People's Pilot, Volume 3, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 March 1894 — VICTIMS OF A GALE. [ARTICLE]

VICTIMS OF A GALE.

Visited by a Tornado Cost* ly to Life and Property. . > Klgtttsen Per»oni Are Reported to Have Been Killed—Many OthereJnJured and Some of Them May Ifte—Houses and Barns Ruined. A FATAL STORM. Longview, Tex., March 20.— A destructive storm passed over this place at 1 o’clock Sunday morning. Hailstones fell weighing fourteen to eighteen ounces. Chickens and turkeys roosting in trees were killed, while ducks, geese and hogs were pelted to death. At Lansing Switch the cyclone struck the house of John Cains, occupied by a family of negroes. The house Was destroyed and six persons were killed, three mortally wounded and five seriously hurt Old man Alexander Lester was found entirely nude 50 yards from the house dead, Alexander Lester, Jr., 18 years old, the mother, Sarah Lester, Robert Lester, Jasper Collins and Sissy Lester, 2 years old, were also killed. Sissy Lester was found several yards away in a treetop. Mollie Collins has a hole in her head and many bruises; Silas Johnson, who was visiting the family, ugly abrasions from the crown of his head to his heels, he may die; Frank Dizer had his leg broken below the knee; Dock Simmons, a relative, has a badly crushed head and will die; Odessa Lester, 4 years old, was found in the field with her right leg broken above and below the knee, she will die; Arthur Lester, 6 years old, Willie Lester, 9 years old, were injured seriously. Half a mile south of the ill-fated Lester house the house of John Butfitt, a white man, was dashed to splinters, leaving the family unhurt, except from bruises from hailstones. Two miles east the large barn of Nick Harris was unroofed, and 1 mile farther the house of Sallie James (colored) was destroyed. The inmates escaped. Lovilia James, 3 years, was badly and perhaps fatally hurt with hailstones A Mr. Davis, living on the Little Nick Harris place, three-quarters of a mile from the Lester house, had his house demolished, escaping with many At Emery, the county seat of Rains > county, the entire western portion of the tqwn was ruined at 7:30 Saturday evening. Miss Easter Alexander, Eras Henry, George Walker and the 4-year-old son of Henry Murray (colored) are the known dead. Three unidentified bodies were found north of Emery Sunday. The post office was used as a hospital and morgue. Santa Anna, Tex., March 19. -A tornado swept over portions of this town and of the cotton counties, wrecking buildings and leveling fences. At Trickham, in Coleman county, W. D. Watson’s house was blown to the ground. Mrs. Watson ?,nd four children were killed outright. An infant escaped unhurt, while Watson’s injujries will prove fatal.