The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-04-13
storm Loss at lawrence.

| Lawrence, kan, April 13.-The loss:
| Miller Lumber yard, $4,000.
| Busch Seed house, $1,000.
| Griffin Ice company, $4,000
Wilder Bros laundry, 5000.
| Boomer Cigar factory, $1,000.
| Lawrence Cabinet Co, 81 500.
Bowersock Paper mill, $4,000.
| Eldridge hotel $1,000.
| Lawrence Iron foundry, $2.T0O.
| Smith building, $780,
Vermont street school, s., 200.
County JAIL $500.
Fire loss, $4,000.
| Electric light plant, 81 900.
| Wires, etc, of Light company, 81 .0Oo
| Lawrence Street Railway Co., S., 900.
Bell and Home telephone companies,
81, 500.
| Telegraph companies, $1,000.
I Other business houses, $4,000.
Residences, SAC, 900.
Total, $133,400
/ Two people were killed, scores of
| houses destroyed and the streets piled
| high with debris by cyclone which
| struck Lawrence at s o'clock Wednes-
| day. Only a rough estimate of the
| damage can be made but the loss IS
conserVatiVely placed at $150,000 The
| known dead are Mrs. Joe Sullivan. 55
years old, 639 Mississippi street. and Mrs
| Laura Childs, a colored woman en-
ployed on the farm of Floyd Doubleday,
| TWO miles west of this place Four
more deaths have been reported but the
rumors can not be confirmed. A dozen
! more were more Or less seriously in
| jured.
The storm struck the city just north
| of the campus of the University of
Kansas. None of the buildings was in
| its path. The first fatality occurred
just before the twister entered the
| city limits. On the farm of Floyd
Doubleday, mile west of here George
and Laura Childs, an aged colored
couple, lived in a small servants quar-
tiers. All of the outbuildings on the
farm were blown down. and with them
| the little house. The colored woman
and her husband were buried beneath
| the debris. The man escaped with
serious injuries, but the woman was
killed outright
Mr.. and Mrs. Doubleday; who were
| in the farm house at the time, were
Iuninjured. Leaving the farm the
storm broke upon the town in the
heart of the student district. Houses
were unroofed, overturned, blown
down and lifted from their founda-
lions. Trees were uprooted and poles
snapped from the ground Wires along
the path of the storm were blown to
the streets, in trees and on the tops
of houses. In this district one woman.
was killed and one man seriously in
jured. The woman lived at $50 Mis-
sissippi street. Her name is Mrs. Joe
| Sullivan. The roof and sides of the
house in which she and her husband
| lived were blown down and the Wom-
an was caught beneath it. Her hus-
| band escaped with serious injuries,
which are not believed to be fatal
Jacob Pike, who resided at 63 ILL
nois street, is the injured man. His
house was overturned and a fire burn
| ing in the stove. caused a blaze that
completely destroyed his home. He
was injured about the chest and it is
believed that his skull was fractured.
He was taken to the Simmons hospital.
The damage to the business section of
the town is confined to one block of
buildings. From the river south to the
| the Eldridge hotel the six hundred
block, a dozen business houses were
badly damaged. One of the heaviest
losers IS ex-Congressman j. D. Bower
sock. The Lawrence Paper Mill.
Bowersocl1 Iron Foundry, the Electric
Light Plant and the Lawrence Cabinet
company, all owned by him, were bad
ly damaged. His loss will total prob
ably ten thousand dollars. The Miller
Lumber Yard was practically totally
destroyed. The damage there may
reach $4,000. The loss in the resi-
dence district to dwellings will be close
to fifty thousand dollars. and the Ell
bridge House hotel, from which the
roof was blown. was damaged five
thousand dollars.
Much Damage at Itslkridge.
iaskridge, Kan, April 13.-Thfs
PldCG v DIS lHTOMI1 INTO = panic at 4
O'Clock last evening when a tornado
struck the eastern part of the town
coming from the southwest The
school building was unroCfed and sew
eral children who had just been dis
missed were injured, Daniel Cousins
son of G. H. Cousins, being the only
! one seriously hurt. He was uncon-
scious all night, but shows improve
ment this morning, and is conscious.
He Will probably recover. Thirty
HI
and the property loss will be about
i$5O,00O.
Six miles northeast of this place the
house of Robert Strathen was destroy
| ed and Mrs. Claire Rutledge, a daugh-
| ter, had an arm broken The barn
| of Arthur Clark was demolished
A. M. Wray, who is employed by the
| Carl Hoffman Music company of Kan
sas City, was in Eskridge on business
yesterday, and was there when the
storm broke shortly after 4 o'clock.
He says the situation was terrible, and
| beyond his power to describe, men,
women and children joining in a tu-
mutt of excitement and terror at the
wreck the storm was leaving in it's
wake.
1.-The storm struck Eskridge from
the southwest" Mr.. Wray said last
night land ranged northeast. One
of the first places to be struck was
the Commercial hotel. which was dam
particularly in the northeastern sec
ton of the town, the buildings prac-
tically all were destroyed.
81 think 1 am safe in saying that
half of the town either was destroyed
or very severely damaged. House
after house went down before the
storm and left nearly half the town
a mass of wreckage and debris
"In spite of that I did not hear of
a single death, although several peo-
pie were injured, some of them quite
severely SO. One of the worst hurt
in the storm was a little boy, a scholar
at the public school, who was hit on
the back of the head with something,
receiving a nasty cut four or five
! inches long. He seemed to be badly
hurt.