Dallas Morning News
April 10, 1919

HEAVY STORM DAMAGE SUFFERED IN GRAYSON
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One Man Killed, Many Injured and Numerous Buildings Wrecked or Damaged.
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Special to The News

SHERMAN, Texas, April 0. -- A storm of cyclonic proportions struck Grayson County on the eastern edge last night at 12:45 o'clock, causing at least one death and much property damage.
The storm seems to have struck at Delba, a small community south of Trenton in Hunt county, first, and traveled north and slightly northeast, leaving the ground and passing over Whitewright and striking the ground again at Canaan, one of the oldest communities in Grayson County. Here six residences, the gin, store house and other buildings were literally blown away. Grover Atnip, 35 years
of age, living on the Floyd Everheart farm, was killed.  His body was found fifty feet from his residence, with a crushed skull and badly lacerated arm.  Mrs. Atnip and her two children are also seriously injured.  Their recovery is very doubtful.
A southbound Katy freight train was hit full force by the cyclone and thirty-three box cars were turned over, some of them being blown quite a distance from the track.  The engine stayed on the track, but the engineer, conductor and one brakeman were bruised.  The conductor and brakeman were taken to Denison and the Engineer to Whitewright.  The train was a merchandise train.
J. W. Taylor's house at Canaan was blown down and ten members of the family were hurt.  It was miraculous that there were no deaths for the house was a total wreck.
Dave Alverson's house was blown down, but the eight members of the family had gone to a storm house and escaped injury.
The Presbyterian Church, the school house, Vaughn & White gin, the pump house and storage warehouse were totally wrecked.
A house occupied by a family by the name of Clark was blown away, but the family had gone into a stormhouse and were not hurt.
A large crew of Mexicans had been engaged in track work and were camped at Canaan.  Their house was blown away and nine of them were taken to Denison for surgical treatment.

Depot Wrecked at Trenton

Just south of Bells the tenant houses occupied by four negro families were demolished.  Six negroes were more or less hurt, none seriously.
East of Whitewright, great damage was wrought.  On the farm of Tom May the house was blown down.  Mr. May was injured, his skull being crushed.  His wife and two children were also badly hurt.
At the Joe May place east of Whitewright the house was blown away and Mrs. W.H.Horton was seriously hurt, the two children painfully hurt.  Mr. Horton was only slightly bruised.
The Dee German farm house, one mile southeast of Whitewright, was blown away, but the family escaped by going into the stormhouse.
At Delba twenty-three houses are reported to have been blown from their blocks and one woman is reported to have been killed.  However, all wires are down and the road to Delba is almost impassable.
At Trenton the Katy depot was wrecked and twenty other buildings, including the large concrete garage of Marshall Davis, the furniture store of Clint McMillin and the Hill gin, were wrecked.  It was stated that about fifty people were more or less injured but that only one man was seriously hurt.  His name could not be learned.
On the Oliver farm, six miles south of Canaan, the Ellis Eillion farmhouse was blown down.  The family had gone into a stormhouse and escaped injury.
A Tenant house on the farm of S.P.Sears, east of Whitewright, was demolished.  No one was hurt.
On the T.H.Sears farm east of Whitewright a large number of barns and other outbuildings were demolished.
At the Ad Vestal farm, two miles southeast of Whitewright, the house was wrecked, as was also the Dave Lyon house.  Both families suffered only slight injuries.
On W.A.Kirkpatrick's farm, east of Whitewright, the barn was demolished and several smaller outhouses blown away.  All were in the stormhouse and no one was hurt.

Mulberry Nearly Wiped Out
The houses and barns on the Dick Pennington farm, east of Whitewright, were demolished.  The stormhouse saved the families.
Jackson Baird, with the G.B.R.Smith Milling Company of Sherman, received a phone message from his sister, Mrs. Gober of Bonham.  She stated that the little community of Mulberry, fourteen miles north of Bonham, had practically been wiped out.  The reports were that several had been killed and many hurt.
North of Ector the farm house of March Huffaker, a prominent farmer, was leveled and his two sons were killed.

Building Damaged at Gunter
Gunter, Grayson County, was struck by the storm.  Among the property damaged was the Brown grain elevator, Lyon-Gray Lumber Company, Lon Tuck warehouse, Baptist Church badly damaged, Methodist Church almost a complete wreck. John Day's residence badly damaged, fry Hotel blown from its foundation, Day Hotel had its top wrecked, fire walls were blown from a number of brick buildings and many houses were stripped of part of their rooms.
A torrent of rain fell and there was a great electrical display.  The path of the storm was only about 300 feet wide, but it took most everything in its path where it swept the earth.

TWO KILLED AT CANAAN AND TOWN SWEPT AWAY
(Special to The News)

Denison, Texas, April 9 - The storm-swept district of Canaan, seventeen miles southeast of Denison on the Katy, was viewed today by many Denison people who visited the place in automobiles.  The dead number two.  The body of a Mexican laborer was found buried under the heavy timbers of a car body.  A Mexican woman was also found this morning, adding to the list of injured from the Canaan district.

Grover Atnip was killed outright when he attempted to leave his home with his wife and two sons to seek shelter in a near-by storm cellar, but the storm caught him before he could reach the place of refuge.  The body of Atnip was found near a small creek several hundred yards from the spot where his house once stood.

Mrs. Atnip and sons, Wayne, aged 10, and his brother, aged 5, were taken to Whitewright for treatment. Eight Mexicans, injured when their section house was blown away, were brought to Denison, together with Conductor Kent and Brakeman Mitchell, who were on a Katy freight train wrecked by the storm.  Mitchell was severely cut about the face and hands by flying glass broken from the caboose as it rolled down an embankment.

The freight train was traveling southbound, having thirty-two cars.  The storm swept all but five cars from the track, turning many heavily loaded box cars over and blowing them from twenty to sixty feet from the track.  The cars carried merchandise, coal and gasoline.