Grayson County TXGenWeb

SHERMAN - May 15, 1896

(Editor's note: So frightful a calamity could not fail to excite the popular imagination and a poem entitled "Sherman Tornado" was written by Mrs. Mattie East of Bells. It was sung to the tune "Stand Up, Stand Up For Jesus" and is as follows.)

Kind friends, if you will listen, a story I will tell,

Tis of a great tornado you all remember well.

It reached the town of Sherman the 15th day of May,

And a portion of our city was completely swept away.

The people, gay and happy in their cozy little home;

They little thought so shortly they'd be force to meet their doom,

But Alas'; their days were ended, their lives were snatched away,

Now beneath the sod they're sleeping till the final judgement day.

We saw the storm approaching the cloud looked deathly black,

And through our little city it made its dreadful track.

We saw the lightning streaming, we heard the thunder roll,

It was but the shortest moment, and the story soon was told.

We heard the crash of timber, of buildings tumbling down,

Distressing screams of victims, Oh! What a dreadful sound!

It would melt the hardest hearted, to hear them loudly cry,

"Oh, God, have mercy on me, is this my time to die?"

Some sought for homes of refuge, their lives to rescue there,

While others dashed in cinders, and whirled into despair.

The rain it fell in torrents, the storm was quickly o'er,

The like of dead and dying was never here before.

The loss of life and ruins are hard to estimate,

The happiest of families they had to separate.

God help the broken hearted that yet are left behind,

To make their preparation for soon may be their time.

Soon as the storm was over the people gathered round,

And there the dead and dying lay prostrate on the ground.

To render their assistance so quickly they began,

To remove them from their struggle soon all were taken in.

By aid of kind physicians we dressed their ghastly wounds,

Out town has never witnessed, such a horrid afternoon.

The good people of our city, you may safely be assured.

Will nurse the sad afflicted till health may be restored.