The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1918-05-23
TORNADO KILLS
EIGHT PEOPLE
THREE COUNTIES AFFECTED
TREGO, ELLIS AND ROCKS
STOCK KILLED AND INJURED
Two Years in Succession that a Tor
nado has Devasted Practically
the Same District

One of the worst storms that ever
visited Ellis County occurred Mon
day evening, about 900 o'clock
One year exactly to day at six in
the evening a tornado passed over
practically the same section of the
county destroying large quantities
of property but no lives were lost
There was just three hours difference
IN time of the arrival of the storms.
The storm seemed to have gathered
IN Trego county. CIV. Spencer who
passed high over that village about
seven o'clock. The wind blew fierce
~ but no great damage was done.
The storm struck first in Ellis coun-
ty passing on and devasting a strip of
the county said to be one mile wide
and thirty-five miles in length. In Ell
lis county five people were killed, Mr..
and Mrs. Alexander Geist were
killed outright and their three grand
children who were staying at the
home of Adam Geist were killed.
Adam and wife were injured but not
seriously.
At Codell, the storm was also Sc
vere-the town was partially demol-
ished and Mrs. Walter Adams and ba-
by were killed.
Two children of Frank Jones living
near Codell, were also killed.
There are rumors that three people
were also killed in Osborne county,
but the report has not been confirmed.
Anton Brunngardt was also seriously
injured Thought to be fatal.
All day Tuesday men from por-
tions of Ellis where the tornado of
been been building fences and
rounding up strayed stock
in order to save the crops A
large number of automobiles in Hays
were used to carry workers or visi-
tors. By evening most of the cattle
were brought to the rightful owners.
The wind took practically every
fence in the stricken territory. The
parts of fences still standing early
Tuesday morning were covered witfs
tattered bed clothing carried away
from the houses by the wind. Many
women wore dresses borrowed outside
of the district.
The twisting wind began at the
Jane Mcintosh place fifteen miles
northwest of Hays and swept north
east from there over a strip a mile
wide. At the Alexander Geist farm
home it was so furious that it car
ried off every board of the house,
barn and out buildings. Sheriff Alex
WeltZ and Coroner G.. II. Jameson
and their helpers had to go down in
to the milk cave and tear up the
floor under the potatoes to get boards
to carry the bodies of Geist and his
wife. Mrs. Geist weighed $50 pounds
and had been blown through a barbed
wire fence. The bodies were caked
in mud which had been hardened by
the pounding of the hail after the
the first blow. One half mile north
Of here is the Adam Geist home
where the three children were killed.
| They are children of Alexander Geist,
Jr. The youngest boy of two years
was blown from his uncle's arms
! and found one-eight of the mile
away. Every bone in the limbs and
arms of all three were broken. Adam
was unconscious to was soon revived
His wife is less severely hurt. The
mud and hail had done its work here
as well.
The house of George Ball was car
ried with the family of five in it by
the wind over four hundred yards
and deposited in his wheat field. The
walls were blown outward and left
the family without a scratch sitting
| IN one room. His cattle were killed
but his auto was uninjured.
On the P. J. Deane ranch, thirty
mile north of Hays, every building
was demolished including a steel re-
inforced concrete barn 10Ox130 feet
and a concrete silo. Concrete blocks
from these buildings were strew for
five hundred yards. The house was a
new one made of stone and concrete
and the family rushed to the storm
cellar seven feet below ground with
a concrete roof. Everything was
blown away and 'Deane although a
bank vice president came to, Hays in
borrowed clothing. His Individual
loss was about $4,000. The C. G.
Cochran ranch farm in the same
neighborhod was blow to atoms and
some of his stock killed.
Many of the homes are of stone