta
tion, 1l0 miles this side of Marshfeld
The latter place presents terrible ap-
pearance, there not being more than
dozen houses unharmed in the entire
town. The court house and many other
buildings took fire, and the scare and
effect were of most dreadful charac-
ter At one house two children were
found dead, and another badly man
gled, but still alive. The parents
could not be found In another case a
woman was lost entirely, and seems to
have been carried away bodily.
No details of the calamity have yet
been received The force of the wind
stripped the bark from the trees and
lifted others entirely out of the ground,
and telegraph poles and wires were car
red hundreds Of rods into the woods
and tied and knotted among the limbs
of the trees as though they were cot
ton strings.
At the latter place all is confusion
and the people are in such an excited
state that it is almost impossible to get
any Ineligible report. Many families
are homeless and have taken refuge in
our depot and the empty cars standing
at the station. The front rooms of the
Court House are still standing, and
have been converted into morgue.
The school building Is used for hos
pital. Up to 7 p. NJ. they have death
list of seventy-eight.
Murder of an Editor.