An unusual outbreak of tornadoes developed the evening of March 31, 1892. A terrible night of terror reigned into the early morning hours of April 1 across the state of Kansas.

The storm began with a fierce wind blowing from south, to north, spawning tornadoes along a path from south central Kansas northeast through Wellington, Augusta and Towanda. From the same system a large tornado struck Wamego in north-central Kansas. Across the larger unstable system tornadoes were popping up seemingly everywhere on the map.

The Ottawa Independent Journal reported on the widespread destruction. Writing on the devastation at Towanda, “The little town today presented the appearance of having been swept by the gigantic broom of some ferocious monster.”

Rather than being covered with heaps of fallen buildings the town of 80 buildings was swept clean, leaving only a half-dozen damaged homes standing. Five of the houses were turned into hospitals, all crowded with wounded people in beds and lying on blankets on the floor.

Among the patients lay a baby crying from the pain of a leg broken in two places. A doctor anxiously worked to relieve the anxiety of a little boy whose skull was cracked “into his brain.” A woman suffered a hole through her lungs and another through her stomach. The list of the wounded included many piercings and bone fractures.

“The doctors say many cannot live.”

Five bodies were laid out on weather-beaten planks in what was left of a restaurant. A baby of six months was found decapitated. “Its head and body were found 300 yards apart. The guillotine never did a neater piece of work.”

A mile west of the town of Augusta, every house on a path one-quarter mile wide was swept from its foundations. Two adults and a baby were killed while in northwest Sumner County at Bushnell, the schoolhouse and a farm house were completely demolished before moving north through the farming community.

Houses and outbuildings were swept away, producing several injuries. Horses and mules were killed, and numerous people injured. The story of death and devastation was told repeatedly across the state.

South of Wellington near the Oxford bridge all 13 members of the Showalter family were injured. Mrs. Showalter and two children were killed. North of Showalter’s, William Little and four children were killed instantly. Their stable was blown away, killing every horse on the place.

Far to the north, a house was blown into the Kansas River near the town of Wabaunsee. The “wild storm” passed from south to north about two miles east of Wamego killing five people. A young mother was found dead in a field holding her lifeless child to her breast. Another child’s body was found a greater distance away. Another according to the Leavenworth Weekly Times, “will not live.”

West of Salina Sam Burkholder’s family fared better, having been warned in advance, the family sought shelter in the cellar and were not injured despite complete destruction of their home and barn. D. S. Bratton’s family was carried from the supper table into the field. A daughter suffered a broken leg and another a fractured spine.

In the city of Salina homes were damaged, the German Lutheran Church was wrecked, and the Western Star Mill was partially demolished. Policeman Zimmerman’s house demolished; his wife fatally struck in the head by a stone as she rushed to the cellar. Southwest of Salina at Smolan, every house was demolished and according to reports one child was killed. Two villages north of Salina, Vine Creek and Oakville, were blown away, never to be rebuilt.

At Horton a wall from the High Street Theater fell on Charles Rickle’s house. The spire from the Methodist church blew down and plate glass windows were broken. At Lawrence winds were clocked at 84 miles per hour. “Scores of roofs were damaged as well as losing the roof on the hospital at the Haskell Institute. The Mariner & Marvel general store at Olathe was wrecked and houses and stables lost roofs, but no one was reported injured. A tower was toppled at Ottawa.

The story was repeated all the way to Kansas City where “the great Peavey elevator was badly wrecked. In Missouri a “cupelo” was blown from a church at Warrensburg, and a church demolished at Chillicothe. The giant storm system reached as far as Chicago by the next day.

Damage was reported in Texas, Iowa, Missouri, and Nebraska. A report from St. Louis on April 4 documented 42 deaths in Kansas with an additional eight deaths in the other states. Considering the widespread destruction, it is remarkable that so few were killed that terrible night of terror on the Way West.

“The Cowboy,” Jim Gray is author of the book Desperate Seed: Ellsworth Kansas on the Violent Frontier, Ellsworth, KS Contact Kansas Cowboy, 220 21st RD Geneseo, KS Phone 785-531-2058 or kansascowboy@kans.com.