SULLIVAN COUNTY, TN - MISCELLANEOUS - The March 1933 Tornado ----¤¤¤---- My Great Uncle R.S. (Roby) Calhoun (1874-1933) and his wife Anna "Sis" Duckworth Calhoun (c1884-1933) were killed in this tornado. Roby Calhoun was the son of Barnabas Calhoun and Rachel Osborne. Roby was born in Mitchell County now Avery County, NC. He moved to the Kingsport area before 1920. The following articles were transcribed by Michael S. (Steve) Peters. From an Extra edition of THE KINGSPORT TIMES dated Tuesday, March 14, 1933. Headline: 5 KILLED HERE 30 INJURED IN WIND STORM Tornado Hits Cherry Hill, other areas Debris blocks streets and roads into stricken areas; Contact is difficult; Hospitals are crowded. Five people were killed and more than 30 injured in the Cherry Hill section of Kingsport about 8:45 o'clock tonight as a wind of tornadic force swept over six frame houses and a score of smaller buildings. Hospital facilities were taxed as the injured were brought in by ambulance, truck and automobile. The available check showed more than 50 suffered minor injuries. The dead: Mr. and Mrs. R. S. Calhoun. Emmett Meadow, broken neck. Tate Crockett and four your old son. The injured: Leonard Greer, 39, head lacerations, internal injuries. Effie Greer, 28, critically injured. Mrs. Spencer Blackburn, lacerated legs, on probably broken. Two Blackburn children, extend of injuries unknown. Robert Duckworth, 16, head fractured and injured leg. Will Duckworth, 58, lacerated scalp and internal injuries. Lewis Collins, 32, head injuries, internal injuries. Creed Collins, 54 head injuries. Otto Vincens, head lacerations, probably internally injured. Mrs. H. B. King, 45, internal injuries. Dewel Lawson, unknown injuries, condition critical. Mrs. Dewel Lawson, serious condition, also her two children seriously injured. Rev. W. H. Ramey, extent of injuries unknown. Mrs. W. H. Ramey, 53 internal injuries, suffering intense pain. Charlie Sams, painfully injured. Carson Herron, 9, fractured skull, condition serious. Thelma White, 21, internal injuries, lacerated breast. W. D. Nelson, 63, head lacerated, injured leg. One man at Marsh Clinic suffering critical injuries, whose name has not been learned. One man at General Hospital, seriously injured and unconscious, name unlearned. Both the Marsh Clinic and General Hospital attaches were working at top speed in an effort to administer first aid to the injured. All available doctors in Kingsport were called out and many citizens were pressed into service as the number of injured mounted. Fire broke out in several of the houses which collapsed as the wind tore them assunder. All police and firemen answered the emergency call. As reports came in the path of destruction was traced across a wide section of Sullivan county, Tenn., into Scott county, Va. The Bloomingdale, Gibson Mill, Nelson Town and Cloud's Ford sections were apparently also swept by the gale. All wires between Kingsport and Scott county, Va., were down and it was almost impossible to obtain a check on the killed and injured in that section. The wind had blown trees and houses into the roadways. According to reports available the greatest damage was done in the Cherry Hill section. The wind blew over the Bellamy store and swept down at least six houses and other buildings, sweeping on into Kingsport proper. Most of the houses were frame structures. From the Wednesday March 15, 1933 edition of THE KINGSPORT TIMES. Headline: 5 KILLED HERE, 17 IN OTHER PARTS OF STATE BY STORMS Night of terror spent by Kingsport as storm tears down dwellings. Cherry Hill and other Kingsport suburbs lashed by wind and hail - More than 50 injured treated - Salvation Army and Red Cross aid in relief work - Several in hospitals are expected to die. Five people were dead this morning and an estimated number of more than 100 injured as the result of a fast moving tornado which struck Cherry Hill, a suburb of Kingsport at 8:30 p. m. yesterday and swept up the Reedy Creek valley for a known distance of 20 miles. The injured list included at least seven whose condition is critical and who are not expected to live. More than 50 homes were destroyed or badly damaged within the immediate vicinity of Kingsport, while dozens of barns and outbuildings were swept away. Within eight miles of Kingsport the property damage was estimated at between $125,000 and $150,000. Physicians, nurses and morticians of Kingsport worked feverishly throughout the night and ambulances and private cares brought in the dead and injured. Both of Kingsport's hospitals, the Marsh Clinic and Hospital and The Kingsport General Hospital, were crowded to their capacity, while other injured were cared for at the Salvation Army headquarters, hotels and private homes. SUDDEN BLAST At an early hour this morning The Times checked the names of 52 injured in the hospitals, Salvation Army, hotels and homes and it was believed that at least this may more had suffered minor injuries and were being cared for in their own homes. The windstorm struck unexpectedly and with terrific fury at a point just west of Cherry Hill, which is a populous suburb of the northwest of Kingsport, tore through the