Newtown, Missouri Tornado

April 27, 1889

AT NEWTON [sic]

Fifteen Are Dead. Thirty Injured and Fifty Families Homeless

Chillicothe, Mo. April 28 - Scenes of utter distress and desolation were pictured today in the tornado swept burg of Newtown. Fifty families are homeless, fifteen dead, thirty injured, and half the place in ruins.

KNOWN DEAD
S. DESPER, wife and three children.
LUBAN EVANS and two daughters.
WILLIAM HAYES, wife and two children.

INJURED
Three children of WILLIAM HAYE.
ELLIS EVANS.
A.J. JONES, wife and two children.
Mrs. aMry [sic] GREGORY and daughter.
Mrs. PIERCE and sister.
Mrs. FLAGG.
Mrs. WILSON.
Mrs. TIMSEY.
DAVE STANFORD, wife and three children.
Mr. MCQUISTON and wife.
MOSE GUYNAN and wife.
Mrs. JOHNS.

The storm struck Newtown at 6:15 last evening, and cut a swath five or six hundred feet wide through the best portion of the place. Thirty houses were torn to splinters. In one street a row of houses was demolished. Frame buildings were twisted and lifted from their foundations; one was turned squarely around, while another was turned upside down. SAMUEL DESPER, at the appearance of the black cloud. Started with his family for a neighboring cellar, but the house was blown down over them just as they reached the front door. His two daughters were caught with him by the timbers, killing all instantly. Mrs. WILLIAM HAYES was killed while running up the street in search of shelter. The mutilated trunk with the head missing was found in the street later. Mrs. HAYES’ husband and two children met death within a few feet of each other.

The storm lasted five minutes.

The storm blew down telegraph wires in and about the town and washed away a bridge south of town and partly demolished the depot.

The Daily Review, Decatur, IL 29 Apr 1899

TERRIBLE HAVOC.

Town of Newtown Destroyed and Twenty Persons Killed.

CHILLICOTHE, Mo., April 29.- Reports from Newtown, Sullivan county, are that twenty persons were killed in last night’s tornado and between thirty and forty injured.

Many of the injured will die.

THE DEAD.
The known dead:
S BEDFORD, wife and five children.
L. EVANS and two daughters.
WILLIAM HAY, wife and seven children.
Unknown man.

The injured are:
The five BROOKS children, ELLA EVANS, A. J. JONES, wife and three children. MAY GREGGORY and two daughters, Mrs. GEORGE and son, Mrs. PEARSON and three children, Mrs. FLAGG, Mrs. WILSON, Mrs. GUISE. DORA STAFFORD and three children, M. C. McCRISTINE and wife, MOSES GUNNISON and wife.

HALF OF TOWN DESTROYED

The entire eastern half of the town was destroyed. The path of the storm was about 500 to 600 feet wide and hardly a dwelling in its course escaped. Frame houses were lifted from their foundations and crushed like eggshells. The more substantial buildings were badly wrecked and half a hundred persons at least are homeless.
The storm blew down telegraph wires in and about the city and washed away the bridge over Medicine Creek, a small stream just south of the town.

A terrific electrical storm followed the tornado, and the excitement was intense. Women and children ran about the streets shrieking for their parents and friends, and men searched the ruins in the drenching rain, hoping to locate the bodies of victims.

The Fort Wayne Sentinel, Fort Wayne, IN 28 Apr 1889

Articles transcribed by Tami.  Thank you, Tami!

Newtown, with a population of 750, in Sullivan County, thirty-five miles northeast of Kirksville, was visited by the same tornado [as hit Kirksville] a few minutes later and half destroyed. The duration of the storm at this place was only two minutes but its work was shocking. Herman Despers’ family of five persons, father, mother and three children, were all killed, William Hayes and his wife were blown with their house, a distance of one hundred yards and killed. Laban Evans was blown 150 yards and his two daughters 200 yards and all killed. One of the Desper children was found after the storm flattened against a post, dead. One of the Hayes children, two years old, was found lodged in an apple tree, dead. Four children of Henry Barbee were found alive and but slightly injured under the ruins of Widow Pierce’s house, their own house having blown off over their heads and the Pierce house blown from the other side of the street and deposited over them in such a way as to shelter them. Ten persons were killed and twenty-five injured at Newtown…

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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