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The
two-story frame school that was blown away by the Great Tornado of
1929 as students huddled under their desks.
Courtesy of Jenny Mays Cunningham |
SLOCUM
THE TOWN THAT
BLEW AWAY by Sandy Fiedler
Old-timers still recall Slocum's Great Tornado of April
24, 1929. Ripley's-Believe-It-or-Not oddities occurred, like
the mule stuck high in a tree. Rescuers had to cut down the tree
to get the startled mule to safety.
"There was a gigantic saw from the sawmill stuck inside a tree as
if it had been growing there," remembers Vic Lively, who was eight
years old at the time. Vic's cousin's house was picked up and set
down to face another direction. A large door was found across the
river miles away. A wagon with team still hitched was carried up
and away over tall trees and set down in a pasture. The horses,
one of whom had a 2X4 sticking out of its back, survived. Believe
it...or not!
Almost all of Slocum was destroyed-grocery stores, cotton gin, mechanic's
garages, and houses; eight people were killed.
Estelle Mosley was a young woman who lived several miles from town.
The terrific noise of the tornado was alarming, but the first indication
that a great calamity had occurred was when she saw car after car
rushing by her home toward Slocum. "People came from near and far
to see the damage," she says.
What did they see? As if decorating the flattened town, bolts of
"yard goods" (for young readers, these are bolts of cloth) from
the destroyed Davis Store had flown up into the trees, unfurling
into long trails of colored fabric flying in the breeze, Estelle
remembers. Strips of cloth were then used to wrap up bleeding wounds.
There was the pathos of the little girl who carried the body of
her dead younger brother two miles home. That was all she knew to
do. Another child who had had a birthday party the previous day
saw all her gifts blow away, never to be found.
Hero of the day was Mr. Thomas Gatlin, beloved superintendent of
the two-story frame building that was Slocum School. Despite his
characteristic limp and use of a cane, he hurried about the school,
ordering kids inside from lunch and under their desks. The building
blew away around them, but his quick action saved many lives.
Townspeople quickly rebuilt Slocum.
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Located 12 miles
southeast of Palestine
in Anderson County, Slocum was founded by Edgar Threadgill McDaniel
of Arkansas, who had established a store at the crossroads of wagon
tracks; hence, the spot was called Crossroads. However, application
for a U.S. Post Office revealed that the name had already been taken.
In 1897 Mr. McDaniel invented the name Slocum, a combination of two
words. Reported reasons are varied: "Fortunes will be made here, but
they will be slow coming," is one quote from McDaniel. Other reports
had him saying that the post office was slow in coming or that town
growth would be slow in coming. Who knows? Maybe he said different
things at different times.
Because county seats were too far away to travel to and from in one
day by horse and wagon, little towns like this were vital for isolated
farm families to conduct business. In the early 1900s Slocum sported
a famous amateur baseball team whose star was pitcher F. Ernest Day,
later a coach and teacher. By 1927 the farming and livestock community
of Slocum had a population of 200. Development of Slocum Oilfield
in the 1950s brought a noticeable boom. |
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Present
school complex at Slocum
Photo courtesy Sandy Fiedler |
Presently, the
pride of Slocum is its "Exemplary" Class A school with 380 students.
The high school track team has competed at state level although the
school has no track. Students train by running on pastures.
Slocum has spirit. Hundreds attend the annual community-wide reunion
held on Saturday before Mother's Day at the school cafeteria. The
Volunteer Fire Department provides BBQ while townswomen contribute
homemade cakes and side dishes.
It is hard for us to imagine the vitality and self-containment that
small communities like Slocum had before the time of cars and highways.
While generations of some families have stayed in the area, many have
left for Houston and other
commerce centers to seek those fortunes that were too slow in coming.
However, today new houses springing up on county roads all around
give evidence of a rebirth of interest in villages like Slocum as
"re-pioneering" families and retirees from the "big city" rediscover
tranquility and independence here.
© Sandy
Fiedler
July 2001 |
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