Cherry Hill section leaving a tangled mass of wreckage in its wake, and turning slightly to the left swept directly up Reedy Creek with unabated violence. Its path at Cherry Hill was bout 500 feet in width, and it is estimated that it maintained about the same width on its mad course up Reedy Creek. Within this path practically everything was demolished - houses and outbuildings were razed, automobiles completely wrecked, trees uprooted, telephone and power poles and lines torn down, and fences swept away. HEAVY HAIL The wind was accompained by an electrical and hail storm. In Cherry Hill the hail stones were larger than hen eggs, smashing windows and tearing through the tops of automobiles. While there had been intermittent showers accompained by electrical disturbances throughout the day yesterday, the tornado was unheralded, taking the people in its path unaware. It struck suddenly, and as suddenly passed on its way, continuing in its intensity for only about 20 minutes. The dead were T. G. Crockett, 35, of Shipp Springs, on the Bloomingdale road, two miles from Kingsport; R. S. Calhoun, about 55, of Cherry Hill; Mrs R. S. Calhoun, about 50; L. Emmett Meadows, about 30 of Cherry Hill; and Mrs. Alice Hodge, 70 of Mill Point, on the Reedy Creek road about ten miles from Kingsport. Crockett, a foreman in the electrical department of the Tennessee Eastman Corporation, was killed instantly with a crushed skull when his frame home was blown down on the heads of his family. Mrs. Crockett, 4-year old son, Tate, Junior, and a small daughter were seriously injured, while two other children suffered minor injuries. The injuries of Tate, Jr., are expected to prove fatal. CARRIED BY WIND The body of Meadows, also an employe of the Tennessee Eastman Corporation was found in a hollow some distance from the main street in Cherry Hill, and it was believed that the wind had literally picked him up, carried him for perhaps 50 feet, and then hurled him to the ground. His death was due to concussion of the brain and is believed to have been instant. He was a machinist and had been employed here for the past several weeks, coming to this city from Camp Creek, W. Va. Calhoun was also said to have been blown some distance when his home was swept away. His death was due to a fractured skull, while his wife died from internal injuries in the left side - probably a punctured lung. He was employed in the wood department of the Tennessee Eastman Corporation. Mrs. Hodge, who lived alone near Mill Point, suffered a torn leg and a broken arm when here home was demolished by the wind. An ambulance was called for her from Bristol and she was given first aid medical attention. However she died enroute to King's Mountain Memorial Hospital. DIFFICULT WORK Intense darkness, intermittent showers and tangled wreckage added to the difficulties encountered by the relief workers last night. In the face of these obstacles volunteer workers labored throughout the night in their efforts to find the dead and care for the injured. The ambulances of the Hamlett-Dobson Funeral Home and the J. Frank Funeral Home rendered invaluable service in bringing in the injured. The bodies of the four victims of the tornado who were killed in the Kingsport area were taken directlyh to these funeral homes. Every doctor and nurse in Kingsport labored to relieve the suffering of the scores of injured, while the police and fire departments of the city gave their service to the grueling work. The communities struck by the windstorm presented a sad spectacle after the tornado had passed on its destructive way. Groups of men, women and children, rendered homeless by the catastrophe, huddled in the rain and mud by the sides of the streets and roads or sought shelter in homes and outlying stores. In a small room in the store building of C. R. Miller in Cherry Hill at one o'clock this morning 30 homeless ones, mostly women and children, were huddled together. Several women were nursing babies, and older children, half dazed from shock and fear were lying on the wooden floor. HOMES WIPED AWAY In Cherry Hill alone 12 homes were completely wiped away and more that that number badly damaged. Dozens of other homes were completely demolished in Bear Twon, Dry Hollow and up the Reedy Creek Valley. Fire added to the terror of the night in Cherry Hill, three homes, already partly demplished by the storm, being consumed by flames. Several people were severely burned. The Reedy Creek road was blocked by tangled telephone wires and poles a short distance out of Kingsport, near the home of Sam Steadman. This severed connection with the Bloomingdale and Arcadia sections, and made it impossible to secure a complete check of the injured and property damage in those sections. The stone home of the family of W. H. Johns, two miles from Kingsport on the Reedy Creek road, was completely demolished and lastes reports showed the members of the family still unaccounted for. The family consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Johns and the latter's sister, Mrs Minnie Bratton. At other places workers were toiling feverishly in the wreckage of homes, seeking to determine if any