Mansion in Judsonia that survived the 1952 tornado

Rita B, I'm glad you found my blog.  Be sure to find the one written by a survivor.  If you can't find it comment again and I'll find it for you.

Lisa, I have another blog about it.  A lady gave testimonial about surviving it.  Check this one out.  http://activerain.com/blogsview/712000/The-most-vivid-memory-from-a-tornado-survivor-exclusive-to-ActiveRain-A-must-read

Mrs. Brill,

I do know her and told her about you and gave her the copy of your story about surviving the tornado.  She herself was blown around and wants to compare notes.  You'll enjoy visiting with her.  Her sister also survived and is named Hazel.

Thanks!

Mrs. Brill, my email is barbara@barbarasduncan.com and Mary's is b.cargile@att.net . So email her.  She'd love to chat.  You'll really like her.

Marilee, I'm sorry but I don't have any other photos.  Thanks for finding my blog about Judsonia.

Louis Anglin, thanks for contributing to this blog.  I remember the house was used for a form of keeping patients at one time.  I've been in real estate for so long things stick in my memory, not necessarily accurately but back there somewhere.  I hope the mansion can always be there and it would be wonderful if it were restored.  If you want to send interesting photos of it, I'll blog them for everyone to enjoy.

Another account of the Judsonia tornado........................printed here with permission from the writer.

Just read the account of the lady's harrowing experience living through the Friday, March 21, 1952.  My parents, Emmett E. and Ella V. Moseley Cullum of Bald Knob, born and raised there, moved to Prairie Co. north of Hazen area in 1923   One of those 90- something tornadoes reported in Ark. that evening killed a number of people near our home north of Hazen about 4:15 p.m.. 

Preceding the tornado was a terrible rainstorm, blowing in on our front porch.  My father looked to see if my brother's motorbike was getting wet when called to my mother...Beating her to the front door, I yelled, "A Tornado!"  The sky had a low black cloud banked across the southwestern sky,,,,under that awful black bank, was a wide, thick stovepipe reaching the earth.  My mother, brother and I raced to the above-ground cellar, large and sturdily built of R.R. crossties and all the dirt from a pond. 

My father stayed in the front yard, watching the tornado.  Joining him, he said it was missing us.  However, it was taking the property and lives of several others in the Center Point neighborhood; SE of us,  an elderly couple, stripping off their clothes, plucking chickens, and destroying their log home.  Going further, it sucked over the Center Point Missionary Church, blowing down a tree in the corner of the cemetery prying up a coffin with its roots.

 Further on its deadly NE course, a house completely demolished and scattered over a field, killing all 3 young girls and badly injuring their mother.  Her family rushed over and found them, as did the husband and father of the victims who saw the storm in Hazen where he worked at Buster Guthrie's Feed Store.  The girls have one long flat pink grave marker in that cemetery. The elderly Cunningham couple,also. 

 The deadly storm progressed toward  Cotton Plant, crossed White River and totally wiped out a family, mother, father, and all 5 of their children....Both families were Mills,,brothers, Virgle and  Manley Mills.  Eight Mills cousins were killed that day,,,,miles apart, by the same tornado.   The youngest little girl near Center Point Community was a 6 year old pretty little blonde who sat just behind me that afternoon as we rode the schoolbus home.. I turned to see who was behind me,,,and she gave me a big smile.....I never noticed when she got off the bus....I have always remembered that sweet smile,,,,and less than an hour later, about 4:15 p.m.  she, and her 2 sisters would be dead, mother badly injured, and 5 of her cousins, uncle, and aunt, also dead across White River.  

 I was a Junior in Hazen High School that year, an FHA trip to Little Rock with a program in the Robinson Auditorium was going on that day and evening.  FHA girls from schools around Ark. were in attendance.  Judsonia FHA girls were in that auditorium in Little Rock when the storm that struck Judsonia that evening and were hysterical my classmates said....  For some odd reason, I had decided I did not want to attend the event, though, that was my last year to take Home Ec. and be in FHA. 

