Mississippi Store - McKinney
Collapse of the Mississippi Store in McKinney
The insurance companies called it a natural disaster
In the photo, the old courthouse on the square is on the left with its twin towers.
The Mississippi Store is the 3-story building on the right.
The insurance companies called it a natural disaster
In the photo, the old courthouse on the square is on the left with its twin towers.
The Mississippi Store is the 3-story building on the right.
The Mississippi Store is the tall building on the right side of the photo. .
January Disaster
January marks the anniversary of one of the worst disasters in McKinney history. On Thursday, January 23, 1913, at 3:40 PM, the Mississippi Store and the T. J. Tingle Implement Store in McKinney collapsed, killing eight people directly, two indirectly, and injuring at least fourteen others.
The Cheeves Brothers & Co. Dry Goods Store, also known as the Mississippi Store, was located on the northeast corner of the courthouse square, on the west side of Tennessee Street. The 3-story brick building was the property of the Empire Lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, with the store housed in the first two stories and the Lodge occupying the third floor. The building was sometimes called the Odd Fellows Building. One of the previous occupants of the store had called his dry goods store the Mississippi Store. The residents still called it that.
The Odd Fellows Building was constructed with two stories around 1874, making it almost 50 years old. The third story was added about 1889. The building was about 60 feet by 80 feet, with a 20-inch thick wall on the first two stories and a 13-inch thick wall on the third floor.
The Cheeves Brothers & Co. Dry Goods Store was part of a chain of stores, whose home office was in Cameron, Texas. On January 23, the store was holding a ladies' white-goods sale.
The T. J. Tingle Implement Company building for many years was one-story. The second story was added several years later. It sold farm implements and surreys. It was sometimes called the Bates Building.
Both buildings collapsed when their common wall fell into the Mississippi Store. About 25-30 feet of the Mississippi Store was left standing.
Counting clerks and salesmen, there were around thirty people in the dry-goods store when it fell. Most of the people rescued were found near the front of the store where the white-goods sale was being held.
The buildings fell with a terrific, grinding roar. Dust and smoke covered the entire street and square. As soon as the dust had cleared, people were climbing upon the wreckage in an effort to rescue those who were trapped beneath the brick, mortar, and timbers. A fire broke out in the center of the Mississippi Store near the stove. For a while it seemed that the flames and intense smoke would drive the rescuers from the wreckage. The fire raged for over an hour before being brought under control.
The Volunteer Fire Department was called in immediately. Ten to fifteen wagons with a score of men worked in clearing away the debris. Draymen used their wagons and teams to haul away brick, lumber, and goods as fast as the wagons could be loaded.
Electricians erected a big arc light over the wrecked buildings for the workers.
People came from Dallas and Sherman and nearby towns to help in the rescue. Volunteer firemen came from Greenville, Plano, and Van Alstyne. At one time there were as many as 1000 people working to rescue the victims and as many as 5000 people on the square watching the process.
All the men working at the Sherman-Dallas interurban traction company power house located just north of McKinney came into town to assist in the rescue. All physicians and people coming to McKinney to help could come on the interurban free.
A special train carrying two hundred and fifty people was brought in on the MKT "Katy" tracks from Greenville, and points east. About 150 people came from Greenville, including nurses, physicians, and reporters, with 75 more from Farmersville and another 75 from Princeton.
The wounded were carried to various hospitals in McKinney. By 4:45 PM, one hour after the collapse, six people had been removed from the wreckage. Among the dead were Miss Katie Lee Milligan, 20, Miss Bessie Wade, 22, and Miss Rosa Lee Welch, 30.
Shoe salesman Vernie Graves crawled out uninjured through a ventilator. One of the ladies he was waiting on, Miss Lida Moreland, escaped the same way. Another lady, Mrs. Jennie Barnett, was pinned beneath a large amount of debris near the side of the building where Mr. Graves escaped. She was slightly injured.
Miss Annie Curts, a saleslady, was standing near the front on the east side of the building when she saw the west wall between the Mississippi Store and the Implement Building fall forward. She fell to the floor and placed her head under a counter for protection. She was dug out from a mountain of debris, unconscious. She later recovered from her injuries.
Clerk John Thomas was rescued alive. Another employee, Miss Eva Searcy, died about twenty minutes after she was rescued.
