Henrietta Miles Lee was born in South Carolina about 1855 to John Withers Lee and Francis Ann Wilson. Soon after the death of his first wife, Roseana Sansbury (ca1885) Hampton Benton left Louisiana and traveled back to South Carolina. He married a second time about 1888 to Henrietta Miles Lee. The two soon removed to Louisiana and were living in a home on the plantation of Hampton's son, Preston Ramos Benton.
On 7 July 1891, Henrietta was killed in a storm (probably a tornado) when she was trapped under the fallen chimney and rafters of her home. (See the following article "The Path of the Whirlwind"). According to family members, Henrietta was buried in the Lafayette Protestant Cemetery in the Benton Plot near the intersection of Pinhook Road and University Avenue. They had no children.
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THE PATH OF THE WHIRLWIND
Au Large, July 9th, 1891
Mr. Editor - After a drought of nearly three months duration, on Saturday the 5th inst. The rain began to fall in earnest, and the parched and blighted crops spread out their leaves to the refreshing shower. The half famished cattle slacked their thirst in the pools of water, and all nature seemed to revive and rejoice. But a long needed and plentiful rain that has been watched and prayed for, for months is one side of the question and a regular old Noah's deluge is another. As I said before the storm began on Saturday and the rain fell in torrents attended with wind, more or less in places. By Sunday evening the corn had all been beaten down and lay across the rows floating in water. In places where the cotton had been planted during the drought and had never had enough rain to sprout, by Monday it was all up and spreading its fair like head above the water. Some planters say it is soon enough to expect an average crop. The storm continued with more or less violence until the 7th inst. when it terminated in the neighborhood by the passing of a whirlwind that carried death and destruction to all in its course. From an eye witness I learned that its first appearance was a curling column whirling above the oak trees in Mme. J. Bernard's yard as if from the clouds it started on its downward path gathering up the water in a pond near by and throwing it into an adjoining cornfield. Next a small building belonging to Mme. A. Constantin was upset. Then taking a northeasterly direction, it struck another small house on Mr. Preston Benton's plantation, occupied by old Mr. Hampton Benton and wife. In the space of a minute the building was flying into atoms and the unfortunate lady, Mrs. Benton, lay dead under the fallen chimney and rafters. The deceased was a native of South Carolina, lady of education and refinement, and although a resident of this neighborhood a short time had already won many warm and sincere friends. Old Mr. Benton had his arm and shoulder badly mashed and is otherwise hurt. Two little boys who were in the house at the time were whirled against a wire fence, but otherwise escaped injury. Away went the wind bellowing like a heard of kine, across the prairie, to Mme. Victor Martin's place where it mashed a Negro cabin full of inmates all of whom escaped with but slight injuries. The next place in its path was Miss Carmelite Mouton's plantation, here the wind took a general frolic, throwing down four cabins and twisting the tops off the pecan and oak trees that have stood the fury of the elements, while generation after generation of the children that played under their broad spreading branches have passed away from the face of the earth. The whirlwind played sad havoc with the old trees, some are torn up by the roots and others stand with bared and driven trunks lifted to the summer sky. Their appearance is both ghastly and pitiful. Strange to say the dwelling and inmates were unharmed. This is a most extraordinary circumstance, as the house is simply an ordinary frame building and situated in the midst of trees. Verily the ways of Providence passeth all understanding. The next place visited was that of Mr. T. Dupuis, here comparatively little damage was done with the exception of the throwing over of a few outbuildings including two corn cribs and tearing a gigantic oak to splinters that stood only a short distance from his house. Mr. J. Bourgeois living on the banks of Bayou Vermillion was the next in turn and the wind lifted his kitchen across the Bayou and setting it safely on the opposite bank. The other out buildings were tumbled into the water and broken to pieces. After doing all this damage the wind disappeared in the woods and the storm was over. The rain fall was unprecedented. The Beau Basin is flooded and many of its inhabitants were obliged to vacate their homes. The bridges were all floating and the cattle whose range lies between Bayou St. Clair and Vermillion stood for at least four days in three feet water and many of them were drowned. It was pitiful to hear them bellowing like human beings for help. Yesterday, the 9th, a large body of horsemen went to rescue them and succeeded in driving them to high land. Bayou Vermillion is one foot higher than it was in 1882 and is still rising.
