The Great Storm of 1870

On the night of January 16 th, 1870, shortly after a building was erected to house the congregation of the Christian Church, Rev. I.V. Grubbs used a quote from Hosea 8:7 in his sermon: “He that sows the wind, shall reap the whirlwind.” The next day came the worst catastrophe ever to strike Cave City – a violent whirlwind that demolished the town.

The storm first struck about 6 miles southwest of Cave City, destroying houses and killing and injuring entire families; then moved on to Prewitt’s Knob, one mile below Cave City. It tore timber and rocks from the knob, leaving it completely bare. It then swept up the pike, taking everything in its path, and struck Cave City at 4 o’clock on the morning of the January 17 th, 1870.

According to the January 18 th, 1870 Lowell, Massachusetts Daily Courier, “It started with a heavy fall of hail, which continued but for a moment, and was immediately followed by a long, continuous sheet of flame, lasting another moment. The windstorm then commenced its terrible work. No words can portray an idea of the scene. Those who had witnessed the most terrifying battle scenes say they never saw or heard, or felt or conceived of anything so perfectly hideous and terrifying as the howling of the winds, the vivid flashes of lightning, the crashing of houses, the drenching rain, the heart-rending shrieks and piteous wailings of the terrified and the wounded, the whole of which occurred in two minutes or probably less time. The wind shrieked, screamed, howled and roared. By the occasional flashes of lightning it could be seen that the air was filled with flying trees, timber, houses, fragments of houses, stables and buildings of all kinds, furniture, stoves and cooking utensils, clothing, bedding, animals, fowls, and every conceivable thing, animate and inanimate, that came within the range of the storm. If the fiend had form it was that of a heavy, angry cloud, which swept the earth and tore everything it touched from its fixed place. The crash was quick and terrific, but the noise of the breaking houses was music compared with bellowing winds that preceded it. The destruction was complete.

“There is not to be found a portion of a building, a piece of furniture, an article of jewelry, an article of clothing or bedding, a book or a piece of ware of any kind that is worth the sum of fifty cents. The remains of the houses may serve for firewood, the fragments of furniture for kindling, the clothing and bedding for old rags, but there is nothing left within that track of a half mile in width, and extending at least twelve or fifteen miles in length, except in two or three singular instances, that is worth a farthing, or ever will be, in the way it was originally designed. The total loss can never be estimated. It is enough to know that several hundred persons are homeless, without clothing or food, except such as they have received from kind-hearted citizens. Most of the destitute are poor and unable to purchase clothing or furniture, or even food, even if they could find houses to live in. Eleven will be taken to their narrow homes today. It is indeed wonderful that this number is so small. How any creature could exist in that storm and survive is a mystery beyond the comprehension of even those who were in the thickest of it. Many of the survivors were terribly lacerated and bruised by the flying splinters and timbers, and some of the dead were shockingly crushed and mangled.”

It wrought great havoc in Cave City, destroying houses and killing and injuring several people. A survivor of the storm, Miss Delia Jolly, recalled the narrow brush with death she and her baby sister experienced. The force of the wind hurled their bed, the two of them clinging to it, out of their house and onto the Telford Turnpike.

The twister continued in a northerly direction until it passed Burnt Bridge, also known as Rio, 22 miles north of Cave City. But its force was spent at Cave City, which was almost swept from the face of the earth. The fortunate people who had no damage extended a helping hand to those who did. Cave City doctors performed needed services in treating the injured, as did other physicians from Glasgow and Horse Cave. For all the violence, death and destruction wrought by the storm, it lasted only two minutes from beginning to end.