STORMS

1871 - July 10th, hard wind followed by rain, at Parsons. August 27th, hard wind storm at Chetopa; several houses blown down (among them Lockwood's house, four miles west); tornado from northwest to southeast over Elm Grove and other townships; over 20 houses badly damaged and several completely destroyed; Mrs. Scott and child, in Howard township, killed; one man had an arm broken; Alfred Swope's house all blown to pieces; Mat Sharp's house, with 16 in it, blown over.

1873 - Night of April 5th hail storm broke out all window lights in west side of buildings in Oswego. May 22d storm at Jacksonville blew down several buildings and killed seven persons.

1877 - June 6th, wind storm at Chetopa blew down chimneys, tore off roofs, etc. June 18th, one of the hardest rains ever known, accompanied by wind and hail. August 18th, cyclone, water-spout, and hail storm, from southwest to northeast, between Chetopa and Oswego.

1878 - March 1st, cyclone between Labette and Parsons; J. M. Wilson's large barn picked up, carried some distance, and demolished; E. Well's barn, in North township, blown to pieces; picked his house up and put it down some two rods away; demolished R. Kimball's barn; took his house from, foundation and turned it around; blew down stone building for E. H. Taylor. June 6th, tornado over Labette City, which demolished the schoolhouse and did some other damage.

1879 - May 30th, severe wind and rain storm at Chetopa; signs blown down, etc. June 14th, another hard wind storm, from west to east, over southern portion of county, partly removed Kinston Presbyterian church from foundation, and blew in one or two buildings in Chetopa. July - Wind blew down east span of Chetopa bridge, then in process of erection.

1880 - April 2d, severe hail storm in Walton, and also in northern part of county generally. May 8th, small cyclone west of Chetopa damaged W. E. Liggett's kitchen and orchard. December 11th, severe rain and wind storm at Chetopa; partly removed Catholic church from its foundation; also other buildings.

1881 - September 29th, a small tornado in Oswego scattered some of Sharp's lumber, blew down Tuttle's porch, etc.

1883 - May 13th, a cyclone from the Territory came in west of Cecil, blew Cecil M. E. church to pieces, throwing the capstones to the windows through the air, but leaving Bible and hymn-book untouched on the box used for a pulpit; blew M. U. Ramsburg's house to atoms, partly tore down other buildings, and uprooted trees. The storm occurred about 6 p. m., just after church was out. At the same time both houses at Fishkill were reported to have been torn down.

1884 - July 2d, tornado blew Cecil church to atoms; destroyed houses, barns, grain; heavy hail.

1885 - September 11th, hail storm at Parsons and vicinity.

1893 - April 19th, quite a severe electrical storm at Edna. April 25th, a hail storm did considerable damage at and in the vicinity of Oswego. May 8th, heavy hail storm in the western part of the county.

1894 - June 25, one of the hardest hail storms ever known in the county visited the southern and eastern portion of the county; nearly all the grain between Oswego and Chetopa was destroyed; the oat straw was cut into small pieces.

1895 - July 5th, an electrical storm at Chetopa. July 7th, a very severe wind storm extended over most of the county; at Altamont, it unroofed buildings, blew down porches and did other general damage; at Chetopa, it blew down the smoke-stack to the electric light plant, removed and destroyed nearly all the awnings and porches in the business part of the town, broke down trees and caused a large amount of other damage. At Oswego, the water works iron stand-pipe was blown down, the streets were obstructed with broken shade trees, the opera house and several other buildings were unroofed, and general damage was sustained in very many ways; at other points in the county the damage was not so great

1896 - May (near the close), a hard wind storm blew down or removed from their foundations several buildings in the northeast part of the county.

1898 - May 1st, a wind storm unroofed some buildings in Chetopa and removed others from their foundations.

1900 - June 7th, a tornado swept over quite a large portion of the county. In the southeastern portion it unroofed some buildings, broke down trees and made itself felt in other respects. Just west of Oswego it blew a portion of a train from the St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad tracks. At Labette it made a total wreck of the Baptist church and also blew down one or two dwelling houses and several barns. Along the Neosho bottom, in the northeast part of the county, it wrecked several buildings, broke down trees and injured crops. Trees were blown down and a large number of buildings more or less injured in Parsons. Ten days later this storm, was duplicated in the northeast part of the county.