A Tragic Record: January 3, 1949

On the Courtsquare, at Wayne's Confectionery, in Warren, Bradley County, Arkansas, the electric clock stopped at 5:45 p.m. Monday January 3, 1949. Life is close to death and death is close to life. Language is inadequate to make this tragic record of that fact. About the time the clock stopped, Mrs. J. E. Stewart, wife of the Manager of the Bradley Store was en route from her home to pick up her husband at the end of another day's work. Her automobile had reached the curb across from the Louis Ederington home, 326 South Main St. Minutes later, a friend found her unconscious from the blow of a timber hurled from the air. About 1:00 a.m January 4th, she died in a Monticello hospital. At that same time, the lives of more than fifty people were either ended or near the end. While the exact number will never be known, five hundred or more people were wounded. Through the night, one hundred and two were being placed in hospitals here and elsewhere. More than two hundred homes had been blown away, wrecked or substantially damaged. An incomplete check reveals 120 homes were destroyed, 72 had major damage and 150 minor damage. Around the power house at the center of the Bradley Lumber Company's plant, this county's largest industry, there was a vermicular scene of ruin. The mighty smokestack had crumpled and fallen across that which had been the source of power to supply labor for more than a thousand workmen. The city and its suburban area were in complete darkness. Water in the Bradley section was cut off. Telephone services for the South part of the city was ended. Rain was falling in sheets. There were bewilderment, agony and despair. On this glorious Saturday afternoon, January 8, 1949, the picture of Warren and its devastated area is a somewhat different spectacle from that which it was on the night of its holocaust. One can now see the path and material destruction of the storm. There is a strange intermixture of activity and daze. Out the Prospect road, three quarters of a mile southwest of the Bradley office, near the home of B. S. Hargis, one can get a fair panorama of a desolate path. Beginning on the Farmville Road beyond the W. C. Hargis home, the storm travelled North for perhaps a mile, then, made a right turn to follow a northeasterly direction across the southeast section of the urban area to a point beyond the Louis Wilson Ederington home, two miles east of Warren. At some points, the storm made a path at least three quarters of a mile wide, while at others it narrowed to not over a quarter of a mile. In its whirling fury, it zigzagged to deliver bizarre evidence of its destructive force. For example, well out of its wake to the South, near the center of Oakland Cemetery, it toppled a tomb and a large cedar tree on the Ederington family lot. On South Main street, it totally destroyed homes and several stores in a conjested area, yet skipped the C. K. Adams home, breaking only one window glass. On all sides of this home there is now a piled and crumpled mass of wrecked buildings. Seventy-five state convicts are now removing this debris under guards who carry their rifles. On South Myrtle, the Manning Taylor home is left without a top, porch or garage. To the South and across the street, within a hundred foot circle, there is little left to show here once stood three good homes. The Laurence Hurley home was lashed severely by wind and rain. The garage was smashed. Near this point, Mr. and Mrs. Clint Eason, Mrs. Mary Bartram, Mrs. Blanche Enos, Sam Baker and Mrs. Baker, all lost their lives. Further to the northeast, Mrs. Josephine Harding, Mr. and Mrs. H. E. Green, and Mrs. Jesse Hamilton were killed. Easterly, down Powers Street, there is not a house left intact. Veering to East Central it continued its trail of death and destruction. Turning northeasterly, it crossed the Monticello highway, laying waste the Curtis Walker, Chapman, Mitchell Godwin, Jesse Hamilton, Glover, C. H. Ripley, and other homes. Further east, it wrecked the Frank Meek place and those in that area. Frequently, from the point of its origin to the termination of its destruction, there are left only a few foundation blocks to show where once substantial homes stood. Returning to southwest Warren, where was once the Max Anderson Auto Body Works, one of Frank Pumphrey's busses is now wrapped around a tree as if it was in the act of climbing. On South Main St., in the front yard of Edwin Ives, Superintendent of the Bradley, is a rumpled steel I-beam which will weigh a ton. No one was killed at that place. While his palatial home was not damaged, in the back yard at the R. W. Fullerton place, a steel H-beam, weighing over a ton, is lodged. Before a flash back to the night of the storm, it is interesting this lovely Saturday afternoon to observe the fortitude and will to rebuild on the part of the many made homeless. For example, on the street just north of the cemetery, beyond where was once the home of Mr. and Mrs. H. E. Green, both now dead, a little home is being