The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-03-20
Awful Destruction Wrought By
Tornado In Alabama.
ELEVEN PEOPLE KILLED
TEN WE'RE MEMBERS OF ONE
FAMILY.
An Immense Funnel-shaped Cloud
Bounded Along Like Rubber Ball
Crushing Houses and Uprooting
Trees-Victims' Bodies Were Car
ried Half a Mile.

Birmingham, Ala, March 19.-Addition-
al details of last nights tornado near Ed
wardsville were received here late to-
night. The following is list of the dead
and wounded so far as known
Dead-Lewis Coffee, aged 55, tax as
SCISSOR of Cleburne county, and the fol-
lowing members of his family: Mrs. Cot
fee, aged As: Leila, aged %; James. aged
20; Lula. aged IS; Jacob, aged 10; DolIie.
aged 10; Deveroe.. aged 8: Griver aged 6;
John, aged 4;sunknown woman, near Hef-
lin.
Wounded-Bessie Coffee, aged p,
daughter of Lewis Coffee, will die; Mrs.
tunnels, aged %, will die; Myrline Stan
zell aged 3, will probably die; Mrs. J. Fl.
Cason, Tom Runnells, Wood StanzeIl An
drew Steipan, all seriously hurt; Mary
Steipan, Lizzie Runnells, j. H. Cason,
Georgia StanZell, Gainesville StanzeI, Jo-
seph Stanzell. Coleman Stanzell, all bad
ly bruised.
Several other people were more or less
known.
The path of the storm was about 200
yards wide and it traversed the country
for twelve miles, beginning in the north
ern part of Cleburne county, near Iron
City, and moving southwark There was
an immense funnel-shaped cloud that
bounded along like rubber ball, rising at
intervals and leaping for several hundred
yards without doing any damage. Then
when it descended, it would pick up
trees or twist them off the ground and
sweep all before it.
COFFEE FAMILY WIPED OUT.
double log house, situated on little hill,
was swept away and the timbers scat
tered for mile. Ten of it's eleven occu-
pants were instantly killed. Except the
body of the baby which was found under
the ruins of the chimney, the corpses of
the victims were carried half a mile and
nine of them were found heaped together.
Every body had been stripped of its cloth
ing. One was twisted around d stump and
two others were headless. Beside the
body of the father lay Bessie Coffee, the
only member of the family not instantly
killed. She was unconscious, and her
arms were around her dead fathers neck.
She is unable to talk and will die.
In the same neighborhood the residences
of J. w. Wilder, j. II. Cason, Andrew
Steipan and Ben Stanzell were wrecked
lin, white woman whose name cannot
be learned, was killed, and five persons
in the same family hurt.
1t is estimated that about fifty buildings
were destroyed. between. twenty and
twenty-five persons were injured and over
a score of farms devastated. The storm
lost it's force just south of Helm, near
which place a dozen buildings were
wrecked.
The path of the cyclone presents ter
rible scene of havoc. Timbers of wrecked
houses are scattered in every direction.
Some were carried high into the air and
others Were driven deep into the ground
or through trees. Many head of cattle
were killed. One dead COW was found
with a shingle driven through her back
But for the fact that the country over
which the storm passed is sparsely set
tied. the loss of life would have been
much greater. There were many marvel
Gus escapes. J. H. Cason and his wife
We're blown through a window as their
house was falling and after the storm
found themselves in a field a hundred
Yards AWAY both badly hurt