Sherman, TX Tornado, May 1896 - Death Rode the Gale - Leadville Daily and Evening Chronicle 1896-05-16
DEATH RODE THE GALE
Several Texas Towns Visited by a Fearful Cyclone Yesterday.
SHERMAN SUFFERS WORST
Sixty People Dead or Fatally Hurt and 150 Injured at Sherman Alone.
DEATH AND RUIN ELSEWHERE
Eighteen Persons Killed or Fatally Injured at Howe, Gribble Springs and
Justin. Immense Damage Done.
Sherman, May 15. -- Just a few minutes before 5 o'clock this afternoon,
a cyclone not exceeding two blocks in width, but carrying widespread
destruction and death in its wake, swept through the western half of
the city, traveling almost directly north.
The approach of the terrific whirlwind was announced by a deep rumbling
noise, not unlike reverberating thunder. A fierce and driving rain
accompanied it.
Late to-night it is supposed that 10 people have been killed south of
town, in addition to the city's death list. Wagons are unloading the
dead and injured every moment.
A reporter standing on the north side of the Court plaza had his
attention called to the peculiar appearance of the clouds. They were
parted at the lower side, converging into a perfect funnel-shaped
point, while a
BOILING SEETHING MASS
of vaporous clouds were rapidly revolving in the rift. The air was
suddenly filled with trees and twigs and the downpour of rain brought
with it a deluge of mud. Then the truth dawned on all that a cyclone
was prevailing.
From the point at which it seems to have first descended, to where it
suddenly arose from the ground, just north of the city, it left
terrific marks of its passing, not a house in its path escaping; not a
tree or shrub left standing, or not twisted and torn out of shape.
Fences are gone.
The iron bridge on Houston street is completely wrecked and blown away
notwithstanding its hundreds of thousands of pounds of steel and
material. The number of persons wounded will reach not less than 100
and it will be several days before the exact number of fatalities can
be given as many persons and especially children are missing and many
of the injured are in such critical shape that a score may die before
morning.
THE LIST OF KILLED.
As far as reported by the authorities tonight is as follows:
MRS. OTTO BALLINGER and two children.
MRS. I. L. BURNS and two children,
JOSEPHINE, aged 3, and
GROVER, aged 10.
JOHN AMES and wife and two children.
REV. J. S. SHEARER.
MRS. LUKE MONTGOMERY and two children. Another child is also missing.
WILLIAM HAMILTON, farmer.
MRS. GEORGE ANDERSON and an infant daughter.
MRS. BELLE JENKINS.
D. L. PIERCE.
TOM PIERCE, his son, aged 14.
MRS. DAVE HERRING and two children.
AN UNKNOWN WOMAN and two white children, about 4 and 6 years of age,
have not been identified and are being held in the morgue for
identification.
The list of colored people killed, so far as learned up to 10 p. m., is as follows:
JAMES WALKER.
MRS. NORA NICHOLSON and two children.
LUCY BALLINGER and daughter.
CHARLEY COX, son of ELIZA COX.
MARY LAKE, and three children.
LEITTIS, JOHN and FATUS.
LIST OF WOUNDED.
TOM JENKINS, his wife and five children.
MR. AND MRS. HENRY MILLER, and two children.
A heavy sliver of wood was driven through the thigh of GRANVILLE JENKINS.
MR. AND MRS. ED. HALSELL and little son, with B. F. WOODARD, were in
the cellar at the former's residence and were covered with debris. MR.
AND MRS. HALSELL were both painfully bruised about the thighs and are
supposed to have been blown through a window.
ELIZA COX, colored, hurt in the breast.
HARRIET LAKE, colored, cut and bruised.
DON CEPHUS, colored, his wife and son, CLARENCE, all have limbs broken and are in a precarious condition.
LETTIE and LUMMIE BURNS are badly.
MR. AND MRS. JESSE BROWN, badly bruised. MRS. BROWN'S arm is broken.
LUKE SHEARER, son of REV. SHEARER, who was killed, is badly bruised.
This list is necessarily incomplete. The greatest
NUMBER OF FATALITIES
are reported from the colored settlement along Post Oak and Lincoln
streets, between Curry and Lost streets where several people were
killed outright.
Very few of the persons in the demolished houses are able to tell just
how the storm burst upon them and only in one or two instances were
parties able to get out of its deadly path.
MRS. J. P. KING and two children are seriously injured.
PHILIP NICHOLS received painful hurts about the head.
MRS. JOHN IRVINE and four children were all more or less injured.
