It was a still day, too still for those who were there and remember. There were no birds chirping, no dogs barking, and the skies were colored an ominous pink. It gave many residents of the small town of Dowelltown a sense of unease. There had been thunderstorm warnings for the area, and even a tornado watch for neighboring Cannon County. It was April 3, 1974, and residents could tell that something was off that day, but they could never imagine what was to come.

The storm started in Cannon County where in Sycamore it would claim its first victim. Mary Chapman was killed, and three of her children injured, when the tornado struck their mobile home. It was the first of a long line of destruction that would span 14.6 miles across two counties.

I was only seven years old at the time, but this reporter can still remember seeing the path of destruction along Highway 53, heading towards Liberty. The funnel had struck a large milk barn near Gassaway before crossing the highway and moving up along the ridge to the east. I remember my mother crying at seeing the destroyed buildings and twisted trees. It was nothing compared to what we would find next.

As we entered Dowelltown, there were people moving about everywhere, searching for people and property. It looked as if a giant bulldozer and just plowed its way through the town without stopping. Cars were crumpled like aluminum foil, houses were splintered like matchsticks, and debris littered the countryside.

My great grandmother, Cornelia “Mammy” Williams, grandmother Lucy Tramel, and great aunt Nell, all lived in a home on the corner of South Mill Street and Highway 70. My great uncle Wesley Curtis’ home was located next to the Dowelltown Manufacturing Company, commonly known as the shirt factory, and this was to be some of the first victims in town.

At approximately 7:30, the twister crossed over the ridge, struck a home that was under construction, then the shirt factory. For years after the event, shirts, fabric, and metal debris from the factory could be seen hanging from the trees on the neighboring hilltops.

The storm then hit the Curtis home before striking my great grandmother’s home. Curtis reported to the Smithville Review that his wife was on the back porch when the storm hit. “I grabbed her and shoved her under the table.” The couple then had to dig their way out from under the rubble of the home.

Inside my grandmother’s home, my grandmother had decided they all needed to take cover inside the bathroom, but as she was making her way to the area, a door flew off its hinges and struck her in the eye.

The tornado would later be measured at 100 yards wide and it would claim the homes on the opposite side of South Mill Street before crossing Highway 70 and hitting the heart of the town. It was described by some witnesses, as being one large funnel with two smaller vortices rotating around it. It would strike the bank, leaving only the drive thru window and the vault, before continuing on to claim the Dowelltown school and gym.

The Dowelltown post office, which at that time was located on the corner of Main and Mill Street, was lifted off its foundation and totally destroyed. In all, 20 homes were hit in Dowelltown, before the storm moved on to the Dale Ridge community before dissipating. A total, 23 people were treated and released from the hospital while three had to be hospitalized.

The residents would later learn a new term, Super Outbreak, as over April 3–4, 1974, there were 148 tornadoes confirmed in 13 southern states and the Canadian province of Ontario. It would be the largest outbreak on record until a similar outbreak in 2011 which struck Nashville, Murfreesboro, and other areas.  The 1974 storms also hold the record for the most violent tornados ever recorded, with 30 F4 to F5 tornadoes confirmed.

The outbreak caused roughly $843 million in damage, equivalent to $5.26 billion in 2023, with more than $600 million, or $3.75 billion in 2023, occurring in the United States. Storms damaged approximately 900 square miles along a total combined path length of 2,600 miles. At one point, as many as 15 separate tornadoes were occurring simultaneously.

The tornado was not the only destruction seen in the county that night. Alexandria was hit with flash flooding, causing an estimated $200,000 in 1974 dollars in damage. The flood damaged the Alexandria Garment Company, the DeKalb Fairgrounds, and even entered Liberty State Bank on the square.

Later that evening, a second tornado was reported in the Dowelltown area, though it never touched down to the ground.

As a 7-year-old child I can remember standing in my grandmother’s yard and looking at all the debris. Such destruction is hard to describe. There were not just all the things damaged and wrecked, but there were also the emotions of the survivors. People were scrambling around trying to find pieces of their lives which had been swept away all in a matter of seconds.

I remember standing in awe at the scene before me, that is until my grandmother came out with large and swollen black eye. It was then that I fell apart and started to cry. No one hurts my granny, but they had made it out alive, as did everyone in the town.

It could have been much worse, and more tragic. The town lost something that evening, something that it never would regain. It was once a town, but after it seemed more like a community or neighborhood. It somehow lost its identity, or part of its history. New houses popped up, and a new business district was designed, but it just never took off, it was never the same.

Still, as one person described the events in Dowelltown, “It makes you realize there is a God in Heaven to protect you and that miracles do happen.