The Richmond Item
Richmond, Indiana
12 Mar 1917
Morgues and hospitals are filled with twenty one persons killed and more than 100 injured by the tornado, which tore a wide furrow across Newcastle's richest residence district at 3 o'clock this afternoon. Property damage, it is estimated late tonight, will amount to $1,250,000.
With twenty one known dead, only the light of day on Monday morning will make possible definite tabulation of the havoc of the most terrible catastrophe that has visited Newcastle in all of its history. In the brief 10 minutes visit of the windstorm 350 homes were wrecked and damaged.
Upon an appeal to Gov. Goodrich, by Mayor Leb Warkins, three companies of state militia, Company C of Crawfordsville, Company G of Muncie and Battery A of Indianapolis were ordered out and placed on duty guarding the ruins against looters and establishing a strict police cordon around the ruined district in Maplewood.
Three score physicians and nurses were rushed to Newcastle from Indianapolis arriving here about 9 o'clock and relief was speedily organized. Volunteer corps of searchers were organized by the city officials within the first hour after the tornado marked its path through the city from Sixth street southwest to Twenty sixth street.
Bodies were found crushed and in some instances mutilated almost beyond recognition in the mass of wreckage of homes. The path of the storm was three blocks wide in places and fire that broke out in the wreckage at two points added to the horror.
Tangled wires, masses of wreckage and uprooted trees that filled the streets made it extremely difficult for the fire fighting forces to reach the flames. which, however, were handled with exceptional efficiency and the spread of the flames was speedily checked. The damage from fire was only nominal being confined to houses already practically demolished by the storm.
Sweeping up from the northwest, preceded with a roaring and driving torrent of rain, the whirlwind caught almost all of the victims within their homes. In only a few instances is there any record that those who escaped were able to do so by warning thunders of the approaching terror.
The tornado center struck the city high, dipping toward the ground in the farm lands just outside the city and rising again passed over a part of the city before it descended again at Sixth street from where it tore and smashed its way to Eleventh street with only slight damage and few casualties compared to the greater havoc reached from Eleventh street east.
From Eleventh street eastward to Fifteenth street, Maplewood, the pride residence district of the city, the wreck and ruin is at its worst and from Eleventh street east for 15 blocks, the death toll and injuries were greatest.
Striking first at Sixth and A avenue, the storm veered at Fifteenth street and jumped south to D avenue taking an eastward course to Millville. Fully 150 homes were leveled to the ground in the territory east from Fifteenth street.
On South Twentieth street two houses were jammed together, telescoping the Williams home, where Mrs. Acie Williams and her daughter, Opal, were found pinned beneath the floor of their home. Both were dead and the searchers had cut away a large space of the floor before the bodies were found.
One of the most pitiful cases was the practical wiping out of the family of Peter Day, only one daughter of which may live. Berniec, aged 9; June, aged 12, are death; Peter Day and his wife, Elizabeth, and a son are in the hospital believed to be fatally injured. Ruth Day also is in the hospital but her injuries while severe are not considered serious.
On the little finger of the left hand of Bernice Day she wore a peacock ring, a gift from her father. While seriously inured Mr. Day would not leave the scene of his wrecked home until his dead children had been taken from the littler of splinters. The child was cut and mutilated by the mass of splinters which covered her body and it was only by the ring that her father knew her. Not until all of his family were accounted for as in hospitals or dead would he go to a hospital for relief.
Daughter of Peter Day and Lizzie McKenzie
Richmond, Indiana
12 Mar 1917
Morgues and hospitals are filled with twenty one persons killed and more than 100 injured by the tornado, which tore a wide furrow across Newcastle's richest residence district at 3 o'clock this afternoon. Property damage, it is estimated late tonight, will amount to $1,250,000.
With twenty one known dead, only the light of day on Monday morning will make possible definite tabulation of the havoc of the most terrible catastrophe that has visited Newcastle in all of its history. In the brief 10 minutes visit of the windstorm 350 homes were wrecked and damaged.
Upon an appeal to Gov. Goodrich, by Mayor Leb Warkins, three companies of state militia, Company C of Crawfordsville, Company G of Muncie and Battery A of Indianapolis were ordered out and placed on duty guarding the ruins against looters and establishing a strict police cordon around the ruined district in Maplewood.
Three score physicians and nurses were rushed to Newcastle from Indianapolis arriving here about 9 o'clock and relief was speedily organized. Volunteer corps of searchers were organized by the city officials within the first hour after the tornado marked its path through the city from Sixth street southwest to Twenty sixth street.
