GOSHEN VALLEY – On Sunday morning in the small community of Goshen, history repeated itself. Today we call it a tornado, but on Feb. 19, 1884, the community of Goshen was ripped apart by what was then called a cyclone. The effects were nearly the same. On that day, 15 died.
``Where the tornado hit in the Goshen community in 1884 - I don't have any doubt that it's the same community,'' said Mitch Brown, a historian who teaches at Talladega College.
In 1991, Brown and the AlaBenton Genealogical Society compiled information about the 1884 cyclone.
The storm began in the Gulf of Mexico, splitting in half. One half went northeast up the Chattahoochee Valley, spun west to hit Birmingham and turned back east, going into Cross Plains - now Piedmont - and on into Rome, Ga., and across the Georgia counties of Bartow, Pickens and Cherokee. The other half cut eastward.
That storm killed 200 people in Alabama and Georgia.
GOSHEN HAD more than its share of casualties. The cyclone touched down at the Germania Tan Yard and moved east, destroying Mathew's Mill and Furniture.
The school house run by Principal Allie S. Johnson ``was blown to atoms,'' according to an article in The Anniston Hot Blast. But neither Johnson nor the 25 students received more than bruises.
The Piedmont Journal-Independent reported that the wind blew hard enough to strip area chickens of their feathers.
``Where large two-story houses crowned the knolls up the valley, nothing was left but a few torn timbers,'' said an article in the Atlanta Constitution five days later. ``Within a space of four or five miles by one-half mile, 15 persons were killed No less than 60 are wounded.''
While the mountains protected Anniston, John H. Hall, mayor of Cross Plains, sent a frantic letter asking Anniston Mayor T.H. Hopkins for help.
``Dear Sir: A most disastrous cyclone passed along through Goshen Valley near our town yesterday p.m. leaving death and destruction in its path. What aid will your city render in relieving the distressed survivors?''
Sunday's tornado left Brown wondering if history is cyclical. While he doesn't have an answer, he believes ``people should have been aware of that other tornado.''
SOME OF Alabama's worst tornadoes in this century:
March 21, 1932, two waves of tornadoes killed more than 300 people across the state.
April 3, 1974, at least seven tornadoes cut a swath across north Alabama, killing 86 people, 28 of them in Guin.
April 4, 1977, tornadoes killed 23 people in the Birmingham area.
March 27, 1994, tornadoes hit throughout Alabama, leaving 23 people dead.
Nov. 15, 1989, a tornado killed 18 people in Huntsville.
May 27, 1973, a tornado killed eight people in west Alabama, five of them in Brent.
April 1, 1991 - Good Friday - a tornado killed five people in Munford.
Aug. 16, 1986, a tornado killed three people in Piedmont after high winds snapped a tree limb which crushed a car.
Dec, 3, 1983, a tornado killed two people in Oxford after hitting a Winn-Dixie and Sky City in Blue Pond.
Jan. 18, 1990, a tornado killed one person in Mellow Valley in Clay County. For more, visit the Palm Sunday Special Section.
