1929 Cyclone

View of Main St. from the south.  Photos taken by Stanley Stone, Publisher of the Hudson Post Gazette and Medina native.  Photos from Hudson Museum.  Huff/Colvin house is in center with the ell on back and damaged water tower; directly across the street from Huff house is the Shadbolt house, damaged on it's east side. Photo from Hudson Museum.

“Village of Medina:  Entire Western Half of Lenawee Suffers Damage from High Winds”  Loss Placed at $40,000 with thirteen buildings nearly or partially destroyed.  Luckily there were no serious injuries inflicted. Beautiful trees ruined

Hudson Post Gazette (next issue after Friday, June 28, 1929) by Stanley Stone, Publisher

(From articles on file at  Lenawee Historical Museum, thank you to Kathy Julian)

One of the oldest settled sections of Lenawee county, the village of Medina, settled, according to the records published in Bean Creek Valley, was visited shorly after midnight Thursday night by one of the most destructive wind storms that has ever visited Lenawee county, at least since the early settlers slowly wended their way in.  Medina was settled some 90 years ago and in the terrific storm of Thursday night, or early Friday morning, some of the original houses built in the early days of this old settlement bore the brunt of the twisting cyclonic storm.

The entire loss to the home-owners of Medina village and the farmers just to the east will without doubt total upwards of $40,000.00.  Four of the homes are entirely without wind insurance of any kind.  The balance are pretty well covered.

Friday morning the work of removing the limbs and branches from the highway and street commenced and spectators turned in and helped with the work with a will.  Throughout Friday, Saturday and all of Sunday a constant stream of autos wended its way to the village to view the wrecked homes and see the terrible damage accomplished by the cyclone.

The storm came from the southwest and traveled across the village without damage till it reached or passed the main four corners, when it reached down with fingers of diabolical fury and the first house to receive the full fury of its terrific force was the home of D. C. Nye, ripping the roof and chimney from this home; it threw them across the Manley and Gertie Kime home, just east, smashing in their roof and rear part of the house.

The storm then traveled almost directly eastward along the south side of the village and every house, yard and all the many beautiful shade trees felt the twisting force of the cyclone with the result that thirteen buildings all told were damaged to such an extent that they were rendered uninhabitable.  Every shade tree was either toppled over or stripped of its branches.

When morning dawned the entire eastern end of the village street presented a mass of tangled wreckage with huge limbs and twisted tree trunks covering the broad roadway.

Of these thirteen buildings four were entirely without wind insurance and their loss will be heavy.  Just to show the ready sympathy that responds to every great disaster, to every real financial loss of those least able to bear it.  A subscription paper was immediately started Friday and kept passing among the thousands of visitors from all over this section of the country who commenced to drive in to witness the effects of the storm and the disaster that had come to the owners of the homes.  The collection of money was steadily mounting and without doubt will reach to an amount that will very appreciably help every sufferer from the storm and possibly may entirely place their homes and buildings in just as good shape as they were before the storm.  Although money can never replace the big, beautiful shade trees that are totally ruined and are gone forever.  The entire eastern end of the shady shreet is wrecked in this way for many years to come.

In this connection it is somewhat interesting to note that the famous oak monarch that has stood in front of the Oliver Hotchkiss home (now Wirick home) withstood the storm with the loss of only a big branch.  However, in the same yard was another monarch of the forest, a big hickory, three feet in diameter that ws tipped over and various other trees in the beautiful yard full of trees are also destroyed.

Following the demolition of the roofs of the Nye and Kime homes the Joseph Dilworth house next east was similarly visited and ten trees torn down, the roof torn away and the walls of the house damaged extensively.

The George Huff home next east of Dilworths was about the worst damaged house in the village, the roof being torn off of both the upright and the ell running to the southward.  Mrs Huff was pinned in her home and her husband who works in a Jackson factory being away, it was several minutes before she was extricated from the wrecked home and taken to a place of safety.  

The Hugh Shaneour home suffered severely with the roof town off and the three magnificent maples located in the front yard reduced to twisted tree trunks and shapeless masses of foliage.  These trees each had a spread of some thirty feet and were beautiful trees.  They can never be replaced except by the slowly working hand of nature.  Then across the Canandaigua roadway and next in line on the same side of the street was the Punches home with was not damaged so badly.  

Next in line was the Wirick home (formerly the old Oliver Hotchkiss home) famous for its big yard full of big trees, which we have mentioned before.  The house was not damaged, but at least a half a dozen of the fine trees of different varieties were uprooted and destroyed, including the 100-foot tall hickory, three feet in diameter at the base.

At the diversion of the Canandaigua road from Main street the storm evidently parted and took a northeastern route.  However the damage begon on the north side of the street one block back where the Masonic hall now used by the ladies of the Baptist church suffered damage with shingles ripped off the roof, windows blown out and other damages.

