Fayette County GaArchives News.....DESTRUCTIVE CYCLONE & A CYCLONE’S FURY January 14, 1892
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Phyllis Thompson http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00011.html#0002524 June 6, 2007, 8:09 pm

The Georgia Enterprise January 14, 1892
DESTRUCTIVE CYCLONE
     A cyclone dealing death and destruction passed over the village of 
Fayetteville, twenty-six miles from Atlanta, at 7 o’clock p. m. Jan. 4. All of 
the churches and a number of the houses in the little village were blown to 
pieces. Mr. Will TRAVIS was picked up on his front porch and blown 200 yards. 
When found he was dead. Sallie GRAHAM, nine years old, was caught in the debris 
of her father’s home and crushed to death. A dead Negro baby was picked up 
after the storm passed. The names of those hurt are: Mrs. A. J. HENDERSON, Mrs. 
TRAVIS and three children, Mr. John ENGLISH and wife, J. M. KNOX and wife, 
besides many others. The Alliance warehouse was destroyed. Over sixty buildings 
in the path of the cyclone were completely demolished.

January 14, 1892
A CYCLONE’S FURY
Two People Killed Outright and Others May Die.
     A roaring, seething cyclone burst upon Fayetteville, Ga., Tuesday night, 
carrying death and desolation along its track. In two homes are families 
weeping over their dead. Twenty victims of the storm are suffering from their 
injuries. Those who were killed are WILL TRAVIS and SALLIE GRAHAM. Several 
others are momentarily expected to die.
     Those badly wounded are TOM CURLIN, FREEMAN SIMMONS, his wife, a little 
Negro girl named JONES and D. C. KNOX and wife. All of the latter are in a 
critical condition, and may die at any moment.
COMING OF THE STORM
     Tuesday night, as the residents were at their supper, a gradually 
increasing noise in the southwest, and a dense black cloud gave indications of 
an approaching storm. Louder and louder it became.  The wind blew fiercely and 
every one sought shelter. Then the wind began to ease, while a thousand cannons 
seemed simultaneously  booming. All of a sudden a huge funnel-shaped cloud 
burst upon the town, and a moment later all was still. The heavy rain that 
followed fell in torrents upon more than a dozen wrecked homes. Immediately 
those who had escaped the cyclone rushed from their homes to ascertain the 
damage done. The storm covered a width of 200 yards. It grazed the tree tops in 
the woods, and just as it reached the town seemed to swoop down upon it, and 
like an undulating wave of smoke and fire, gathered upon its prey, and either 
dashed it to the ground or carried it through the air.
     The first house struck was the barn of Mr. M. W. GRAHAM, and some fine 
stock was killed. In his home near by his family of twelve, stood huddled with 
fear in a large room. the storm struck the chimney, throwing it upon SALLIE 
KATE, a child of eight years, pinning her to the floor, lifeless. Then the 
house collapsed, and was soon in utter ruin. All the occupants were hurt, more 
or less seriously. Mr. GRAHAM’S gin house, a  blacksmith shop and a cottage, 
untenanted, followed in the track of destruction. The Fayetteville Seminary, a 
building which withstood the war, was soon a mass of broken desks, books, 
tables and wood. Three hours sooner eighty laughing school children would have 
been buried in the ruins.
     At the home of LIZZIE HENDERSON, a widow, Mrs. TRAVIS, her daughter, was 
lying sick. When the wind began to beat against the panes Mr. WILL TRAVIS 
rushed to move his wife away from the window. He was drawn through it and 
carried 200 yards through the air. The house was crushed, but the mother and 
two children were but slightly hurt. Two hours afterwards Mr. TRAVIS was found 
two hundred yards away dead and terribly mangled. A large number of other 
buildings were wrecked and their occupants more or less injured. That more 
people were not killed is a miracle, as the houses were completely demolished.


File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/fayette/newspapers/destruct2267gnw.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/gafiles/

File size: 4.3 Kb