This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Hicks, Province, Forrester, McIntire, Newcomb, Grenia, Pratt, Lawson, Jackson, Schultz, Mosier, Bean, Yount, Lasater, Sutton, Akers, Smith, Bays & Jenkins Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/lNB.2ACI/3923 Message Board Post: THE INDEPENDANT JOURNAL Potosi, Washington County, Missouri March 25, 1948 TORNADO WHICH STRUCK COUNTY FRIDAY CLAIMS FOUR VICTIMS Elmer Hicks Killed Instantly; Elbert Province, John and Chester Forrester Succumb To Injuries; Many Others In County Are Hurt The worst tornado and high wind to strike Washington county since the town of Mineral Point was virtually wiped out in 1917, struck here last Friday, March 19, leaving death and devastation in its wake. Hardest hit were Belgrade, Belleview, and Concord Township in the south end of the county where homes were demolished, other buildings destroyed and untold damage done to electric and telephone lines. One person was killed outright, three died from injuries and several others are still in hospitals, all victims of the early morning twister. The dead are Elmer (Pete) Hicks, 35, who was killed when his home was blown to splinters. His wife, Marie, and a small daughter, Della Marie, were critically injured and are in Barnes and the Children's Hospital in St. Louis. Mrs. Hicks, Mother of five, suffered a double fracture of the pelvis bone and both legs of the child were broken. Another daughter has been in the Bonne Terre Hospital, but Red Cross officials report her condition improved and that she is now staying with relatives. The Hicks family were tennants on the Walter Province farm. Those to die later from injuries are Elbert Province, 96, probably the oldest citizen in washington County; John Forrester, 71, and his brother Chester Forrester, 66, all residents of the Province settlement in Concord Township near Irondale. The Province and Forrester homes were leveled by the cyclone. Chickens from the farm homes were scattered about, literally stripped of feathers and several head of live stock were killed. Mud and rubble on the county roads slowed up rescue of the victims of the storm. Trucks and cars were unable to reach the devasted area and doctors were forced to walk miles to administer aid. The injured were carried to trucks and ambulancesin waiting on the highway, in stretchers made from rain and mud-soaked blankets. One man who reached the sticken area first said he found the injured unconscious, groaning with pain and shivering in the bullet-force rain. Mr. Province, one of the last brought out of the isolated district, died one hour after being admitted to the Ironton Hospital. The body was removed to Hill & White Funeral Home in Bismark from where funeral services were held Monday. Burial was in the family graveyard on the Province Farm a few hundred yards from where the old homestead once stood. Mr. Province's two daughters, Mrs. Effie McIntire, who lived with him, and Mrs. Ida Newcomb of Bismark who arrived the day before for a visit, were seriously injured. Mrs. Newcomb was removed to Bonne Terre Hospital, but Mrs. McIntire refused medical attention but later was taken to St. Marys Hospital in Ironton. Minnie, wife of John Forrester, is still in a critical condition in the Ironton Hospital with a head injury and shock. Mr. Forrester died in Ironton Hospital Saturday from a head injury, and his brother Chester, a bachelor who had a chest injury died Friday night in Bonne Terre Hospital. Double funeral services were held for the aged men at Belgrade Tuesday. Others made homeless by the storm are the families of Mrs. George Grenia of near Caledonia and Chris Pratt of Near Irondale. The Grenia home, a small cottage on the A.S. Bean farm near Big River on Highway 21, was flattened. Mrs. Grenia was the only member of the family injured. She was blown onto the highway and struck by flying timbers. Her granddaughter, 4 year old Doris Jean Keaton, was found covered with a mattress in a cornfield 200 yards from where the house stood. She was uninjured. The other four who lived in the home were also unhurt. Their belongings were a complete loss and they are staying with relatives while the Red Cross is assisting in rehabilitation. Mr. Pratt, a farmer living near Big River, told a reporter the afternoon of the storm that he and his family of six were seated at the breakfast table when the building seemed to explode and collapse following a roaring noise and sudden darkness. Furniture was reduced to splinters and swept away. Surviving the storm he said, was only an act of chance or a miracle. At Stony Point the two room school house was partially blown away and the homes of Harold Lawson, Elmer Jackson, Ralph Schultz and Otis Mosier were damaged badly but not beyond repair. One of the homes was blown from the foundation. No one in the vincinity was hurt. Dollar estimates of the damage are incomplete, but it will run well into the thousands. Other property owners who lost heavily in the storm, are the Ronald Brothers, A.S. Bean, O.L. Yount, John Lasater, J. F. Sutton, Wm. Akers, Arch Smith, Sol Bays, Jim Jenkins and many others who are spending their time cleaning up debris and repairing buildings.