 1862 The Storm and Death In
the first week of 1862, historical facts indicate that a school was in
session at the time in a two-story building. The second floor
was
the former Templars' Hall. Possibly both floors were being
used
for school purposes.
The tornadic storm was pawned from a cloud that came over Kentucky Town from the southeast. Then the cloud from the northwest struck the two-story building, with the greater damage to the upper story. Mrs. Thomas A. Dean was doing the family laundry at her new two-story home which was about three hundred yards west of the church-school building. She ran to the building seeing wreckage, death and suffering as she arrived. Jim R. Dean wrote two accounts of the storm in 1934. "In one of the accounts he listed Nellie Ross and Ada Price as being killed along with Florence Penn." Mary Dyer was born in Kentucky Town in 1850. During the storm she received a broken hip which left her a cripple in one leg for the remainder of her life. She was buried in the Vittitoe Cemetery in 1918. Her widowed brother, John Dyer died around the same time and buried in Vittitoe Cemetery in an unmarked grave. Thomas J. Dean, ten years old, was among the injured. A nail was stuck into his head - either stuck into his skull or wedged between his scalp and skull. His mother used wire pliers to extract the nail and he lived. Florence Penn was probably buried at the south side of the Kentucky Town cemetery in a grave which is unmarked. She lies between the graves of family and the fence. January 11, 1862 "Discourse by Bro. Gardner from part of the third chapter of Ephesians. Received by letter Bro. Peter Cowitt (or Cowart). Appointed a committee consisting of Brethren Connelly, Cowitt, Dean, Head and Moss to examine this house to see if it is worth repairing, what it will cost, and if they can raise the amount necessary and report at next meeting. D. M. Ray, C. C., R. T. Gardner, Moderator." Kentucky Town and Its Baptist Church Joe W. Chumbley c1975 pg63-64 Weather Kentuckytown History Susan Hawkins © 2024 Grayson County TXGenWeb |