 Later that night, as my father sat by the radio listening to news of all the tornadoes that had hit across Ark, my parents were especially attentive to the Judsonia news of such destruction.....As the radio announcer read names of the Judsonia injured and dead throughout the night, he would call out to my mother in the kitchen, "Oh Ella, so-in-so was killed!".... Over and over,,,,They knew about 30 of those killed!  There may have been more Judsonia deaths, but a lot of  FHA girls were in Little Rock, thankfully.  A few days later, my father would take us for a drive via Griffthsville where we saw a lot of damage.

 Marrying and moving to Wichita, Kansas, 1957-1969, my little children and I experienced several close tornado calls,,,,one left debre a block away, skipped over the city, leveled several blacks of fine new expensive homes,,,one hit the airport and radio station that was keeping us posted on the tornado,,,,

Then, the 1976 tornado that hit Cabot, narrowly missing the High School where ALL the bus students had been schuttled to catch their buses home,,,God was watching over this district's school children,,,Five persons were killed in the downtown area, a toddler in his bed,.... a 10 year old girl home sick for the day, and her  mother, both related to my husband,  a retired Airman repairing a typewriter, all in a Realty building, and another unfortunate person somewhere.  People had scary experiences,,,,no warnings were sounded,,,,though LR Airforce Base to the SW had notified Cabot a tornado was headed our way. 

 The Hazen/Prairie Co. tornade was tracked from extreme SE Arkansas, taking 2 hours to reach Hazen,,,but in those days,,,,no warnings were given by radio, apparently,,,,,I believe from that day forward, storms were tracked and alarms were announced via radio and TV, as best as technology allowed in those days....In Wichita, I had recurring nightmares of a mile-wide black stovepipe bearing down on me.  I have a large storm shelter in my backyard today, large enough for a lot of people if needed.  Thanks for sharing this lady's account of her childhood experience of the "52 Judsonia tornado, neither of us is like to forget that awful day!.

Jo Cullum Woodiel, Cabot.  Aug. l, 2009.  .  . 

Jo Cullum Woodiel, thanks for letting me copy your email to the blog.  Your last email was also noteworthy so I'm putting it here.

Yes, Barbara,  you may print my letter, thanks.  However, rereading it, I see a few errors I had not noticed, "black" for block, and I did not check my spelling of another word, and meant to say that Manley Mills saw the tornado from Hazen, not in Hazen, but I am sure folks will understand.  That storm was tracked from Dierks, AR, SW corner of the state,,,could not remember exactly the town when writing.  When it crossed the RR crossing between Hazen and Carlisle at Screeton Switch, the tornado literally twisted the RR Crossing sign out of the ground. 

 One lady by the name of Fox who raised large white chickens near where the tornado struck said her windows were taken out and she just sat down in a chair, and watched as her furniture whirrled around the room.  She lost a lot of her chickens.  Also, it was reported that a 55 gal. oil drum picked up at that farm was dropped near Cotton Plant, about 50 miles away.  I believe that tornado  would be rated F5 today.  The 1996 tornado that leveled a lot of downtown Cabot appeared as a long white whip, from my vantage point of our then only elementary school where I was teaching, I had no idea such a tame looking thing compared to the 1952 black stovepipe sweeping the ground from a black bank could do so much harm.

  Some people out drove the storm,,some almost drove into it,,,,Our mailcarrier's wife and a teacher reported she knew she should grab something before they headed out,,,and grabbed her camera!  Have a blessed day.  Geraldine "Jo" Cullum Woodiel, Cabot 

Jackie Wrinkles, thanks for adding to our tornado history.  We appreciate your reading and commenting.

Don, thanks for looking.  Please remind Mary to search through the old family pictures and see if she has some made either inside or outside and let me know.  My personal email is barbara@barbarasduncan.com.

Thanks.