Navarro County Texas Archives History .....Frost - Tornado 1930
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Virginia Crilley http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00003.html#0000642 November 13, 2009, 11:16 am

Frost Tornado

The Blooming Grove Times
Vol 42 No 24
May 9, 1930

Tornado Frost Tues Afternoon killing 21 persons and wounding many more. Known
dead: E.A. Patterson, 46; Mrs. League Wooley 35 and daughter Ruth 10; Gilliard
Bogan 34; Tom Bogan 60; W.H. Bowman 60, Mrs. W.H. Bowman, 60; J.D. Lee, Johnnie
Fiew 19; LeRoy Bagley, 9 mon; Mrs. Derry man, Prentice Fiew 19; Mary Currie, 50
negro; Son Jones 25 negro; Six other negroes reported dead and one Mexican.

It was about 3:30 when a dense darkness hovered over the little city. The
inhabitants saw

In the midst of the pandemonium Otis Dickson crawled from under shattered mortar
and splintered timber, managed to find one automobile together enough to start
and he "beat it" to Blooming Grove for help.  Blooming Grove closed up shop amd
went over with the fire truck, spades, shovels.  Swooping down from the Railroad
station, the entire Business section was flattened.

Fire broke out after the storm, but soon extinguished by the rain and the
Blooming Grove Fire Department which had rushed to the sence. Scores of
automobiles were destroyed including a dozen new cars.  The top of the school
building was lifted off, but the entire student body was safe on the 1st floor.

One oil stove in Hefflin-Mitchell's is given credit of saving the lives of three
who crouched under it while flying brick hit it and bounded off.  At least half
a dozen live were spared as they lay on the ground by the jail, one of the two
structures left standing.  The other structere was a stone ice house which saved
more than a dozen people who went inside.  As many people as could crowded into
the vaults of the two banks and were not injured while the building about them
fell in.


Funeral services for all the listed dead will be held in Morgan home, the
temporary morgue, on Thursday 2pm. Interment in Frost Cemetery.

Miss Rogers of Hillsboro, who was teaching in the McCord School south of Frost,
and had the presence of mind to take the entire student body out of the building
to safety recieved a wire Wed from a New York Firm extending her $50 and a medal
of bravery. The school was demolished while 75 children were made lay down in a
cotton field nearby where they were safe.

MEMORIES FROM MARY LEE GRIMES TRUEX.

Everyone was in school. I was 14 years old and in Math
Class. and when it got so dark most of us hid under our
desks.  The superintendent, Mr. Harrison, told everyone
to go down to the first floor in the big hall way and we
crouched against the wall.

When it hit the railroad it split and half went over the
schoolhouse and destroyed most everything and tore down
the Methodist Church and the Baptist Church.  The
Baptists rebuilt on the same lot but the Methodist went
over by the funeral home where it is now.

The other half of the tornado dipped water and mud out of
the lake, so it didn't do too much damage.

Mr. Patterson had a drug store across the street from
where the more recent one was.  A gas line was ruptured
and caught fire and he burned to death before anyone
could get to him.

Most of the real bad damage was north of the park. It
took most of the stores in that section. Where the cafe is
now, that area wasn't as torn up. Grandma Grimes had roof
damage and mud in her wood work that is still there I
imagine! She wasn't home. I think she was in Dallas or
Ft. Worth visiting.

We  (Iva and F. M. Grimes family) lost
everything...house, furniture. We found one quilt box and
cedar chest and the back half of the piano. Baird's house
lost their roof and their house was moved out in the
street and part of the siding was ripped off.

Mr. Lattimore lived next door to us. Their house was
mashed down but not blown away. He was home with a broken
leg and couldn't get to the storm cellar. He wasn't hurt
though. He was the first person I met when I got home and
he told me where everyone was.

One girl's father came and took her out of school, and
they were killed in their car on the way home.

My mother, Iva and brother went with 43 neighbors into
the storm cellar next to Baird's house.  My sister, Jean,
came home from school with a Wilma Ruth Stockard and
stayed there too.

Within the week, wooden stalls were erected on the street
where businesses were blown away and they started
business again as soon as possible. The Red Cross came
and gave shots for typhoid and some died anyway.  Iva Lee
Scott, Aunt Maude's girl, Lora Ann's little sister, died
with meningitis caused from the drinking water they
thought.  I think she was 4 years old.

One woman expecting a baby (down the street from our
house) was found under the roof of another house, but
wasn't hurt very much.

The Patterson boys kept pictures at the drug store.

Written by Mary Lee Grimes Truex
Submitted by her cousin, Virginia Crilley

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