W. S. BEUTWICK, who was in the same residence, is cut very seriously.
OTTO BALLINGER, whose family were all killed, is badly hurt about the head.
HESTER and NANNIE NICHOLSON, colored, of the family of which six were killed, are seriously hurt.
DAVE HERRING and MRS. D. L. PIERCE, who alone escaped death at their home, are perhaps fatally hurt.
MARY PATRICK, colored, and three children are all badly hurt.
MATTIE JOHNSON, colored, head hurt and injured internally; will die.
JOHN AND ALICE NEWHOUSE, colored, and four children, badly hurt.
HARRIET HENDRICKS, colored, both legs broken.
MISS EVA PIERCE, daughter of D. L. PIERCE, left leg and right arm broken.
MR. AND MRS. WRIGHT CLARK, painfully hurt.
THE NUMBER OF MISSING
is large and includes a great many children and it is quite probable that the most of them are dead.
It is very conservative to estimate that the list of fatalities will reach 50, while the injured will reach 150.
At least 50 houses are wrecked. Most of them are small cottages, except
in Fairview and Washington avenues where the handsome residences of L.
F. ELY, Captain J. G. SALLER, MRS. PAT MATTINGLY and JAMES FALLS also
succumbed. The loss will reach at least $150,000 and but little if any
of it was covered by cyclone insurance.
About the most graphic description given by any of the injured was that of W. S. BEUTWICK, who said:
WHAT HE SAW.
"I was at MR. JOHN IRVINE'S house when I heard the noise of the
approaching storm. Just as I looked out I saw Captain BERGE'S house
blown into the air and then MR. SHEARER'S house. The air was filled
with great trees and timbers and every conceivable kind of article. I
was fascinated, petrified, for I saw it was coming directly upon us and
that it could not be long in reaching us. It was a black, serpentine
cloud, twisting, writhing in the center, but at the bottom it seemed to
be moving steadily. I woke from my stupor and called out to the family,
who were in the house, and asked them not to run out. I feared that we
would all be struck by flying timbers. Then came
AN AWFUL CRASH.
A sense of suffocation, and when it was over the house was gone and
myself and family were scattered about the yard and under the debris.
It was over in such a short time that I can not give you an idea of how
long it was."
In just a few minutes the police officers were appealed to for shelter
for the dead and wounded and ambulances and all kinds of conveyances
were pressed into service. A vacant store room on the north side of
Court Plaza and another on the south side, and the court room were
transformed into impromptu morgues and hospitals for the wounded down
town, while every residence left standing on Fairview is
FILLED WITH WOUNDED.
The physicians and druggists responded promptly to the call for succor
and drugs and everything needed came spontaneously. Hundreds of ladies
responded to the call of humanity and with a score of physicians, were
soon at work. Color and caste disappeared, in the supreme moment of woe
and desolation.
Thanks to the excellent police service, the crowds were restrained
everywhere about the improvised hospitals and citizens and physicians
found their labor more effective on account of non-interference. The
cries of the injured were supplemented by the agonized shrieks of those
who, passing
FROM CORPSE TO CORPSE
at last found some loved one, perhaps a husband or a wife or son or daughter.
MR. MONTGOMERY'S wife and two or three children are dead. The children are terribly mangled.
One of them, about five years old, had the top of her head knocked off. Another child was found dead 500 yards from the house.
On West Houston street several are dead.
A man named BILL HAMILTON is fatally injured.
MR. CEPHUS, and child, colored are reported dead.
Several negroes have been picked out of the creek dead.
A young white woman, unidentified, was found dead, three hundred yards south of ELY'S residence.
Every moment brings new victims. It is likely as many as 50 people are dead. The victims are
HORRIBLY MANGLED.
JOHN AMES and wife and two children are dead and a five year old boy fatally injured.
T. W. JENKINS, daughter and wife are dead.
The most miraculous escape so far as learned by the reporter was the
case of the family of Captain ELY. The residence, quite a roomy, brick
structure, was razed to the ground, and but for the presence of some
heavy timbers standing upright in the debris, which sheltered them from
the avalanche of brick and stone, they would have all perished, but as
it was only one member, a little girl, was bruised.
A public meeting raised $3,000 for the immediate relief of the sufferers and the
PERMANENT RELIEF COMMITTEE,
consisting of C. H. SMITH, C. B. RANDELL, C. H. DORCHESTER and COLONEL GEORGE M. MURPHY, will take donations.