Bodies were found crushed and in some instances mutilated almost beyond recognition in the mass of wreckage of homes. The path of the storm was three blocks wide in places and fire that broke out in the wreckage at two points added to the horror.
Tangled wires, masses of wreckage and uprooted trees that filled the streets made it extremely difficult for the fire fighting forces to reach the flames. which, however, were handled with exceptional efficiency and the spread of the flames was speedily checked. The damage from fire was only nominal being confined to houses already practically demolished by the storm.
Sweeping up from the northwest, preceded with a roaring and driving torrent of rain, the whirlwind caught almost all of the victims within their homes. In only a few instances is there any record that those who escaped were able to do so by warning thunders of the approaching terror.
The tornado center struck the city high, dipping toward the ground in the farm lands just outside the city and rising again passed over a part of the city before it descended again at Sixth street from where it tore and smashed its way to Eleventh street with only slight damage and few casualties compared to the greater havoc reached from Eleventh street east.
From Eleventh street eastward to Fifteenth street, Maplewood, the pride residence district of the city, the wreck and ruin is at its worst and from Eleventh street east for 15 blocks, the death toll and injuries were greatest.
Striking first at Sixth and A avenue, the storm veered at Fifteenth street and jumped south to D avenue taking an eastward course to Millville. Fully 150 homes were leveled to the ground in the territory east from Fifteenth street.
On South Twentieth street two houses were jammed together, telescoping the Williams home, where Mrs. Acie Williams and her daughter, Opal, were found pinned beneath the floor of their home. Both were dead and the searchers had cut away a large space of the floor before the bodies were found.
One of the most pitiful cases was the practical wiping out of the family of Peter Day, only one daughter of which may live. Berniec, aged 9; June, aged 12, are death; Peter Day and his wife, Elizabeth, and a son are in the hospital believed to be fatally injured. Ruth Day also is in the hospital but her injuries while severe are not considered serious.
On the little finger of the left hand of Bernice Day she wore a peacock ring, a gift from her father. While seriously inured Mr. Day would not leave the scene of his wrecked home until his dead children had been taken from the littler of splinters. The child was cut and mutilated by the mass of splinters which covered her body and it was only by the ring that her father knew her. Not until all of his family were accounted for as in hospitals or dead would he go to a hospital for relief.
Daughter of Peter Day and Lizzie McKenzie
The Richmond Item
Richmond, Indiana
12 Mar 1917
Morgues and hospitals are filled with twenty one persons killed and more than 100 injured by the tornado, which tore a wide furrow across Newcastle's richest residence district at 3 o'clock this afternoon. Property damage, it is estimated late tonight, will amount to $1,250,000.
With twenty one known dead, only the light of day on Monday morning will make possible definite tabulation of the havoc of the most terrible catastrophe that has visited Newcastle in all of its history. In the brief 10 minutes visit of the windstorm 350 homes were wrecked and damaged.
Upon an appeal to Gov. Goodrich, by Mayor Leb Warkins, three companies of state militia, Company C of Crawfordsville, Company G of Muncie and Battery A of Indianapolis were ordered out and placed on duty guarding the ruins against looters and establishing a strict police cordon around the ruined district in Maplewood.
Three score physicians and nurses were rushed to Newcastle from Indianapolis arriving here about 9 o'clock and relief was speedily organized. Volunteer corps of searchers were organized by the city officials within the first hour after the tornado marked its path through the city from Sixth street southwest to Twenty sixth street.
Bodies were found crushed and in some instances mutilated almost beyond recognition in the mass of wreckage of homes. The path of the storm was three blocks wide in places and fire that broke out in the wreckage at two points added to the horror.
Tangled wires, masses of wreckage and uprooted trees that filled the streets made it extremely difficult for the fire fighting forces to reach the flames. which, however, were handled with exceptional efficiency and the spread of the flames was speedily checked. The damage from fire was only nominal being confined to houses already practically demolished by the storm.
Sweeping up from the northwest, preceded with a roaring and driving torrent of rain, the whirlwind caught almost all of the victims within their homes. In only a few instances is there any record that those who escaped were able to do so by warning thunders of the approaching terror.
The tornado center struck the city high, dipping toward the ground in the farm lands just outside the city and rising again passed over a part of the city before it descended again at Sixth street from where it tore and smashed its way to Eleventh street with only slight damage and few casualties compared to the greater havoc reached from Eleventh street east.
From Eleventh street eastward to Fifteenth street, Maplewood, the pride residence district of the city, the wreck and ruin is at its worst and from Eleventh street east for 15 blocks, the death toll and injuries were greatest.
