The Rusk County
Tornado Of 1866
Used by permission
of John R. Dulin
At noon on the 5th
day of December 1866, ominous storm clouds began to gather in Rusk County. They first
appeared coming in from the northeast and from the southeast. At half past the hour they
converged on one another unleashing the terrible force of their winds. A tornado had been
formed from their union just four miles southwest of Henderson and it bore down upon the
town with an unparalleled ferocity. It swept down out of the clouds cutting a path of
destruction from between 150 and 200 yards wide from wherever it touched down.
The storm struck its first blow at Dr.
Blair’s plantation one and a half miles southwest of town leveling all the out
buildings. Next several buildings lying on the outskirts of the town were blown down and
the residence of Taylor Brown, Jr. near West Street received heavy damage.
The path of destruction cut across the old
city cemetery toppling many gravestones. The Hick’s Shop, a two-storied building was
next in line and was totally demolished, and the residence of J.W. Harris was also
considerably damaged.
The most tragic incident was the destruction
of Henderson’s Masonic Institute. Four youths who were on the ground floor were
instantly killed when the second floor collapsed on top of them. Killed were John Crow,
aged about 19 or 20, son of A.R. Crow, Robert Stith, Nelson Parr and Arthur Stedman, son
of Henderson lawyer William Stedman. His mangled body was not retrieved from the
ruins of the building until the following day. The lodge, which occupied the second floor,
had been meeting that morning. A Mr. Van Vieck of Tyler County, the Grand Lecturer of the
Grand Chapter of the State of Texas had delivered the program. The Masons adjourned only
twenty minutes before the tornado leveled the building. The male academy located on the
first floor, where the four boys were killed, had been in intermission about thirty
minutes for the lunch hour. Only the fortuitousness of the hour prevented the deaths of
many others. Still several of the students, who were milling about outside the building
when it collapsed, were seriously injured. The injured youths included: Charles Brown, son
of Taylor Brown, Alexander Stedman, T.P. McKinney, John Cameron, son of Benjamin Cameron
and Paul De Lamar. Two of the McMurray boys had their thighs broken.
The old Methodist Church some fifty yards
east of the institute was moved several inches of of its foundation. The church was
formerly the home of the Masonic Lodge and was then being used as the female academy. Back
fifty yards west of the new institute, the house of Mr. Myer, the stagecoach driver on the
Marshall Road, was totally demolished. Myer’s infant child, along with a guest in the
house, a Miss Morgan, were both instantly killed. Mrs. Myer escaped without injury.
Colonel Cumby’s residence and the home of Durham Still, which was two and a half
miles out of town were also leveled. Mrs. Hall’s house, a two storied structure
located about a half mile from the Masonic Institute received heavy damage when debris
blown from Cumby’s house and from the institute shattered the lights in the west
windows. The storm came bowling through the broken windows and collapsed much of the east
wall of the house. The configuration and manner in which the tornado formed labeled it as
a “screw storm”.