people were buried beneth the ruins. It was believed that more complete checks tomorrow would probably increase the list of dead. All members of the Kingsport police force and local county officers were commandeered into service at 5:30 this morning for patrol work in the stricken area. THE DEAD Those killed in the tornado follows: T. G. Crockett, 35, died of a badly fractured skill. A hole approximately two inches in diameter was punched in the skull by some blunt object. Mrs. R. S. Calhoun, 50, died of injuries to the left side of her body. The left arm as shattered and the ribs in the left side of the lung cage were broken. It was thought by physicians that one of the ribs punctured the left ling and penetrated the heart region. R. S. Calhoun, 48, died of a fractured skull. Other bruises and lacerations on the body were not sufficient to cause death, examining doctors said. Lonnie Emmett Meadows, abot 30, died of concussion of the brain. The frontal area of the skull was injured, there were other injuries about the head and face. A large piece of glass penetrated one of his arms. It is thought he was in an automobile at the time the wind struck. Mrs. Alice Hodge, 75, died of internal injuries while enroute to one of the Kingsport hospitals. The body was taken to Bristol. Mrs. Hodges suffered a badly mangled ankle and leg, broken right arm and internal injuries. THE INJURED Mrs. W.H. Ramey, 53 internal injuries, severe lacerations and bruises. Probably fatally injured. Dewey Lawson, Sr., 53, brain punctured by nail. Not expected to live. Dewey Lawson, Jr., 4, punctured skull. Not expected to live. Miss Maude Rodefer, teacher in school back of Cherry Hill, fractured collar bone and head lacerations. Condition not critical. Mrs. Edward Bear, part of foot cut off. Two small daughters of Mrs. Edward Bear, bruises, lacerations and shock. Tate Crockett, Jr., of Shipp Springs, two miles out from Kingsport on Bloomingdale road, badly fractured skull. Condition critical. Mrs. Joe Hammonds, shock, lacerations and bruises. Extent of injuries undetermined, but condition critical. Charles Hammonds, age 6 months, minor injuries. Ballard Hammonds, 4, neck badly bruised but condition not critical. Mrs. Mary Busick, 35, head injuries and severe bruises. Condition serious. Mrs. Will Calhoun, 22, head injuries, lacerations, and stitches taken in leg. Jimmy Ray Calhoun, 2-month-old son of Mrs. E. H. Calhoun, slightly bruised; protected by mother from more serious injuries as house caved in. Will Calhoun, leg badly lacerated. Carson Herron, 9, slightly fractured skull and lacerations. Thelma White, 21, leg lacerated, back bruised. W.D. Nelson, 63, lacerated forehead and badly bruised leg. Sam Steadman, lacerations. Not serious. J.H. Larkey, Sr., 50, severe lacerations about nose and mouth. J.H. Larkey, Jr., 21, compound fracture of right leg. John Webb, 45, minor lacerations and bruises. L. B. Calhoun, lacerations about head. Robert Duckworth, Jr., 16, back injury, condition critical. Lucy Jane Lawson, cuts and bruises on head and shoulder. Mrs. Dewey Lawson, broken ribs and lacerations. Mrs. T.G. Crockett, minor injuries, cuts and bruises. Young daughter of Mr. and Mrs. T.G. Crockett, scalp wound, bruises and cuts. Carson Herron, bad scalp wound, badly bruised body. Tate Lawson, fractured skull, nail in head. Mrs. Ida Blackburn, cuts and bruises, possible internal injuries. A four-hear-old son of Mr. and Mrs. Troy Busick, head injury, probably fractured skull. Condition critical. Effie Greer, 28, serious bruises and cuts and lacerated shoulder. Robert Duckworth, Sr., severe head lacerations, condition serious. Will Duckworth, 58, internal injuries, extent undetermined. Ruth Clipps, bruises, not serious. Donnie Herron, 12-year-old girl, broken left arm. Lewis Collins, 32, scratches and bruises, shock and lacerated forehead. Creed Collins, 54, head injuries, not serious. Onie Calhoun, 22, head injury, not believed to be serious. Mrs. H.B. King, 45, injury in chest and fractured right shoulder, condition critical. Rev. W.H. Ramey, 75, severe head injury, mangled foot, and other lacerations. Expected to die. Sallie Herron, severe burns, extreme shock, and deep head and leg lacerations. Condition critical. Ella Vinson, burns. Not serious. Otto Vinson, 25, head lacerations. Not serious. Mrs. Alcey Hutchins, 89, broken leg. condition critical. Alice Lawson, minor injuries. Carl Blackburn, cuts and bruises. Sherman Blackburn, cuts and bruises. Marie Lawson, head and face cut and broken collar bone. Mrs. H.S. Keys, of near Mill Point on the Reedy Creek road, wife of the forman highway commissioner of Sullivan county, injured but extent of injuries undetermined. A woman by the name of Campbell, of near mill Point on the Reedy Creek road, injured but extent of injuries undetermined. Note - in addition to the five fatalities, the following later died of their injuries: Infant son of Kelly Bradshaw of Caney Valley. Rev. W.H. Ramey, 75 Rev. Arthur Barrett, 40 Dewey Lawson, Sr. of Cherry Hill ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: Steve Peters ----------------------------------------------------------------------