Free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1888-1908, 1899-05-06
The KIRKVILLE TORNADO.

or more people were killed and scores
were injured by tornado that leveled
the eastern part of Kirksville at $50
last evening
4 gathering storm that had been
threatening all afternoon broke upon
this city at that hour, and a path
quarter of mile wide and as clean as
the prairie was swept through the
| easter IN portion of the city.
Among the first of the buildings
wrecked was the elegant SO. 600 resi-
dence of Mrs Mary Hensley, in the
southeastern part of the city Not
vestige of it is left. The Catholic
church. fine brick struct ure in the
northeastern part. was unroofed and
otherwise damaged. The large dwell
ing of Judge Andrew Ellison, in the
same locality, was stripped of its sec
ond story. He and his family and
John Doneghy took refuge in the eel
lar and were saved The residence of
II. Lowell, just outside of town, was
twisted into heap of ruins and three
of his children buried in the debris
and killed. Other large residences
were lifted from their foun dations
and literally torn into kindling wood.
Twenty-Five docto from MoberIy,
Macon and other points along the
line of the Wabash railroad came to
Kirksville in response to urgent calls
for medical assistance The whiting
| doctors co-operated with the local ply
sicians and the work of caring for the
wounded was expedited
The scenes that met the gaze of the
rescuers were horrifying. An aged
man and his wife had evidently been
eating the evening meal when the tor
nado struck and carried their home
away. They had clasped ca Oh other
in their arms and were found dead on
the ground some distance away from
where their home had been. No trace
of their house has been SEEN Several
of the dead were found in sS4 is which
would have been the centa of the
house had not the building been
blown to splinters. This was the case
with Mrs Banschott. who suffered a
| most terrible death.
Her headless body, with its arm
clasping her lifeless baby, was dis
covered on the floor of the house,
| which was left as a raised platform in
an open field. The head was as nicely
| severed as if it had been done with
knife, and was about twenty feet dis
| tant Two children had been lying in
| cot in one of the destroyed homes.
| The house was carried away, but the
floor of the first story and the foun-
dation were left, the wind lifting the
house from the stills and tumoling it a
long distance. The cot on which the
little ones lay was lifted up with
them on it and carried fully block
| and a half and set down on the
| groun. Neither of the children was
hurt.
DR. Howells, his wife and three lit
tie boys crouched in their home in a
group. The house was demolished,
the father left dead, the mother badly
injured and the children more or less
hurt.
Mrs. w. w. Green and her daughter,
! Miss Bessie, a student in the state
nyrmal school, were crushed in their
home and their bodies were found far
| out among the wreckage. The little
son Aubrey was found severely in
| jured.
The Weaver family of eight saw the
storm coming, but stood calmly by
the chair of John C. Weaver, the aged
invalid father. The grown sons might
have run with their wife and baby out
of the storms path. The house was
torn to fragments. The old man was
crushed in his chair and the others
were knocked senseless- Ella Weav-
er's legs were broken. The aged
mother was not hurt. Joseph Weaver,
his wife and baby and brother Samuel
were bruised.
The Webster family of three were
carried in the debris of their cottage
for several hundred yards and were
dropped. not badly injured Blue
Parschott, a Wabash railroad section
hand, came home after the storm and
found his wife beheaded, with her
dead babe in her arms. He was dis
covered an hour later with one dead
form embraced in each arm, crazed
wiah grief.
While John Mccall was holding onto
a sapling on the outskirts of the
storm, a 12-year-old boy. John Geb-
hardt, came down on him from the
sky. He caught and saved the boy,
whose home had been demolished two
blocks away.
At Henry Nichols farm. just out of
town, in the path Of the storm, an
other man was seen carried up 100 feet
from the ground The body has not
yet been found
a J. Glasee and his wife met death
in each others arms. Rubbish from
the house covered them entirely He
was a retired capitalist. In his
pockets were So, 900.
The Rev. and Mrs. Theodore Brig
ham, well known in Methodist Epis-
copal circles for evangelical work,
were crushed by flying missiles Mrs.
Brigham will die.