Zephyr, Texas was a quiet little town of several hundred residents when on early Sunday morning of May 30, 1909 a late spring storm generated a tornado a little after Saturday at midnight. The tornado was rated F4 under the old Fujita scale (winds exceeding 200 mph). Virtually all the structures in town were affected in some way. Destruction was described as having completely destroyed some fifty residences, six businesses, two churches and the high school. The casualty totals usually cited are 34 deaths and 70 or more injured. The twister appears to have formed to the southwest of town and touched down long enough to damage most of the residential and business areas. A lightning strike started a lumber yard fire that spread to other businesses. Tornado survivors had no way to fight the flames as they spread. Heavy hail was reported in the surrounding areas as well.
Zephyr is an unincorporated community in Central Texas. The town was initially located on the banks of Blanket Creek around 1850. Settlers began to arrive over the next few years. The word “zephyr” refers to a soft, gentle wind. The legend is that its name was given by surveyors who took shelter there during a harsh winter storm. Its first school was built in the 1870s followed by stores and a post office a few years later. In the 1880s a predecessor of the Santa Fe Railroad laid its tracks nearby and the small business district moved to be closer to the tracks. Zephyr is located about twelve miles to the southeast of Brownwood in Brown County, currently on US highway 84/183 which connects Brownwood to Goldthwaite.
The morning after the storm, Texas newspapers began to describe the event. A special report out of Temple was carried in the Houston Post issue of May 30, 1909. It estimated the deaths at fifteen to twenty souls. Noting that railroad wires were still working, if intermittently, communication was limited to reporting the damage and requesting assistance. Medical personnel began to make their way to Zephyr on railroad handcars.
Quoting the above article:
“Coming with a roar that caused sleeping citizens to wake with a start, they scrambled out of bed, only to be caught beneath the tottering walls of their homes. In a short while there were scenes of wildest excitement and terror from end to end of the village.
Weeping women and children, clad in the scantiest of attire, sought loved ones from whom they had become separated or looking for places of shelter from the merciless storm.”
Trains left nearby towns in the early morning hours carrying relief personnel and supplies for the victims. Initial reports were confusing as some who were believed to have died were found to have survived. In other cases, fatalities were located and identified. Some victims were found as many as two miles away from their homes. Several articles noted that there were initially not enough caskets to accommodate the number of fatalities. Early reports estimated the property damage to exceed $100,000 and contributions began to come in by the people of Brownwood and other neighboring towns.
The next day, May 31, 1909, the Brownwood Daily Bulletin carried first hand accounts of the situation. When the relief train from Brownwood first reached Zephyr witnesses were shocked that the damage was even more severe than they expected. The town had the appearance as though a giant rolling machine had cut a path 75 to 150 yards wide. The structures looked as if they had been smashed into the ground. In the vernacular of the day, heavy timbers from the buildings were snapped in two and ground into kindling; not even a piece of some houses remained where they had stood only hours earlier. Some of the dead were still trapped under rubble. Surviving homes had been turned into morgues and hospitals. Early on, there was only one physician who could attend them until more doctors, surgeons and nurses could arrive by train Sunday afternoon. Everything that could be done, was being done to alleviate the suffering of the victims.
These are some of the personal stories in the Brownwood Daily Bulletin article. Some residents had stayed up watching the clouds. No one mentioned seeing a funnel cloud bearing down on Zephyr. Instead they described the tornado as resembling a massive electric battery, spewing out charges like lightning as it rolled through the town destroying everything as it progressed. The deafening roar of wind along with the cracking and crumbling of the buildings was nightmarish as the deadly debris was blown about. Some noted that the atmosphere felt like it was charged with electricity.
Those who perished include the county clerk of Brown County. He had gone to Zephyr on Saturday afternoon to spend Sunday with his parents. He and his father were killed and about a dozen other family members were injured. The wife of an instructor at the school and her young son initially survived but both soon succumbed to their injuries. The family of the local constable all survived. A family consisting of a parents and four children lost the father and three of the children. The surviving child suffered a severe leg wound from debris. A husband, wife and pre teen son were known to be killed. The body of their three year old was not recovered. Of this family of five, only an eight year old child survived. An older couple, husband and wife, were both killed. An unmarried adult woman having two sisters in town died. A man and his son were both killed. They had only lived in Zephyr for about a month. The family of another instructor at the school suffered losses. Their two year old son and the mother died. The instructor was seriously injured and died a few days later, leaving three children. About a dozen more individuals perished in the storm or shortly thereafter.
There were also some miraculous stories of survival. In one home, some twelve people were sleeping when the twister hit. The home was entirely destroyed. Some of those inside suffered only slight wounds while four were completely uninjured. Another family of ten were caught when their storm shelter caved in. Amazingly none of them suffered any injuries. A man was at the local wagon yard. One of his horses was killed, the other was crippled and his new wagon was completely destroyed. He was seriously bruised, but survived.
Some of the relief efforts were described. There was debris to be removed and the area was guarded against onlookers who might be inclined to pick up souvenirs. Brownwood movie theaters were all asked to give up one night’s revenue to raise funds. Residents who were able were allowed to begin cleaning up around their homes. Relatives came from out of town to check on their family members. Sometimes they received the happy news that their relatives had survived. Other times the visitors received the difficult word that their relatives had died. Still others arrived only to learn that their loved ones were injured but had been sent as far away as Temple, over sixty miles away, for treatment.
The storm will never be forgotten, but the Zephyr community was rebuilt. Its population has varied over the years, but recently has been around two to three hundred.
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