Big
Heart, Oklahoma Tornado
April 12, 1911
OKLAHOMA TOWN WIPED OUT.
In Big Heart Eight Were
Killed and About Thirty Injured in a Storm.
PAWHUSKA, OK., April 13.
– Nine persons are known to have been killed and
many others are believed to have met death,
about one hundred were injured and the town of
Big Heart in Osage County, having a population
of about one thousand persons, is razed to the
ground by a tornado which struck there about 5
o’clock yesterday afternoon. The following dead
whose bodies were recovered were identified:
WILLIAM MORROW, JOHN
KERNS, FRED HAMMOND, MRS. WILLIAM MORROW, T. S.
Hann, _____ Brown, a child.
The cyclone formed
southwest of the city, according to reports
received here. It appeared in the traditional
funnel form and came without warning. People
fled from the crashing buildings only to be
struck down in the streets by flying timbers or
picked up and carried away through the air.
About one hundred Indians were camped near the
village. The storm struck them first, tearing
down their tents and tepees and scattering them
about. Several of the Indians are reported to
have been killed and injured.
The first news of the
disaster was received at Pawhuska about an hour
after the tornado passed. A relief train
carrying physicians and nurses was immediately
organized and sent from Pawhuska. Another was
organized at Avant, south of Big Heart. The
dead and injured will be brought here or taken
to Tulsa, where proper hospital facilities and
medical attention can be had.
Fully four hundred people
are homeless. The work of rescuing the dead and
wounded form the debris and wreckage is being
carried on by lantern light and progress is
necessarily slow. Many of the bodies were
carried far beyond the scene of destruction and
searching parties are hunting for these in the
fields. Timbers from the demolished building
are said to have been found half a mile from
where they were picked up.
The Kansas City
Times, Kansas City, MO 13 Apr 1911
Fourteen Dead.
PAWHUSKA, Okla.,
April 18.- Fourteen persons are known to have
been killed in the section of the Kansas tornado
that swept southward into the Osage nation.
Fully seventy-five others are injured and the
property loss may reach a million dollars.
The town of Bigheart, Osage
county, was almost completely razed and almost
1,000 persons in that vicinity are homeless.
These being cared for in Tulsa, Sapulpa and
here. The following dead have been identified:
JOHN KERNS, WILL
MORROW, FRED HAMMOND, MRS. WILL KERN, T. S. HANN
and a child named
BROWN.
Bigheart is cut off from
communication, all telegraph and telephone wires
being down, but it is known that the amount of
damage in the town itself will amount to
$500,000. J. S.
Harris, superintendent of the Midland
Valley railroad, was near Bigheart when the
storm struck there. He was traveling in his
private motor car. He made a record run to
Pawhuska and transported all the physicians he
could find to the stricken town. He then went
to Avant and sent a work train to be used in
transporting the dead and wounded to hospitals
in Tulsa.
Four deaths here occurred
in the hospital at Sapulpa.
The Galveston Daily
News, Galveston, TX 13 Apr 1911
J.
H. Harris, general superintendent of
the Midland Valley Railroad, was near Big Heart
in his motor track car when the cyclone struck.
He made a record run to Pawhuska and took back
with him all the doctors he could carry. He
then run [sic] to Avant and there he got a work
train, which he sent to Big Heart to take care
of the injured. These were taken to a hospital
at Tulsa. A train of empty box cars was sent to
Big Heart for the homeless persons to sleep in.
Mr. Harris wired to the general office of the
Midland Valley road tonight that the new brick
depot, the brick schoolhouse and the oil
refinery were totally destroyed by the cyclone.
The wires are down and only meager details can
be secured.
It is feared the Midland
Valley station agent and telegraph operator were
killed. The depot building and section house
were blown away. A Midland Valley passenger
train had passed Big Heart just ten minutes
before the tornado came. The dipping plant and
stock pens were wiped out and all the cow ponies
used by the cattlemen in dipping train loads of
Texas cattle were killed. A passenger coach
will be sent to Big Heart tomorrow for a depot.
PAWHUSKA, April 13.
– Details of the disaster have been difficult to
obtain. All telegraph and telephone
communications were severed and communication
with the stricken town was almost impossible.
The valuable oil field surrounding the town of
Big Heart is a complete ruin, every derrick and
rig having been leveled to the ground. The
property loss in the town of Big Heart is place
at ˝ million dollars and the loss in the oil
field is almost equally as great.
J.
H. Harris, superintendent of the
Midland Valley Railroad, was near Big Heart when
the storm struck. He was riding in his private
motor track car. He made a record run to
Pawhuska, where he gave the alarm and took back
to Big Heart all the doctors he could find. He
then went to Avant, Ok., and got a work train
which he sent to Big Heart to be used in
transporting the dead and injured to the
hospitals at Tulsa. A train of box cars was
also taken to Big Heart to be used by the
homeless ones.
The train carrying the
injured reached Tulsa at 1:30 o’clock this
morning. Hundreds of men were working in the
oil field at the time. It has been impossible
to learn how many were killed and injured there
because the rescuing parties have spent the
night searching the wreckage about the townsite
of the town proper. It hardly seems plausible,
though, that all should have escaped with their
lives.
The Kansas City
Times, Kansas City, MO 13 Apr 1911
Articles transcribed by
Jenni Lanham. Thank you,
Jenni!
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