Wood County’s greatest catastrophe was a 1919 cyclone which killed 23 persons.

(This is Part I of the recounting of this event.)
On Wednesday morning, April 9th, 1919, the worst disaster ever to strike Wood County hit in the form of a vicious cyclone. (Today, we would term this storm a tornado of major proportions.)

Twenty-three persons were killed and 56 were injured. Seventy-one homes were completely wrecked and 55 others were damaged. Losses were estimated at a half-million dollars and two school houses were destroyed.
 

A first hand story on this tragic disaster was carried in the (Wood County) Democrat on April 17th, 1919. Mr. Perno Thomas was publisher of the newspaper at that time. Below is a reprint of the article that he wrote telling of the great disaster.
 

“It is useless to attempt to enumerate the damage done by the cyclone which passed through Wood County Wednesday morning, April 9, 1919. This day, or morning rather, will be long remembered by the people living in the path of the death dealing cyclone. Not only will the people in the path of it remember this day, but the people of Wood County will always remember it.
 

Had we the data at hand we could not enumerate the damage in dollars and cents. People lost household articles that were of small intrinsic value in money that could not have been bought for money. The property losses will run into the thousands, possibly a half million dollars, to say nothing of such things mentioned that were of small monetary value, yet were prized most highly. Lives of loved ones went out like the blowing out of a candle. Doubtless few of the dead realized what was upon them. The loss of life can be accounted for the reason that the cyclone came at an hour when most people are sleeping the soundest, and we doubt not that some were killed while asleep.
 

Terrible does not express it. It is the worst calamity that ever befell our section of the state. More Wood County people were killed than were killed from this county during the war just closed. Seven persons were buried Thursday evening in a graveyard near Winnsboro.
 

We have tried to get as full particulars as possible, but there were so many conflicting reports concerning the terrible ordeal that we decided to try to get as much of it first hand as possible, so last Sunday morning we hired Roger Williams and his jitney. Accompanied by A.J. Horton and E.P. Ramey, we went to the point where it struck the county, about a mile and a half south of Mineola, and attempted to follow its path through the county. We soon discovered that an undertaking of this kind would take at least three days, so we decided to try and get our information from the various committees that had been appointed in the various school districts, where such had been done, and from this line of information, we secured the following particulars, which, by the way, lack a great deal of being complete and full in detail, as many people told us they had not secured all the information we wanted.
 

Coming out of Van Zandt County and the Sabine bottom one and one-half miles south of Mineola (the cyclone) first struck the Withrow farm, which was occupied by Jake Caleb, Col. This house was completely wrecked, as were the outbuildings, but no one was seriously injured.
 

Just across the road and about 300 yards from the McDowell home lived the wife of McDowell, she and her husband being separated. In this house were the McDowell woman, three grown sons, a grown daughter, and two children of the latter.
 

The McDowell home was completely wrecked and the elder woman, her daughter and the babe of the latter were killed outright. All the others suffered severe injuries. The three parties killed were separated by something like 300 yards. The younger woman was carried about 75 yards back in the direction the storm came from.
 

The next house truck was the J.C. Wood farm which was occupied by G.N. Nix. This house was completely wrecked. Every member of the household was injured – none seriously.
 

When the fierce storm crossed the I & G N railroad track just a mile from Mineola, the next house struck was one the Clinton Stafford farm which was occupied by J.D. and W.E. Alexander. There were 13 persons at this place but they had all taken refuge in a storm cellar and all escaped without a scratch. The house was completely wrecked.
 

The Barnie Brooks farm was next in the path of the storm. There were two tenant houses on this farm occupied by F.M. Lovern and Mr. Atkinson. Both these houses were total wrecks. Four members of the Lovern family were injured and two in the Atkinson home.
 

Next of the path of the storm was the home of George Thacker and it was wiped off the face of the earth. He and his family were in the storm cellar and escaped injury.
 

The home of J.P. Anders on the Erwin farm was practically a complete wreck but no one was injured. West home on the Porter farm and the Garrett home were also both almost completely wrecked but all the people escaped with just slight injuries.
 

The home of S.E. Lackey was a complete wreck. The nine persons in this family escaped injury by being in the storm cellar.
 

A tenant house on the Vance farm was partially wrecked, as were two on a farm that Hiram Apel had leased, but no one was seriously injured at either place.
 

The home of Irk Wyly, the Jim Fouse place, was partially wrecked but no member of his family was injured.
 

The new gin at the Fouse old gin stand, which was nearly completed, was completely wrecked, as was Dan Russell’s saw mill near by.
 

A tenant house on the Atkinson farm occupied by Houston Brown, was partially wrecked with no one injured.
 

The home of Henry Dean was partially wrecked but no member of his family was seriously injured.
 

The Jim Dean home was blown away completely, and his sister was killed in the wreckage.
 

Pink Dean’s home was completely wrecked. Dean and his wife were both seriously injured.
 

The home of Jim Bell was a complete wreck, as was a tenant house on his farm, but no one was seriously hurt.
 

The home of Mr. Ruple was partially wrecked and no one was injured.
 

Ed Landers lived in a log house. The logs piled up all over him but he was not seriously hurt. He said he saw his wife pass overhead in the air while he was trying to get out from under the logs.
 

A tenant house on the farm of Prof. Jones, and occupied by Jemms Clayson, was partially wrecked. Clayson was caught in the wreckage and seriously injured.
 

A tenant house on the Shropshire farm occupied by Arthur Gifford was a complete wreck. However, all the family escaped by being in the storm cellar.
 

The cyclone crosses Lake Fork.
 

The cyclone then crossed Lake Fork a short distance west of the Greer bridge. From Mat Vaughn, we secured the following data:
 

The farms of Rev. Stagner, Mr. Brook, Bill Hartsfield, Mr. Richardson, Mat Vaughn and Os Reich were all in the path of the storm or nearly so. Each suffered some loss in the blowing down of barns, outbuildings, and timber, etc.
 

The A.C. Wood farm was struck hard. The main residence of the farm, occupied by T.A. Cartwright, was a total wreck, as was a tenant house occupied by Cherry Moore. The house occupied by Edmond Cartwright was just partially wrecked. Grandma Turner, the mother of Mrs. Cartwright, was killed outright and several members of the Cartwright family were seriously injured. Cherry Moore and three of her children were killed outright and another died on Friday as a result of injuries received.
 

A tenant house on Tom Shaw’s farm, occupied by Rev. J.A. Smith, was partly blown away but none of the family was seriously injured.”
 

(Part II of this first-hand recounting of the toll of the terrible 1919 cyclone in Wood County will appear in the next issue of The Gazette.)