Tornado
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| Miller Lumber, 627-631 Massachusetts Street, after 1911 tornado. |
Not Without Laughter begins with a tornado that tears the porch from Aunt Hager's house and kills a white couple who live nearby.
"Aunt Hager opened the front door, but before she or the child could move,
a great roaring sound suddenly shook the world, and, with a deafening division of wood from wood,
they saw their front porch rise high into the air and go hurtling off into space...
Good white folks, the Gavitts, Aunt Hager had often said, and now their large frame dwelling lay on its side like a doll's
mansion, with broken furniture strewn carelessly on the wet lawn--and they were dead."
Sullivan home, 636 Illinois, after 1911 tornado. Mrs. Sullivan was
one of the two people killed by the storm.
Hughes based this episode on an actual tornado that hit Lawrence on April 12, 1911. Property damage from the tornado was estimated at $20,000, a substantial sum at the time. Many people were injured, and the tornado caused two deaths.
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