09/05/2026
I posted the same thing last year as this is the anniversary of the 1933 tornado. I strive to be the "storm historian" in Russell County scavenging for details, new evidence and stories of the storms that have torn through our communities. This violent tornado also impacted Adair, Cumberland, Monroe and Russell Counties. As you read the story about Granny Shearer and the cats and the premonition of something bad coming, that will keep you focused to the end.
Keep in mind, from all indication, there was a horrible flood that made things even worse, little to no light at night, the worst conditions and stories of survival.
May 9, 1933, 93 years ago this month, the worst natural disaster in its history came thru Russell County. This event began in Tompkinsville, moved thru Cumberland County and a small section of Adair County and shortly after, tore through Russell County.
Leading up to the tornado entering Russell County, we have relied on notes that have been handed down thru many generations. An Emerson family reunion scrapbook tells how restless the cats of Tabitha “Granny” Shearer were. They were running crazy in the house, climbing the curtains and walls. Her grandson Frank Lawless put them outside.
It was Commencement Week, and that night was also Class Night at Russell Springs High School and three children of Abrose and Kate Smith’s had planned to attend. Ruby, one of the children, told her mother that she didn’t want to go to the program that night their mother told them she had made new dresses for them and they were going to go.
Kate, the mother, also went on to say “Now, when you get back, I won’t be here. Your daddy will be hurt, but he will be alright.“ Now, if that isn’t enough to give you cold chills, nothing will. Kate went on to say, “If some of the family wants to take you all, have them take all three of you, I don’t want you all split up.”
The three kids headed out to the school, unaware of the approaching storm. Meanwhile, in Tompkinsville, the calm was shattered when a tornado touched down just southwest of town and moved northeast, directly into southern sections of the city. The path of utter destruction, in which everything was flattened, was a quarter mile wide. A tattered Kentucky Advocate Newspaper says 17 people died in Monroe County.
The tornado continued, crossing Cumberland County where two people injured and clipping the southeast corner of Adair County, 2 people killed in the Cundiff area with comparatively little damage, before intensifying again as it entered Russell County.
The tornado grew into a mile-wide monster as it plowed down at least 100 homes. The edge of the tornado missed downtown Russell Springs by about 2 miles. The tornado spent its last fury east of Russell Springs, causing damage along Goose Creek, near Friendship Church, and on the southern end of Bethany Ridge where chickens were stripped of their feathers.
The tornado lifted at the Casey County line. Fatality counts for Russell County vary from 14 to 20 depending on the source. Of those killed, 14 were killed on the southeast edge of Russell Springs and up to 100 people may have been injured in Russell County.
When the storm passed, history has it that it poured rain and places were flooded considering most roadways were dirt. At this point everyone began putting together the pieces. Mr. Ambrose Smith could be heard down in the field praying, “Oh, God Almighty! Have mercy on us!” His children, who had gone to the school event, were striving frantically to get home.
At that time, highway 80 was being built, and they had to detour to get home via Highway 76 in the Font Hill Community. When they reached the creek under the hill a short distance from the house, the water was too high for them to cross. A man with a pickup was waiting to take people across.
Ruby Smith, which is Ambrose’s daughter, recalled there were seven in the pickup truck, but it drowned out and they sat there until 4:30 the next morning.
They searched frantically for their parents. There was nothing left of their farm, no house or barns, everything was gone. Ambrose Smith was found by Lester Foley a quarter of a mile from their house in a brooder house. When they found him, he was unconscious and had multiple injuries and was taken to a Louisville Hospital for surgery where he remained unconscious for nine weeks.
Ruby said she started back to tell someone that her father had been found and as she walked through a field, she saw a new Dutch girl quilt which she recognized as one her mother had just finished and given to her, she lifted the quilt and found her mother’s body and about a fourth of a mile away they found the body of her little sister, Odine.
Rabon Smith says his dad told him, the last thing he remembered was trying to hold the door of the house closed when the tornado hit.
Another account told us was finding a newborn baby identified as Uvadell York hanging from a willow tree near a spring just east of Friendship Cemetery and the baby was alive.
One thousand chickens from the brooder house were blown away; the ones that were found later were stripped of their feathers. Fence posts were blown flat and wire connected to the posts was literally shredded among the debris of homes, barns and personal property. It looked like a war zone.
Remember the two cats that were wild in Granny Shearer’s house, reports are one was never seen again and one came home several days later looking like it had been through a wringer.
Mr. Smith didn’t know right away of the passing of his wife. On July 9, 1933, Mr. Smith wrote a letter to his wife, Kate. He told how his arm had not healed, that he was feeling fine and had been eating better and had a desire to eat. The main object of his letter, as he wrote, he wanted his wife to come at once. “I know I never did want to see you as bad,” Mr. Smith wrote. He wanted to see the children and ended by saying, “I am looking for you, don’t fail me,” signed, your loving daddy.
Other accounts come from Bro. Monroe Robertson who says Ada Shepherd was seriously injured and her son Rudy was missing. He was later found alive, uninjured, face up in water.
Fifteen year old Artis Ragle, who would later be Russell County Sheriff, recalled the sound of the tornado as that of “a million trains” as the tornado was viewed from the Happy Acre Community.
The last victims of the May 9 1933 tornado lived on Puncheon Camp Creek. Thomas and Liza Brown lived across Goose Creek from Friendship. Johnny and Sarah Butcher had been to the Brown’s home visiting that day. As evening came, the Butchers were invited to spend the night and they declined. That decision
saved their life as the tornado hit a short time later and Thomas, Liza and their children died in the storm.
Further research in 2025 revealed that Laura McQueary's baby was killed, her house destroyed. A lady was blown into an barn with a mule and her husband was killed. Reports are a big moonshine still in the woods was said to have been carried away by the storm.
Dr. Lawrence of Jamestown opened the doors of his home and gave aid and help to the wounded.
Uvadell Hoskins, of Cincinnati, Ohio was known as the"tornado baby." Uva says she was only 10 days old when the tornado hit. She recalls the last thing her father remembers was watching the progress of the tornado from the door and immediately after closing the door, the wind blew the lamp from the table toward the bed where she and her mother were.
The furniture started moving and according to her March 3, 1962 story, her father rushed to the bed and grabbed her in his arms. He came to in a field near their home that was destroyed.
He saw his wife nearby on the ground. It was dark and the search for the family was slow. He heard Uva's cries in a muffled tone and followed the noise to a small bush where the newborn was hanging by her gown.
It was reported that A.F. Owens, Russell County School Superintendent at the time, took a six week leave after the storm to render help.
Some news articles say two cisterns which were filled with water before the storm were found to be bone dry after the twister passed.
The eyewitnesses interviewed back in the day spoke with hesitation, some asked their stories not be repeated and others declined to speak at all. These are just a few of the stories we have learned about as we reflect on this terrible day in Russell County History. Accounts may vary from what you may have heard as most of our information has been handed down several generations.
