The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-03-20
HURRICANE in TEXAS
Score or More Of Persons Killed
and Wounded While Asleep.
Cattle and Fowls Knocked Out by
Chunks of Ice Which Are Alleged to
Have Weighed Over One Pound.

DALLAS. Tex, March ia devastating
hurricane swept across Gregg and adjoining
counties about l o'clock Sunday morning.
The storm came from the southwest and
swept the earth of everything in it's track
for about fifty miles in length and a nun
dred yards wide. A score OF persons were
Killed and injured. Chunks of ice were
hurled to the earth with terrific force. Many
OF the pieces OF ice were from thirteen to
eighteen ounces in weight and others were
found at 9 a. m. Sunday, after a warm
rain and warm weather, larger than a goose
egg. Two Of these missiles passed through
the roof Of a residence making a hole like
a cannon ball. while fowls roosting in the
trees were killed by hundreds. A COW was
killed and stock bear many marks from
these ice stones. About three hundred WIN
dow lights were broken in LOngview. while
farm fences and fruit trees were Frustrated
for miles around.
The fury of the storm was greatest about
six miles east of Longview where the tor
nado struck the large country home OF
John Cay. lately occupied by a large family
of negroes. The house was I'm an ancient
grove of oaks, twenty in number. Every
one of them was uprooted and piled up In
confusion with dead fowl, dogs and cows
and five dead and eight badly wounded
negroes. Alexander Lester, an old man,
was found fifty yards away, entirely nude
and dead. His aged wife Sarah was pinned
under a tree. mangled and dead. Alexander
Lester, tr., was mangled and is now dead;
Robert Lester. nine years old, was found
without a mark OF violence, dead. Japes
Collins was pinned under a large oak snug
~ covered in bed with his head crushed
and limbs broken, dead. Beside him,
crawled painfully out his young wife. Mol
d of 6 6er fore T,th an sh Hgiy w nGie re ln yef es SISSY
Lester, infant, was found dead In a fallen
tree top, with legs and arms crushed. Silas
Johnson was bruised from head to foot, but
no homes broken. Will recover. Frank
Dlzer, leg broken below the knee: may re-
cover. Dick Simons, who, was in bed with
and will die. Odessa Lester. four years old,
leg ard both arms broken; will die. She
was found many yards away, in the field.
two places above and below the knee and
otherwise badly bruised; will die. Willie
Lester, five years old. slightly hurt, says
he woke up a long ways from home In a
field in the midst of the hail and rain. Sew
eral other houses a few miles away were
wrecked and some Of the inmates seriously
injured.
The little town of Emery, thirty miles
south of Greenville, was also struck by the
storm. which actually demolished the west
doctors, reporters and medical stores was
sent down from Greenville, and on Its ar
ri rival ar,s there RE, fo oa nic. sfe innaS ana nearly rH; help
less. Over a dozen dead and dying persons
were found lying on stretchers. and many
others were more or less ln)upeai Ihe M ress
liz NNa1
Easter Alexander, Bras Henry and a four
year-old child Of Henry Murray. Three un-
identified dead bodies were found north or
Emery and brought to town. About hfty
persons were wounded, some of them quite
seriously.
Later advices place the number of dead
at twenty and the wounded at one num-
dred. The names of some of the victims
follow:
Lester. jr., Robert A. Lester, Jasper Col
Inns, sissy Lester, Dock Simons. Arthur
Mortally Wounded-Mollie Collins Frank
Dizor. odessa Lester. all colored.
The seriously injured number ten or ff-
reached well into the Chickasaw Nation,
and much damage to property, is reported
from that section. Twenty miles north or
Gainesville the house of j. b. Putnam was
blown down and his fourteen-year-old
daughter killed and his wife fatally hurt.
The other MEMBERS OF the family were
badly but not fatally hurt. Nearly all the
stock on the place was killed.