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.

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

"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.

Present school complex at Slocum
Photo courtesy Sandy Fiedler, 2001

Townspeople quickly rebuilt Slocum.

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.

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

More:
Texas Storms | Texas Disasters

East Texas Towns | Texas Towns A -Z

Texas Escapes, in its purpose to preserve historic, endangered and vanishing Texas, asks that anyone wishing to share their local history and vintage/historic photos, please contact us.