Mansfield mirror., 1917-05-24
STRUCK BY CYCLONE
Thousands of Dollars Worth
of Property Destroyed
Monday Afternoon

I Twopcoplrwcrehurt, thousand!
of dollars worth of property wa:
destroyed and much havoc wa!
wrought by cyclone which
struck Mansfield shortly after
o'clock Monday afternoon, leav
ing destruction in it's path.
Residences were destroyed
outbuildings blown away, big
trees uprootcd, moved down an(
blown away, telephone and cleo
trio wires wrecked, and parts o'
buildings carried to various parts
of town by the fury of the wind
The storm seemed to come
from the southwest and Travelled
so rapidly that it was all over be
fore many of our citizens realized
that we had been in the path OF
a tornado.
The storm is sad to have been
noticed first ut ArnO, in Douglas
county, whore considerable harm
was done. The twister was ac
companicd by q heavy rain.
Furniture, gardens, orchards
and gardens suffered, the storm
in spots travelling high, and low
in others.
Thomas ]. Slate suffered the
loss of n finger from his left
hand, while re>cuing his 4year
old son, George. The cyclone
picked the boy up and blew him
out the door. Mr.. Slate grabbed
him as he went out the door and
the door blew shut on his hand,
taking off one finger. So strong
was the wind that the door blew
open again after taking oil his
finger. The house was damaged
some
The Il. B. Archer property, Oc
cupind by G.E Cooley, was blown
from it's foundation, turned par
trally around and one room was
destroyed. Here, too, the out
buildings were carried away
Mrs. Cooley was knocked down
and badly bruised.
G. l.. Turner, rural carrier on
Route /, was out on his route al
the time. The wind overturned
his buggy, throwing him into a
barb WIRE fence. When he final
| ly arrived nome, it was to lind
his residence destroyed, his barn
and other outbuildings gone and
his orchard ruined. His son,
Clyde. is carrying the mail now.
The Flat Rock school was tot,
ally demolished, the building be
ing scattered in every direction,
leaving only the floor; school was
not in session at the time.
Ed. Churchill'S house, in this
neighborhood, was destroyed.
Probably the heaviest loser is
G S. Burney, whose apple or
chard the largest in this vicinity,
was damogcd to the extent OF q
bout $1,000, about 1000 of his
hest trees being destroyed. Hc
estimates some of them would
have borne $40 worth of fruit
this season. Many trees in his
addition to Mansfield were ruined
As the storm passed through
Mansfield it destroyed the resi-.
dencc of Mrs. Margaret Riley,
C l. Turner and Dr., Wm. M
Hamilton. The.t former were
. story buildings. The outbuild
ings on these places were also
blown away.
Mrs. Riley had no insurance
Her house is being rebuilt into a
one story building.
The storm swept down along
the west side Of the square, in
front of the Mirror office. II
tore off the wooden awning in
front of the Hitchcock buildings
occupied by the City Drug Store,
the F.N.Dyer Furniture Co, W.
G. Reynolds and w. B. Hitch
cock, and blew it on top of the
building, also tearing down the
electric sign in front of the drug
store, taking off row or two OF
bricks on the top of the building,
breaking large plate glass ir
the drug store front and also an
other window. The rods sup
porting the glass front were
badly bent, and the racket il
made led the occupants of the