St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1877-06-08
Terrible Storm in Illinois.
MANY PEOPLE KILLED.

structiveness struck the town of Mount
Carmel, ILL.,, Monday about P. NJ, and
from the meager accounts Obtainable il
would seem that at least 20 persons lost
their lives, while 80 to so were wound
ed, and about score are missing. The
town is one of about 1900 inhabitants,
and is in Wabash county on the Indian
Ma line. Among the buildings destroy
ed are the Presbyterian and Methodist
| churches, two schOolhOuses, the court
house, and several stores and residences.
The ruins of the buildings were burning
ut last accounts, threatening the total
destruction of the town. The bodies of
four of the killed were burned. Among
the killed are Alderman Watkins, VIM.
Newkirk, Mr.. Goodrich, Burton Master
son, Il child named Fred Yoke, George
Moore, George Brins, j. A. Egar, Charles
and John Tennis. A large number were
wounded, several of whom will IN
doubtedly die.
THE STORM AT NATION.
MattoOn, Ill.,, in Coles county, further
north, had the severest storm ever ex-
perienced there at $50 P. NJ. The wind,
which was accompanied by perfect
flood of rain, came from the southwest,
sweeping IA lane about a hundred feet
wide to the north least, unroohng and
unearthing buildings and dwellings.
The dwelling of Willis Walkup was
struck, thrown into the street and turn
ed upside down, wOunding Mrs. Walkup
very seriously. Several buildings were
entirely demolished.
LATER.-THE TERRIBLE WORK OF THE
TEMPEST.
The tornado at Mount Carmel, H.,
and vicinity proves to have been even
more terrible than the first reports in
dictated, and will rank as one of the
worst, for the area covered, ever known
in this country. Twenty two bodies of
the killed have already been found, the
number of wounded is great, and the
estimate of S50O.OO0 as the value of the
property destroyed was not too large
The work of searching the debris for
the dead was still in progress at last
accounts. A number of farmers were
i'll from the country, and their teams
have been found scattered among the
ruins. Physicians were brought from
care of the wounded. Three churches
in southern Illinois. About 20 business
houses and nearly 100 private houses
were ruined or damaged, either by the
storm or by fire. The same tornado
damaged Il number of buildings in other
towns to the north. The wind at Mat
tOon, H., was doubtless part of the
same disturbance. There the residence
of Willis Walkup was overturned, and
Mrs. Walkup was seriously injured.
The general course of the wind was
north. There were two converging lines
OF devastation, which proves that the
tornado partook largely of the charac-
ter of cyclone. The first wreck was
that of a frame-house, which was blown
out at the sides, and the roof thus let
down upon the foundation. Thence the
wind swept over small strip of timber
and was met by counter current of
wind from the west, which did no serious
damage except to fences. These cur
rents met on 4th street, below Main,
with sound resembling the crash of
timber or the Tapping of sails, and in
few seconds the air was filled with the
debris of hundred dwellings, public
buildings and business houses Some
of the wreck was carried a mile. The
principal force of the cyclone was spent
on the line of 4th street, running north
east to the woods west of the river,
where the wind rose from the earth
The devastation beyond is not known
because of the absorbing interest in the
disaster at Mount Carmel. Half square
above Main street, on 4th, the furious
eddying of the storm carried the Meth
odist church steeple in "A contrary di-
rection, landing it 300 feet away, in
front of saloon. The bell was drop
ped in the middle of the street, near by
A little boy, coming from school below
Main street, was lifted above the houses,
and landed, unhurt, at his home, half a
mile north. He said he passed over the
church steeple, as it went the other
way. The fury of the storm was spent
in the business portion of the town. In
some cases, buildings were only I'M
rooted, but the demolition of other
houses was complete. The loss of prop
erty by storm and fire is estimated at
half million dollars, but the interest
in that feature of the affair is over
Swallowed by concern for the dead and
missing. The fire was subdued by six
hours work.