1933 Tornado Destruction in Overton and Pickett Counties
Some Photos Taken After the Tornado
Click the thumbnails to view larger images.
At approximately 15 minutes after midnight local time, on May 10, 1933, a single F4-level funnel cloud carved an approximately 20-mile path from north of Livingston to south of Byrdstown. Modern weather history sites report 35 people were killed, 33 of those in the community of Beaty Swamps (Bethsaida). An entire Cole family — nine people — was wiped out.
The region was again struck during the 1974 Super Outbreak on April 3-4, when more than 100 tornadoes were spawned in 24 hours.
Click here to view story about the 1933 tornado at the regional blog “Josephine’s Journal.”
An article from the Friday, May 12, 1933, front page of the Livingston Enterprise, was posted at NOAA.gov in 2007.
20 Dead, Many Hurt in Overton Tornado
TWISTER SWEEPS THROUGH UPPER EDGE OF COUNTY WEDNESDAY, LEAVING HOMES WRECKED. PROPERTY DAMAGE HEAVY
Cookeville Troops Guard Area As Searchers Scour Hills For Other Dead And Injured. Services For Victims Planned For Friday.
WORST DISASTER OF THIS SECTION
By SAMUEL K. NEAL
(Staff Correspondent)
BETHSAIDA, Tenn., May 10.–This little mountain settlement bore the brunt of Tuesday night’s storm when it climaxed into a tornado early Wednesday morning, leaving more than a score dead and as many or more injured.
The dead:
Mr. and Mrs. Boss Lacy.
Mrs. Mary Reeser.
Ed Hopkins and daughter, Barbara Hopkins.
Eunice Cole and wife, and seven children.
Millard Allred.
Hughey Beaty.
Ray Reagan.
Hershel Phillips.
Mrs. Ambrose King and daughter, Epsie King.
While natives of this vicinity, two miles East of Monroe, searched the wooded hills of eastern Overton County for other bodies, residents predicted more deaths would be registered by the week-end. It will be impossible to make an accurate check of the death toll for some days, on account of the inaccessibility of the region.
More than twenty persons were reported injured at Smith’s store here, where emergency relief was started Wednesday. Doctors from Livingston and Cookeville and other places were giving first aid. The bodies of sixteen of the dead were brought to Livingston where they were prepared for burial, perhaps today. Four members of one family will be buried at the home site.
Struck Suddenly
The tornado struck with terrible suddenness. Beginning at Eagle Creek, northwest of Bethsaida, the twister moved in a zig-zag line three-quarters of a mile wide, spent its fury here, and ended near West Fork, a distance of about eleven miles from its beginning. In its wake it left the worst destruction this section of Tennessee has ever seen.
Houses were torn down wholesale. Barns with their contents, including farm machinery, were swept away as if they had been match boxes. A farmer’s binder was blown from his barn to a field 500 yards distant, and was left a worthless scrap of twisted iron. A new automobile was swept along for hundreds of feet and left a wrecked mass.
The horror of the storm was emphasized by the broken, twisted, torn bodies lying in a morgue at the Blount Funeral Home in Livingston. The most touching scene of all was the family of Eunice Cole, man, wife, and seven children, ranging in age from two to fourteen. All were killed, probably in their sleep. They were found near their home site in their night clothes, their bodies covered with grime and scraps of debris.
More horrible was the manner in which some of the bodies were found, their bones broken into an incongruous mass, and on two, parts of the heads were missing.
Wrought Freaks
The tornado brought its share of freaks, if one is a goodly share with dozens of others yet unknown. A square of floor linoleum was found driven into a tree; a two-by-four plank was driven completely through an automobile tire; a millet straw was found driven into a fruit tree.
But most peculiar of all was at the home of Will Crawford, whose house was blown away, as were all his outhouses and his barn. In his chicken house two hens were setting, and they were found this morning complacently perched in their nests under a pile of debris, busily hatching their eggs, oblivious to the destruction around them.
While searching parties scoured the vicinity for more dead, troops from Troop A, 109th Cavalry, of Cookeville, guarded the area to prevent pilferage, which had begun soon after the bodies had been removed.
