Whirlwind in 1892 destroys church, traps children

A photograph in an album at the Museum of the High Plains in McCook documents the aftermath of high winds on the Congregational Church in McCook. According to newspaper accounts, children were trapped in the rubble. Courtesy photo

The first church built in McCook was the Congregational Church. It was a story and a half simple wooden structure with wooden steps leading to the front door off of a wooden boardwalk. A simple spire rose off the right roof on top of a brick chimney.

The following story comes from the McCook Tribune, June 10, 1892 edition. “Congregational Church Destroyed by a Whirl-Wind Saturday. Last Saturday afternoon at about quarter past four o’clock McCook received her initial visitation from a destructive whirlwind. And there is a general feeling of thankfulness throughout the city that we fared no worse than we did. Quite a high wind had prevailed all day, and during the afternoon several small whirlwinds might have been seen cavorting up and down the valley; but they naturally caused little attention and no apprehension. So when a consolidation of two of these suddenly whirled across the city from southeast to northwest with great force and without any considerable storm indications, it came like a stroke of lightning from a cloudless sky. Nobody expected its unwelcome presence, none were prepared for it, and but a few citizens realized anything unusual had taken place until the cry got abroad that the Congregational Church was in ruins and that forty or fifty children, who were practicing exercises for Children’s Day, were buried in the debris. Then there was a terrible awakening to the fact of a possible calamity, and the populace with one cry of horror rushed to the scene of the disaster, and the work of rescuing the children from their perilous position was quickly inaugurated. The scene at this time was indescribable, one those present will not soon be able to efface from their memories. The apprehensive cries of the parents mingling with the shrieks and groans of the imprisoned children made a most heart-rendering chorus, which was only completely silenced when the injured had all been removed from the ruins of the church, the absent dear ones all accounted for, and the fact established that none were killed and that the hurt were receiving proper medical attention. A calmer review of the situation disclosed the fact that of about a total number of 50, most of the children had been dismissed shortly before the building collapsed, and that of the 15 or 20 who were in the church, Little Sadie Criswell is the only one seriously hurt, although about a half dozen persons were more or less injured. Rev. W. C. Stevenson, who was playing the organ at the time, was quite painfully hurt about the abdomen and head, and for a time, it was thought his internal injuries were such as to cause apprehensions, but he is now up and able to be around as usual.”

The story in the Tribune goes on to describe other buildings affected by the “whirl-wind” and then berates the Omaha Bee reporter who apparently made the damage sound much worse than McCook wanted plastered across papers in the country. After all, McCook was a scant 10 years old and still promoting the area as a great place to settle and the Tribune took umbrage at the language used in what they felt was a “sensational” article that made McCook look like cyclone alley.

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