It is distinctly stated that donations from points outside of Grayson
county will not be received. Denison has responded nobly and nurses and
physicians from that city are here rendering great assistance. All
railroads running into the city placed special trains at the disposal
of the local authorities and brought help from all neighboring cities.
Reports are that the storm killed many persons in the country west of Howe.
A large number of police and searching parties are looking for missing persons.
ADDITIONAL DEATHS.
The following are additional deaths reported up to 1 a. m.;
JIM ENGLISH, colored.
JOHN TAYLOR, white.
KATE KING, colored.
The unknown woman at the morgue has been identified as MRS. I. L. BURIES.
Another infant of the BALLINGER family has been found dead.
CHARLES WEDDLE, of Fairview, is dead, with a piece of timber driven through his body.
The family of JOHN HAMILTON has been discovered, all badly injured.
One of the HAMILTON boys, aged 20 years, will die. Two girls, one aged
15 and one 9, were fatally injured, and another girl, aged 11, was
injured internally.
It is impossible to get a correct list of all the missing. Nearly every
family in the district has some member that they can not account for
and it is believed that most of
THE MISSING ARE DEAD.
A water spout accompanied the cyclone and the creeks are all out of
their banks. Several objects thought to be human bodies were seen in
the water, but could not be reached. The officers are making every
effort to dredge all creeks in the vicinity to-morrow. It is a
remarkable incident that in every case where there were deaths the
bodies from the houses destroyed were found from 100 to 150 yards away,
in a direction opposite to that in which the storm was moving. The
storm was moving northward and in every instance the bodies were found
to the southward. Telegraph poles were torn up and driven into the
ground. A great many of the wounded are in private houses scattered all
over the city. It is safe to assume that at least one quarter of the
number
INJURED WILL DIE
in the next twenty-four hours. Another storm of a similar nature passed
about six miles west of the city at about the same hour. Several houses
were blown down and many persons injured. Their names can not be
obtained.
At Carpenter's bluff it is reported six persons were hurt, five seriously.
Buildings and other structures in the way were demolished.
A daughter of TOM JENKINS was found lying in a pool of water. She was
evidently drowned, for no marks or bruises could be found on her body.
The police department is employing every means in its power to help the sufferers and all have been given comfortable quarters
AT CARPENTER BLUFF.
After passing over Sherman the cyclone went southeast.
At Carpenter Bluff, seven miles east at Denison, the dwelling of JOHN
DEVANT was blown down and four persons, DEVANT and wife, and DEVANT'S
hired man, named ARMOUR, and a little child, received injuries from
which they will die.
THE EARLY ACCOUNT.
Sherman, May 15. -- A most disastrous cyclone struck Sherman at 4:30
o'clock this afternoon, wiping out the western end of the town entirely.
The loss of life is appalling. The dead are estimated at between 30 and
40. This is a very conservative estimate. Many more are fatally or
seriously injured.
At 6 o'clock, the evening twelve bodies are lying in the court house
and as many more are scattered about across the desolated west end of
the city. No accurate estimate can be made yet of the loss of life and
property. The work of rescue and search for the missing goes on. The
business part of the town is deserted and the greatest excitement
reigns. The Western Union office is overflowed with anxious ones
sending messages and inquiring the fate of other towns. Every available
wagon, buggy and horse is in use by searchers and workers on
THE FIELD OF DEATH.
As time passes reports of greater loss of life and property are arriving. Many stories of miraculous escapes are told.
The Sherman court house is insufficient to hold the dead and wounded.
The vacant Moore building, on the south square, was utilized at 6
o'clock, fifteen colored people, dead or dying, being placed there.
Express drays, baggage wagons and all kinds of vehicles continue to
come in with dead bodies. Around the Moore building the highest
excitement prevails and the greatest difficulty is experienced in
getting the names of the victims and accurate reports.
The storm struck Sherman without warning, on the southwest corner of
the city, and cleared a path 100 yards wide along the west end of the
town. Houses, trees, fences and everything went before
THE TERRIBLE FORCE
of the cyclone. The negro part of the town suffered the most severely.
There are probably, 30 negroes killed. Ten bodies have been picked up in Post Oak creek.
The flood of rain which attended the storm was severe. The town is a
mass of mud and floating debris. There is much difficulty in finding
the dead and injured.
Captain J. E. ELY'S house was demolished and his wife and two children had miraculous escapes.
Captain B. BERGE'S residence was also leveled to the ground, but fortunately the family was away from home.
FRANK RYAN, manager of the Sherman baseball team, had his house blown
off its foundation and completely turned around. His wife and two
children escaped serious injury.
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