Bio: Thoma, Frank - Twister of 1907 (1977)

Contact: Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon
E-mail: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org 

Surnames: Thoma, Korn, Quast, Poppe, Beyer, Appleyard, Meihack, MacLean

----Source: Clark County Press (Neillsville, Clark Co., WI) 7/14/1977

Thoma, Frank (Twister of 1907 - 1977)

Frank Remembers The Twister of ’07… It was the day before the Fourth of July in 1907. Frank Thoma was ten years old at the time when he witnessed the twister that cut a path just north of Neillsville.

Frank and his wife are now residents of the Neillsville Memorial Home. As July 4, 1977 arrived on the scene and as the days grew more humid and warmer and the clouds thickened, Frank reminisced about that frightful day 70 years ago.

With his summer school teacher, Alex Korn, Frank made a trip to Neillsville to buy firecrackers. He recalled, “In those days, a person could buy any kind of fireworks and he looked forward to it.” Frank’s grandfather loaned him his “lazy horse” to make the trip, he added.

Traveling home along what is now U.S. Highway 10, Frank saw a strange cloud formation in the sky. “Alex was busy lighting firecrackers under the horse’s tail to make it move and he didn’t notice the cloud,” Frank stated humorously. Frank spoke up, “Teacher, what is that loud in the west?” Alex, who became startled when he spotted the formations, answered, “That’s a cyclone cloud!”

In all the excitement, the two missed their turn onto County Trunk G and they kept on going west. Frank remembers, “After some time, they met a man along the road and Alex asked him if they were moving along the right direction… we were instructed to return to the last road they had passed and then head north.”

Halfway down the right road, Frank and Alex spotted people walking and running. Frank saw where the tornado began in the Tioga area and then moved across the Quast farm, taking all the buildings and leaving injured people in its path.

The twister moved through the valuable timber land for one mile before hitting the Charlie Poppe farm, where it took the barn down and ripped the roof from the house. Next in the path was the August Beyer farm where two people were hurt. Richard Beyer had both legs and an arm broken, Frank remembers, and a Beyer girl got “her heel tangles in the windmill.” Mrs. Beyer and her younger sons took refuge under the kitchen table and were not hurt.

The tornado then swung around the north side of the mound, striking what later became the Melvin Appleyard farm. There it destroyed the barn and killed a man who lived there at the time.

Minnie Meihack’s parent’s home was just missed by the twister and was quickly turned into a hospital. Dr. MacLean came out with her horse and buggy and performed operations on the dining room table. Several people stayed in the Meihack home for weeks while they recovered from injuries caused by the tornado.

As for any other destruction the tornado left in its path Frank can only surmise as this was back in the days of poor communication and “only a lazy horse to go places and do things on.”

Frank now peers out of his west window at the Memorial Home when the temperatures rise, the humidity increases, and the clouds start forming. After that day, 70 years ago, he hoped he would never have to set his eye upon another tornado but since then has witnessed four others.