Robinsonville, TN Tornado Apr 1893

ROBINSONVILLE WIPED OUT.
The Wreck Left by the Cyclone Burned--Many Killed.
MEMPHIS, April 13.---Later reports from Robinsonville say that only one white person was killed by yesterday's cyclone, the victim being MRS. EMMA LUSK, wife of E. G. Lusk, night operator of the Illinois Central Railroad, who was in the depot when the cyclone struck the town. Lowrena, daughter-in-law of George W Foster, was injured about the arms, and it is said that twelve or fifteen negroes were killed. The cyclone struck the town shortly after 4 o'clock. Driven indoors to seek shelter from the downpour of rain, the luckless population of the doomed village, numbering 300 souls, could scarcely realize their impending danger before the rapidly revolving cloud struck their dwellings. It was gone again in a twinkling, but in that brief instant every house and structure with the exception of the residences of Colonel C. L. Robinson and Mr. West were razed to the ground and the material of which they were constructed scattered over a wide area. To add to the horror of the situation the ruins of the business portion of the village caught fire from a laundry and the flames licked up the dwellings the storm had laid waste. A school-house near Robinsonville was blown down and twenty-five colored children killed. There was also a number of negroes killed in the town.

The Daily Inter Ocean, Chicago, IL 14 Apr 1893
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