rebuilt. Before night fall, the chances are it will have a cover to furnish shelter again for those to whom it was their home. Seconds after the shock, in an atmosphere of death and suffering, without pandemonium, those that were alive went to work. In the area struck, there had lived at least 1500 citizens. By 3:00 a.m., in Frazer's Funeral Home there were 40 dead bodies. They were having the expert care of 18 licensed embalmers. The entire city and the storm area were adequately policed by units of the Arkansas National Guard, and a large number of State Police. From Warren was being radioed messages of horror, and words of relief to anxious people outside. From Little Rock there were ambulances from Griffin-Leggett, Healey & Roth, R. F. Drummond & Co. and P. H. Reubel & Co. From every neighboring city, Monticello, Hamburg, Lake Village, Dermott, McGehee, Pine Bluff, Rison, Fordyce, Camden, El Dorado, Crossett, and perhaps others, there were ambulances from funeral home adequately staffed by experienced men. Throughout the night, there was the constant sound of sirens, bearing broken and bruised bodies to the emergency releif stations in the new YMCA building and the American Legion Hut, and from thence to hospitals in Little Rock, Pine Bluff and neighboring cities. Doctors and nurses were here from Little Rock and all the cities and towns in southeastern Arkansas. Before midnight, S.M. Dixon, the Arkansas Power & Light and the U.S. Engineers of Pine Bluff had set up an emergency electric power to supply light for the Hunt Hospital, the Crow Clinci, the Frazer funeral Home, the YMCA Building, and the American Legion Hut. National Guard men were policing and standing guard in the devastated areas. The State Police were stopping curious traffic and keeping open ways for ambulances. Doctors and nurses were attending the injured and the dying. The death toll reached 54, when William F. West, 81, died, January 9th. The list of the dead are now accounted for. In a word picture of this kind, it is impossible to do more than give a meager sketch of persons, places and things. However, the story could not be complete without returning to southwest Warren where Nature's eccentric outburst of fury left death and destruction in its single largest mass. The stores of J. B. Hartsell and Robbins Grocery were levelled. Among the homes destroyed were those of Mrs. Ruth Byrne, Fay Clemons, J. B. Hartsell, Atkins home, Horace Moore, H. A. Hattaway, E. T. Johnson, Fred Williams, Melvin White, Cyril Derryberry, Lammon Turner, Rufus Sanders, Jim Sanders, Cecil Sinks, J. A. Frey, R. B. Robbins, Mrs. Henry Peirson, Mrs. Frank Boykin and J. J. Johnson. In some of these homes, the entire family was killed. It is a miracle so many survived with only bodily injuries. Another pecularity of the storm was its occasional turning aside from the general course it followed. While other homes around it were not greatly damaged, the O. W. Petway house was lifted from its blocks and settled gently on the ground. Nearby a piece of steel crashed the West window of the D. C. Harris home to destroy the contents of the dining room. Back on Main St. V. O. Buck was trying to close a door when he suffered a leg injury which will take months to overcome. These are but a few incidents of that which occurred. This resume would not be complete though it tells of death, injuries and home destruction in the mass, without mentioning the loss of personal effects. As it had been said by the poet, it takes a lot of living in a house to make a home. There are priceless possessions which money cannot replace. In the wake of this terrible storm, of course, beds, springs, mattresses, chairs, furniture of every description, and other objects are gone. There is but little physical evidence these things once existed. In addition to these replaceable items, there are the children's toys from Christmas 1948, the family Bibles and pictures of loved ones, not to mention thousands of other items of intrinsic worth which go to make the stability of the American home. Like those who died, all of these are things gone and swallowed up in the victory of the storm. Contrasting the end of the day on January 2, 1949, when the evening's meal was about ready for the head of the home and his loved ones, to this Springlike day, January 10, 1949, there comes this thought: "My desolation does begin to make a better life." And also: "The path of sorrow, and that path alone, looks to the land where sorrow is unknown." For the thousands of victims of this blast of Nature's fury there is made this poor record. With it goes the wish for the comfort which can come to man only when he believes God cares. God does care. Those who are left by his grace will rebuild a better place within which to live. While they will rebuild, they can never forget the horror of it all. Let that which was said by St. Paul, who, too, suffered the buffetings of fate, give encouragement: "If thou faint in the day of adversity, Thy strength is small." By: DuVal Purkins, in the Eagle Democrat: