 |
| X's mark where houses once stood after 1913 Lower Peach Tree tornado. |
Today, March 21, marks the 105th anniversary of
the deadliest weather event in Wilcox County history – the 1913 Lower Peach
Tree Tornado.
This lethal tornado was part of one of the worst severe
weather events in American history – the Great Easter Flood of 1913, which was
the result of an enormous winter storm system that resulted in hundreds of
fatalities and property damage across the nation. The storm system, which raged
on and off for at least two weeks, struck a total of 15 states and resulted in
fatalities across the country with Alabama being the hardest hit. No community
in Alabama suffered more than Lower Peach Tree, a community of about 400
residents in 1913.
Much of what is known about the Lower Peach Tree Tornado comes
from newspaper accounts of that time, and almost every report agreed that the
tornado struck between 4 a.m. and 5 a.m. on March 21, which was Good Friday.
Newspapers reported that this powerful tornado “practically wiped out” Lower
Peach Tree, sweeping a large section of the town completely off the map. The
path of the tornado, which had a path about a quarter-mile wide, “reduced to
kindling in a twinkling” many of Lower Peach Tree’s stores and residences.
In its wake, the tornado left at least 27 people dead, at
least 68 with serious injuries and up to 30 people missing immediately after
the storm. According to newspaper accounts, the dead that day included George
Williamson’s wife and son, Mrs. L.D. Bryant and her four children, a Mrs. Cooper
and her daughter, two children of Jim Baker, and Mr. and Mrs. Jim Clarke. Many
of these corpses were found with the “hair stripped from their heads and
divested of every thread of clothing” by the tornado’s winds.
The dead that day also included Mary Watson of Selma. Watson
was in Lower Peach Tree visiting the Stabler family and was crossing a hallway
when the tornado hit their house. She was reportedly swept down the hallway,
out the back of the house, and was blown against a tree, breaking her back.
The seriously injured that day included Mrs. and Mrs. Jim
Baker and their two children; Misses Ida, Irma and Johnnie Cooper; Portis
Stabler, his wife and children; Mrs. Stabler’s mother; Dr. Ed King; a Miss
Williamson; Mr. and Mrs. Sam Irby; Mr. Milledge; and J.M. Kirk and his wife.
The Red Cross responded immediately to the disaster and reported that at least
200 Lower Peach Tree residents were left homeless by the tornado, which
destroyed an estimated 100 homes.
Modern researchers estimate that the Lower Peach Tree
Tornado was a F4 tornado on the modern Fujita scale. In addition to the damage
mentioned above, the Baptist Church at Lower Peach Tree was blown from its
foundations, high winds stripped the bark from trees and fence pickets were
driven deep into tree trunks like wind-driven nails. One account said that the
tornado sucked an entire iron bedframe from one house and wrapped it completely
around a tree.
In the end, there is little doubt that this was one of the
most catastrophic weather events in not only Wilcox County history but also in Alabama
history. With that said, I am trying to compile a complete list of those killed
at Lower Peach Tree on March 21, 1913 and I currently have only been able to
assemble a partial list. If anyone in the reading audience has more information
that they would like to share, please let me hear from you.
https://archive.org/details/1913_Alabama_tornado
ReplyDeleteThe two children of Mr. and Mrs. John H. Baker who died of their injuries in this tornado were Beryl Aileen Baker and Katie Evelyn Baker. They are buried with their parents in Lower Peach Tree Cemetery, Wilcox County Alabama. The girls’ year of death as reported on Find A Grave website should be 1913, not 1918. My mother-in-law was a younger, as yet unborn, sister of the two girls at the time of the tornado.
ReplyDelete