Mrs. Wick Graves, with her daughter, Mrs. Hugh (Iva) Kistler, and her 4-year-old granddaughter, Anna Graves Kistler, were standing at the silk counter, which was the first counter on the left when you entered the store. Mrs. Graves and Mrs. Kistler braced themselves over the child. Both received serious injuries about the head and shoulders and were unconscious when found. The granddaughter, whom they had later pushed under a counter for protection, was uninjured, except for a broken finger.
A delivery boy, Luther Stephenson, 16, had just gone to the office in the middle of the first floor foranother delivery when he saw the wall between the two buildings starting to collapse. He ran to the rear of the store. Too frightened to open the door, he broke the glass and crawled through the narrow passage that opened on the east side of the building. He managed to escape to freedom without getting injured. Cashier Lula Searcy, who was in the office also, went to follow him from the store. She had hardly taken a dozen steps when she was pinned under some timbers. The first men to enter the wrecked buildings from the rear found her. The heavy timbers that imprisoned her were lifted enough to allow her to be released, bruised and bleeding.
Mrs. Belle McWilliams, clerk, had just started to show some goods to a customer, and was pinned across a counter. Jack screws and saws had to be used to get the timbers from her back and again from her knees. Though crushed and burned, she talked to her rescuers and directed them in their work.
The awning of the store had fallen over Miss Estella Russell of Farmersville and the big iron safe from the Odd Fellows Lodge on the third floor had fallen nearby. The rescuers were moving the safe out of the way, and almost dropped it on top of her, when she screamed to them that she was under the awning. They set to work and had her freed in a few minutes, only slightly bruised. After her rescue, she told them that her nephew was nearby. Little 4-year-old Russell Hight was found near the entrance to the building, crushed and mangled. He had been killed instantly.
Al Bomar was standing in the door of the Cheeves Bros. Store at the time of the collapse. He looked in and saw the west wall "heave to." Before he could get off the sidewalk, the building fell to the ground and he was hit by some bricks.
Miss Cassie Seay, Mrs. Marie “Mary” Emerson Stiff, and Mrs. W. M. Shirley were covered with brick and mortar and imprisoned beneath the front door of the building, which fell inward and across the end of a counter. Miss Seay and Mrs. Shirley were found there not seriously injured, while Mrs. Stiff, an employee, was thrown a short distance. She died after being taken from the building.
Norm Presley was found near the center of the store. A great sill lay across his back and side and large piles of clothing were around him. The pot-belly stove had overturned near him when the building collapsed, igniting the clothing around him. By the time he was released, he had died from the burns.
Mr. Presley had been waiting on Mr. Leslie Bush at the time of the collapse. Mr. Bush, the final victim released, was not uncovered until the deep hours of the night (11 PM).
Also injured was an unnamed black porter, who worked in the store.
T. J. Tingle said in an interview that he was talking to H. J. Brown when the collapse came. They were standing about twenty feet back from the front door, near the east wall that separated his store and Cheeves Bros. He heard three distinct cracking noises in the wall. The first one sounded like the cracking of wall paper when it bursts on the wall. The next one was more pronounced and the third one was accompanied by the swaying of the wall. When he realized what was about to ensue, he cried out for all to flee from the building. Both Mr. Brown and Mr. Tingle, as well as clerks, R. H. Cogburn and Josiah Hewett, and the little son of Mr. Cogburn, made it to safety, enveloped in a shower of broken brick, timber and debris. Mr. G. J. S. Walker was standing in front of the Tingle store at the time of the collapse and escaped injury. The Tingle Implement Company had twenty five implements and surries in the store, all set up except for nine in crates. Much of its stock was damaged.
Josiah Hewett had only started work that day. He took sick a week after the buildings' collapse and died a week later from pneumonia, possibly brought on by exposure or from inhaling the dust from the wreckage.
Mrs. Lura Perry, 25, was giving birth to her first child at the time of the rescue efforts. No doctor could be found to come to her bedside. She died at about 6:30 PM, one hour after her infant son was born.
The loss to the Empire Lodge was at least $25,000, including the building and paraphernalia. The Cheeves Brothers & Co. Dry Goods Store had about $42,000 in stock at the time of the collapse. The loss of the Bates (Tingle) Building was more than $10,000. T. J Tingle's property loss was about $6000. The losses were total. The insurance companies declared the collapse an “act of God” and did not cover the losses.
Five days later, on January 28, 1913, Cheeves Brothers & Co. Dry Goods Store announced that it was re-opening in McKinney.
The T. J. Tingle Implement Co. re-opened the following week.
