The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-06-07

person seriously injured He suffered
internal injuries.
Even the floor of the building is
gone. There is scarcely any debris
inside the foundation boundries yet
all of the nine persons in the building
were lying on the ground inside the
foundations when the storm had pass
ed. Many of them were bruised and
slightly injured but none of them
claimed injuries today except Mr..
! Tincher. Most of the building is across
the road in the front yard of what
was formerly the Earl Wendell home.
/ The Wendells had a blue grass lawn
and today it appears to have been set
out to pine sticks. Hundreds of sticks,
boards and planks are driven into the
lawn, all leaning to the south at the
same angle.
The Wendell home, barn and all
outbuildings We're RACED The wreck
age went north and west across a
creek, spreading out fan-like for 100
! yards. Not a stick is left standing ex-
| cept those driven into the ground by
the storm. The big stone barn is sim
ply a pile of loose rock-all except
| the southwest corner, and there is a
I story connected with that.
When the storm struck Sam Nelson
was in the barn and the he ran to the
| southwest corner A little dog ran
with him and stayed at his feet. The
| storm struck and every stone and tim
/ Der IN the IHdI pdTllC-
| ular corner was swept away. Nelson
did not suffer a scratch but the little
| dog he found 100 feet north with
stick driven thru its body
While the storm was wrecking the
school house and the Wendell home it
was making a plaything of the Ed
Vance home directly west, across the
| valley on hill side. Vance was in
his barn and when the storm had pass
ed two of his horses were under him
| and he had a broken arm None of
his family was injured altho every
thing was destroyed. Bed clothing
and wearing apparel from his home
decorate the bare snags of trees for
100 yards east and north.
Leaving the entrance to the valley
the storm swept north to Elmont, lay
ing telephone and telegraph poles and
trees flat as it went. After demolish-
ing the little town the tornado swerved
to the east, went over the hill ana
raised. Just outside of town to the
south and east it wrecked the residence
and barn of Mrs. Rebecca Wendell.
There has long been a theory in
Kansas that tornadoes follow draws"
They do This one did. But it also
followed ridges, railroad tracks and
anything else that doomed up in front
of it, 1t took things just as they came
crossing the Kaw valley almost at
on high, dropping down into the next
valley without brakes. climbing the
next hill-in fact, paying no attention
whatever to topography.
Altho the Wendell school house was
completely demolished, the chimney
could be put together with very little
trouble 1t did not fly to pieces. 1t
lay on the ground in three separate
sections and apparently there is not a
brick missing from any SectlOn-
At the Wendell home straws-ordi-
nary wheat straws-were found driven
into the trunks of trees so far that
they broke off when efforts were MADE
to pull them out.
On a shelf in the Rock Island station
at Elmont was a Navigation glass can
of pears Mrs. Layman had sent up
from Topeka for her husband, the
agent The station was torn to kind
was intact today Mr.. Layman found
If in a pasture 100 feet or more from
the station site and placed 1t with the
rest of his belongings he was aple 70
find. A lantern also went thru the
wreck at the station without breaking
the glass globe.
Two big bronze turkeys that man
aged to escape death at the Ed vance
home were still prowling around amid
the wreckage today like lost souls try
ing to locate themselves. Almost all
the other. livestock on the place was
killed.
At the Wendell home there were
inst seven live chickens left out of a
flock of 100 or more. There were
plenty of dead fowls in sight and most
| Of them were bereft of all feathers
excent a fringe Just back of their
heads. Ten little red pigs that hap
pened to be out in a patch of alfalfa
untouched by the storm We're roofing
around the ruins of the Wendell home
perfectly contented.
Just few days before the storm
Earl Wendell purchased a new SIX
cylinder automobile. 1t looks like a
total loss but a mechanic was working
on 1t today had the engine running
and declared he intended to drive ii
to Topeka and up Kansas avenue for
repairs under its own power
There are three immense forest
trees with wide-spreading roots carry
ing hundreds of pounds of earth ly-
ing in the center of field just south
of Elmont, a quarter of a mile from
any other trees. They blew in from
somewhere but no one has had time
to identify them
Just over the hill south of Elmont
is the Frank Fiederling home, or the
site of it. The home and outbuildings
are scattered to the four winds and ar
orchard to the south is flat on the
ground. 1t was here that Mrs. Fielder
ling suffered injuries which may prove
serious To the southwest of the
Fiederling home perhaps half a mile
was the Charles Shepherd home
where Mrs. Emily Newell sustained
internal injuries The place is com.
plete wreck 1t was between the Shep
! herd home and the Prairie Home
church to the southwest that Sher-
man Archer and Alonzo Andrews were
killed.
In numerous instances the frame
of houses in the path of the storm IL
the Kaw valley are left standing will
windows gone and furniture in tn