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09-17-01 |
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| The photo is looking north on Main Street, The Ratchford house still standing. The building turned over was a storage house for the town's horse drawn hearse. The photo was made before the highway from Denton came through. |
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James Harmon came in on Tuesday morning of last week, needing some paint to paint his Tipi that he built a couple of months ago out north of town on his ranch. He was the first person that told me about the trade center towers being blown to bits by an explosion caused by airplanes that hit the building, destroying all people and property in its pathway. My heart began to hurt as it had just been hours before this that John, Deborah and Holly had boarded a plane in New York to return home to DFW. Only a few more hours and then they could have been too close to call. But we can think of the horror, and the people being blown to bits amongst the rubble and the more we think about this cowardly act on human life, and that this is a reality and that anything can happen as the many thousands of lives were snuffed out in just a few seconds. I couldn’t serve on a jury for the conviction of these cowards, because my mind is already made. And if this was a Godly act, it would make us say "Why" and then wonder about the wrath of the Great Creator. But this didn’t happen by a Godly Act and our hearts grow even heavier. My prayers are that God’s wrath be upon those that committed this stupid and careless desire of one or a few isolated individuals. I am reminded of a huge Godly Act that occurred in our town, even though it happened twelve years before I was born. I can still remember how the older folks talked about the tornado that came to Aubrey on April 18, 1918 at about 9 o’clock on a Sunday night. God’s love for the people of Aubrey spared the lives of everyone in the town during this disaster. From the Aubrey Argus local paper the following story appeared: The Aubrey Argus , Volume 4, Number 1, April 19, 1918. Aubrey Struck by Severe Storm Sunday Night Almost Every House in Town Damaged: Some Complete Wrecks; No Lives Lost About 9 o’clock Sunday night Aubrey was visited by a severe storm, the worst that has ever been known in the history of the town. The cloud came from the southwest and covered a narrow strip. It reached over the entire width of Aubrey, and practically every house in town was wrecked to some extent. A number were torn completely down. The little place of Mingo was wiped off the map. The large house and barn of L.G. Caddell, southwest of town were torn down and some of his livestock were killed. In the town of Aubrey the damage was heavy. Northeast of Aubrey as far as Friendship community thre was considerable damage done. The large number of awnings in the business part of town were blown down, and part of the brick walls at the First Guaranty State Bank, John B. Ratchford’s and the Argus office were blown down. A number of business houses’ roofs were damaged. The Methodist and Christian churches were completely ruined. Jim Covington and Homer Boswell were in the latter buiilding when the crash came, but escaped uninjured. The Baptist church was slightly damaged. The roof and part of the walls of the Aubrey Public School building were blown away, and part of the brick landed on Joe Wright’s house, caving in the roof. Among the houses that were completely wrecked were L.G. Caddell’s large house and barn (he had two rooms left), a tenant house on Mr. Caddell’s place, and occupied by Robert Sims, the house that stood on the Henderson old place and occupied by Frank Caddell, six tenant houses owned by T.L. Mullins, the resident of W.T. Wilson in the north part of town, the house of Mrs. Green in the Belew Community, the house of Ben Morris northeast of town, the house of John Wright in the Friendship community was blown down and burned, and the house occupied by C.W. Hooper on the P.J. Henderson farm in the east part of town, Dr. J.E. Copenhaver’s house, J.W. Boner’s house, the house of John Mann in the Belew Community. The Methodist Parsonage and the house in the west part of town owned by the Farmers and Merchants State Bank are wrecked so badly that they have to be rebuilt. One remarkable thing about the storm was that no one was killed. Quite a number of people were in their houses when they were wrecked. Among those who were hurt are Ben Morris, head and arms hurt; Mrs. Morris, slightly hurt; Morris child, collar bone broken; Mrs. Green, cut on breast; Mrs. John Mann, foot broken. |
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