The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1904-08-23
Hundreds of Business Houses
And Thousands of Resi-
dences Damaged.
VICTIMS OF TORNADO.
Dead. Injured.

Dallas, Wis. ........ ;.
St. Paul, Aug. 23.-Eleven dead, TO-
injured and a property loss of over
$2,OOO,O00 is a verified record of the
damage inflicted by the cyclone which
passed over ST. Paul and vicinity Sat
urday night, leaving in it's path 6
scene OF desolation and a calamity
stricken people.
In this city persons are dead anC
43 injured; in Minneapolis 1 man is
dead and IA persons injured; in Waco
MIA are dead and 20 injured, and in
st. Louis Park 3 are dead and 25 in
jured. The list of victims is as fol
lows
st. Paul-George Keaton, aged sev
enteen; Lourien S. Johanson, agec
twenty-two; Viola Robertson, aget
twelve.
Minneapolis-Alfred w. Hilgedick
operator at Minneapolis Junction
struck by lightning.
Waconia-August Moy, forty years
old; Mrs. August Moy, thirty ighl
years old; Baby Moy, one year old;
Robert Lohman, thirty-nine years old
st. Louis Park--Albert Ohde, saloon
keeper; John Hedger, six years Old;
Anna Hodge.
The damage to property is estimated
at over $4,000, ,oo0, .divided as follows
ST. Paul, $1,O00,OOO; Minneapolis, $500,
600; ST. Louis Park, S75,UOU; Waconla
$4,000; Saltwater, 100000; outside
districts, $5OO,0O0.
High Bridge Partially Destroyed.
The greatest single property loss al
st. Paul was the destruction OF two
spans of the high bridge, burden
The other damage is distributed
among thousands Of residences ane
hundreds OF business houses.
The storm confined it's area mainly
to the localities where fatalities are
reported, although Saltwater reports
a loss OF 100000 In both st. Pau
and Minneapolis the business districts
suffered severely, several wholesale
houses being unroOfed and hundreds
Of plate glass windows being blown
in,. causing immense damage to stocks
In the residence district of st. Paul
principally in Lower Town and Ar
lington Hills, many houses are com
plete wrecks and others are seriously
damaged.
In Minneapolis, considering the in
tensity of the storm, the residence dis
tricts Of the city escaped with com
paratively slight damage. Although &
few structures were unroofed and the
contents of the buildings drenchet
with water as rule the people o
these districts suffered no great loss
At Waconia of the 100 houses, resi-
dences and stores, seventy are more
or less demolished and in the country
for a strip one-half mile in width eX
tending four miles along the Mime
apolis and st. Louis tracks east anC
west there is scarcely building stand
ing.
At ST. Louis Park nearly all of the
large manufacturing establishments
were more or less wrecked and houses
were raZed to the ground The heaviest
loser is T. B. Walker, the Minneapolis
capitalist, who owns most of the TWEEN
ty houses which were overturned anC
some of the manufacturing buildings
Storm Divides at st. Paul.
The scene of wreck and ruin in st
Paul extends from the Minnesota
transfer through to the eastern limits
Of the city and no locality escaped
without some damage. The storm, be
leved to have been genuine cyclone
as it approached Fort Smelling from
the southwest, divided at the fort and
rushing onward in two main sections
made clean sweep Of the city. The
section which 1aused the creates
wreck followed down the Mississipp
close to the south bank, Wrecking two
1O0-foot spans of the high bridge, leav
ing a trail of ruined trees and build
lngs on beautiful Harriet island, yeer
ing across to the north end of the
Wabasha street bridge and destroying
the Tivoli theater like a cardhouse
killing two, thence taking a course
due northeast through the heart of the
wholesale district and on through
Lower Town and out across Arlington
Hills to the city limits, where i
yeered again and twenty minutes later
caused tremendous loss of property ir
Saltwater.
The second portion Of the tornado
cloud followed the Minnesota river fol
a short distance, then swept down or
the Minnesota transfer, leyeling two
huge grain elevators to the ground
From that point the clouds seem tt
have distributed themselves and take1
a more easterly course over the Mer
riam Park and st. Anthony Hill dis
Lr1cts, covering a tremendous area and
infiicting almost equal damage every
where.
Children's Dormitory Demolished.
At tha House of the Good Shepherd
north OF University avenue, a dormi
tory in which fifty young girls Were
sleeping was crushed like an eggshell
yet the children in the little white
cots escaped, except for one. The
crushed and bleeding form Of Viola
Robinson. twelve years of age. was