Alexandria Visited By A Terrible Cyclone
Alexandria Daily Town Talk, April 5 and 6, 1907
Submitted by Houston Tracy, Jr.          

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Abstract of the two articles appearing in the above newspaper. 
With added information appearing in brackets [ ].

     The north end of the city of Alexandria was struck by a cyclone (tornado)
at 1:15 a.m. on April 5th and followed a path along Bayou Rapides.  It
destroyed the home of Mrs. Sallie Hynson Ringgold [Kent House] the home of the
Hynson family for more than 75 years [Completed in 1801, it is the oldest
existing structure in Central Louisiana. The plantation was purchased from the
Estate of Mrs. Pierre Baillio in 1842 by Robert Cruikshank Hynson. The
property was partitioned among the Hynson Heirs in 1878 and Mrs. Ringgold
received the home with 300 acres.  She sold the property 8 Feb 1908 to Kent
Company Ltd.].  A 4-room cottage on her place was also destroyed.
     Buildings on the J.M. Armstrong plantation were demolished.  Pieces of
the homes of D.H. Hynson, Tom Treadway & Andrew J. Wolf and buildings of P.H.
Hynson, Dr. Smith Gordon, L.L. Hooe (Levin Luckett) and Mrs. O.S. Powell can
be found at the mouth of the bayou, a mile distant.  A letter written June 14,
1860 by Mr. D.H. Hynson to his mother, when he was attending school at
Centenary College in Jackson, La.  The letter was carried from his home on
Bayou Rapides and was found by someone on Bayou Flaggon, several miles away.
     Mat Dunn (Madison), white, a carpenter, was the only one his family
killed in their home in the hardest hit section, being 30 houses a ten-block
area in Welch Addition near the Oil Mill (Red River Cottonseed Oil Extraction
Mill) between North 15th Streets and the Iron Mountain Railroad Yards.  His
wife and one daughter were removed from under a portion of a wall.  One
daughter was found among the wreckage of Will Wunch's home across Ashley
Avenue.  Three other Dunn children were blown into an open area, beyond the
house. [Known children of Mat Dunn and Laura Ella Slay:  Estelle L. 1892; Ed
Tristam 1895; William C. 1897; Nettie M. 1901; John A. 1903; Lee A. 1905;
Temple L. 1908]
     Omer Beck, also a carpenter was killed. His wife, Lela and their two
children were injured. Two colored persons were killed, Lydia Harding's body
was removed from a building formerly occupied by Lund & Warren at the mouth of
Bayou Rapides and Ora Dudley.
     Injuries reported:  Mr. T.P. Couvillion and his wife and 4 children. 
Edward Steward, Thomas Archinard, Robt. Houston, Jesse Harding, Rosno Pierrot
and Mr. & Mrs. Paul Jordan.
     In the railroad yard, M.L. Wilder an engineer and his fireman, Joe Revoid
were in their engine and were lifted out of the pilot and dropped between a
row of railcars.  Watchmen, Joe Clark and Whitty Burnaman escaped through
windows in coaches in which they were inspecting when blown over.
     The storm crossed the Red River into the north side of Pineville lifting
Mr. L. Lawrence's new store off it's foundation and set down in the middle of
the street.  At Buckeye, near Holloway Prairie, no wind, but hail stones
piled-up 3 inches deep with drifts of 6 inches.  Mr. A.G.B. Womack, a resident
on Bayou Flaggon reported miscellaneous building materials were scattered for
10 miles through the northern part of the parish. 
     Damages were estimated to total $127,350.  A list of property owners, not
already mentioned, who suffered losses:  J.B. Thigpen, D.W. Hynson, B.M.
Bryan, Nelson Terrell, Jas. Williams, L. Gossens, Koorie's Store, Patterson's
Drug Store, Neilson's Grocery, Sam Warshauer, B.J. Carbo [Carbo Foundry], G.T.
Holman, L.A. Gauthier, H. Churchill, Henry & Frank Mertens, Haworth & Choppin,
Weil Bros. & Bauer, J.R. Howard, Joe Burgess [It was his home that was rented
to the Dunn family],  Widow Marler, Dr. Harrell, Will Zoder, Mr. Banks, Jesse
Price, John Beuhler, Mrs. Malady [Mary A. Barrett, widow and remarried Andrew
Melady], Fred Barker, H.H. Burnett, Madison & Jim Price, Ewing's shop,  Mrs.
Lewis, McKinney's boiler house, E.P. Ward, W.J. Gilmore, R.G. Maddox, T. St.
Clergy, Mrs. Compton,  Wm. McDonald, E.J. Barrett, Julius Levin, J.W.
Hamilton, J.W. Rudisill, Pendergast, and Hunter Scallan.