Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1896-05-16
A TEXAS STORM.

The city OF Sherman, IeXas, was
visited by the worst cyclone in the his.
tory of northern Texas about five
o'clock yesterday evening and many
persons were killed.
The path of the destroyer was $50
yards wide. 1t struck the city at the
west end of Post Oak street and swept
in westerly direction for several blocks
and then spread and spent its force.
The track of the cyclone is grue-
some sight, the devastation being com.
plete, houses, trees, fences, in fact,
everything in its pathway being des.
troyed.
The loss of life will probably reach
one hundred, with as many more
bruised and wounded. The city hall
and the storeroom formerly occupied
by S. G.. Holmes have been turned into
temporary hospitals, and eighteen bruis-
ed, mangled and mutilated bodies are
awaiting Identification.
AT these two places nearly every
house in Fairview addition has been
turned into hospital. There was
much excitement and great confusion,
and it will be some time before the list
can be obtained.
The unidentified dead were taken to
the court house. Gray's Hill and Fair.
view both were badly damaged, and
the cyclone passed directly west of the
North Texas Female College, barely
missing it.
B. B. Sales, q delivery man, drove
down Houston avenue directly after the
cyclone. He stated that he saw at least
seven men, women and children lying
along the avenue dead and many
wounded. The devastation in spots
where the cyclone was the worst, is
complete.
Trees were striped of their foliage in
some places, while in others they were
uprooted. Houses, once the pride of
the city, are in some instances entirely
gone, and in others only pile OF rub
bish marks the place where they
stood.
Capt. Ely's fine residence was blown
to pieces. His wife and two children
were at home, but fortunately escaped
WIFI serious INJURY.
Not q thing remains to mark the
spot where only few hours before
stood the magnificent residence of
Capt. Burgess. His family were absent
from the house at the time.
Mayor Tone, of Denison, who was in
Sherman during the storm, gives the
following account of the cyclone:
~ was on the courthouse square
about 5 o'clock and heard a roaring
wind coming from the South. The
next thing l knew the air was thick
with mud and small specks resembling
ashes. The cyclone did not strike the
court house or Jail, but followed up
Post Oak Creek. The roaring did not
continue over two or three minutes.
During all this time it rained very
hard.
"In about five minutes rumors began
to spread that many lives had been lost,
and the reports grew worse and worse
as time passed. BY 8 o'clock fifty dead
bodies had been broughtinto the public
buildings, and searching parties are out
for more.
"Dead children have been found in
trees, under levelled houses and in Post
Oak Creek. An iron bridge over Post
Oak Creek was twisted into scrap iron"
Prof. and Mrs. Kohler we're both bad
" and, it is feared, seriously injured.
The six children of ]. B. Irwin are all
badly hurt.
DIR. Michael was caught in the storm
and badly hurt. Or. Sadler left for the
south part of the town just before the
storm, and as nothing has been heard
from him, it is feared that he was kill
ed. Mrs. James Davis and Mrs. John
Fields, who lived south of town, were
both killed. 1t is feared that the de-
struction in that part of the country is
serious.
A mass meeting was held last night
at the court house in Sherman to devise
means to relieve the distressed. Hun
dreds of homes are blown away.
A special from Denton says: "A tor
nado struck the town of Gribbie
Springs, eight miles north of Denton,
yesterday afternoon. Four persons
were killed and FIVE others so badly
wounded they cannot live. The prop
erty damage is great"
A tornado struck Justin yesterday at
$50 o'clock p. ~, blowing twelve
houses down, killing one man named
w. j. Evans, of Keller, Texas, and
badly injuring seventeen others. The
cyclone also did much damage north of
there.
The tornado struck Howe, Texas,
leaving death and ruin in its wake.
Ten farm houses and as many barns
were wrecked. Eight persons were
killed outright and many injured. Bark