March 22, 1881 Randolph County Tornado 

From The Philadelphia Inquirer, March 31, 1881, pg. 1:

Cyclone in Alabama.

Chattanooga, Tenn., March 30. – Information has been received by the Times of a terrific cyclone in Randolph county, Alabama, which destroyed the home and killed the entire family of Mr. John Embrey, consisting of himself, wife and two children, while they were asleep.

From The Cincinnati Enquirer, March 31, 1881, pg. 1:

An Alabama Cyclone.

A House Destroyed and Four Persons Killed.

Special Dispatch To The Enquirer.

Chattanooga, Tenn., March 30. – On Friday night last a terrific cyclone visited High Shoals, Randolph County, Alabama. It totally destroyed the home and killed the entire family of Mr. Jackson Embrey, consisting of himself, wife and two children. Nothing was known of the awful affair until several days afterward, when a neighbor, in looking in that direction, saw that the house was gone.

             He and another neighbor hastened to the spot, and found upon one bed, in the position they had naturally assumed when retiring, the four bodies, upon which the chimney had been hurled without a moment’s warning. All had been launched into eternity. The four bodies were buried in one grave, the two children in one coffin, at High Pine Church, Alabama.