Zalma, Missouri 1917 Killer Twister

My mother and her three sisters hail from Zalma, Missouri. Zalma lies on the banks of the Castor River. Until recently, Main Street was dirt. Through tornadoes and floods the town troops on, a testimony to the pioneer spirit that still runs through the resident's veins. My grandfather Cletus O. Cato was two years of age when this tornado ripped through town.

Loss of Life From Tornado Placed at 79. Death Toll in the Missouri Storm Continues to Increase

St. Louis, Mo., May 21.--Seventy-eight persons were killed in the tornado that swept through several counties in southeast Missouri and southern Illinois Wednesday, according to dispatches received from various sources tonight. Hundreds were injured and property loss was enormous. Wires are down in the storm swept districts and communication virtually is impossible.

The greatest loss of life was at Zalma, a village in Bollinger county, Mo., where it was reported by the Globe-Democrat correspondent at Marble Hill that twenty-five lives were lost and 200 were injured. This report was taken to Marble Hill by Dr. Farrar, who said he was certain his estimate of the dead was conservative.

Fourteen persons were reported killed near Chaonia, in Wayne county, three at Ardeola, three at Aquilla, two at Salem, one at Lenox, four at Dongola, one at Advance, one at Bismarck, and several of those hurt at Mineral Point died, the total dead there now being placed at nine. Four negroes were killed in southern Illinois. The storm in Missouri was most severe in Bollinger, Scott, Wayne and Washington counties.

Started at Salem

The tornado evidently came into existence near Salem, Mo., early Wednesday afternoon.

There was no loss of life until the storm reached Mineral Point, in Washington county, where four were killed and twenty-six injured.

Relief has been sent to stricken points from St. Louis

A woman was reported dead at Dongola, and a boy was killed at Advance. Diehlstadt reported two deaths. A telegram from Cairo, Ill., stated that four negroes were killed in a storm that struck the southern part of Illinois last night.

Ha Ha Tonka's Double Murder

The following was published in a Kansas City, Missouri newspaper, February 28, 1899.

To Prison for Double Murder. Brockaway Killed His Wife's Mother and Sister in Camden County, Mo.

Linn Creek, Mo., --John Brockaway, aged 26 years, who murdered his wife's mother and sister near Hahatonka April 22, 1898, was found guilty by a jury of Camden county and his punishment fixed at ninety-one years in the penitentiary. Insanity was his plea.

Brockaway married Ella Vinson one Sunday last April and the following Friday shot and killed his mother-in-law and sister-in-law. His case was continued several times on account of the excitement of the people here. A lynching was narrowly averted.

123 Year Old Man, Formerly of Vienna, Missouri

The following was published in a Columbia, South Carolina newspaper, January 11, 1894.

Cole county, Mo., can boast of the oldest man in the State of Missouri, and perhaps in the United States. His name is Richard Hoops, and he is a negro. He lives in a small shanty on the banks of the Osage river, at Osage City. According to the records of his own statements he was born in Chatham county, N.C. on December 20th 1770, and consequently, was 123 years old on the 20th of last month. He came to Missouri with his then master John P. Haydon, settling at Lane's Prairie, Gasconade county. A few years later he was transferred to the man whose name he now bears, and lived with him near Vienna, Maries county, until the emancipation of the slaves.

Since that time he has lived at Westphalia, but for the past twenty-five years he has made his home at Osage City. Hoops is remarkably well preserved, and lives alone in his shanty. He fishes a great deal for the big catfish that frequent the waters of the Osage, and is never happier than when he can catch a big one and make soup of its head. He is still able to do some work, and it was only a few years since that he contracted with a farmer in the vicinity of his home to remove the stumps and roots of a newly cleared tract of land. He fulfilled his contract, doing all the work himself. His mind is still clear on many of the events that happened towards the close of the last century, and he recalls with great pride that he once held the horse of Gen. Greene of revolutionary fame.

In appearance Hoops is said to resemble a mummy; his skin looks like parchment, and he is toothless and hairless, but his step is remarkably firm and his eye bright and clear. As stated, he lives alone, having no relatives as far as known. He is a member and regular attendant of the A. M. E. Church. His neighbors take a great interest in him, and do him many acts of kindness, as they would supply his simple wants gladly, but he is independent, and says that he intends to earn his own living for many years to come. His house stands under the approach to the Missouri Pacific railroad bridge across the Osage, and, except when absent on his fishing trips, "Uncle Hoops," as he is called, can be found at home. He has the record of his birth, and there is but little doubt that he is the oldest person in the country

Rooms to Let, Fifty Cents

The following appeared in an Aberdeen, South Dakota, newspaper, January 14, 1891.