On 7 July 1891, Henrietta was killed in a storm (probably a tornado) when she was trapped under the fallen chimney and rafters of her home. (See the following article "The Path of the Whirlwind"). According to family members, Henrietta was buried in the Lafayette Protestant Cemetery in the Benton Plot near the intersection of Pinhook Road and University Avenue. They had no children.
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THE PATH OF THE WHIRLWIND
Au Large, July 9th, 1891
Mr. Editor - After a drought of nearly three months duration, on Saturday the 5th inst. The rain began to fall in earnest, and the parched and blighted crops spread out their leaves to the refreshing shower. The half famished cattle slacked their thirst in the pools of water, and all nature seemed to revive and rejoice. But a long needed and plentiful rain that has been watched and prayed for, for months is one side of the question and a regular old Noah's deluge is another. As I said before the storm began on Saturday and the rain fell in torrents attended with wind, more or less in places. By Sunday evening the corn had all been beaten down and lay across the rows floating in water. In places where the cotton had been planted during the drought and had never had enough rain to sprout, by Monday it was all up and spreading its fair like head above the water. Some planters say it is soon enough to expect an average crop. The storm continued with more or less violence until the 7th inst. when it terminated in the neighborhood by the passing of a whirlwind that carried death and destruction to all in its course. From an eye witness I learned that its first appearance was a curling column whirling above the oak trees in Mme. J. Bernard's yard as if from the clouds it started on its downward path gathering up the water in a pond near by and throwing it into an adjoining cornfield. Next a small building belonging to Mme. A. Constantin was upset. Then taking a northeasterly direction, it struck another small house on Mr. Preston Benton's plantation, occupied by old Mr. Hampton Benton and wife. In the space of a minute the building was flying into atoms and the unfortunate lady, Mrs. Benton, lay dead under the fallen chimney and rafters. The deceased was a native of South Carolina, lady of education and refinement, and although a resident of this neighborhood a short time had already won many warm and sincere friends. Old Mr. Benton had his arm and shoulder badly mashed and is otherwise hurt. Two little boys who were in the house at the time were whirled against a wire fence, but otherwise escaped injury. Away went the wind bellowing like a heard of kine, across the prairie, to Mme. Victor Martin's place where it mashed a Negro cabin full of inmates all of whom escaped with but slight injuries. The next place in its path was Miss Carmelite Mouton's plantation, here the wind took a general frolic, throwing down four cabins and twisting the tops off the pecan and oak trees that have stood the fury of the elements, while generation after generation of the children that played under their broad spreading branches have passed away from the face of the earth. The whirlwind played sad havoc with the old trees, some are torn up by the roots and others stand with bared and driven trunks lifted to the summer sky. Their appearance is both ghastly and pitiful. Strange to say the dwelling and inmates were unharmed. This is a most extraordinary circumstance, as the house is simply an ordinary frame building and situated in the midst of trees. Verily the ways of Providence passeth all understanding. The next place visited was that of Mr. T. Dupuis, here comparatively little damage was done with the exception of the throwing over of a few outbuildings including two corn cribs and tearing a gigantic oak to splinters that stood only a short distance from his house. Mr. J. Bourgeois living on the banks of Bayou Vermillion was the next in turn and the wind lifted his kitchen across the Bayou and setting it safely on the opposite bank. The other out buildings were tumbled into the water and broken to pieces. After doing all this damage the wind disappeared in the woods and the storm was over. The rain fall was unprecedented. The Beau Basin is flooded and many of its inhabitants were obliged to vacate their homes. The bridges were all floating and the cattle whose range lies between Bayou St. Clair and Vermillion stood for at least four days in three feet water and many of them were drowned. It was pitiful to hear them bellowing like human beings for help. Yesterday, the 9th, a large body of horsemen went to rescue them and succeeded in driving them to high land. Bayou Vermillion is one foot higher than it was in 1882 and is still rising.
