| Notes |
- Anthony and Bessie Gritton’s family was in the path of the April 1922 tornado outbreak that swept across Indiana.
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.]
[5]
- Decatur Review | Decatur, Illinois | Wednesday, April 19, 1922 | Page 1
Danville TOLL 11.
Danville, IL, April 19.
With the death of Ivan Gritton, age 3 years, son of Mr. and Mrs. Anthony Gritton, of Hedrick, Ind in a hospital here, the death list from the tornado of Monday afternoon was brought up to 11. Mr. and Mrs. Gritton are in a local hospital suffering from injuries inflicted by the storm and are in a serious condition. Two other Gritton children were instantly killed.
[5]
- 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.
[5]
- 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.
[5]
- Gritton.
Mrs. Anthony "Tony" (Bessie A. Heck) Gritton, 90, of Decatur died 11:49 p.m. Thursday (June 9, 1988) in St. Mary's Hospital.
Services will be 8 p.m. Sunday in Brintlinger's Funeral Home, with visitation 6 to 8 p.m. Sunday. Graveside services will be 11 a.m. Monday in West Lebanon Cemetery, West Lebanon, Ind. Memorial: Prairie Avenue Christian Church or Crestview Christian Church.
Mrs. Gritton was born in Brown County, Ind., daughter of Alva E. and Laura S. Heck. She was a member of Prairie Avenue Christian Church. She married Anthony D. Gritton in 1914. She died in 1973. [HE died in 1973].
Surviving are her daughters, Mrs. Glenn (Helen) James and Mrs. Jac R. (Esther) Carrier, both of Decatur; Mrs. Charles (Edna) Wells of Macon; Mrs. W. Fred (Leora) Birch of Cline; sisters Mrs. Jasper (Ella Mae) Pullen of Fort Lauderdale, Pla., Lorene Hetrick of West Lebanon; 12 grandchildren; 28 great-grandchildren; one great-great-grandchild.
Two sons, one daughter, two sisters, one brother and one grandson preceded her in death.
Herald and Review, Decatur, Illinois. Saturday, 11 June 1988.
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1897 - 1988 (90 years)
[1, 2, 3, 4] 
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