06/23/2026
This article appeared in the paper shortly after the devastating tornado of 1985. The Orlo and Loretta (Armstrong) Hayes home photographed in 1917 and shown in this article was not saved and the property along with Center Road is now beneath Mosquito Lake. Fortunately, the Jennie (Boone) Palmer house still survives to this day just south of the circle and is owned by Larry Robinson III.
TWISTER OF 1877 [sic 1917*] LEVELED MECCA
Niles Daily Times, June 15, 1985, Page 11
By Grace C. Allison, Special to The Times
MECCA - Over the years there have been many bad storms and tornadoes here in Trumbull County, yet none as devastating as the recent one.
Some have occurred recently enough that most of us can still recall incidents relating to them. Such as the tornadoes of June 1947 and March 1951. Yet, other storms, such as the tornado that ripped through Howland in June 1877, were a little before our time.
The 1877 twister touched down in Hake’s Woods, near Howland Corners, then went up over Howland Hill and on to Vienna, destroying buildings but sparing lives.
And, there is probably not more than a handful of people who can recall the cyclone that hit northern Trumbull County 68 years ago, but for Frank Benton, Wall Street, Cortland, there are still vivid memories of that June 23, 1917 cyclone.
While watching the numerous TV newscasts of the recent storm, Frank's thoughts wandered to some old photographs; a search through several boxes of mementos enabled Frank, who celebrated his 89th birthday on May 20, to show his family and friends photos he had taken of that 1917 cyclone With all the TV coverage and newspaper photographs of the storms that befall today's world, such as the recent cyclone in Bangladesh and the tornado of Friday. May 31, It is hard to believe there could have been a time when such a storm would be given only minor coverage, but such was the case in 1917 The local newspaper carried only a two column, four-inch long story about that storm. Not one photograph!
The news item was an eyewitness account written by Garfield N. Mahannah of Mecca and described what Mr. Mahannah called "the worst and most damaging windstorm in the history of Trumbull County."
Mr. Mahannah further noted “on Saturday evening at 6:30 (June 23) a funnel-shaped cloud appeared in South Bristol and traveled rapidly in an easterly direction for several miles toward Kinsman, leaving havoc and destruction in its path, followed by a heavy rainfall in about a half an hour. The storm was of short duration and as such a storm has never occurred in this locality before, the people failed to realize the real significance of it until it was past."
In his book "MECCA," Thomas Kachur notes the memories that N.H. Williams had recorded in his diary on that day "This was the day the cyclone visited this place. This was a genuine twister with the large funnel top and elephant trunk-like suction pipe at the bottom. It was of ordinary gray color and traveled about 30 miles an hour. The storm cleaned up everything in its path, which was about 100 feet wide.”
Considerable damage occurred at the John Thompson and Warren Johnson farms in Bristol, but a greater amount of destruction occurred in Mecca Township.
In 1917 there was a large stone watering trough standing in the center of the intersection of S R 88 and Bazetta Road at West Mecca. Frank Benton, then 21 years old, and his older brother Merton, stood on that watering trough and watched the tornado pass through.
Then the two young men decided to go see the sights.
Frank grabbed his camera and they walked to the Allen Pinkerton home on Bazetta Road, one-fourth mile south of SR 88 at West Mecca, where the storm had destroyed the house and two barns and killed one horse.
The men then tailed the tornado east to the Orlo Hayes farm on the Center Road, about 1 mile east of West Mecca and one-fourth mile south of SR 88, to check on that family. The Hayes homestead, consisting of ten buildings and three orchards, was severely damaged and the house was demolished.
From the Hayes farm, Frank and his brother went to East Mecca, where they learned that the Jennie Palmer house, one-fourth mile south of East Mecca, on SR 46, had been moved from its foundation and two barns on that property had been demolished.
They visited the Palmers and the Disciple or Christian Church, which stood on the east side of the road across from the Palmer home.
Later, the Palmer house was moved back onto its foundation and it is still standing today, but the church was destroyed and never rebuilt. Although nearly all of the homes were occupied at the time of this storm, there was no loss of life. But the people were seriously hit financially, as there was no tornado insurance in those days.
The next day, Sunday, people visited these scenes of destruction. After all, there were no TVs or radios to keep them posted of possible storms or inform them of the welfare of relatives and close friends when a twister did touch down.
Using his faithful Brownie Box camera, Frank photographed evidences of this cyclone at each of the homes he and his brother visited that day. Frank, a retired history teacher in the Mecca school system, has kept these photos among his mementos all these years. thankful that was the only twister he has ever witnessed.
(*The 1877 in the title is a typo and should say 1917. The 1877 cyclone did not touch Mecca.)
