Volume 14 , Issue 16

Tornado of 1905 - Snyder Wiped Off the Map

It was reported in The Guthrie Daily Leader, Thursday, 11 May 1905, that an appalling calamity was visited upon the little city of Snyder, Oklahoma, with fatalities reaching hundreds, as a storm descended at midnight while helpless victims were asleep. many were killed outright and hundreds were injured.

The Snyder Cyclone reduced to kindling wood fifty freight cars as the railroad track was torn up for blocks. Hundreds of people poured into Snyder to aid the sufferers. First news of the storm was received about midnight. Soon thereafter, before any details had been received, telegraph and telephone wires went down. Immediately relief trains were ordered out from all available points, starting from Hobart, Chickasha, I.T., Guthrie, Oklahoma City and other towns. Every train carried doctors, nurses and any person capable of rendering aid.

The first relief train sent from Hobart reached the stricken town just before daylight. Everyone on board began at once the work of relief. They found wreckage and the streets almost obliterated by the piles of demolished houses. The dead and dying laid about in the wreckage, while those who escaped ran hither and thither in excited attempts to bring order out of the terrible scene and to render what meagre assistance they could.

The storm was not confined to Snyder, though. It was reported the same tornado struck Quinlan, in Woodward county, destroying several houses and at that point at least three persons, Mrs. O. W. Cox and her two sons, were known to have been killed. The following was reported in The Guthrie Daily Leader, 11 May 1905, and taken from the Times-Journal staff corespondent at Snyder as received via Hobart, giving a "Partial List of the Dead:"

1. Mrs. Beckwith, aged 24
2. Fred Crump, aged 1
3. Henry Orest, aged 30
4. Fessendon boy, aged 10
5. Fessendon girl, aged 13
6. Chas. Stutgill, aged 26
7. Mrs. Geo. DAvis, aged 32
8. Mrs. Col. Williamson, aged 26
9. Mrs. Murphy, aged 60
10. Russell Bruiser, aged 18
11. W. H. Bruiser, aged 60
12. Jas. McCart, aged 14
13. Section hand, name unknown
14. Mrs. Hudson, aged 38
15. Prof. Hibbard, wife, mother and two children; only one in family escaped
16. Unidentified man, aged 40
17. Unidentified woman, aged 20
18. An old woman, aged 50
19. Mrs. M. A. Fast, aged 38
20. W. H. Wessen, aged 56
21. Mrs. Fessendon, aged 38
22. Fessendon child, aged 12
23. Van Buskirk, aged 27
24. Mr. Beeman, aged 60
25. Donovan, Frisco fireman, aged 28
26. Fessendon girl, aged 6
27. Hudson Boy, aged 15
28. Harold Garton, aged 11
29. Unidentified boy, aged 13
30. Unidentified girl, aged 14
31. Hudson boy, aged 13
32. Hudson girl, aged 12
33. Hudson girl, aged 5
34. Unidentified boy, aged 8
35. Unidentified girl, aged 10
36. Baby of L. C. Jones, aged 5
37. Unidentified woman, aged 25, supposed to be Mrs. Davis
38. Mrs. L. C. Jones, aged 30
39. Unidentified woman, aged 40
40. L. C. Jones, aged 30
41. Unidentified woman, aged 40
42. L. C. Jones, aged 30
43. Miss Fessendon, aged 20
44. Unidentified woman, aged 30
45. Geo. Bailey, aged 40
46. C. H. Barnes, aged 50
47. Child of Geo. David, aged 2
48. Geo. Davis, aged 30
49. Mary Johnson, aged 40
50. Johnson boy, aged 14
51. Gladys Crook, aged 15
52. Morris Crook, Jr., aged 14
53. Crook infant, aged 3
54. Mrs. Fannie Redwick, aged 50
55. Unidentified girl, aged 25
56. Mrs. Biggs, aged 28

One of the saddest cases reported that day was Col. Williamson, when the storm struck Snyder he grabbed at a woman whom he thought was his wife and hurried away to a place of safety. When out of danger he discovered the woman was not his wife. Later his wife was brought to the temporary morgue with her head completely severed from the body.

Over 12 per cent of the population was dead and over 30 per cent was sounded. Ninety per cent of the town was a total wreck and the loss could not be possibly be estimated. Fires broke out following the Snyder storm in 1905 and entirely consumed one business block. Partial list of property losses:

1. Bank of Snyder
2. Hilton Hotel
3. Farmers and Merchants bank
4. Davis and Griffin
5. Robert Pritchard building
6. Snyder hotel
7. Hall-Street Furniture company
8. Tennyson and Hoffmaster, dry goods
9. Miller Bros, dry goods
10. Snyder Hardware Co.
11. Snyder Hardware Co.
12. Joyce Grocery company
13. Davidson Grocery company
14. Joseph Morris Grocery company
15. Snyder Gin company

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