| Notes |
- LKH note:
Members of the Anthony Gritton family were victims when two tornadoes struck Indiana on 17 April 1922. Their tragic loss was highlighted in several newspaper articles which covered not only the event but also followed through with articles about the family's recovery and return to Indiana.
[10]
- Abridged from the Journal and Courier, Lafayette, Indiana. Tuesday, 18 April 1922.
Nine persons lost their lives, many other were seriously injured and much property was destroyed in a cyclone that visited Warren county late Monday afternoon, the terrific storm wiping out the village of Hedrick, six miles northwest of West Lebanon, where four of the storm victims met death, then swooping down on a settlement known as Soul Sweep Corner, two and a half miles east of Hedrick, where three were killed; and finally striking the Ulrich Hunter farm south of Judyville, where two lost their lives.
House Plows Furrow
At Soul Sweeper corner, the Gritton home in which two children lost their lives, was carried 50 feet from its foundation, and left completely shattered in a field. It plowed a deep furrow in the ground as it was swept along by the force of the storm. The body of Mrs. High, whose home was completely destroyed was found in the wreckage. The body of taken to the home of her father, Charles Wakely, in West Lebanon. The bodies of the Gritton children were taken to the Byers home west of the corner.
The Dead At Soul Sweeper Corner
Mrs. Gladys W. High, 34.
Paul E. Gritton, 6.
Ruth E. Griton, 3 months old.
Seriously Injured
Tony Gritton, father of children killed. He was a broken hip and ankle and is hurt internally.
Ivan, Harlan and Helen Gritton, of Soul Sweeper Corner, all badly injured and at Lakeview hospital, Danville, Ill. Ivan and Harlan are expected to die.
[LKH note: George Harlan Gritton and Helen Gritton survived their injuries.]
[11]
- Abridged from The Richmond Item, Richmond, Indiana. Wednesday, 19 April 1922.
At Pleasant View Corner, two miles distant, east, four were killed. Ruth E. Gritton, three months old, was on her mother’s lap, and Paul, six years old, was playing at his mother’s knee. The home was wrecked and the children blown into a hedge fence one hundred years away and killed. Mr. and Mrs. Gritton and three children are in a serious condition at a Danville, Ill., hospital. Across the road Mrs. Phillip High was killed outright and Joseph High fatally injured.
[11]
- Decatur Review | Decatur, Illinois | Wednesday, April 19, 1922 | Page 1
Danville TOLL 11.
Danville, IL, April 19.
With the death of Ivan Gntton, age 3 years, son of Mr. and Mrs Anthony Gntton, of Hedrick, Ind in a hospital here, the death list fiom the tornado of Monday afternoon was brought up to 11. Mr. and Mrs Gritton are in a local hospital suffeiing from injuries inflicted by the storm and are in a serious condition. Two other Gritton children were instantly killed.
VILLAGE ALMOST DESTROYED.
TEN DEAD IN AND NEAR HEDRICK -- SOME TRICKS OF THE WIND.
Danville, Ill., April 18. -- Ten persons are known to have been killed and 41 injured, several probably fatally, in a cyclone which swept across Champaign and Vermillion counties, Illinois, and Warren county, Indiana, late yesterday afternoon, doing damage estimated at a quarter of a million dollars.
The little village of Hedrick, Ind., was almost wiped out. Four houses and two churches, comprising a group known as Pleasant View Corner, were razed, and on the ULRICH HUNTER farm, five miles north of West Lebanon, Ind., three houses and many farm buildings were destroyed.
The following list of dead was compiled here:
MRS. ALBERT G. ANDERSON, Ogden, Ill.
GROVER JACKSON, Hedrick, Ind.
WILLIAM GRADY, Hedrick, Ind.
GRACE GRADY, Hedrick, Ind.
MRS. PHILIP HIGH, east of Hedrick, Ind.
MRS. JOHN MARSIE, on the HUNTER farm.
FLORENCE KUNTZ, 14, on the HUNTER farm.
PAUL GRITTON, six, east of Hedrick.
RUTH GRITTON, aged three months, east of Hedrick.
GOLDIE SMITH, 17, Hedrick.
Many of the seriously injured and others not so badly hurt were brought to Danville hospitals for treatment. Danville doctors were called to the storm center after it was reported and worked through the night.
MRS. ETTA HURLEY, who with her 16 year old daughter was alone in her home at Hedrick, was stripped of her dress, but only slightly injured.
The ten months old child of JAMES DOWNEY was blown from the house into a garden and deposited in the soft mud unhurt.
A garage was demolished by the storm at Fithian, Ill., and an automobile carried nearly a quarter of a mile and dropped in a pasture. A barn on the SCOTT PAGE farm was lifted and carried away, but the horses were left standing uninjured.
The barn at the home of THORNTON BAGLER was turned around on its foundation, but remains standing and is little damaged.
http://www3.gendisasters.com/illinois/11329/various-towns-il-in-tornadoes-apr-1922
[11]
- Abridged from the Journal and Courier, Lafayette, Indiana. Wednesday, 19 April 1922.
At the Gritton home.
