Louisville, KY Tornado Deals Death And Ruin, Aug 1854

TERRIFIC TORNADO AT LOUISVILLE -- CHURCH BLOWN DOWN -- TWENTY-FIVE PEOPLE KILLED, AND LARGE NUMBERS WOUNDED.

Cincinnati, Monday, Aug. 28.
A terrific tornado passed over the city of Louisville yesterday about 12 o'clock.
The Fourth Presbyterian Church was blown down during the service. Twenty-five of the congregation were killed instantly, and a large number wounded. Numerous other buildings were unroofed and blown down.

SECOND DISPATCH.
Cincinnati, Monday, Aug. 28. -- Evening.
The Louisville papers of this morning contain full particulars of yesterday's tornado.
The Democrat describes it as one of the most violent storms that ever swept over that section. The Third Presbyterian Church, situated on the corner of Eleventh and Walnut streets was complely[sic] wrecked; and the entire building, including the roof, rafters, and brick walls fell in, causing the instant death of twenty of the congregation, and seriously injuring ten or twenty others.
The scene was heart-rending. Soon a large crowd assembled, and begun their search for the victims. A mother and her three children were first discovered grouped in death; another scene presented a father, mother and babe, the father dead, and the mother mortally wounded, while their little child placed beneath them escaped unhurt, being protected by the forms of its parents.
In other instances some of the victims were found terribly bruised and maimed. The catastrophe has stricken consternation into the very heart of the city, and the people are appalled beyond belief.
The following is a list of the killed:
MRS. VILDABEE and three children.
MR. TAYLOR and child.
MR. GODFREY.
MRS. SALISBURY.
MISS HEADLEY.
JOHN McGOWAN.
MR. SWEENEY.
MRS. MARTIN, (wife of JOHN N. MARTIN, saddler).
MRS. WICKS, (niece of MRS. MARTIN).
MR. HARBOUR.
MR. McCLELLAND.
MR. R. DAVIS, (a resident of New Albany).
MR. McBRIDE and child.
It is thought one or two others were killed whose names have not yet been learned.
Fully one hundred buildings in Louisville were unroofed and otherwise injured. The storm passed over that part of the city lying between Fifth and Twenty-first streets. A splendid block of four-story houses recently erected on the north side of Main, between Eighth and Ninth streets, was completely destroyed, and two or three men, it is supposed, are buried in the ruins. These buildings were built at an expense of $18,000.
The upper story of the rope and bagging factory of W. A. RICHARDSON & Co., Magazine street, was blown down, and the new city school house on the corner of Ninth and Magazine streets, was unroofed.
The total loss is estimated at $100,000.
The storm was also very severe in Jeffersonville, where four houses were blown down.

The New York Times New York 1854-08-29

-----------------------------------------------------

THE LOUISVILLE TORNADO.

FULL PARTICULARS.
Cincinnati, Tuesday, Aug. 29.
The Louisville papers of this morning contain further details of the effects of the tornado of Sunday. The city yesterday presented a solemn spectacle. Business was in a great degree suspended, and the bells were tolled for several hours in the middle of the day.
The First Presbyterian Church, where the funeral services of most of the deceased were held, was densely crowded. The bodies of the dead were placed upon a platform under the tower, and the exercises were conducted by several clergymen. The spacious yard was crowded.
At the opening of the exercises REV. DR. MORRISON, who officiated at the ill-fated church, remarked that on the Sabbath so disastrous to life, he was requested to preach, but it was not generally known that there would be divine service -- hence the small number that were assembled. Upon the next Sunday it was expected that the pastor recently invited would be installed. There were not more than eighty-five persons in the house, at any time on Sunday. During the sermon, which had been commenced at a later period than usual, a storm came up, and the main door of the basement room where the meeting was being held, was blown open. An elder of the Church immediately arose and closed it. Again the door was blown open, and again closed. A third time the violence of the wind blew the door open, notwithstanding the elder was pressing it at the time.
Instantly the whole house was filled with particles of sand, and the speaker had his eyes filled with the fine dust. This causes some distrubance in the assembly, and most of the persons present arose to their feet, some jumping out of the windows near where they were sitting.
MR. MORRISON said he had not time to recover from the effects of the gusts of wind that struck him with particular fury, before he heard a cracking sound overhead, and in a moment of time after the tempest blew open the door with such violence, filling the room with sand, the whole walls had fallen in. Immediately about the pulpit, in which he was standing, the plastering was not broken, and to his right several old ladies and others escaped unhurt.
He expressed himself as being greatly shocked at the suddenness of the calamity; and when he fairly recovered from the blindness caused by the ascending dust, &c., a most terrible sight presented itself before him. He saw two men already dead -- the head of another man, greatly mangled, just appearing among the rubbish -- a lady clasping her child, in the agonies of death, and a young lady with her body bent across one of the seats, and her face most horribly distorted. From different parts of the building he could hear the groans of the dying, and the stifled screams of the crushed.
Of the injured, only one, MRS. MARSELL has yet expired. MISS DUFF is in a very precarious condition. MRS. MARSHALL, wife of WILLIAM MARSHALL, is not expected to recover. The other injured parties are in a fair way for recovery.
Capt. GREENLOW, of the steamer MEMPHIS, which boat was badly damaged, thus describes the tornado:
He was on the forecastle of his boat when the first blast of the hurricane struck her. He saw the block of houses of TOM BEATTY crumble to the ground, and before he could utter a warning cry to those around, the storm was upon him. He clasped his arms around a stancheon to sustain himself. In an instant he heard a rushing sound over his head, and a noise that was like the crack of an immense wagon whip, and saw the greater portion of his cabin roof sailing over his head, and alighting in the river fifty to seventy-five yards ahead of him. A moment after the ponderous hull of the boat received a tremendous blow, as it were, and was whisked from its moorings over to a reef of rocks in about the space of time required to draw breath.

The New York Times New York 1854-08-30

__________________

Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!