Funeral services for the victims were being planned for Friday, although no definite arrangements had been made. It was thought probable the a community service for all would be conducted. One family will be buried together in a cemetary adjoining the bare ground where their home once stood.
Are Brothers
The community here turned itself into a corps of searchers, nurses, and builders after the ravages of the tornado had made them all brothers. A nurse from Livingston, employed by the county, came to Bethsaida this morning seeking some of the injured. She was told where they were, but that the road was impassable. She got a mule, and with a quantity of cotton, bandages, antiseptics and healants boarded the mule and went to the suffering.
The Southern Continental Telephone company placed an emergency telephone in the store here for the use of reporters, doctors and other rescue workers. The Red Cross began a systematic survey for the purpose of providing food and clothing for the homeless.
Wide Streak
Although the tornado Wednesday missed Livingston, it went in a wide streak in this mountainous country. Wire reports from other sections adjacent led to the theory that they all gathered at Eagle Creek, cut their swath in one gigantic rush through here, and ended on West Fork, seven miles from Bethsaida. Clay and Putnam counties were not harmed, and Pickett’s only harm was her loss of trees and other small property damage. It was impossible to estimate the property damage done in the tornado’s path.
This tornado exceeds in death and destruction the one in Nashville several weeks ago, and is perhaps the worst the State has ever had. It bore a close resemblance to Texas and Kansas tornadoes, the only difference lying in the fact that those states are flat, and the mountains here allay the storm’s fury.
Sky Hazy
Throughout Tuesday the hills and valleys of Middle Tennessee were clothed in a thick haze, and during the early part of the evening and until late Tuesday night the air was stuffy, with a flashing electrical storm and a high wind predicting heavy rain. The rain in the tornado area was of flood proportions.
Trouble and horror have been visited upon these people, but the survivors seem to cling to something that carries them on against bitter odds. They cannot be cheerful, but there is no whining among them. Doubtless such destruction has brought a misery that showed when ambulances from Livingston, Cookeville and Monterey carried away dead and injured; but they have turned this early to a rehabilitation — they are stooping, with worn-out tools, to build again — with something of a quiet strength which must have been inherited from their native hills.
The White family and the Ewin Hull family, at first reported killed, escaped the tornado, save Hull, who was injured.
Communities near the stricken area, the Red Cross, the Save the Child Fund and American Legion are co-operating in giving the region first aid.
Mr. and Mrs. M. H. Hankins tendered the use of the Commercial Hotel and the injured have been removed from the Methodist Church to that place.
Funeral services for the Cole family will be held this morning (Friday) at 10 o’clock in Livingston, followed by burial in the Red Hill Cemetary.
STORM DEAD, HURT
The Tennessee death list:
Near Beaty Swamps
Mrs. George Reeser, 68.
Edgar Hopkins, 35.
Hopkins’ daughter, Barbara, 6.
Hughey Beaty, 35.
Ray Reagan, 23.
Mrs. Ambrose King, 45.
Miss Epsie King, her daughter, 22.
Mr. and Mrs. Boss Lacy, 40 and 31.
Miller Allred, 60.
Hershal Phillips, 40.
Mr. and Mrs. Una Cole, 40 and 35.
The seven Cole children, Magnus, 15; Carrie, 12; Edith, 9; Marian, 8; Ruth Dean, 5; Anna, 3; and Marse, 1.
Near Lebanon
Ed and Kate James, negroes.
Injured Near Beaty Swamps
Garfield Allred, Mrs. Hewey Beaty, Mrs. Edgar Hopkins, Ewin Hull, Ambrose King, John King, Mrs. Maggie Lacy and her child, Joe Lacy, and four members of his family, Robert Reeser, Hershel Smith, Mr. and Mrs. Ostie Taylor, Christine Lacy, Mrs. Dallas Sams, Mrs. Joe Phillips, Ozelle Phillips, Clarence Lee Phillips, Thurman Phillips, Nina Phillips, Rilda Sams and Mrs. Will Sams. Of these Christine Lacy, Mrs. Joe Phillips and her daughter, Ozelle Phillips, are in a critical condition. Joe Phillips, 50, his daughter, Estelle, 17, are in Protestant hospital, Nashville, in a critical condition.
