Putnam Herald May 11, 1933

Bethsaida, Tenn -- This little mountain settlement bore the brunt of Tuesday night's storm when it climaxed in a tornado early Wednesday morning, leaving more than a score dead and as many or more injured.
The dead:
Mr & Mrs (Roy) Boss Lacy
Mrs Mary Reeser
Ed Hopkins and daughter, Barbara Hopkins
Eunice Cole and Wife and Seven Children
Millard Allred
Hughey Beatty
Ray Reagan
Hershell Phillips
Mrs Ambrose King and daughter, Epsie King

While natives of this vicinity, 2 miles east of Monroe, search the wooded hills of eastern Overton county for other bodies, residents predicted more deaths would be registered by Thursday. It will be impossible to make an accurate check of the death toll for some days, on account of the inaccessibility of the region.
More than 20 persons were reported injured at Smith's store here, where emergency relief was started Wednesday. Doctors from Livingston and Cookeville and other places were giving first aid. The bodies of 16 of the dead were taken to Livingston where they were prepared for burial, perhaps Friday. Four members of one family will be buried at the home site.
The tornado struck with terrible suddenness. Beginning at Eagle Creek, northwest of Bethsaida, the twister moved in a zig zag line 3/4 of a mile wide, spent its fury here, and ended near West Fork, a distance of about 11 miles from its beginning. In its wake, it left the worst destruction this section of Tennessee has ever seen.
Houses were torn down wholesale. Barns with their contents, including farm machinery, were swept away as if they had been match boxes. A farmer's binder was blown from his barn to a field 500 yards distant, and was left a worthless scrap of twisted iron. A new automobile was swept along for hundreds of feet and left a wrecked mass.
The horror of the storm was emphasized by the broken, twisted, torn bodies lying in a morgue at the Blount Funeral Home in Livingston. The most touching scene of all was the family of Eunice Cole, man, wife and 7 children ranging in age from 2 to 14. All were killed, probably in their sleep. They were found near their home site in their night clothes, their bodies covered with grime and scraps of debris.
More horrible was the manner in which some of the bodies were found....
While searching parties scoured the vicinity for more dead, men from Troop A, 109th Cavalry of Cookeville guarded the area to prevent pilferage, which had begun soon after the bodies had been removed.
Funeral services for the victims were being planned for Friday, although no definite arrangements had been made. It is thought probably that a community service for all will be conducted. One family will be buried together in a cemetery adjoining the bare ground where their home once stood.
The community here turned itself into a corps of searchers, nurses and builders after the ravages of the tornado had made them all brothers. A nurse from Livingston, employed by the county, came to Bethsaida this morning seeking some of the injured. She was told where they were, but that the road was impassable. She got a mule, and with a quantity of cotton, bandages, antiseptics and healants, boarded the mule and went to the suffering.
The Southern Continental Telephone Company placed an emergency telephone in the store here for the use of reporters, doctors and other rescue workers. The Red Cross began a systematic survey for the purpose of providing food and clothing for the homeless.
This tornado exceeds in death and destruction the one in Nashville several weeks ago, and is perhaps the worst the State has ever had.
Throughout Tuesday the hills and valleys of Middle Tennessee were clothed in a thick haze, and during the early part of the evening and until late Tuesday night the air was stuffy, with flashing electrical storms and a high wind predicting a heavy rain. The rain in the tornado area was of flood proportions.