Next east, the John Shadbolt house received damages and as the storm came up Mrs. Shadbolt started up the stairway to look after the children.  Nine children were sleeping there.  She started to close the bedroom windows when a board came hurtling through the window striking her in the back; one daughter, Frances, was struck on the face by flying debris and cut slightly.  The entire roof of the house was carried away and the side walls ripped out.  Repairs to the house seem useless.  A barn in the rear was also leveled to the ground, but the debris so fell that it did not damage a Ford car much.  Mrs. Shadbolt’s husband was in Toledo at the time the storm came; he works in a Toledo factory.

The Ed. W. Smith home next east was badly damaged when two large trees toppled over into the roof.  The porch was crushed in and other damages done.  Next came the Elmira Hemmingway residence and here the division of the storm was marked for the house itself was not damaged, but shade trees on each side of the house were uprooted and denuded of foliage and shrubbery of all kinds was destroyed.  A small auto was turned over on its side.

The farmhouse of Samuel Fike was damaged somewhat, and a barn in the rear, forty by sixty feet was leveled to the ground.  The windows in the house occupied by Geo. Miller were blown out and shingles torn off.

 

Next came the fine farm home of Ralph Tew, who is well known as a chicken farmer, with several thousand of white leghorn pullets and young chickens just now being brought to maturity.  One chicken house 20 X 52 feet was swept clean of its foundations, blown several rods to and on top of a tool house demolishing it.  The northwest corner of the barn was also demolished.  West of the house six shade trees were blown down and destroyed, the yard was full of debris of all sorts and kinds.  A new wire fence on the west side of the farm had so much debris blown up against it that flattened to the ground and will have to be reset.  Mr. Tew counted __00 (cut off) pullets killed or maimed and he estimates his loss at about $1,000.

__ storm lifted after damaging his property and one mile east dipped

__ the farms of his two brothers, Miland and Alton Tew, where the big

__s so twisted with roofs town off and sidewalls and beams town out

__on as to be a total loss.  A toolshed, one hundred feet long was also

____ destroyed.  The next farm visited was John Roberts, two miles

__st, where the damage was comparatively slight.

(Last few lines of this article was cut off on far left side)

And a week later this article from Lenawee Historical Society Museum clipping:

Huff home, previously belonging to the Colvin family and believed to have been built by Dr. Carlos Hampton in the 1850's (present site of the Mero house) This house was a total loss despite the curtains still hanging inside--see cyclone panoramic view above.  Photo from Hudson Museum.

Unknown foundation.  Photo from Hudson Museum.

Looks like Almira Hemenway place, later known as the Bluntschley place. Photo from Hudson Museum. 

Once home of Ben Heydenberk and others, with a large barn in back once used as a cooper's shop (see panoramic cyclone view); at time of the cyclone it was the Edward W. Smith place.  Smith's family continued to live there and the house still exists on Main St. today with an enclosed porch. Photo from Hudson Museum.

Could be at Fike's (on Eagle St.) or Tew's (old Lyon farm on east Main St.) Photo from Hudson Museum.

Dillworth home on left (once the Fessendens and later home of cheese maker Fred Bryan);  Kime home on right (once home of shoemaker Mac McGibbon)  The Kime house was a total loss and the Tew benefit was held primarily for brother and sister Manly and Gertie Kime, whose  late father Chris Kime was a village blacksmith. Photo from Hudson Museum.

This appears to be the Shadbolt house from the looks of the front (see cyclone panoramic view) and from the presence of so many children.  Nine children were sleeping upstairs when roof was carried away (the side away from the camera) and sidewalls were ripped out.  This house was immediately west of the Smith/Heydenberk house with the damaged porch, on the corner of what was once Center St. and Main St.  It can also be seen in the Smith house photo above at far left.  The Shadbolt house was previously home to many including Dwight Buck, Edwin Carter, the Sharr's; it was usually associated with the workmen's shop or wagon or blacksmith shop to the rear.  Chris Kime used to live at the very rear of this section on the south side of Eagle St. Photo from Hudson Museum.

Not sure what house this is where the tree is uprooted. Believed to be in the village. Photo from Hudson Museum.

Believed to be Mary Norine McVay Blaker and friend, somewhere in Medina village.  Norine was in the village the night of the cyclone, and according to her daughter Sandy she stayed that night in a house that sustained damage.  Joyce felt one of these young women was their mother (see her photo at Find-a-Grave posted by Joyce).  I scanned as high as I could but could not get detailed enough.

Back of the photo says Near Hudson and 1928 Chevrolet.  The house looks nearly identical with dark siding (see Vintage Aerial, which I can't post as it's copyrighted) to the Burns place SW corner of Tomer and Bothwell.  I lived nearby and the upward sloping to the house looks right, though it's always possible it could be another place.