The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-03-23
CHILDREN
CRUSHED
By the Falling Walls of an
Academy.
A Disastrous Cyclone Sweeps
Over Georgia,
STRIKING A SCHOOL
STRIKING A SCHOOL
While Little Ones Cling to the
Teachers for Safety.
Many Other Fatalities Reported
From the Storms Course.

New Orleans. La, March pa Times
special from EufauIa, Fla, says:
A cyclone, which carried death and
destruction, swept this section yester-
day. The thermometer went up to so
and the air was as oppressive as ever
it felt during the June solstice.
The 1eaden skies and increasing wind
told of a storm, which soon came along
with terrific and wrenching force. When
the storm struck, shutters. roofs, etc,
gave way. and for two hours there was
terror and deSOlatiOn, when the cyclone
passed off TO the northwest coursing
along the ChattahOochie valley.
The reports soon coming in told of
terrible devastation The town of Blake
ley, IN Georgia, was almost lifted out
of existence, and people seeking refuge
in cellars were as badly knocked around
by the falling timbers as were those on
fence rails and flying missiles. The most
shocking story of all, however, was that
which came from Arlington, Early
county, Georgia.
1t was about o'clock when the pupils
of the Arlington academy began to as
semble, and there were about so present
when Prof. COvington, noticing the COM
ing storm, called them in for shelter.
On and on came the storm, with a roar
ing sound, increasing until it lifted two
cabins across the way into mid-air,
crushing Inefn INTO SpInterS. 1ne SlSn(
of this so affrighted the children that
they chung piteously to Prof. Walker
and Prof. CoVingtOn, who vainly tried
to quiet them.
A cracking noise was heard and the
shutters and swinging doors were
wrenched from their hinges. Then came
a twisting and a careening, and the
north partition gave way, falling with
deadly effect upon a group of children
who were clinging to the professors. The
doors and windows gone. the storm
shrieked through the building and the
little ones thrown to the floor were
crushed under flying and falling de-
bris.
The cries of the wounded. the groans
of the dying, are described as having
been heart rending. The people of the
town, regardless of the Wreckage of
their own homes, ran to the school,
where they knew their children were,
only to find many of them dead, others
wounded and pinioned beneath the de-
bris Prof. Walker had his arms and
legs broken and cannot live. Among
the dead are:
OLLIE PARAMORE.
CLAUDE ROBERTS.
ALICE PUTNAM.
ALBERT BUTLER.
WILLIE MURRAY.
KENNETH BOYNTON-
MAUDE JOHNSON.
MARY WELLONS.
The wounded are:
Ernest Wellons, leg broken.
Dudley Killebrew, both legs broken.
Prof. w. A Covington, internal injur-
les will die.
Alton Carter, leg broken.
Esther Carter, internal injuries; will
die
Ben McMurray. head crushed; will
die.
internally.
Robert Childers, shoulder dislocated.
Simon Sanders, hurt internally; will
die
Coo pillow o,,1o hrolxan hurt internal
Clara Thigen, arms broken, hurt in
ternally will die.
The scenes around the building were
most heart rending.
The rain began to pour in torrents as
soon as the wind passed off, and hun
dreds of people were drenched TO the
skin while clearing away the wreck.
Some remarkable escapes were re-
lated One little girl almost suffocated
to death for want of air was lying under
three of her dead companions, whose
bodies had formed a buffer which saved
her from severity of the blows of the
falling debris.
Along the banks of the river from APP
palachicola there is death and destruc-
ton. The storm came from the Gulf of
Mexico. and, entering the Appalachi-
cola valley, traversed its continent
streams TO their source. The Appala-
chicoIa is formed by the conjunction of
the Chattanoochie and the Flint the
first of which up to Wheat Point forms
the state boundary line. 1t was IN the
tongue of the territory within the cir
conference that the strength OF the
storm was, and most of it is inacceSSi-
BILE to Geographic communication, and
details are hard to obtain.
From Henry county, Ala bama, around
Abbeyville, there come stories of death
and wreck, but no names have been re-
ceived. A family of five were reported
killed near Geneva. A second disaster
that of floods, is now upon the county
The ri ,ers and creeks are swollen, and
on both sides of the Chattanoochie
south of this place, the fields are over
flowed, destroying all the winters work
carrying away outh0uses and cabins
and floating off stock.
News comes in of the drowning of
family of eight persons on the Alabama
side of the river in Henry county.
Richard Manson, with his wife and
six children, lived in a cabin on the
river bank at the crossing of the rail-
road from Columbia. The water lush-
ed in. surrounding the cabin, and all
were lost.
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