Onondaga County, NY Tornado, Sep 1912

TORNADO SWEEPS THREE TO DEATH.

FORTY ALSO INJURED AND 90 BUILDINGS WRECKED IN ONONDAGA CO.

$500,000 DAMAGE IS DONE.

Houses, Barns and Trolley Cars Are Wrecked by the Frightful Force of the Cyclone -- Many People Had Narrow Escapes From Their Wrecked Houses -- Syracuse Hospitals Filled With Injured.

Syracuse, N.Y., Sept. 16. -- Three persons were killed, 40 injured, 90 buildings were wrecked and damage amounted to half a million dollars was done by a tornado which swept over the Northern part of Onondaga county late yesterday afternoon. With no warning hundreds of persons were entrapped in their homes and barely escaped with their lives.
At North Syracuse, six miles from this city, a farmhouse occupied by a MRS. H. U. WENDELL and her three children was overturned. The gables of the roof were buried in the mud. The oldest son, a boy of 12, carried his mother through an attic window. His shoulder was broken. The furniture was piled on the ceilings.
Trolley Cars Blown Off Track.
At Long Branch, on Onondaga lake, where one man was killed, three cars on the Syracuse, Lake Shore & Northern trolley line were lifted from the tracks and two of them overturned. At the same resort a huge dance hall and bowling alleys were demolished and the boat house and shells of the the Syracuse university crews were lifted from the bank of Onondaga lake outlet and planted in the stream.
Physicians had harrowing experiences in getting to the injured and all of the hospitals were called on for assistance. The storm has appeared near Long Branch and traveled just north of the village of Liverpool, devastated farm lands to North Syracuse, a distance of probably seven miles.
The dead are:
WILLIAM MADISON, Syracuse.
S. W. DOPP, Fulton.
CHARLES CHAPMAN, Salina.
Of the dead MR. CHAPMAN lost his life in his barn and MR. DOPP, a Lake Shore meterman, died at a Syracuse hospital of injuries received when his car was overturned.
A graphic story of his trip across the country to the house of FRANK GREEN, two miles south east of North Syracuse, was told by DR. S. B. MOORE:
"It was the worst trip I ever had," declared the physician. "I had read of the damage done by tornadoes, but never dreamed it was anything like I saw last night."
"I was called to attend FRANK GREEN who was terribly injured when his barn fell on him. He has three broken ribs, besides internal injuries. His body is covered with bruises and all his teeth were knocked out. If he lives it will be due to the heroism of his wife."
"MRS. GREEN and their children were in the house when the dwelling began to creak and then to totter. They ran out and started down the road towards a neighbor's house."
"When they had gone some distance, MRS. GREEN looked around for her husband, not seeing him, told the children to run on ahead."
"She returned to the house, as the tornado had passed by that time and began to search for her husband. She found him at the rear of the barn, buried under the debris. I don't know how she did, but, unaided, she dragged him out and carried him into the house. Then she went for assistance and I was called by telephone."
"The barn was demolished by the wind, not a timber was left standing. The roof was blown off the house and all the windows were broken."
"I drove to a point a half mile from the house and then had to get out and walk as the road was blocked by fallen trees, one big tree, roots and all, was lying directly across the road. They told me it had been blown fully six rods."

The Evening Observer Dunkirk New York 1912-09-16
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!