Jefferson City, Mo., Jan. 13--A double murder occurred at Tuscumbia, Miller county, Missouri. Mrs. Freeman, proprietress of the Tuscumbia hotel; became enraged in a quarrel with a photographer named Fulkerson. She seized a shot-gun and fired at Fulkerson, the charge striking him in the chest, but not producing instant death. Fulkerson snatched the gun from the woman's hands and shot her in the head killing her instantly. Soon after he himself expired from the effect of his wound.

John Wilson's Whiskey

The following appeared in a Kansas City, Missouri newspaper, June 30, 1892.

The New York Sun publishes a story which appeared several years ago in the Jefferson City Tribune to the effect that, in 1822 John Wilson went from Ireland to Missouri and took up his abode in Miller county of this state where he lived in a large cave; and that on his death he was buried in a smaller cave close by, with a demijohn of the best liquor to be had, where he still reposes.

The story as now told in the hills and hollows of the Osage river country in the above, "with variations." The local annalist relates that Wilson was a remarkably tough citizen, who traded with the Indians, and was known to everybody, white and red, throughout a wide and wild region. He entertained all travelers who passed through the country, making it a point, however, never to ask a man his name, where he was going or whence he came. When Wilson was about to die, so the story goes, he directed that his abdominal cavity should (after his death, of course) be filled with salt--that being his idea of embalming; that his body should be placed in the little cave, with two jugs of whisky, one at his head and the other at his feet; and that the cave should then be sealed up with masonry. He further directed that at the expiration of a certain number of years the seplucher was to be opened by certain jolly good fellows and the jugs removed and the contents thereof drank and then the jugs, after being refilled, should be placed in the former positions; then the cave was to be sealed up again, and to so remain till the expiration of the second term of years. The story ran that these provisions were complied with at the expiration of the first period, but the arrival of the second anniversary found the Osage country all torn up by the civil war, and the pall bearers, mourners and friends of the late lamented so scattered that a reunion was impossible; so that, since then, the salted remains of the old pioneer have remained with the attendant jugs in the narrow resting place in the wild hills of the Osage.

To settle the truth of history in regard to old Wilson and his queer funeral an expedition might well be set on foot. If Wilson and his whisky should not be discovered, the explorers would still be repaid by the scenery of the most picturesque region in the state of Missouri.

A Miller County Bushwhacker Tale

The following appeared in a Columbus, Georgia newspaper, March 7, 1866.

Bushwhackers are very troublesome in upper Missouri. A few days ago the house of Mrs. Berry in Miller county, occupied by herself, two sons and a widowed daughter, was entered by two of these miscreants, who, after a few moments of friendly conversation, began firing on the party with their revolvers. Instantly killing the daughter and one of the sons. The other son and Mrs. Berry fled from the house and although fired at repeatedly, they contrived to escape unharmed. The fiends then set fire to the house, which burned to the ground, consuming the dead bodies within it.

The 1907 Houston Hatchet Murder

The following was published in a Kansas City, Missouri newspaper, May 7, 1907.

A Son Accused of Murder

Aurora, Mo., May 7--John Barkoff is on trial in Texas county, Missouri, on a charge of murdering his father, and the case is attracting much attention in the southern part of the state. The crime was a brutal one and aroused much indignation.

George Barkoff, who was 70 years old, was found dead January 17 in his store in the little town of Huston. He had considerable property, including the store. He lived with his son, who is married. The two are known to have quarreled repeatedly, but so far as is known they always adjusted their differences amiably. It is not known that they had quarreled just previous to the death of the father.

The elder Barkoff was found dead in his store one morning. His head had been crushed with a hatchet and his throat cut. Apparently the store had been pillaged. Suspicion at once centered on the son, due in part to the fact that he declared his father had committed suicide. Physicians declared that this would have been an impossibility and the hatchet and the knife or razor with which the old man's throat was cut were not found. In spite of these things the son insists on the suicide theory.