Henrietta Miles Lee was born in South Carolina about 1855 to John Withers Lee and Francis Ann Wilson. Soon after the death of his first wife, Roseana Sansbury (ca1885) Hampton Benton left Louisiana and traveled back to South Carolina. He married a second time about 1888 to Henrietta Miles Lee. The two soon removed to Louisiana and were living in a home on the plantation of Hampton's son, Preston Ramos Benton.
On 7 July 1891, Henrietta was killed in a storm (probably a tornado) when she was trapped under the fallen chimney and rafters of her home. (See the following article "The Path of the Whirlwind"). According to family members, Henrietta was buried in the Lafayette Protestant Cemetery in the Benton Plot near the intersection of Pinhook Road and University Avenue. They had no children.
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THE PATH OF THE WHIRLWIND
Au Large, July 9th, 1891
Mr. Editor - After a drought of nearly three months duration, on Saturday the 5th inst. The rain began to fall in earnest, and the parched and blighted crops spread out their leaves to the refreshing shower. The half famished cattle slacked their thirst in the pools of water, and all nature seemed to revive and rejoice. But a long needed and plentiful rain that has been watched and prayed for, for months is one side of the question and a regular old Noah's deluge is another. As I said before the storm began on Saturday and the rain fell in torrents attended with wind, more or less in places. By Sunday evening the corn had all been beaten down and lay across the rows floating in water. In places where the cotton had been planted during the drought and had never had enough rain to sprout, by Monday it was all up and spreading its fair like head above the water. Some planters say it is soon enough to expect an average crop. The storm continued with more or less violence until the 7th inst. when it terminated in the neighborhood by the passing of a whirlwind that carried death and destruction to all in its course. From an eye witness I learned that its first appearance was a curling column whirling above the oak trees in Mme. J. Bernard's yard as if from the clouds it started on its downward path gathering up the water in a pond near by and throwing it into an adjoining cornfield. Next a small building belonging to Mme. A. Constantin was upset. Then taking a northeasterly direction, it struck another small house on Mr. Preston Benton's plantation, occupied by old Mr. Hampton Benton and wife. In the space of a minute the building was flying into atoms and the unfortunate lady, Mrs. Benton, lay dead under the fallen chimney and rafters. The deceased was a native of South Carolina, lady of education and refinement, and although a resident of this neighborhood a short time had already won many warm and sincere friends. Old Mr. Benton had his arm and shoulder badly mashed and is otherwise hurt. Two little boys who were in the house at the time were whirled against a wire fence, but otherwise escaped injury. Away went the wind bellowing like a heard of kine, across the prairie, to Mme. Victor Martin's place where it mashed a Negro cabin full of inmates all of whom escaped with but slight injuries. The next place in its path was Miss Carmelite Mouton's plantation, here the wind took a general frolic, throwing down four cabins and twisting the tops off the pecan and oak trees that have stood the fury of the elements, while generation after generation of the children that played under their broad spreading branches have passed away from the face of the earth. The whirlwind played sad havoc with the old trees, some are torn up by the roots and others stand with bared and driven trunks lifted to the summer sky. Their appearance is both ghastly and pitiful. Strange to say the dwelling and inmates were unharmed. This is a most extraordinary circumstance, as the house is simply an ordinary frame building and situated in the midst of trees. Verily the ways of Providence passeth all understanding. The next place visited was that of Mr. T. Dupuis, here comparatively little damage was done with the exception of the throwing over of a few outbuildings including two corn cribs and tearing a gigantic oak to splinters that stood only a short distance from his house. Mr. J. Bourgeois living on the banks of Bayou Vermillion was the next in turn and the wind lifted his kitchen across the Bayou and setting it safely on the opposite bank. The other out buildings were tumbled into the water and broken to pieces. After doing all this damage the wind disappeared in the woods and the storm was over. The rain fall was unprecedented. The Beau Basin is flooded and many of its inhabitants were obliged to vacate their homes. The bridges were all floating and the cattle whose range lies between Bayou St. Clair and Vermillion stood for at least four days in three feet water and many of them were drowned. It was pitiful to hear them bellowing like human beings for help. Yesterday, the 9th, a large body of horsemen went to rescue them and succeeded in driving them to high land. Bayou Vermillion is one foot higher than it was in 1882 and is still rising.
