Scans of Newspaper Clipping from the Corsicana Daily Sun
submitted by Scotty Patrick

Six Are Injured Property Damaged In Richland Blow

Storms Wreak Havoc At Many Points Over Week

Dallas Times Herald, May 2, 1940
Texas Towns Check Losses After Storms
DEATH TOLL AT RICHLAND AND FRANKSTON TOTALS THREE

OIL SECTION IS HIT

Etex Tornado Fells Sixty Derricks; Three Wells Run Wild All Night
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(By The Associated Press)

Two communities prepared to bury their dead and others checked property and crop damage today in the wake of tornadoes that skipped through East Texas, striking in widely-separated areas.

Three persons were killed, two of them at Richland, eleven miles south of Corsicana.

J. E. McNeese, 70, and his son, Cecil, 30, were killed when a twister crushed their home and demolished several barns and chicken houses.  Mrs. J. E. McNeese, 68, was in a critical condition from injuries.

The tornado came just a year after one had swept through the Richland business district.

Flash Flood Death

Mary Lee Cook, 18-month-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Ted Cook of Frankston, was drowned in a flash flood that came down a creek during a cloudburst.  The downpour lashed the area just before a twister struck, causing thousands of dollars in damage.

The family was among a number of persons who had taken refuge from the storm in a culvert.

A tornado struck in the Longview-Kilgore-Tyler-Henderson section, doing heavy damage.  Sixty oil derricks were felled near Greggtown.  Three wells, one of them a powerful gasser, roared wild until Wednesday morning.

Field crews working all night brought under control the three wells.

W. J. Murray, deputy supervisor  ......

STORM VICTIMS BURIED TODAY

THREE MEMBERS OF NAVARRO COUNTY FAMILY LAID TO REST

Richland. Tex.  May 2, (Special), Funeral rites were held here this afternoon for three victims of the tornado that struck here late Tuesday, lifted J. E. McNeese residence into the air and hurled it to the ground on another lot, splintering the structure.

J. E. McNeese, 74, and his son, Cecil E. McNeese, 42, were instantly killed.  Mrs. J. E. McNeese, 59, died in a local hospital Wednesday from injuries.

Surviving Mr. and Mrs. McNeese are four sons, Paul McNeese of Corsicana, Woodrow McNeese of Richland, Schuyler McNeese of Fort Worth, and R. S. McNeese of Casa Grande, Ariz.  Also surviving Mrs. McNeese are three sisters, Mrs. W. M Stead, Corsicana, Mrs. Florence Morgan, Venus, and Mrs. John H. Myers, Arkansas, and a brother, George Reedy, Sabinal.

Betty Ruth Bartlett Tackitt Describes Richland Tornado

Betty Ruth Barlett Tackitt sent me this e-mail. Babs, I remember the tornado that hit Richland. Mother and I was sitting on the back porch and watched it.  It is only tornado I ever saw that had 2 tails. They twisted back and forth. We saw the house go up in the air, but didnt know the people that lived in it, but heard they all 3 were killed. Pisgah Ridge had a community called Mt Nebo - That is where we lived - It was the highest point on Pisgah Ridge. Bell Starr and John Wesley Hardin hid out not for from Mama Bea's house. Lots of tales of treasure hidden on the farm. There were lots of holes where people dug looking for money but never found any. Also there were two hanging trees on the place at the time we lived there, but now gone. Love Mom

Notes:

• Submitted by Barbara VanEllen  4/2/2004

• View Notes on Richland and the Tornado made by Barbara's mother