Long Branch, NY "Syracuse" Tornado, Sept 1912 - No Tornado Insurance

TORNADO CLAUSE NOT IN POLICY

But Thomas E. Bennett, 70, Will Start Life Again

HIS PLACE DEVASTATED

And He Thinks He Must Have Dreamed About the Clause in His Excitement -- Ruined, but Not Complaining

Thomas E. Bennett, a farmer living near Long Branch on the Liverpool road had struggled ever since he was a boy -- and he is now 70 years old -- to make his farm lands and farm buildings the most attractive in the neighborhood.

Year after year he had battled with the soil and last summer his years of strength and vigor far behind, he was out of debt, and his orchards and trees of crops were each year yielding him a substantial sum.

Tornado Ruined Him.

When the funnel-shaped cloud bore down from the west late Sunday afternoon it razed every building, made a clean sweep of every crop, uprooted his valuable orchards and left behind a scene of desolation.

Not only was his house a mass of unrecognizable wreckage, but in the crash which followed the onslaught of the tornado he and his wife were injured. Every article in the house which because of years of association had grown dear to their hearts, was destroyed.

This morning the walked into the Herald office. He did not complain, nor lament his losses. He had an old battered straw had which in the whirl and suction of the tornado had been cut and frayed about the edges. He wore a gray coat intended for a man twice his size which he said he had borrowed from a man named Boyle [?].

Dreamed That Clause

A statement was made in a Syracuse paper to the effect that he had a tornado clause in his insurance policy. To fact, in conversation with a Herald reporter yesterday morning he had expressed the hope that such might be the case. He came to the city, he said, to "tell us" that in his excitement he had only dreamed about the tornado clause and that, to him, the dream seemed very real.

"Yes, I've lost everything," he said. There were no tears and he faced his great disaster with a clear eye. Everything's gone I haven't even a bed to lay my head on. Then he looked up quickly and snapped, "But I wouldn't have you think I'm complaining."

His Clothes Borrowed

He said that even the clothes he wore were borrowed from some of his neighbors. He started to say something about "winter coming on" but stopped abruptly.

"If I was 40 years old I'd take all of the trouble cheerfully," he said, "but I'm close to 70." He squared his shoulders. "I've got to start all over again. But I can do it. I only wish that I was a few years younger!"

Then he stood up, thanked the reporter for promising to let the public know that his thought of the tornado clause in his insurance policy was only a dream, and walked out of the office.

Syracuse Herald, Syracuse, NY 17 Sept 1912

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A picture that traveled more than half a mile in the tornado last Sunday and is almost the only thing that was saved from the wreckage of Thomas Bennett's home north of Liver pool. The picture was found by a boy and given to J. K. Hart of Liverpool. It was beside a board in the gravel bed on the place of Mrs. Charles Markham, half a mile east of Mr. Bennett's. A two-by-four timber was driven into the ground so hard that a man cannot pull it out. Mr. Bennett's cutter lay in the gravel bed not far from where the picture was found. The picture is a family group showing Mr. Bennett, Mrs. Bennett and their daughter with others. Mr. Bennett is standing on one of the steps of a porch.

A committee in Liverpool has raised about $350 for Mr. Bennett. Tomorrow Mr. Hart with twenty men will go to the Bennett farm and clear up the wrecked house and barn. Both buildings were demolished. Mr. Hart said last night that Mr. and Mrs. Bennett would be grateful [sic] for some furniture and that he would be glad to haul it for them if someone had some they could spare. The tornado struck the Long Branch rod where Mr. Bennett lived with tremendous force. The cupola of the Keith house across the road was found in a tree a mile away. Mrs. Charles Markham hasn't a tree left on her farm.

Syracuse Herald, Syracuse, NY 22 Sept 1912