The Great Sherman Storm of 1896

The marker says about 66 died, which was the immediate count. A student history on Clio, drawing on the Herald Democrat, says another forty died of injuries and puts the total near 106, with some people possibly never found. The Handbook says between fifty and eighty. The tornado cut through the west side of town at about five on a Friday afternoon, destroyed some fifty houses and left nearly 700 people without homes. Denison sent a relief committee with food and bandages. The dead were buried in West Hill Cemetery, though many graves cannot now be placed.

What the plaque says

The Great Sherman Storm of 1896 In the late afternoon of Friday, May 15, 1896, a disastrous tornado swept Sherman, killing about 66 persons, injuring many others, and causing severe property damage. The twister touched down near here, then cut a 2-mile-long path through the city. The same funnel and several smaller ones struck at other locations in the area. Most of the storm's victims were buried in this cemetery. After the tragedy, citizens of Sherman and neighboring towns helped with the rebuilding, and relief contributions were sent from many distant places. (1975)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Eisenhower Birthplace State Historic Site — 9.5 mi
  The small frame house beside the Katy tracks in Denison where Dwight Eisenhower was born in 1890, bought by townspeople in 1946 and given to Texas in 1958.
• Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge — 10 mi
  A 1946 refuge on the Big Mineral Arm of Lake Texoma, laid over land bought for Denison Dam and the site of the vanished railroad town of Hagerman, now a winter stop for geese.
• Eisenhower State Park — 12 mi
  A bluff-top park on Lake Texoma opened in 1958 on land leased from the Corps of Engineers, in the Red River country of Fort Johnson, Colbert's Ferry and the Butterfield stages.
• Sam Rayburn House State Historic Site — 24 mi
  The two-story farmhouse west of Bonham that the longtime Speaker of the House built in 1916 and kept as his home, left as he lived in it and open as a museum since 1975.

More markers nearby

• Thomas Jefferson Shannon — steps away
• Andrew L. Randell — steps away
• Tom Randolph — steps away
• Olive Ann Oatman Fairchild — steps away