Source: http://www.srh.noaa.gov/ohx/research/beatty_swamps/livingston_enterprise_article.htm (via the Internet Archive)
On May 10, 2018, “Meteorologist Mark” Rose posted a story that described the “second-deadliest tornado in Tennessee history.” The blog states the May 9th tornado completely destroyed everything in its 1/2 to 3/4-mile wide path for 20 miles starting “just east of Livingston.” Beaty Swamps/Bethsaida was “completely obliterated, with every home in the community destroyed and virtually every resident either killed or injured.” A piece of linoleum was “perfectly inserted into a tree.” A piece of straw was driven straight into a tree.
Click here to view the full blog post.
A more-academic description of the storm, written by meteorologist Mark Rose (no date or publication citation given), was posted on the TennesseeWeather forum on November 1, 2006. The following is from that forum post:
The Beatty Swamps Tornado of May 10, 1933
Mark A. Rose
Meteorologist
National Weather Service
Old Hickory, Tennessee
1. Introduction
Beatty Swamps, Tennessee (also known as Bethsaida) was a small rural community located approximately six miles northeast of Livingston, the seat of Overton County (highlighted on the inset map of Tennessee).
Shortly after midnight on May 10, 1933, Beatty Swamps was struck by an F4 tornado that devastated the community. The funnel, anywhere from one-half to three-quarters of a mile wide, is said to have destroyed every home and killed or injured nearly every resident.
There have been tornadoes in Middle Tennessee that have gained greater notoriety, such as the F3 tornado that struck downtown Nashville just two months before the Beatty Swamps twister, the F5 tornado that struck rural parts of Lawrence County on April 18, 1998, and the Super Outbreak of April 3, 1974 that dropped twenty-four twisters across Middle Tennessee. But never has a tornado affected a community as completely as the Beatty Swamps tornado.
2. The Storm
It was a humid evening in the rural Cumberland Plateau community of Beatty Swamps. In nearby Allardt, the temperature on Tuesday afternoon had climaxed at 82o, a warmer-than-normal reading for early May. Haze was said to be thick, and the storm was preceeded by “a flashing electrical storm and a high wind” (Neal 1933).
Shortly after midnight, on Wednesday morning, May 10, the tornado touched down at Eagle Creek, northwest of Bethsaida (Neal 1933). Accompanied by torrential rainfall, the tornado then moved in a zig-zag line as far as West Fork, approximately 11 miles from Eagle Creek. The destruction it left behind was unprecendented in this part of Tennessee. Samuel K. Neal, writing for the Livingston Enterprise, described the macabre aftermath:
Houses were torn down wholesale. Barns with their contents, including farm machinery, were swept away as if they had been match boxes. A farmer’s binder was blown from his barn to a field 500 yards distant, and was left a worthless scrap of twisted iron. A new automobile was swept along for hundreds of feet and left a wrecked mass.
The horror of the storm was emphasized by the broken, twisted, torn bodies lying in a morgue at the Blount Funeral Home in Livingston. The most touching scene of all was the family of Eunice Cole, man, wife, and seven children, ranging in age from two to fourteen. All were killed, probably in their sleep. They were found near their home site in their night clothes, their bodies covered with grime and scraps of debris.
More horrible was the manner in which some of the bodies were found, their bones broken into an incongruous mass, and on two, parts of the heads were missing.
The storm also produced its share of oddities. For instance, “a square of floor linoleum was found driven into a tree; a two-by-four plank was driven completely through an automobile tire; a millet straw was found driven into a fruit tree.” At the home of Will Crawford, which was destroyed along with outhouses and barn, two hens were found setting and hatching their eggs in the chicken house, “complacently perched in their nests under a pile of debris.”
Grazulis (1993) notes that the Beatty Swamps tornado tracked northeastward for twenty miles from near Livingston (Overton County) to near Byrdstown (Pickett County). The tornado ultimately caused thirty-five fatalities, thirty-three of which were in Beatty Swamps, which was located six miles north of Livingston. The half-mile wide funnel destroyed every home in the community, and killed or injured virtually every resident. Much of the area was swept clean of debris. There were $100,000 in damages from the tornado. Adjusting for inflation to the year 2005 brings this figure to nearly $1.5 million (Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis 2005).
