The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1892-04-15
FIFTEEN FATALITIES.
Awful Destruction of Life and Property In
Southern Kansas.

Southern Kansas.
WICHITA, Kan, April I'm the four
counties of Barber, Butter, Sumner
and Rice last nights tornado touched
at least twenty places with a fury
which suggested the hand of cyclone,
and left behind it in each instance
either dead to be mourned or helpless
ones to wall.
AS for the destruction of property it
may be said to be incompatible at this
hour. Every additional piece of infor-
nation that comes to hand in meagre
detail with distressing frequency adds
something to the rising total.
The greatest calamity reported is
from the little town of Towanda,
eighteen miles west of here upon the
st. Louis and San Francisco railroad,
whose population numbered about
200 souls This village now lies
in absolute ruin. In its whole area
but one house remains unframed,
not more than half dozen others, with
ruined chimneys and broken windows,
wrenched, wrecked and roohess, even
stand upon their foundations. Over
the prairie lie the scattered remnants
of the rest that but yesterday were
homes.
List of Towanda's Dead.
The dead number four. They are:
John D. Godfrey, aged IS, retired physi-
clan.
Herschel Cupp, aged 81, son of Daniel
Cupp, one Of the oldest settlers of Kansas
John Bailey, aged II, railroad laborer.
Six-year-old child of John Blake, mer
chant.
Fatally or Seriously Injured.
Those fatally hurt are:
Miss Annie Robbins, aged IS. postmis-
tress, broken arm, lung pierced, bruised
over face and body and injured internally.
Mrs. John II. Kerr, back and shoulder
bruised and injured internally,
Earl Kerr, aged II, skull badly fractured.
Fern Maxwell, aged s, skull fractured
G. L. Westcate aged 50, skull fractured
and injured internally.
The seriously injured are:
Effie Kerr, aged 49, bruised about hips
and scalp wounds.
Willie MAXWELL aged p, serious scalp
wounds.
Gilmore Hall, badly bruised about head.
Baby of Elmore Hall, leg broken.
Mrs, Cory, three ribs broken and badly
bruised
Mrs, Walter Mooney, fractured clavicle
and fractured skull.
William Mitchell, hurt internally
| Miss Lucy Poorbaugh, hip bone broken.
Mrs. George Cornelius, three ribs broken
Mrs. William Mitchell, collar bone
broken and injured in back of head.
M. H, Gibbs, three ribs broken and In
ternal injuries.
Walter Mooney, wounded in side and
skull slightly fractured.
Myrtle Mooney, aged 6, skull fractured.
The Town Swept Away.
All day until evening the wind had
blown a gale of constantly increasing
fury. At S the dark sky grew darker,
thunder rolled to add to the terror of
the time, and binding lightning
flashed with startling frequency.
At 10 the storm broke furiously,
frightened people ran from their
homes into the night and the bowling
tempest, only to be smitten in an in
slant by the all embracing cyclone,
which as it struck the fated town
seemed in a mere instant to perform
its awful work and pass on
ward, In that brief interval the
village had been completely RACED
houses had been lifted from their
foundations, and held aloft q moment
by the giant hand of the wind and
then dashed in fragments to the earth,
their late occupants wounded or life
less, Hard following this first furious