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is the sign to be displayed at the Tornado Memorial Park. W.C. Madden See News & Review
April 3, 1974, was a tragic day in the City of Monticello and one that will never be forgotten by those who were affected by the tornado that ripped the heart out of the city and took the lives of eight people who day.
One woman who was directly affected that day spoke at a 50-year remembrance held by the Streets of Monticello Association on April 3 in the west bay of City Hall due to the inclement weather.
“I do remember seeing it coming,” said Shari Gallinger Wheeler, who was 11 years old at the time. “I had no clue what happened. It wasn’t until the next morning that I found out my mother had died.”
Her mother was Iona Gallagher, who was killed when the tornado struck the Benjamin Franklin store on North Main Street, across from the White County Courthouse.
“She was in the back of the store and the ceiling fell on her,” explained Wheeler. “By the grace of God, I got through it.”
Jay Janke opened the remembrance with a prayer. He noted in the prayer that the cross in Presbyterian Church was untouched by the damage that severely damaged the church. “It was on the only remaining wall of the church,” he said. Then he held a moment of silence for those who lost their lives that day, naming each one: Peggy Durham, Iona Gallinger, Jackie McKelleb, Sharon Miller, Elizabeth Scalf, Peggy Stump, Dr. Donald Richards and Joseph D. Risser.
Tornado photos on display at memorial service. W.C. Madden/News & Review
Then Mayor Aaron Sims spoke and thanked everyone for recognizing this moment in Monticello’s history. “We work together,” Sims said. “I truly believe that Monticello’s best years and brightest days are ahead of us. God Bless, Monticello.”
Sharon McKinley and Candice Wells of SOMA unveiled the first of many signs the organization is planning. The sign identifies items from the courthouse that were salvaged by Rod Pool after the tornado.
“This is going to be the first sign we do downtown,” McKinley explained. “This sign is the beginning of a larger project. We’re going to be placing signs of historical buildings around town and giving a description of it and what the businesses are now and describe the buildings that were there before the tornado.”
Sharon McKinley explains the new sign that will be mounted at the Tornado Memorial Park. More signs are being planned for downtown Monticello by SOMA. W.C. Madden/News & Review
Then, Parks Superintendent Mitch Billue, who was only eight years old at the time of the tornado, thanked SOMA for putting the remembrance together and their work at the park.
Afterwards, people were invited to come forward to talk about what they remembered from 50 years ago.
Former Mayor Cathy Gross, who was age 16 in 1974, said she was working at the Quik Chick north of downtown when the tornado hit. About 5 p.m. that day, three Indiana State Troopers were eating at the restaurant. “Before they left, the windows were broken, and chicken was all over the place,” she explained. After the tornado went through, she came out of the freezer and called her mother. The call went through but then the phone went dead.
Twin Lakes High School science teacher Jennifer Kough helps Thomas Luchtman of Princeton, North Carolina, create a tornado inside two bottles, while Mary Sigman observes. W.C. Madden/News & Review
A friend of hers who worked across the street at Pizza King gave her a lift, but they couldn’t get to her home, which was near Jefferson and Bluff Streets. So, they went to her friend’s house out in the country. “We got word to my parents that we were safe. I couldn’t get home for three days.”
However, her husband Kevin lived by Chalmers and came to Monticello to help. They knew each other, but weren’t a couple at that time, she added. “They were letting anyone in Monticello with a chainsaw,” Gross said.
Gross’ block was the last to get electricity, so it was without power or water service for six weeks. She helped the Salvation Army at the Methodist Church. “It changed my life. That’s when I knew no matter what I was going to serve my community,” she said. She has done just that over the years and was the mayor from 2020 to 2023.
Cathy Crosby then spoke about her experience. She was 15 at the time going to Twin Lakes High School. She remembered that a tornado drill was held at the school that morning.
Mitch Billue and Dan Oldenkamp reminisce. W.C. Madden/News & Review
“How miraculous it was that when the tornado hit, it was on a Wednesday afternoon when a majority of businesses were closed and the school day had been completed,” she said.
Crosby’s family lived three miles west of Monticello along U.S. 24 when the tornado came. “He [her father] came in the house and his hair was standing straight up,” she explained. “All he could say was, ‘Grab the dog.’”
Her father was president of the First National Bank at the time, which was heavily damaged by the tornado. Dick Folk had been working in the building at the time of the tornado and he rode the tornado out in one of the restrooms. He was unhurt. “He [her father] sat in a chair holding his gun at the front of the bank,” she explained. “He was protecting the bank from potential looters and souvenir seekers.” Her father made the national news sitting there protecting the bank.
Crosby worked at Sixbey’s Grocery store and she was responsible for cleaning up the store. She vividly remembers the cleanup. “It was not a fun task, but it was needed,” she said. “I remember it like it was yesterday like most of you, too.”
Former Mayor Cathy Gross explains what happened to her during the tornado. W.C. Madden/ News & Review
Art Anderson had returned from serving in the Philippines and South Vietnam a month before the tornado. He was working with another man at Dick Sixbey’s house near Indiana Beach when the tornado came through. “All of a sudden, the temperature started to drop. I told him that somebody’s going to get a hell of a storm out of this,” he said.
Anderson went to town and took a pipe wrench with him so he could shut off the gas lines. He was walking along and suddenly there was an explosion. “I hit the ground, because I was kind of used to it,” he said.
One whole side of Sixbey’s Hardware Store had fallen, and the other side was still on the cement block. “Someone said you’ll never get that jacked up to get the stuff out of it,” he explained. “I called the Air Force base, Bunker Hill. The Air Force sent me four jacks and a manifold jack,” he said. The jacks lifted the wall, and they were able to get the stuff out of the store.
Anderson also tried to sell some of the meat from the Sixbey’s Grocery Store as salvagers wouldn’t take it. He went to Monon, and they called the cops on him for stealing the meat. That story received a good laugh from the crowd of about 100 people.
Then Doug Roberts, the former city street superintendent, spoke about his experience. He was a contractor at the time working on an expansion at the White County Memorial Hospital. The hospital didn’t get hit, but the tornado tore up his job site. “All the blocks and stuff they had laid for that job had fallen down, so my job for the next few days was cleaning that up,” he explained.
Roberts ended up selling his contractor business and went to work for Hornback Sickler, who was contracted to clean up some of the tornado damage. Some of debris was put on the hill leading to the Tippecanoe River, where the Riverwalk will go.
The last speaker was Mary Sanson Sigman, who was a senior at Twin Lakes. She said there were about seven classmates there. “When COVID hit, I kind of understood what they what they were feeling, because they had no closure. They had no graduation,” she explained. “We had a graduation, but it was at North White, our opponent.”
The deadly Monticello tornado first developed two miles west of Otterbein and spread a swath of destruction for 109 miles, killing about 20 people. Besides Monticello, the tornado hit the towns of Talma, Rochester, Atwood, Leesburg and Ligonier before lifting near Oliver Lake. It was one of the worst tornadoes in Indiana history.
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