Sources:
McKinney Daily Courier Gazette , January 11 - February 5, 1913; McKinney Weekly Democrat, January 30, 1913; Dallas Daily Times Herald, January 24, 1913; Sherman Daily Democrat, January 24, 1913; Margaret Hughston, spectator.
January marks the anniversary of one of the worst disasters in McKinney history. On Thursday, January 23, 1913, at 3:40 PM, the Mississippi Store and the T. J. Tingle Implement Store in McKinney collapsed, killing eight people directly, two indirectly, and injuring at least fourteen others.
The Cheeves Brothers & Co. Dry Goods Store, also known as the Mississippi Store, was located on the northeast corner of the courthouse square, on the west side of Tennessee Street. The 3-story brick building was the property of the Empire Lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, with the store housed in the first two stories and the Lodge occupying the third floor. The building was sometimes called the Odd Fellows Building. One of the previous occupants of the store had called his dry goods store the Mississippi Store. The residents still called it that.
The Odd Fellows Building was constructed with two stories around 1874, making it almost 50 years old. The third story was added about 1889. The building was about 60 feet by 80 feet, with a 20-inch thick wall on the first two stories and a 13-inch thick wall on the third floor.
The Cheeves Brothers & Co. Dry Goods Store was part of a chain of stores, whose home office was in Cameron, Texas. On January 23, the store was holding a ladies' white-goods sale.
The T. J. Tingle Implement Company building for many years was one-story. The second story was added several years later. It sold farm implements and surreys. It was sometimes called the Bates Building.
Both buildings collapsed when their common wall fell into the Mississippi Store. About 25-30 feet of the Mississippi Store was left standing.
Counting clerks and salesmen, there were around thirty people in the dry-goods store when it fell. Most of the people rescued were found near the front of the store where the white-goods sale was being held.
The buildings fell with a terrific, grinding roar. Dust and smoke covered the entire street and square. As soon as the dust had cleared, people were climbing upon the wreckage in an effort to rescue those who were trapped beneath the brick, mortar, and timbers. A fire broke out in the center of the Mississippi Store near the stove. For a while it seemed that the flames and intense smoke would drive the rescuers from the wreckage. The fire raged for over an hour before being brought under control.
The Volunteer Fire Department was called in immediately. Ten to fifteen wagons with a score of men worked in clearing away the debris. Draymen used their wagons and teams to haul away brick, lumber, and goods as fast as the wagons could be loaded.
Electricians erected a big arc light over the wrecked buildings for the workers.
People came from Dallas and Sherman and nearby towns to help in the rescue. Volunteer firemen came from Greenville, Plano, and Van Alstyne. At one time there were as many as 1000 people working to rescue the victims and as many as 5000 people on the square watching the process.
All the men working at the Sherman-Dallas interurban traction company power house located just north of McKinney came into town to assist in the rescue. All physicians and people coming to McKinney to help could come on the interurban free.
A special train carrying two hundred and fifty people was brought in on the MKT "Katy" tracks from Greenville, and points east. About 150 people came from Greenville, including nurses, physicians, and reporters, with 75 more from Farmersville and another 75 from Princeton.
The wounded were carried to various hospitals in McKinney. By 4:45 PM, one hour after the collapse, six people had been removed from the wreckage. Among the dead were Miss Katie Lee Milligan, 20, Miss Bessie Wade, 22, and Miss Rosa Lee Welch, 30.
Shoe salesman Vernie Graves crawled out uninjured through a ventilator. One of the ladies he was waiting on, Miss Lida Moreland, escaped the same way. Another lady, Mrs. Jennie Barnett, was pinned beneath a large amount of debris near the side of the building where Mr. Graves escaped. She was slightly injured.
Miss Annie Curts, a saleslady, was standing near the front on the east side of the building when she saw the west wall between the Mississippi Store and the Implement Building fall forward. She fell to the floor and placed her head under a counter for protection. She was dug out from a mountain of debris, unconscious. She later recovered from her injuries.
Clerk John Thomas was rescued alive. Another employee, Miss Eva Searcy, died about twenty minutes after she was rescued.
Mrs. Wick Graves, with her daughter, Mrs. Hugh (Iva) Kistler, and her 4-year-old granddaughter, Anna Graves Kistler, were standing at the silk counter, which was the first counter on the left when you entered the store. Mrs. Graves and Mrs. Kistler braced themselves over the child. Both received serious injuries about the head and shoulders and were unconscious when found. The granddaughter, whom they had later pushed under a counter for protection, was uninjured, except for a broken finger.