On 7 July 1891, Henrietta was killed in a storm (probably a tornado) when she was trapped under the fallen chimney and rafters of her home. (See the following article "The Path of the Whirlwind"). According to family members, Henrietta was buried in the Lafayette Protestant Cemetery in the Benton Plot near the intersection of Pinhook Road and University Avenue. They had no children.
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THE PATH OF THE WHIRLWIND
Au Large, July 9th, 1891
Mr. Editor - After a drought of nearly three months duration, on Saturday the 5th inst. The rain began to fall in earnest, and the parched and blighted crops spread out their leaves to the refreshing shower. The half famished cattle slacked their thirst in the pools of water, and all nature seemed to revive and rejoice. But a long needed and plentiful rain that has been watched and prayed for, for months is one side of the question and a regular old Noah's deluge is another. As I said before the storm began on Saturday and the rain fell in torrents attended with wind, more or less in places. By Sunday evening the corn had all been beaten down and lay across the rows floating in water. In places where the cotton had been planted during the drought and had never had enough rain to sprout, by Monday it was all up and spreading its fair like head above the water. Some planters say it is soon enough to expect an average crop. The storm continued with more or less violence until the 7th inst. when it terminated in the neighborhood by the passing of a whirlwind that carried death and destruction to all in its course. From an eye witness I learned that its first appearance was a curling column whirling above the oak trees in Mme. J. Bernard's yard as if from the clouds it started on its downward path gathering up the water in a pond near by and throwing it into an adjoining cornfield. Next a small building belonging to Mme. A. Constantin was upset. Then taking a northeasterly direction, it struck another small house on Mr. Preston Benton's plantation, occupied by old Mr. Hampton Benton and wife. In the space of a minute the building was flying into atoms and the unfortunate lady, Mrs. Benton, lay dead under the fallen chimney and rafters. The deceased was a native of South Carolina, lady of education and refinement, and although a resident of this neighborhood a short time had already won many warm and sincere friends. Old Mr. Benton had his arm and shoulder badly mashed and is otherwise hurt. Two little boys who were in the house at the time were whirled against a wire fence, but otherwise escaped injury. Away went the wind bellowing like a heard of kine, across the prairie, to Mme. Victor Martin's place where it mashed a Negro cabin full of inmates all of whom escaped with but slight injuries. The next place in its path was Miss Carmelite Mouton's plantation, here the wind took a general frolic, throwing down four cabins and twisting the tops off the pecan and oak trees that have stood the fury of the elements, while generation after generation of the children that played under their broad spreading branches have passed away from the face of the earth. The whirlwind played sad havoc with the old trees, some are torn up by the roots and others stand with bared and driven trunks lifted to the summer sky. Their appearance is both ghastly and pitiful. Strange to say the dwelling and inmates were unharmed. This is a most extraordinary circumstance, as the house is simply an ordinary frame building and situated in the midst of trees. Verily the ways of Providence passeth all understanding. The next place visited was that of Mr. T. Dupuis, here comparatively little damage was done with the exception of the throwing over of a few outbuildings including two corn cribs and tearing a gigantic oak to splinters that stood only a short distance from his house. Mr. J. Bourgeois living on the banks of Bayou Vermillion was the next in turn and the wind lifted his kitchen across the Bayou and setting it safely on the opposite bank. The other out buildings were tumbled into the water and broken to pieces. After doing all this damage the wind disappeared in the woods and the storm was over. The rain fall was unprecedented. The Beau Basin is flooded and many of its inhabitants were obliged to vacate their homes. The bridges were all floating and the cattle whose range lies between Bayou St. Clair and Vermillion stood for at least four days in three feet water and many of them were drowned. It was pitiful to hear them bellowing like human beings for help. Yesterday, the 9th, a large body of horsemen went to rescue them and succeeded in driving them to high land. Bayou Vermillion is one foot higher than it was in 1882 and is still rising.
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