Waconia, Minnesota Tornado

August 1904

WACONIA IS DEVASTATED

HALF OF THE VILLAGE IN RUINS.

Deadly tornado strikes our little village on Saturday evening, destroys four lives in town and one in the country nearby, injures a score of others and Damages $500,00 worth of property.

DEAD.

AUGUST MOY
MRS. AUGUST MOY
CHRISTIAN MOY
J. WENZEN
HUBERT LOHMER

INJURED.

WILLIAM GRAFF
MRS. WILLIAM GRAFF
HERMAN GRAFF
ALBERT KOHLER
MRS. MARY THOMAS
MRS. L. KASTEN
L. KASTEN
A. C. KLANCKE
BEN ZAHLER
FRANK KOLBERG
E. MOY
MOY BABY
JOHN KREY
MRS. E. KUNZE
MRS. A. F. PASCHKE
GEROGE WEINMANN

Our peaceful little village is wrapped in gloom and sorrow as a result of the terrible tornado which swept through here on Saturday evening, August 20th leaving death and destruction in its wake. At about 6 p.m. the sky began to darken and it became imminent that we would have a heavy rainstorm but no one dreamt what its result or termination would mean to our inhabitants. The first intimation anyone had of the real nature of the storm came at about 7:30 when the sky became illuminated with an electric storm, such as has never before been witnessed hereabouts and then without a seconds warning, the holocaust was among us, tearing down large, stately buildings, crumbling huge brick and stone structures as though they were built of paper. Three lives were snuffed out in our village and one in the country nearby, while fully a score of our citizens were injured, one of whom died four days later. The property loss will probably run up to $500,000, one half of our village being totally wrecked and hardly a farm within a radius of four miles that has not suffered more or less, in a great many instances, all buildings being wrecked.

The last earthly remains of Aug Moy, Mary Moy, his wife, Christian Moy, three year old son, ahd [sic] Hubert Lohmar were interred at the Catholic cemetery on Tuesday, and the remains of John Wenzen were today, (Friday) Rev. Father Moehle performing the last sad rites.

The total losses of property in the village are as follows:

MRS. MARY THOMAS, house, household goods and out buildings
MARTIN NERLINGER, house, household goods and outbuildings
MATT KUGLER, household goods and out buildings
MRS. ANNA ROSSMAN, 3 houses, household goods and outbuildings
JOSEPH HARTMAN, house, household goods and outbuildings
MRS. M. DOHMAN, house, household goods and outbuildings
HENRY WORTMAN, house, household goods and outbuildings
ALBERT KOHLER, house and outbuildings
WM. GROFF, household goods and outbuildings
HERMAN TERWEDO, house, and outbuildings
ERNEST KUNZE, house, household goods and outbuildings
F. TERWEDO, house, household goods and outbuildings
AUGUST GUST, house, household goods and outbuildings
JOHN WESSALE, house, household goods and sorghum mill
MOY ESTATE, house, household goods and outbuildings
HY. HASSELHORST, house and outbuildings
JOHN WENZEN, household goods and outbuildings
J. WIKEL, boat house and boats
NORTH STAR HOTEL, barns
H. R. DIESSNER, barns
M. & ST. L. R. R. CO., depot
FRED MILLER, barns
CITY HALL
MRS. WIDMER, barns
MAX WEINMAN, hardware store total loss, stock badly damaged
FRANK WOSTREL, hardware store total loss and stock badly damaged

The following property was badly damaged:

ST. JOSEPH’S CATHOLIC CONGREGATION CHURCH, pastors home hall and sisters school
CHAS. RADDE, shop
E. H. MOCK, cigar factory
D. SCHARMER, house
CHAS MAISER, mill and engine room
CENTRAL ELEVATOR CO., elevator
JACOB RADDE, store room
JOS. BICHTER, SR. home
C. FREGIN, home
G. LETTENMAIER, home
G. HENNICK, home
A. F. PASCHKE, home
RAU ESTATE, home
G. RAHN, house and outbuildings
WM. ALLMAN, house and outbuildings
JOHN FICK, house and outbuildings
JOHN KIRSCH, house and outbuildings
FIRE DEPARTMENT, apparatus
MRS. W. KLATT, house and outbuildings
G. SPLETTSTOESSER, house and outbuildings
MRS. ETZELL, household goods
C. MICHAELSON, household goods
CITIZENS BAND PAVILION
G. BOETTCHER, store
PUBLIC SCHOOL

The following property was totally wrecked:

EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CONGREGATION, church
CHAS. MIELKE, house
AUG. WITTSACK, stock yards

Besides the above, there were at least one hundred buildings damaged to a greater or less extent.

Waconia Patriot, Waconia, Carver County, Minnesota, August 26, 1904

FIERCE TORNADO COSTS MANY LIVES

ST. PAUL, MINNEAPOLIS AND OTHER CITIES IN MINNESOTA SUFFER FROM GALE.

Fourteen Persons Are Killed—Property Valued at $2,555,000 Destroyed—Two Slain By Windstorm in St. Louis...

At Waconia: GUSTAV MOYE, MRS. GUSTAV MOYE, FRED MOYE, HUBERT LEHMAR....

Fatally injured (two): CHARLES MOYE, Waconia; FRED PICHA, Waconia

Property loss.....Waconia, $75,000; country district, $100,000.

Waconia Patriot, Waconia, Carver County, Minnesota, August 26, 1904

Articles transcribed by Patty.  Thank you, Patty!

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