People in
western Kentucky still talk about the Cyclone of 1890. On Thursday, March 27, of that year, the wind
had been blowing at a terrible gale all day, with low, heavy clouds gathering up until 4:30 p.m., when a whitish cloud with yellow tinge began gathering in the southwest, accompanied by deafening
claps of thunder. Thirty minutes later a
dark, funnel-shaped cloud could be seen in the southwest - rolling, curling and twisting, carrying all sorts of things with it. Then it struck.
In Marion,
Crittenden County, the first building struck was the court house.
It tore off about half the roof on the north side. It next struck the Carnahan
opera house, tearing the roof off and the water drenching the scenery and seats.
The Masonic hall was unroofed and the rain damaging
the dry goods stock of A. Wolf. The roof of
the Methodist church was also damaged. Stables and outhouses were nearly all
blown down. Large trees were torn up by the roots and carried away by
the wind. The rain fell in such torrents as to
make it impossible to see objects more than 8 or 10 feet away.
The new town
of Grand Rivers, on the Cumberland River, was destroyed and several people
killed. Near Lola, Livingston County,
the people watching the storm were amazed and horrified to see the body of a
man being carried along with the storm. Another man had a team of mules blown out of
his lot, carried half a mile, and then dropped without any injury. Dead horses,
mules, cows and all kinds of domestic animals could be found scattered along
the path of the cyclone.
It was
reported that 11 people were killed between Lola and Hampton, in Livingston
County. It was also said that a total
of 20 or 30 people were killed and about
twice that many wounded.
This is a list
of
the wounded:
J.E.
Sultinger [Sullinger?], severely cut
on head, probably fatal.
John A.
Little, arm broken.
Jesse J.
Boyd, wife and four children, severely wounded.
Adam
Robinson, arm broken.
Mrs. Henry
Little, dangerously wounded.
Jo
Shoemaker, leg crushed.
Mrs. D.W.
Kimsey, fatally injured.
Mrs. Burns,
cannot recover.
Mr. Summers,
reported dying.
Alex. May,
leg broken.
Mr.
Stanford, leg broken.
Mrs. R.A.
Herroll, leg cut.
Mrs. A.
Herroll, arm broken.
Scipes
Dillard, fatally injured.
Mrs.
Moreland and child, badly bruised about head and chest.
Mrs.
Robinson, arm broken.
J.H.
Robinson, wife and mother, all dangerously hurt.
S.F. Turley,
head cut.
L.P. Conger,
leg broken.
Thos.
Clements and wife, Berry Rich and wife, all fatally wounded.
Miss Eva
Williams, E.C. Moore, C. Moreland, injured fatally.
The
following were killed: Mrs. C. Moreland and wife, two children of J.H.
Robinson, Miss Burns, and a child of Jesse J. Boyd.
The storm
also hit Uniontown in Union County and, at Sturgis, there was hail and the wind
unroofed several barns. For several miles in Webster County, between Clayville
[now called Clay] and Dixon, it swept everything away. The wife
of W.B. Taylor and a son of Henry Hammock, among others, were killed
outright.
It was estimated the killed and
wounded at Webster would number not less than 50.
There was no
damage at Princeton, Caldwell County, Kentucky except for fences and chimneys
being torn down.
Eddyville was a
different story with four persons killed and 30 seriously injured. J.C. Church,
Lyon County Coroner, his wife and three grandchildren were seriously injured.
Metropolis,
Illinois suffered a great blow from the cyclone. Over 100 buildings were
wrecked or damaged. Not a one escaped damage. A large gypsy encampment outside of town was totally demolished and two children were killed. One
gypsy woman was carried across the backwater half a mile and seriously injured.
One of the persons
who died as a result of the cyclone was Mary Elizabeth (Porter) Kimsey, wife of
David W. Kimsey of Lola. In addition to her death several days after the storm,
the Kimsey home was blown down and the contents blown away. Kimsey and several of his children were
injured and all of his livestock except for one mule were killed by the storm.
After the
cyclone, the city of Evansville collected funds and food to assist those who
had suffered losses from the cyclone and the aid was then dispensed to relief
committees in several different towns, including Salem, in Livingston County,
Kentucky.
David W. Kimsey, a pensioner of the Union Army in the Civil War,
applied for
assistance, but was rejected. Crittenden Post No. 31, G.A.R. wrote a letter on
Kimsey's behalf to the Evansville
Journal
, which published the letter 14 July 1890. In the letter, the displeasure of
the G.A.R. post was expressed.
The
letter ended with this statement:
"We
think it very unjust that the Federal soldiers should be singled out and given
nothing. [signed] T.J. Cameron, Com. and A.J. Bebout, Adjt.
The
following day, a response was published in the newspaper, which stated Mr. P.
Grassham of the Salem relief committee had received $150 to distribute among
those left most destitute by the cyclone.
Apparently,
David W. Kimsey was not considered to be among the most destitute.
Mary
Elizabeth (Porter) Kimsey is buried at New Union Cemetery near Lola, Kentucky.
No tombstone marks her grave.
"Cyclone
in Kentucky," Arkansas City
Daily
Traveler, Arkansas City, Kansas, Thurs., 27 Feb 1860, Newspapers.com.