(The twenty-mile tornado track asserted by Grazulis, however, does not appear possible, as the eleven mile path given by the Livingston Enterprise would have carried the tornado very close to Byrdstown. A twenty-mile track would have put the storm into Kentucky before lifting. Thus, an eleven-mile path will be assumed.)
According to one descendent of Ewin Hull, the air after suppertime was very quiet, although stifling for May. The Hull cabin was blown away that night, and the family woke up on the ground.
According to Irene King (2004), who lived approximately one mile from Beatty Swamps, no one realized just how bad the storm was until the next morning, when her father was called upon to help cut a path to the storm victims. All roads leading into Beatty Swamps were blocked by debris, and it required a team of outlying residents to open an access route by axe and saw.
Click here to view the post at its original location.
Click here to view the Tennessee Tornadoes Facebook group’s public post about the 1933 event, with a photo and some memories of local residents and families.
From an uncited source on the original Overton County TNGenWeb site:
May 13, 1933 to May 19, 1933
Services held for tornado victims
Funeral services for Mr. and Mrs. Una COLE and seven children were conducted Saturday at 11 a.m. at the Red Hill Cemetery. Mr. COLE was a veteran of the World War and was wounded twice while in action in France. The entire family of nine were buried in one grave. This is the largest number ever to be buried in a single grave in this section. Mr. COLE is survived by two brothers, A.P. COLE, of Lum, Michigan, and J.H. COLE, of Oakley; and four sisters, Mrs. Laura TAYLOR, Creston, Mrs. Eva PARSONS, Crossville, Mrs. Meggie WINNINGHAM, Cookeville, and Mrs. Susie DUNCAN, McMinnville. Mrs. COLE is survived by her mother, Mrs. Martha PRYOR, and several brothers and sisters.
Funeral services of Mrs. Mary REESER and son-in-law, Edd HOPKINS, and her daughter, Barbara, were conducted Monday morning with burial in the Beaty Cemetery. Mrs. REESER is survived by four sons, Jasper, Walter, Manson, and Ridley; and four daughters, Mrs. Belle STEWART, Mrs. Rosetta THOMAS, Mrs. Porter REAGAN, and Mrs. Edd HOPKINS. Besides his wife, Mr. HOPKINS is survived by three sisters and two brothers.
Funeral services for Huey BEATY were conducted Friday afternoon with burial in Beaty Cemetery. He is survived by his wife, Mrs. Liza BEATY; one sister, Mrs. Ellen COOPER; and three brothers, Johnnie, Arter, and Virgil.
Funeral services for Mrs. Ambrose KING and daughter, Miss Eppie KING, and Ray REAGAN were conducted at the Smith graveyard on Friday. Miss KING and Mr. REAGAN were buried side by side as they were soon to be married. Mrs. KING is survived by her husband and the following children, Allard, Oral, R.D., Ward, Aline, Ericilla, William, and Mrs. Opal REAGAN. Ray REAGAN is survived by his parents.
Funeral services for Hershel PHILLIPS were conducted Thursday at Bethsaida, and the funeral service of his sister, Estelle PHILLIPS, 19, who died in a Nashville hospital Monday, were conducted at Poplar Springs in the Second District Tuesday. They are survived by their parents, Mr. and Mrs. Joe PHILLIPS; two brothers, Clarence Lee and Thurman; and two sisters, Arnia and Ozelle.
The funeral services of Mr. and Mrs. Boss LACY, who lived on West Fork in Pickett County, were conducted on Thursday. Mr. LACY is survived by his mother, Mrs. Frank LACY; a sister, Mrs. Garfield ROBBINS; and three brothers, Roscoe, Walter, and Clyde.
Funeral of M. Miller ALLRED, 69, was conducted on Thursday with burial in the Allred graveyard. He is survived by his wife and four sons, Corlo, Homer, Claude, and Garland, and two daughters, Mrs. Jimbo BIBEE and Mrs. Genie BOWERS.