Cloud & Clay Counties, Kansas Tornado
May
2, 1895
DISASTROUS CYCLONE IN CLOUD AND CLAY
COUNTIES.
A funnel-shaped terror in the form of a
cyclone visited Cloud and Clay counties on May
2, 1895, dealing death and destruction. There
were six fatalities and the more or less serious
injury to about thirty people, scores of farm
buildings were razed to the ground, live stock
killed, orchards and groves despoiled.
The storm was entirely unhearalded; there had
been a slight atmospheric disturbance all day,
but late in the afternoon, rain fell and all
misgivings of the elements had been restored.
Just before dark, through the scud of low,
flying clouds could be seen a great unbroken
mass, heavy with moisture. The air was humid,
and upon the horizon lay a light fog. The wind
shifted, went and came in fitful gusts, and rain
fell at irregular intervals. About 9:15 a
rumbling noise was heard about three miles
southeast of Miltonvale and the next moment a
flash of lightning revealed its origin. A great
funnel-shaped cloud was outlined against the
sky, its taper end dipped the earth. The next
flash revealed another, but similar shaped cloud
moving at a rapid transit toward the first, both
obliquely inclined toward the earth, like ships
driven abreast of a furious gale. In a moment
the two monster appearing forms were merged
together, and then followed destruction in their
wake. Through the influence of a counter current
the cyclone suddenly veered and started
northward toward St. Joseph, and from this point
in a general northeasterly course through the
northwest corner of Clay county. It leaped the
Republican river between Clifton and Morganville
and terminated within a few rods of the
Washington county line on the farm of
A. Balston,
having traveled a total of twenty miles; its
greatest width did not exceed three-quarters of
a mile.
The home of Eli Baltagor was obliterated as it
were, himself and wife killed and their six
children all more or less severely wounded. In
Clay county, east of the river, four lives were
lost, seventeen persons badly injured and many
homes destroyed and scattered with the winds.
Biographical history of Cloud County, Kansas : biographies of representative
citizens Hollibaugh, E. F., 1903. p 125-126
typed as it appeared in the book
 Biographical history of Cloud County, Kansas : biographies of representative
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