Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 January 1904 — TOWN IS BLOWN A WAY [ARTICLE]

TOWN IS BLOWN A WAY

MANY PERSONS KILLED IN ALABAMA CYCLONE. Little Town of Moundville Destroyed by . Tornado Other Places in the State Are Swept by the Wind—lce Gorges Cause Floods. The entire population of the little town of Moundville, in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, was reported annihilated in a tornado which swept that part.of the State at 2 o’clock Friday morning. Officials of the Alabama Great Southern Railroad at Birmingham received a message by way of Selm,a from Conductor Capehart of a north-bound passenger train, dated at Akron, saying that when his train reached Moundville shortly before 3 o’clock in the morning he was unable to pass because of wreckage on the track. He says the entire north end of the town of Moundville was wrecked by the tornado and that practically the entire population of tliU-place was killed. Moundville is a town of about 300 people on the line between Hale and Tuscaloosa counties. It is seventy miles southwest of Birmingham and about fifteen miles south of Tuscaloosa. A tornado struck the suburban town of North Birmingham and demolished or damaged thirty-six houses, most of which were negro cabins, A number of industrial plants were also slightly damaged by having.stacks blown down. The store of Posey Bros, was destroyed. There were a number of narrow escapes.