Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1892-04-07
THE KANSAS TORNADO,
Many Lives Lost and Several
Towns Reduced to Ruins.

Hurt by Fierce Gale in Chlcago--A
Cyclone In Nebraska.
| KANSAS Cry, April LA tornado Of ter
| rible destructiveness swept over Kansas
last night. Butler county seems to have
been the scene of the greatest havoc. The
town of Towenda was completely wrecked,
| and Augusta n few miles distant, was buff
| fcted out of all semblanoe of its former
self. The storm extended over the entire
state.
Not house or building was left stand
| ing in Towanda. The people of town were
asleep when the storm rushed along, raised
everything in its path and left dead bodies
| in its wake. -Four bodies have been re-
| covered from tho ruins already searched.
Twenty persons were fatally hurt and 40
more seriously injured, beside u large
number more or less manned.
At Augusta two men were killed out
right. The infant child of William
Rhodes was blown out of its mothers
arms and dashed to death against n brick
wall. Rhodes himself was fatally in
jured. Fifteen Others were hurt more or
less seriously at Augusta, according TO
present reports.
Apparently the same tornado touched at
Kiowa and Wellington. In Kiowa the
Missouri Pacific depot and a number of
dwellings and buildings were demolished.
Wellington and vicinity suffered consider
William Little's house, south of Yelling
ton, was blown to spinters, and Little and
his four children were killed. Joseph
Walton's house was picked up, and thir-
teen OF the occupants were more or less
injured. Samuel Butterworth's house and
its occupants were carried three hundred
yards in the air and some of the family
were fatally hurt.
The storm seems to have swept across
the country from the Indian territory in
the southwest part of Barber county,
Kansas in north-easterly direction il
passed through Frazier county and the
centre of Sumner county. Bending like
II bow il passed almost directly north
through the remainder Of Sumner county
and along the western part of Butler
county. Villages and farm houses were
carried away AS 1t swept along. The storm
continued in Kansas and the north western
part of Missouri to-day, but was less de-
struciye.
AT Atchison the gale began Mt midnight,
but little damage was done until nearly
noon to-day, when a tornado visited the
city and unroofcd and demolished several
large buildings and scattered signs and
awnings in every direction. The roof of
the city prison was carried off and por-
ton of the building demolished. A small
house in the Missouri Pacific yards was
blown into the river. Hundreds of Chin
light damage done. Heavy damage in the
country was done to fruit trees.
The wind at Lcavenworth at noon at
tanned fury and blew away part of the roof
of the great Western stove works. AT ST.
Josephs nearly every telegraph and tele-
phone wire in the city was torn down and
many houses were demolished.
Observations taken by Chancellor Snow
of the State University at Lawrence,
showed that the wind at times attained a
velocity OF 81 miles an hour at that place.
The roof the Haskell Hospital was blown
away, and it was necessary TO anchor the
building with cables to prevent 1t from
blowing over.
In Kansas City the wind reached a
velocity of ii miles. The damage consisted
principally Of roofs blown away and plate
glass windows broken. The roof OF the
high school at Locust and Twelfth streets
was blown off. Telephone wires through
out the city were Frustrated. The smoke
stack Of the power house on the Northeast
electric line was toppled over, necessitating
the suspension of traffic until il can he re-
placed. The greatest damage was suffered
by the telegraph companies. Tho Western
Union reports no communication what
ever with points west of the centre of the
state of Kansas and has but few wires
east.
TERRIFIC STORM IN CHICAGO.
CHICAGO, April la terrific wind and
thunder storm passed over this city about
6o'clock this evening, killing seven persons,
inJurins number of others and wrecking
buildings. The seven.story brick building
at Nos. IA and l6 Pearce street, on the West
Side, was struck by the wind and crushed
like an egg-shell. The structure was sur
rounded by one and two-story frame and
brick buildings used as dwellings, which
were also wrecked.
Tho Eilla1 xvara. Nfre I7l;,a AlI,.,
crushed about head and body; Mrs. j. L.
Gowan, crushed about the abdomen; Will
liam Gowan, three years old, head crushed;
Mary Gowan, four years old, smothered
beneath debris; David L. Hulett, eight
months old, frightfully crushed; Edward
Mott, two years Of age, smothered; Horace
Mott, five years of ago, smothered.
Those fatally injured we're; Alice Hulett
eight years old, crushed about the legs,
body and head. Mrs. Ada Kcown, buried
beneath a mass of bricks and badly
manged. Mrs. Mary Wigant, crushed
about the legs and body. II. Wigant, an in
FAINT, head injured. James Mott, head
mashed, Mrs. James Mott, badly bruised
and MANNED, James Mott, y years old,
back hurt. Mamie Mott, 10 years old bad
wounds ON the head.
The building known as Nos. II and 16
had just been erected, the roof having
been finished this week. Immediately in
the rear WIS a two-story brick house, the
home Of Thomas Huleit, who lived there
with his wife and nine children. They
were entertaining as guests nj supper Miss
Emma Hope and Mrs. Ada keoWn when
the building fell. The table and those who
sat around it were buried beneath bricks
and timbers.
A CYCLONE IN NEBRASKA.
OMAHA, NEB,, April 1.-The Western
Union reports that it has only one wire
in operation in Nebraska as the result of a
cyclone, which travelled through the state
last night. The cyclone traverscd $50 miles
of the richest farming section of Nebraska,
dotted with small cities and villages.
CHICAGO, April 1.-The following are
now known to be buried III the ruins Of |
the Gowan house and are undoubtedly |
dead: Mrs. Sarah Gowan, William Gowan, |
Mrs. Mary Walsh and Samuel Eyisdale, |
the latter Of Joliet, ILL.,
In two of the demolished houses upset |
stoves set fire to the ruins, but before
serious damage was done the flames were |
extinguished.
MISSOURI ALSO SUFFERS.
MoBERLy, Mo, April 2,-one of the |
worst gales visited this section Yesterday
that has been known for years Several |
roofs were blown Off and many buildings
demolished. large awning blew down
and n piece of timber from il struck an |
'AN itAS idihNi AtlS' MnO WIS |
passing, from the effect of which she may |
die. In the country tho gale is reported as |
having done great damage.
KILLED BY A FALLING SIGN.
EUREKA, KAN, April "A strong gale |
blew all day yesterday. About o o'clock |
in the morning the heavy board sign of |
the Young Mems Christian Association |
rooms was blown loose from its fastenngs |
and fell distance OF 10 feet striking Miss |
"a ,ff,rt
lady died at ? O'Clock, in the afternoon.