10 Known Dead, Number Missing and Forty Injured When Tornado Strikes Clyde, West Texas Village

Freight Train Overturned

Ambulances, Doctors, Nurses and Fire Equipment Are Sent From Abilene

CLYDE, Texas, Jun 19 (AP). - A creeping, roaring tornado struck this tiny West Texas town Friday night, killing at least ten persons in the devastating trip through the western edge of the village.

Several more, reported missing, possibly were dead, and at least forty were injured, several seriously.

The brown column of destruction ripped apart two-score houses and split in two a freight train, tumbling box cars along the right of way.

The lives of many in the 300-yard wide swath of the storm were saved because the slowly-moving tornado gave them opportunity to seek shelter in storm cellars.

Rescue work was progressing swiftly, but it was feared other bodies might be found in the wreckage.

A detachment of National Guardsmen was rushed here from Abilene and the Red Cross set up an emergency station.

The known dead:

MRS. J. B. EASTERLING, about 60.
MRS. J. F. BONNER, 75.
J. E. GRAHAM, 55.
MRS. J. E. GRAHAM, 55.
JESS RUTLEDGE, 25.
MRS. JESS RUTLEDGE, 24.
MELVIN KNIFFEN, 17.
JAMES JOHNSON, 18.'
M. E. SULLIVAN, about 65.

An unidentified man found crushed to death in a box car.

Four of the injured were taken to Abilene in a serious condition. They were rs. M. E. Sullivan, T. W. Briscoe, principal of the ward school; his wife, and Mrs. J. H. Baxter, mother of Mrs. Easterling.

The storm caught a Texas & Pacific freight train in its center, scattering boxcars along the right-of-way.

Ralph Short, a free-lance newspaperman, reported that possibly ten to twenty were killed and that the number of injured was almost impossible to estimate.

He said the storm moved into the northwest corner of the town and thence slightly southeast across its west edge.

"The tornado coud be seen for miles," he said. "It came steadily but very slowly. Residents told me it seemed an eternity before it struck. I was eight miles from Clyde when I spotted it. It was so solid it looked like a vast column of brown earth, in a big brown bowl."

The disturbance was accompanied by a violent electrical, rain and hailstorm.

The Dallas Morning News, Dallas, TX 11 Jun 1938
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50,000 View Clyde's Debris

CLYDE, Callahan Co., Texas, June 12 (AP). - Seven of Clyde's twelve tornado victims were buried Sunday as 50,000 sight-seers jammed the little town and the highways leading into it.

Funeral rites for three other victims will be held Monday. One was buried Saturday night. Funeral arrangements have not been made for a transient who was identified as Allen Reynolds of Ranger. His cousin, Victor Mathena, made the identification.

Reynolds was among the first victims found. He died in the wreckage of a boxcar tossed to pieces when Friday night's tornado split a freight train in two.

Mr. and Mrs. J. G. Graham, William James De Spain, Mr. and Mrs. Jess Rutledge and James Johnson were buried here and Mrs. J. F. Bonner in Abilene. The funeral of Mrs. J. Easterling, originally scheduled for today, was deferred until Monday.

The Dallas Morning News, Dallas, TX 13 Jun 1938
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Tragedy at Clyde

The wind that struck the western part of Clyde Friday night was considerably more than an ordinary West Texas breeze. The dead and injured left in its wake have brought mourning to many homes, and the toil might have been even larger had not the storm approached slowly enough to allow many to reach their cyclone cellars. The force of the tornado can be realized from the fact that it tore through a freight train, strewing boxcars about the right of way as if they were toys.

National Guardsmen and Red Cross workers have rushed to Clyde for rescue and relief work, and suffering there probably will be alleviated in the quickest possible time and the work of rehabilitation undertaken promptly. The oss of loved ones has brought shock as well as sadness to many in the town, but typical West Texas optimism and energy can be counted on to restore the wrecked property without unnecessary delay.

The tornado, like the typhoon at sea, is virtually unpredictable - to laymen at least - and no one can chart its course in advance. Nothing except sturdy construction of buildings can give protection against its force, and often even that is not enough. It remains one of those whims of Providence that baffle human understanding and argue for constant readiness of the individual to leave this mundane world without notice.

The Dallas Morning News, Dallas, TX 13 Jun 1938
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Fingerprints Identify Victim of Tornado

From the Austin Bureau of The News.

AUSTIN, Texas, June 13. - The twelfth victim of the Clyde tornado was identified Monday as Ben Allen Reynolds of Ranger, through civilian fingerprints on file at the Public Safety Department.

Prints of the only victim who had not been identified were sent to the department by Sheriff R. L. Edwards of Callahan County. Reynolds was riding on a freight train which was struck by the twister.

The Dallas Morning News, Dallas, TX 14 Jun 1938
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Fingerprints Help

One victim of the Clyde tornado was identified through civilian fingerprint records on file with the Department of Public Safety. Consider that for a moment. A similar disaster might overtake you. It might be of vital importance for your family to prove death and not disappearance. Time and again such cases have arisen and in the absence of any complete and effective identification system, embarrassing litigation has been initiated.

The trouble with fingerprinting is that we have identified it too completely with criminal records. The fact that it is valuable and irrefutable in identification ought surely to be the soundest arguement for extending it to every one. The army fingerprinted its enrollers during the war and continues the practice. Insurance companies use the system now. There are a few other instances of the use but in the main we rely on voluntary fingerprinting.

The public does not employ the voluntary system widely enough. Compulsory universal fingerprinting would be a welcome move and is one that eventually sensible government will adopt.

The Dallas Morning News, Dallas, TX 16 Jun 1938
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Transcribed by Tim Taugher. Thanks, Tim!