Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2026 All Rights Reserved USGenNet Data Repository Please read USGenNet Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott for the USGenNet Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ =========================================================================== USGenNet Data Repository Notice: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization. Non-commercial organizations desiring to use this material must obtain the consent of the transcriber prior to use. Individuals desiring to use this material in their own research may do so. ============================================================================= Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. ============================================================================= The Indianapolis Star Monday, 12 March, 1917 2 Children Dead Near Hagerstown Farmer Perhaps Fatally Injured When Tornado Carries Him 100 Feet Many Houses Wrecked Richmond, Ind., March 11 - Two children were killed and one man is expected to die from injuries received in a tornado, which swept through Wayne County, near Hagerstown, late this after- noon. The dead are the two boys of HARVEY GRAY, 3 and 5 years old. ORA SMITH, a farmer, was blown 100 feet by the storm and fell into a pond. His back is broken and he is ex- pected to die. GRAY, with three children and his housekeeper, MRS. AMELIA CROSS, escaped from the house when it was wrecked. The were living in an old red brick schoolhouse that had been converted into a residence, half a mile west of Hagerstown. The frame house of WILL HARRIS was destroyed. A barn and silo on the farm of JOSHUA ALLEN, an attorney living at Richmond, were demolished. Residents Seek Cellars The house and barn of JOHN FELDMAN, south of Hagers- town, were wrecked. Residents of Hagerstown saw the tornado approaching. Believing that it would prove serious, many ran for cellars. On the top of Geisler's Hill, west of the town, the storm swerved and swept through the rural district, preventing what might have been a frightful loss of life. JOHN STOUT, from his home 200 yards away from the GRAY home, saw the house struck and rushed over and helped rescue the two GRAY children. The storm cut a path 150 yards wide through the woods of JOHN R. ADAMS, south of Hagerstown, leaving a mass of uprooted trees. GRAY'S wife died a few months ago. SMITH was placing a door on his house when struck and the door was carried into the pond with him. ED BROCK, in his house, a hundred yards from the stable, saw the storm pick up the barn and hurl it to the ground, where the pieces "flew like pigeons." Only a few windows were smashed. H. A. MILLS, a travelling salesman of Richmond, was in the Pennsylvania station at Newcastle, and describes the cloud as perpendicular and gray of color. "I saw doors, furniture and clothing 500 feet in the air. Three houses burst into flames. The roar of the storm was deafening. Circle street, A and B avenues were a mass of wreckage in a few minutes. I can not understand how any one escaped with his life in that district." The family of JOE GOODBAR went into the cellar when the storm struck the stone house, blowing off the roof. It was reported here that the farm of CLINT MILLIKEN, seven miles west of Hagerstown, was struck by the storm and that two hired hands had been injured, one of them perhaps fatally. The cloud was funnel-shaped and traveled from the west to the east. It missed Hagerstown. In Richmond the wind reached a high velocity, but did no damage to property. Information received her tonight says that one house was blown over and one child killed at Mill- ville, a little town south of Newcastle on the Pennsylvania Railway. The name of the child could not be ascertained. ===============================================================================