May 5, 1868 Pickens-Tuscaloosa County Tornado

From Nashville Union And Dispatch, May 17, 1868, pg. 1-2:

The Late Tornado – Destruction Of Property.

From the Pulaski Citizen, May 15.

In the last Citizen we mentioned the fact that this place was visited on Wednesday, 6th instant, by a hail storm followed by heavy wind and rain, but at that time we had no idea of its extent. It was not confined to this vicinity or to any particular course or track. We first hear of it in West Tennessee, traversing several counties, scattering death and destruction in its course.

             Its force and fury was felt to an alarming extent in the northern portion of this county. On Big creek, Jas. E. Abernathy, Esq., is the greatest sufferer. Col. Wilkinson’s gin and fences were carried off, and many others suffered more or less in the loss of fencing and valuable timber. The storm crossed the Nashville and Decatur railroad at Reynold’s Station, destroying everything in its immediate track. Thence ranging up Richland creek, it carried away roofs and fencing, and uprooted trees, but fortunately no lives were lost that we know of. We understand that S.B. Marsh, Esq., near Cornersville, was badly damaged in the loss of fences, timber and outhouses, and that in the vicinity of Cornersville the destruction to everyone who happened to be in its wake was fearful. On the Marchbanks farm the young cotton was literally uprooted, so that it will have to be replanted.

             Pettusville, in Limestone county, Ala., near the line of the county, was swept away, not a single house escaped the fury of the tornado except the church.

             All the fruit trees were destroyed. A Mr. Pittman, slight of hand performer, received several internal injuries from being crushed by a falling house, while a Miss Durgy had one of her thighs horribly mashed by a similar catastrophe. Those who sustained the greatest loss of property were James B. Reed, Dr. Pettus Reeves, M.H. Brown and Rev. R.H. Wilson. The top of A.G. Westmoreland’s store house was torn off and the goods left exposed to a drenching rain which succeeded the tempest.

             In Lincoln county near the junction of the Winchester and Alabama railroad, the storm was more severely felt than any that ever visited that region. The hail destroyed nearly all the fruit, and greatly damaged the corn and cotton crops by beating them to the ground. A good many young stock were killed.

Mr. Alexander Henry, his step-mother, his daughter, aged eighteen, and a son fourteen years old, were killed by the tornado in Pickens county, Alabama, on the 6th inst.