Kirksville, Missouri Tornado

April 27, 1889

MISSOURI'S WOE

Details Add to Horror of Tornado's Work in Several Towns.

LISTS OF DEAD GROW

Whole Families Are Wiped Out--Many Injured at Kirksville Will Die.

Kirkville, Mo., April 28. -- As a result of the tornado last evening, demolishing half the residences and other buildings, two hundred families are homeless and more than fifty dead bodies and seventy injured persons have been recovered from the ruins. More than a dozen of the injured will die. Many are still missing, It may be two days before the total number of victims is known.

When the tornado struck the city most of the residents were at supper.

A path one mile long, and six hundred feet wide was cut through the residence section. Buildings were demolished or twisted apart and scattered to the four winds. A conservative estimate places the amount of damage at $300,000.

MARVELOUS ESCAPES

The wind played may pranks and there were some miraculous escapes. J. T. Coonfield and family were eating supper when the tornado struck. Their house was picked up and carried across a slough and dumped against a hill. The building was not completely wrecked and the family escaped unharmed. Houses on both sides of the residence of W. M. Hull were blown into splinters, but his house was twisted off its foundation, leaving it intact. This house was used as a hospital after the storm. The $10,000 residence of Mrs. Mary Hershly was wrecked.

People in that portion of the town not touched by the storm were panic stricken at first, but soon recovered and calls for help were sent to surrounding towns.

Hundreds of persons visited the stricken district today and a large number of sightseers came from neighboring towns. Officers would not allow any one without authority to go through the ridden district.

A complete list of the victims is impossible for the time being. All business has been suspended and the only stores open to business are those dealing in drugs.

TERRIBLE SCENES

Harrowing scenes meet the gaze of the curious populace. An aged man and wife had evidently been eating supper when the cyclone struck, and carried their home away. They had clasped each other by the arms and were found dead on the ground some distance away from where their home had been. No trace of their house has been seen. Several dead were found in spots which would have been the center of a house had the building not been blown to splinters. This was the case with MRS. PANSCHOTT, who suffered a terrible death. Her headless body, with its arms clasping her legless baby were discovered on the floor of the house, with the head cut off as if cleft with an ax.

Two children had been lying in a cot in a destroyed home. Their house was carried a block and a half and set down on the ground. Neither child was hurt.

The railroad track for a distance of half a mile was a mass of debris.

There are thousands of homeless persons in Kirksville tonight.

THE DEATH LIST.

The dead so far as known are:
Mrs. Mary Roerbaugh
Mrs. Colonel Little
Mrs. Henry Bullington
Mrs. A. R. Bowerman
Theodore Brigham, ex-merchant
Miss Lena Brown of Moberty
Rev. Albert Burr
Seth Feathers, 8 years old.
Mrs. W. W. Green
A. K. Glass and wife
J. A. Glass and wife
Dr. W. B. Howells, osteopath
J. R. Larkin, retired merchant, and child
J. T. Mahaffy
F. M. McClay, wife, mother and niece
J. T. Miller
Miss Ora Millan, Woodland, Mo.
Mrs. Blue Panschott and baby
Mrs. K. H. Sherburn
Samuel Weaver, ex, contractor
Miss Leona Whaley
Dr. Wheeler
Mrs. Joe Wood
Harry Mitchell
Mrs. Lou Mitchell
J. K. Anderson
Dr. Billings
Drew Bowmin
James Cunningham
Mrs. Elliott
Miss Bessie Green
C. A. Gibbs
Mrs. A. C. Gibbs
Mrs. Heaman
Mrs. McClay
Mrs. Ann Miller
John C. Weaver
Joseph Woods
Mrs. Woods