A delivery boy, Luther Stephenson, 16, had just gone to the office in the middle of the first floor foranother delivery when he saw the wall between the two buildings starting to collapse. He ran to the rear of the store. Too frightened to open the door, he broke the glass and crawled through the narrow passage that opened on the east side of the building. He managed to escape to freedom without getting injured. Cashier Lula Searcy, who was in the office also, went to follow him from the store. She had hardly taken a dozen steps when she was pinned under some timbers. The first men to enter the wrecked buildings from the rear found her. The heavy timbers that imprisoned her were lifted enough to allow her to be released, bruised and bleeding.
Mrs. Belle McWilliams, clerk, had just started to show some goods to a customer, and was pinned across a counter. Jack screws and saws had to be used to get the timbers from her back and again from her knees. Though crushed and burned, she talked to her rescuers and directed them in their work.
The awning of the store had fallen over Miss Estella Russell of Farmersville and the big iron safe from the Odd Fellows Lodge on the third floor had fallen nearby. The rescuers were moving the safe out of the way, and almost dropped it on top of her, when she screamed to them that she was under the awning. They set to work and had her freed in a few minutes, only slightly bruised. After her rescue, she told them that her nephew was nearby. Little 4-year-old Russell Hight was found near the entrance to the building, crushed and mangled. He had been killed instantly.
Al Bomar was standing in the door of the Cheeves Bros. Store at the time of the collapse. He looked in and saw the west wall "heave to." Before he could get off the sidewalk, the building fell to the ground and he was hit by some bricks.
Miss Cassie Seay, Mrs. Marie “Mary” Emerson Stiff, and Mrs. W. M. Shirley were covered with brick and mortar and imprisoned beneath the front door of the building, which fell inward and across the end of a counter. Miss Seay and Mrs. Shirley were found there not seriously injured, while Mrs. Stiff, an employee, was thrown a short distance. She died after being taken from the building.
Norm Presley was found near the center of the store. A great sill lay across his back and side and large piles of clothing were around him. The pot-belly stove had overturned near him when the building collapsed, igniting the clothing around him. By the time he was released, he had died from the burns.
Mr. Presley had been waiting on Mr. Leslie Bush at the time of the collapse. Mr. Bush, the final victim released, was not uncovered until the deep hours of the night (11 PM).
Also injured was an unnamed black porter, who worked in the store.
T. J. Tingle said in an interview that he was talking to H. J. Brown when the collapse came. They were standing about twenty feet back from the front door, near the east wall that separated his store and Cheeves Bros. He heard three distinct cracking noises in the wall. The first one sounded like the cracking of wall paper when it bursts on the wall. The next one was more pronounced and the third one was accompanied by the swaying of the wall. When he realized what was about to ensue, he cried out for all to flee from the building. Both Mr. Brown and Mr. Tingle, as well as clerks, R. H. Cogburn and Josiah Hewett, and the little son of Mr. Cogburn, made it to safety, enveloped in a shower of broken brick, timber and debris. Mr. G. J. S. Walker was standing in front of the Tingle store at the time of the collapse and escaped injury. The Tingle Implement Company had twenty five implements and surries in the store, all set up except for nine in crates. Much of its stock was damaged.
Josiah Hewett had only started work that day. He took sick a week after the buildings' collapse and died a week later from pneumonia, possibly brought on by exposure or from inhaling the dust from the wreckage.
Mrs. Lura Perry, 25, was giving birth to her first child at the time of the rescue efforts. No doctor could be found to come to her bedside. She died at about 6:30 PM, one hour after her infant son was born.
The loss to the Empire Lodge was at least $25,000, including the building and paraphernalia. The Cheeves Brothers & Co. Dry Goods Store had about $42,000 in stock at the time of the collapse. The loss of the Bates (Tingle) Building was more than $10,000. T. J Tingle's property loss was about $6000. The losses were total. The insurance companies declared the collapse an “act of God” and did not cover the losses.
Five days later, on January 28, 1913, Cheeves Brothers & Co. Dry Goods Store announced that it was re-opening in McKinney.
The T. J. Tingle Implement Co. re-opened the following week.
Sources:
McKinney Daily Courier Gazette , January 11 - February 5, 1913; McKinney Weekly Democrat, January 30, 1913; Dallas Daily Times Herald, January 24, 1913; Sherman Daily Democrat, January 24, 1913; Margaret Hughston, spectator.