Passing to the northeast, the storm exacted its next toll of human life at the home of Anthony Gritton. Paul, aged 6 years and Ruth E., aged three months, were killed. The children, with their mother, and two other brothers, Ivan and Harlan and a sister Helen, were all in the house. Baby Ruth was asleep in her mother's lap and little Paul was playing in the room. The children were carried from the house was was Mrs. Gritton. Baby Ruth was found wedged in a hedge fence and Paul was found dead near the hedge a hundred yards away. The clothes were blown from his tiny body and part of the underwear were buried in his flesh, together with mud and small rocks. The babe was still wrapped in the little blanket, but was lifeless when found by the family of Arnett Byers. The other three children were found in a field. Mrs. Gritton was also blown to the fields, and all of her clothes were blown away. Mr. Gritton and George Hurst, a farm hand, were near the barn and were caught in the storm. Mr. Gritton's foot was broken and he was hurt internally. Hurst suffered a fractured shoulder. They were all taken to the Lake View hospital at Danville.
[11]
- abridged from the Journal and Courier, Lafayette, Indiana. 20 April 1922.
Many funerals
Funeral services were scheduled throughout the day. The first service was held at 8:30 o'clock this morning at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Arnet Byers, near Pleasant View and "Soul Sleeper's" corner, two and a half miles east of here. Side by side in one coffin lay the bodies of the three children of Mr. and Mrs. Anthony Gritton. The bodies of baby Ruth, 3 months, and Paul E., 6 years, were taken to the Byers home following the storm, and when little Ivan, 3 years old, died Tuesday night his body also was taken to the Byers home. Scores of relatives and friends attended the services which were very impressive.
[11]
- Abridged from the Journal and Courier, Lafayette, Indiana. Wednesday, 19 April 1922.
Hedrick, Ind., April 19. - The survivors in the storm country around Hedrick and Pleasant View or "Soul Sleeper" corner, where eight lives were snuffed out by the cyclone that passed over the western part of Warren county Monday evening, are today arranging for the funerals of the victims. The funerals of three will be held on Thursday, and perhaps more.
Ivan Gritton, another son of Mr. and Mrs. Anthony Gritton, residing in the Pleasant View neighborhood, succumbed to injuries last night at 8:30 o'clock at the Lake View hospital in Danville. Word from the hospital today was to the effect that Helen, the youngest surviving child, is also in a critical condition. Mr. and Mrs. Gritton and Harlan, another boy, are doing well and it believed, will recover.
[11]
- Journal and Courier, Lafayette, Indiana. Friday, 5 May 1922.
Woman hurt in storm is dying. Mrs. Anthony Gritton, who lost three children at Hedrick, develops lockjaw.
Mrs. Anthony Gritton, of Hedrick, Ind., who was badly injured in the big cyclone Monday evening, April 17, when two of her children were killed and the third fatally injured, is at the point of death at Lakeview, Danville, Ill., with lockjaw. The anti-tetanus serum treatment seems to have little effect and physicians and nurses hold out little hope for her recovery.
Mrs. Gritton developed blood poisoning a few days after the accident, but the presence of tetanus was not noted until some time afterward. On account of her poor physical condition the disease made rapid progress.
Her six-year-old son, Paul Gritton, was instantly killed in the blow and three-months-old baby Ruth was also found dead among some debris in the field, and a four-year-old son, Ivan, died at Lakeview hospital the next day.
[11]
- Gritton
Anthony D. "Pop" Gritton, 81, of 1713 E. William St. died 8 a.m. Friday in St. Mary's Hospital.
Funeral services will be 2 p.m. Monday in the Fisher Funeral Home in West Lebanon, Ind.
Friends may call in Brintlinger's Funeral Home after 6 p.m. Sunday, where Masonic services will be conducted at 8:30 p.m. Sunday by the Stephen Decatur Lodge 979, AF&AM. Burial will be in West Lebanon Cemetery, West Lebanon, Ind. Memorial: Macon County Heart Association.
Mr. Gritton was born in Champaign County, a son of Charles and Hannah M. Gritten Gritton.
He was a member of the Prairie Avenue Christian Church and Stephen Decatur Lodge 979, AF&AM. He also belonged to the Springfield Consistory.
Mr. Britton built and sold birdhouses as a hobby after he retired. He had been a car repairman and inspector for Wabash Railroad Co.
He was married to Bessie Heck in Warren County, Ind. Dec. 20, 1914.
Surviving are his wife; daughters, Mrs. Robert (Helen) Reynolds of Garden Grove, Calif., Mrs. Charles (Edna) Wells of Macon, Mrs. Jack (Esther) Carrier and Mrs. Fred (Leora) Birch, both of Decatur; sisters, Mrs. Albert (Anna_ Klage and Mrs. Kae Linck, both of Danville; brothers, Shelby of Penfield and Orsmus, Danville; 13 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
Three sons, one daughter, five sisters and sic brother preceded him in death.
The Decatur Daily Review, Decatur, Illinois. Saturday, 10 February 1973.
[4, 11]
|
1891 - 1973 (81 years)
[1, 2, 3, 4] 
: Address
: Location
: City/Town
: County/Shire
: State/Province
: Country
: Not Set