Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1893-07-15
THE IOWA TERROR.
Awful Work OF q Tornado NeaJ
Pomeroy, &c.
Seventy four Persons Killed and Many
More Fatally Injured-A Scene OF
Desolation and Sorrow-A Night
of Horror-The Victims.

dead, half as many more fatally in
jured and $50 with broken limbs, cuts
and bruises more or less severe. This
is what the tornado Of Thursday night
accomplished in the matter Of casualty
in northern Iowa The town of Pome-
roy is one of wreck. There is scarcely
a house left standing.
About fifteen acres of debris consti.
tutes now what was thriving village.
Splinters are all that remain. Pome.
roy is part and parcel of the prairie,
the death-dealing wind having left
barren and desolated everything az
far as the eye can reach. Scarce
ly tree remains. Piles of broken
timbers and an occasional piece
of furniture are all that can be found
of what was once the largest building
in the place. Two hundred and fifty
houses were in all destroyed, and the
money loss OF these and their contents
is placed Mt 100000.
Thursday night in Pomeroy was one
that will never be forgotten by those
who were there. Darkness followed
quickly in the wake of the tornado,
and those who escaped death and in.
jury were compelled to grope their way
among the ruined homes, guided along
by the cry of some poor unfortunate
who was pinned under the falling tim.
bers. Almost every light of any de-
scription whatever was destroyed, and
the people from Fort Dodge and the
surrounding places failed to bring Ian.
terms with them. The search for the
victims therefore was necessarily slow
till morning came.
The tornado-for such it was-came
from the northwest. All of those who
saw it agree that it was not of the fun.
nel-shaped sort, but came bounding by
there like huge ball. 1t was of
dark green color and was accompanied
by a terrific noise. There are those
who saw it approaching when far out
of town. Most Of the people became
panic stricken. They ran out
OF their houses and filed up the streets,
crying and shouting till struck
by the timbers or whirling trees.
The cyclone was but of few min.
utes' duration and was followed by n
terrific rainstorm, which continued ut
intervals throughout the night. The
path of the storm seems to be an eighth
4 a mile in width and twenty miles
long.
Fairfield, in Cherokee county, was
visited, swelling the total number
of dead fifteen. Eight more are re-
ported killed ut Storm Lake, and many
other places give notice of one or more
deaths.
Gov. Boies arrived yesterday after
noon and took charge of the whole af-
fair.
The governor said the situation was
far worse than he had expected. He
ordered more tents from Des Moines,
md said he would have a company or
more of soldiers on the grounds. The in
tense heat made it impossible to keep
the bodies of the dead, and those who
were not claimed by relatives or friends
and by them buried or taken away by
noon were placed in the graveyard by
the officials. Forty graves were dug
and filed with dead up to 0 o'clock last
evening. At that hour the fitting Ian
terms in the cemetery showed plainly
that the work of burial was still going
on. Hundreds of willing hands dragged
the dead and dying animals, with
which the ground seemed literally
strewn, to points on the outskirts OF
the town, piled them in big heaps and
covered them with the remains OF
houses and applied the torch. Fully a
dozen of these strange bonfres were
kept going all the afternoon.
Whole families were in many in
stances wiped out by the tornado and
houses that contained all the way from
four to eight persons, not more than
one escaped alive. Husbands have
been left without wife or children.
Children are left orphans and there
are fifteen or more women in Pomeroy
who have neither husbands nor chill
dren left.
LIST OF THE KILLED.
1t is impossible to obtain list OF in
jured, but an almost complete list OF
tAAC dC0a AOAAOWos
AZ Pomeroy-Mrs Bessie Banks. Mrs Dahl
gren, Mrs Neary, Thomas Harmand, Andrew
j. Wilkinson. John Anderson. Mrs. John An
derson, Mr. Hughitt Mr.. and Mira Silas Bus
ton Mr.. and MIRA Melting and son. Mrs. Frank
Johnson. Benjamin Davis. Miss Lille Kfefer.
Roy Banks. Miss Frost Mr.. and Mrs. Arnold,
Mrs Marie Adams, Mrs Harland, Mrs. c. H
Jorge Banker +. o Davis. Miss Ollie Lund-
green, Miss Katie Davy. Mrs 0 Brien and
child, Mrs b g. Hawlowe, Mrs Tabert two
children Of John Beckley.
Three miles east OF Pomeroy the following:
Mrs DIlwith. J. p Lundgreen, Silas Weston.
Mrs Dahlgren, Mr.. Hewlett and wife. A. Fol-
key, Henry Geike, Mrs ouinlan and baby
Miss Allie Maxwell
A short distance from Pomeroy the following
dead were found: Miss Title johnson, Baby
Dahlgren. Grocer Black. IS years old; George
Black, years old; Della Black II years old:
Samuel Maxwell, Richard George. unknown
boy.
Five miles southeast OF Fonda Eve were
lrfiied. Mra MoPton and three children. John