The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1921-02-11
Scores of Others ore Injured
|AtNOOn in Pnth of Storm Area
Two Whites and More Than 80
Negroes Killed from Force
of Tornado.
RED CROSS RUSHES AID
Strip Five Miles Long and Half
Mile Wide Swept Clean in
Washington County.
(By Associated Press)

ss~-~~'~N
OCONEE, Ga, Feb .10.-A tornado
that struck the Gardner settlement
one mile from here shortly after the
noon hour today, brought death to
two white persons and nearly thirty
negroes, and serious injury to ten
white persons and more than. a score
of negroes.
A stretch of land extending from
Oconee almost to Toomsboro in Wash
ington county, nearly five miles long
and about a half mile wide, is as bar
rem as prairie tonight, not a build
ing nor a tree being left standing.
Among the dead is Benjamin Frank
lin Orr, fourteen year old youth. who
was decapitated. His head had not
been found at late hour tonight.
The only other white person who
met death in the tornado is three
year old daughter of E. L. Minor,
manager of Shepherds commissary at
the plant of the Cleveland Oconee
Lumber company.
: White persons injured include:
L. L. Thompkins, c. o. Thompkins,
Edgar Thompkins, George Lord and
Emory Shepherd, Marion Hodges, Mrs.
Harrison, mother of j. M. Harrison;
Tolbert Ennis, Emma Jolly. The jolly
girl was hurt at the school house.
One carload of dead bodies was
shipped to Tennile tonight, while on
the same train were number of in
jured, who will be taken to hospitals
af rT,aprila opG GandarSxyilla
The Red Cross is sending supplies
suffering.
Identification of the bodies has been
slow tonight. In many instances
whole families have been wiped out.
Bighty-two children and three
teachers were in a school building on
the edge of the Gardner settlement
when the tornado struck. The build
ing was literally twisted to pieces and
the fragments scattered for miles
around. Children were picked up by
the wind and carried for some dis
tance but it is officially announced
tonight that only one child was seri-
ously bruised.
approximately forty houses were
blown down in the Gardner settle
ment The Shepherd brothers COM
missary at the big lumber plant
was reduced to kindHng wood, Orr
and-four negroes meeting death there
Ten feet away from the commissary
was the general office of the Cleve-
land -Oconee Lumber company, which
was untouched by the storm.
The fifteen acre plant of the lum-
ber company, which practically owns
the settlement site of Gardner, was
not seriously damaged by the wind
although millions of feet of lumber
piled in the yards was scattered.
The tornado spent it's force locally
immediately beyond the plant of the
lumber company, in the settlement of
forty house. and four stores. Most
of the people residing in this section
were negroes, the white people of the
town residing on higher ground, a
short distance away.
The negro houses and stores faced
the tracks of the Savannah division of
the Central of Georgia railroad In
the rear of the houses was an open
field, extending for nearly mile from
the Oconee station to the lumber mill.
1t was into this field that men, women
and children were carried to their
death from their seats at dinner ta-
bles.
Ten minutes after the tornado
wiped out the Gardner settlement a
Central of Georgia local freight train
running from Savannah to Macon, ar
rived on the scene. w o. King, of
Wadley, conductor in charge, viewed
the bodies scattered about the ground
The conductor ordered his Iocomo-
tive detached from the train and with
his crew hastened TO TenniIe. eleven
miles away for aid. Coaches were
from the Wrightsviue
and Tennile railroad and four doctors
and forty-six persons were obtained In
the relief party
The train returned to oconee as
speedily as possible.
Doctors found one negro bow with
a board driven into his forehead. They
removed the board and gave tempo
rary aid. The youth was alive to-
night and it Is believed that he will
live.
The body of three year old negro
infant was found at the roots of
tree, the top of which had been twist
ed off The child's head had been
crushed in, having been carried head
foremost from its home against the
tree. One negro's body was cut in
two.
A negro man and his wife were
found more than a hundred yards from
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