Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1911-04-20

average person III InlS city WOul'
tell you if you we're to ask if
storm had struck this place
They do not realize just wha
happened anywhere else in thi
immediate vicinity. Of course
they have heard that consider
able damage was done on
through the county, but they de
not know very much about it
Only short disconnected stories
of the damage wrought have
reached the towns, and of course
not much attention has been pait
to them. But the storm was Sc
we're. Perhaps it would be with.
in the confines of the truth tC
say that never in the history oi
| Cherokee county has so much
damage been done in so short a
time.
Why, in the time it would take
to snap your finger, or bat your
eye, property valued at away up
in the thousands has been wiped
off of the face of the earth, as il
it had never been at all. Life
has been lost and stock has been
injured.
And dear reader it is tough, to
say the least. Men and women
have worked for twenty-five or
thirty years to make a home;
they have built comfortable
dwellings, barns and other out
buildings; they have set out or
chards; they have planted shade
trees and put out shrubbery, yet
in the twinkling of an eye it is
all gone, much as if it had never
been. The destruction is awful,
and the after effects are bound to
be bad. Men are going to have
to put mortgages on their farms
to get money to build another
house, or barn. 1t is going to
take years to grow another or
chard, or shade trees.
And the strange part of it all
is that the people know so
little about all this. Only, as
we say, have disconnected stories
been told. Last Sunday a News
man went over the route of the
storm, to see for himself just
what had happened. The scene
is too horrid to go into detail
over, but we will tell just what
we saw as near as possible, and
not be long about it. A full
page would be needed to tell one
half of what happened, and then
we doubt if it would be enough.
The storm first struck Cherokee
county down in the southwest
corner, near Bartlett's mill, and
commenced doing damage with
out any preliminaries.
w. B. Mcfarland, three and a
half miles southwest of Melrose,
lost his house and several head
of fat hogs, which were killed in
the fattening pen.
Ira Bruce, three and a quarter
miles southwest of Melrose, had
his house blown away, five head
of cattle killed, and all of his
work stock injured.
Fairview school house, three
miles southwest of Melrose, was
wiped completely off the map.
The furniture was all wrecked.
There is no salvage at all.
M. McNutt lost the roof of his
house, and is thankful that he
has anything left.
Geo. A. Styer lost his orchard,
every tree being ruined, and his
house and barn were badly
wrecked.
J. R. Headley lost his barn and
all the other outbuildings we're
wrecked. He lost $500 worth of
wheat which was wet by the de-
luge following the storm. Some
of his stock was killed, and the
whole place looks like a wreck.
Just across the road to the east
lived Frank Headley and his
family. They had a nice little
home, and were happy. Today
there is not a vestige of either
house or barn, and Mr.. Headley
is buried in the Melrose cemetery.
His little son, Luther, four years
old, is lying at the point of death,
and one of his little girls was
badly hurt by being struck in
the face by flying timber. Mr..
Headley was mashed under the
debris, and his back was almost
broken, and one leg was almost
twisted off. Death relieved him
of his suffering and he passed
away on Friday noon. he was
a fine man and a good citizen.
His little son, Luther, is badly