Striking first at Sixth and A avenue, the storm veered at Fifteenth street and jumped south to D avenue taking an eastward course to Millville. Fully 150 homes were leveled to the ground in the territory east from Fifteenth street.
On South Twentieth street two houses were jammed together, telescoping the Williams home, where Mrs. Acie Williams and her daughter, Opal, were found pinned beneath the floor of their home. Both were dead and the searchers had cut away a large space of the floor before the bodies were found.
One of the most pitiful cases was the practical wiping out of the family of Peter Day, only one daughter of which may live. Berniec, aged 9; June, aged 12, are death; Peter Day and his wife, Elizabeth, and a son are in the hospital believed to be fatally injured. Ruth Day also is in the hospital but her injuries while severe are not considered serious.
On the little finger of the left hand of Bernice Day she wore a peacock ring, a gift from her father. While seriously inured Mr. Day would not leave the scene of his wrecked home until his dead children had been taken from the littler of splinters. The child was cut and mutilated by the mass of splinters which covered her body and it was only by the ring that her father knew her. Not until all of his family were accounted for as in hospitals or dead would he go to a hospital for relief.
Daughter of Peter Day and Lizzie McKenzie
Richmond, Indiana
12 Mar 1917
Morgues and hospitals are filled with twenty one persons killed and more than 100 injured by the tornado, which tore a wide furrow across Newcastle's richest residence district at 3 o'clock this afternoon. Property damage, it is estimated late tonight, will amount to $1,250,000.
With twenty one known dead, only the light of day on Monday morning will make possible definite tabulation of the havoc of the most terrible catastrophe that has visited Newcastle in all of its history. In the brief 10 minutes visit of the windstorm 350 homes were wrecked and damaged.
Upon an appeal to Gov. Goodrich, by Mayor Leb Warkins, three companies of state militia, Company C of Crawfordsville, Company G of Muncie and Battery A of Indianapolis were ordered out and placed on duty guarding the ruins against looters and establishing a strict police cordon around the ruined district in Maplewood.
Three score physicians and nurses were rushed to Newcastle from Indianapolis arriving here about 9 o'clock and relief was speedily organized. Volunteer corps of searchers were organized by the city officials within the first hour after the tornado marked its path through the city from Sixth street southwest to Twenty sixth street.
Bodies were found crushed and in some instances mutilated almost beyond recognition in the mass of wreckage of homes. The path of the storm was three blocks wide in places and fire that broke out in the wreckage at two points added to the horror.
Tangled wires, masses of wreckage and uprooted trees that filled the streets made it extremely difficult for the fire fighting forces to reach the flames. which, however, were handled with exceptional efficiency and the spread of the flames was speedily checked. The damage from fire was only nominal being confined to houses already practically demolished by the storm.
Sweeping up from the northwest, preceded with a roaring and driving torrent of rain, the whirlwind caught almost all of the victims within their homes. In only a few instances is there any record that those who escaped were able to do so by warning thunders of the approaching terror.
The tornado center struck the city high, dipping toward the ground in the farm lands just outside the city and rising again passed over a part of the city before it descended again at Sixth street from where it tore and smashed its way to Eleventh street with only slight damage and few casualties compared to the greater havoc reached from Eleventh street east.
From Eleventh street eastward to Fifteenth street, Maplewood, the pride residence district of the city, the wreck and ruin is at its worst and from Eleventh street east for 15 blocks, the death toll and injuries were greatest.
Striking first at Sixth and A avenue, the storm veered at Fifteenth street and jumped south to D avenue taking an eastward course to Millville. Fully 150 homes were leveled to the ground in the territory east from Fifteenth street.
On South Twentieth street two houses were jammed together, telescoping the Williams home, where Mrs. Acie Williams and her daughter, Opal, were found pinned beneath the floor of their home. Both were dead and the searchers had cut away a large space of the floor before the bodies were found.
One of the most pitiful cases was the practical wiping out of the family of Peter Day, only one daughter of which may live. Berniec, aged 9; June, aged 12, are death; Peter Day and his wife, Elizabeth, and a son are in the hospital believed to be fatally injured. Ruth Day also is in the hospital but her injuries while severe are not considered serious.
On the little finger of the left hand of Bernice Day she wore a peacock ring, a gift from her father. While seriously inured Mr. Day would not leave the scene of his wrecked home until his dead children had been taken from the littler of splinters. The child was cut and mutilated by the mass of splinters which covered her body and it was only by the ring that her father knew her. Not until all of his family were accounted for as in hospitals or dead would he go to a hospital for relief.
Daughter of Peter Day and Lizzie McKenzie
Sponsored by Ancestry
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