Tri-State Tornado's 100-year records hold – Princeton Clarion
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Updated: April 6, 2025 @ 10:23 am
The front page of the March 19, 1925 edition of The Princeton Clarion-News delivers the first reports of the destruction caused by the Tri-State Tornado of March 18, 1925.
Images of the destruction from the Tri-State Tornado of March 18, 1925, published in the March 1927 editions of The Princeton Clarion-News.
Photos published in the Princeton Clarion-News in the days following the Tri-State Tornado of March 18, 1925.
Images of the tornado damage published in The Princeton Clarion-News of March 1925.
Editor, The Daily Clarion
The front page of the March 19, 1925 edition of The Princeton Clarion-News delivers the first reports of the destruction caused by the Tri-State Tornado of March 18, 1925.
Images of the destruction from the Tri-State Tornado of March 18, 1925, published in the March 1927 editions of The Princeton Clarion-News.
Photos published in the Princeton Clarion-News in the days following the Tri-State Tornado of March 18, 1925.
Images of the tornado damage published in The Princeton Clarion-News of March 1925.
PRINCETON — A historical marker is dedicated in the Baldwin Heights subdivision Tuesday afternoon at 4:15 p.m., the approximate time the deadly Tri-State Tornado destroyed the south side of Princeton 100 years ago.
A century later, the tornado retains notoriety as the longest in duration, traveling the longest distance of 219 miles across multiple states in 3 1/2 hours; the fastest tornado averaging 62 mph but reaching 73 mph; the deadliest tornado, killing 695 people; the most destructive tornado, leveling 15,000 homes with winds that may have exceeded 300 mph.
On that day, Princeton’s south end was bustling at the H.J. Heinz factory just off South Main Street and the Norfolk Southern train shops.
The Clarion-News produced a special extra the morning after, reporting “racing cross winds suddenly swooped from a sky of ominous blackness and whirling into a funnel began lapping up buildings…The talons of the wind seized and tore asunder the great H.J. Heinz plant. Homes whirled up in kindling wood, the roaring mist sucked at everything in its path, literally devastating the Southern railroad shops…”
The newspaper reported that for a moment after its passing, there was silence. “The central and northern part of the city hardly guessed what had happened. Then began the ringing of telephone bells and presently cars began rushing up Main Street, Hart Street, Prince Street, Gibson, Seminary and Race. Many of these cars were battered and broken; they bore a freight of dazed and bleeding human beings. They rushed to doctor’s offices, they rushed to the hospital, steadily the stream of maimed — men, women and children — kept growing.”
F.F. Felts, superintendent of the Heinz plant, was in the building when the tornado hit, but escaped injury. “We had 75 persons, men and women, in the factory and about fifteen in the greenhouses. The latter were leveled,” he told The Clarion while spending the night at the hospital with his injured family.
The community organized a food committee for relief at Memorial Methodist Church at Gibson and Illinois Streets to serve the affected neighborhoods. The Elks Home opened and offered shelter as well.
With a shortage of doctors to attend to all of the injured, physicians from Vincennes, Petersburg, Oakland City and other places responded. Two morgues were filled to capacity, and undertakers from Petersburg and Vincennes responded to help.
Roy Montgomery, an employee of The Clarion-News, had just reached his home in Baldwin Heights when the crash came. With his family around him, he saw his home blown to pieces. He and his family escaped injury.
The newspaper reported that south of Christian Street, it was doubtful that a whole home remained. “There must be 500 wrecked homes in the South Side. There must be 1,500 persons homeless. At least 200 persons were injured,” The Clarion-News reported.
In all of the destruction, there were stories of miraculous escapes. Thomas Deeson told the newspaper that he left home at 3 p.m. but when he returned, his car was wrecked and his home leveled. The wind blew down the walls of his house while his wife and children huddled inside. “They were huddled against one of the walls. It fell. That baby’s high chair standing there caught the wall and not one of them was hurt,” he said.
George White, 18, was driving a grocery truck in the south part of Princeton when he saw the tornado coming. He lay down in the bed of the truck, which was in the path of the worst wind, and the top was torn from the vehicle. White was stripped of his clothing, hurled through the air and sustained three broken ribs. Rescue parties found him, wrapped him in a blanket and rushed him uptown for medical assistance.
While the tornado didn’t hit Owensville with full force, the north side of town felt some of the fury of the wind. The library in Owensville was in use as a hospital. The family of Elvis Williams north of Owensville was wiped out by the twister, with the exception of two children who had not yet made it home from school. Town officials estimated 19 people dead, several hundred injured, 50 local buildings wrecked and 75 farm homes badly damaged with another 15 farm homes demolished.
The tornado lifted the Christian Church from its foundation and carried it across the street, while Owensville school windows were blown out.
Directly east of Princeton, houses and big barns were laid flat at the Nash farm. The McRoberts brick house on the top of the hill was leveled to the foundation. Wind damaged the Sam Spence house and at Seminole, all buildings were flattened.
Battery D of the 139th Field Artillery Princeton National Guard Unit organized to patrol the devastated areas and assist in rescue work. Stretchers from the South Main Street armory were rushed to Baldwin Heights and cots and blankets taken to Methodist Hospital.
A continuous string of automobiles was pouring into the city and forced military authorities to close Main Street to traffic. Guards armed with rifles and revolvers had instructions to permit no one to enter the area.
RECOVERY EFFORTS
Princeton Mayor Niemeier and the Red Cross called a meeting of citizens in the Hotel Kidd to further organize relief work. The committee issued an appeal across the nation for donations to raise $100,000 to help rebuild homes. Among those responding to the call was John E. Butler of Franklin, Pennsylvania, the drummer boy of Civil War fame, extending sympathy to Princeton and Gibson County and authorizing a draft of $100.
Indiana Farm Bureau opened a relief depot in the county agent’s office, sponsored by Sears-Roebuck Agricultural Relief Association, to care for stricken farm families and provide supplies including tents, stores, blankets and clothing.
As the recovery effort progressed, Princeton officials devised a unique fundraising event, planning an automobile tour of the affected areas.
Governor Ed. Jackson toured the area on Sunday, March 22. The March 23 edition of The Clarion-News reported the auto tour drew thousands of vehicles that Sunday, assisted with traffic control by 11 Evansville police officers and National Guardsmen.
It was estimated that between 100,000 and 150,000 visitors were in Princeton that day, traveling in about 20,000 automobiles bearing license plates from Illinois, Ohio, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Michigan and even Florida. Outside Princeton in the late forenoon, families parked their cars and many ate their dinners there.
The visitors left donations of $3,595.63 at relief stations set up in the area.
Animals from devastated farms were wandering about the city in the midst of the tours, the newspaper reported.
Editor, The Daily Clarion
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