SEVERELY INJURED

The most severely injured includes:
Miss Della White
Mrs. Heck, fatal
Colonel Little's niece, fatal
W. R. Park
Mrs. Brigham, legs cut and bruised.
Robery Millay
Miss Weaver
Miss Moss, fatally
John B. Kirk and wife
Mrs. Forbes
Mrs. D. D. Feathers
Elmer L. Dennison and wife
Colonel Little, serious
Herman K. Sherburn, head injured
O. H. Beeman's child
Mrs. P. Hill, leg broken and otherwise crushed.
John Conder, slight
Oscar Ingold and brother
Mrs. W. B. Howells and child, dangerous
Normal Yankee, Sedalia
Mrs. W. H. Vincent
Mrs. Ella Weaver, both legs broken
Daniel McGonigle
John T. Mahaffey's daughter
Ben A. Bowman's daughter
T. J. Miller and whole family injured
Mrs. W. H. Phillips, serious
Mrs. Munson
V. Brigham, serious
Stella Weaver
Joe Weaver
John L. Mahaffey's daughter
M. A. Romijue
Price Romijue
S. T. Myers
Miss Cupp
J. Eashforth
J. W. Brown
Mrs. Lulu Byrnes
M. Sheeny and wife
Mrs. Clemsibomas
C. Densmore and wife
Mrs. Wheeler
--- Douglass
Charles Douglas and sons
Mrs. J. B. Hobson
Willis, Hollis and C. Kellogg
Mrs. Oliphant
Mrs. Deck
Mrs. Dr. Howells
L. Howell
Mrs. Rowe and daughter
D. S. Kraggs
P. B. Warren
Mrs. O. Miller and child
Mrs. N. Johnson
Mrs. Sarah Reiger
Miss Belle Mahaffey
I. Coonfield and wife
Albert Whaley
Mrs. Fernhon
Daughter of W. R. Park, slight
James Riggers, slight
John Ryan, 16, slight
August Ryan, 12, head and shoulders crushed, will die.
Clarence Stearnes and mother, badly bruised
Mrs. Will Smith, slight
E. Thomas
Mrs. Effie Vesta, slight
Mrs. Waddell, body bruised
Bennie Weaver, child, injured internally
Thomas Whaley, bruised about head and hips
Miss C. Ashlock, bruised about face
Mrs. J. R. Anderson, cuts and bruises
Miss Lillie Barnes, scalp wounds
Mr. Baker, head bruised
Infant 6 weeks old, fatally
Thomas Billington, student, chest bruises
Mrs. T. S. Borden
Doc A. C. Bowman, fatal injuries internally
W. D. Brassfield, badly bruised externally
Mrs. Thomas Braden and child, laceration
Will Bright
M. Cheney
Mrs. M. Cheney, slight
Miss Ella Deniston, slight
Miss Eva Douglass, student, left leg broken, chest bruised
Frank Douglass, arms and legs dislocated, fractured forearm
Mack Dwyer
Sterman French, badly lacerated and bruised by flying missiles
E. Gross
Aubrey Green, 11 years old, jaw broken
Mrs. Sam Hamilton
J. D. Hume, slight
Mrs. King
Mrs. John Larkins, badly bruised externally
Mrs. Henry Lowe
Becky McMinn, slight
Miss Mary Mitchell
Miss Ada Milay, slight
Miss Edna Miley, child, internal injuries
Mrs. R. T. Milay, head and face bruised

MISSING

Mr. Elliott
Mrs. Williams

NIGHT OF SUFFERING

Many Injured Remained in Ruins Over Night, Some to Die.

Kirskville, Mo., April 28, 7 a.m. -- Desolation and suffering almost indescribable has been the portion of Kirksville's inhabitants during the past twelve hours, the result of a relentless cyclone last evening.

Many of the dead and dying remained in the ruins of their homes during the night, others who had been found and taken to places of shelter died before morning.

A small army of doctors from the osteopathy college, students and citizen spent the dark hours in a ceaseless hunt for the unfortunates. The dead, now numbering half a hundred, were carried away to a selected spot to be cared for when the needs of the injured could be satisfied.

SEARCHING ALL NIGHT

All night lanterns darted here and there among the debris, answering some cry for help or directed by the sight of some struggling form fighting to escape his place of imprisonment.

Here and there fires that had started soon after the tornado passed and which were allowed to burn, sent up a bright glow and lent aid to the rescuers. It is possible that these fires incinerated some of the victims who could not be reached, and only days of search can reveal the true state of affairs.

Morning broke bright and beautiful over the area of destruction and found the chaos of the night slowly taking the form of system.

The same scenes could be told of Newton, in Sullivan county, which shared a like fate at the hands of the tornado.

Days must pass before a complete list of casualties can be secured and before the real extent of the damage to property can be known.

Kirksville is the county seat of Adair county and has a population estimated at 5,000. The state normal school and business colleges are located there.

The town is best known through the teaching of the American School of Osteopathy. Persons afflicted with many different diseases flock to Kirksville to be treated, and it was among the students' and patients' quarters that most of the ruin was wrought.

The town is located in an agricultural region and is reached by the Wabash and the Quincy, Omaha and Kansas City railroads. Newton is a small town of [illegible] inhabitants in Sullivan county, forty miles north of Kirksville.

The Daily Review, Decatur, IL 29 Apr 1899

Transcribed by Jackie Harral.  Thanks Jackie!

April 27, 1899, Kirksville, the county seat of Adair County, a city of 7,000 inhabitants, was visited by a tornado, which swept over and through the place about five o’clock in the afternoon, making a track about four blocks in width and a mile in length, killing 45 persons, injuring 150, and destroying 200 houses. Theodore Brigham was found dead on the ground several hundred feet from his house, having been carried off by the wind. An infant was carried some distance and gently deposited in a field without being injured. The house of J. T. Coonfield was blown across a ditch and jammed into the side of a hill, all its inmates escaping without serious injury. A girl sixteen years old was found dead with a two by four inch scantling thrust through her body, and a child was taken from a heap of ruins with a limb of a tree run through its neck.

Encyclopedia of the History of Missouri, A Compendium of History and Biography for Ready Reference. Vols. I-VI., 1901, vol 2, page 213

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