Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-02-21
ILLINOIS CYCLONE.
The Business Portion Ct TIE Town
PIoughed Up Three Story Bricks
Crushed Like Strawberries.
The Fiery Demon Breaks Dat in =
Dozen Places and III o'uaIIy Com.
pIeies the Work OF Destruction.
thirty Six Victims Taken Fro IA the Ruins
Dead-many Others SsFtously Injured.
The Money Loss Immense.
THIRTY SIX DEAD.

CENTRALIA, ILL, Feb. 20 -Firemeu
sent to Mount Vernon returned this morn
leg and reported thirty.six found dead up
20 O'Clock this morning and great
many more wounded. The Circuit court
Is leveled snd the main business portion
and the churches are destroyed. The
fires are all exiDguished.
STORIES or BYE WITNESSES.
ST. LOUIS, Mo-, Feb. 2O.-H. S. Rear
don, conductor of the Louisville and
Nashville train, which WAS caught in the
cyclone At Mount Vernon last evening,
ard who hsd his shoulder disl Jcsted by
having s big trunk hurled against him by
the wind, arrived here last night and
gives the following brief account Of the
scene:
alt was all over in minute" said he.
"The thing that most impressed me was
the destruction Of the county courthouse,
magnificent, three-stoTy brick building.
1t looked to me IS though the huge pile
Of brick and mortar had been struck
by q gig ntic batteripg ram, or, il
you please by big club in the hands OF
3 power strong enough 10 knock it down
st single blow. 1t seemed to collapse
all st once, spread out, crush and bury
the buildings surrounding It,"
Marcus Aarons, drummer for Phil
adelphia house, wao was . passenger on
the train, says: sit was terrible cslsm-
ity. l aver Witnessed anything so fright
full N MY life. On reaching Mount Yer
nons ststiop por.ent Gus black cloud,
Handicapped, VS. seen over our heads.
| Slme people knew in moment what was
coming, and began TO cry out words OF
warning. The cloud burst in minute
after fsrmiag. 1t came with
The ROAR AND CRASH
OF e mighty battle Houses Of all de-
scriDsions went down ike whest before
the fAil. Men, women and children ran
hither and thilher, screaming and praying
in their peril and fright. TIE county
courthouse was utterly wrecked and
| three story mil was blown across the
track Just behind US. Our train
Was lying in the track of
the cycione, and II was taken at
a 15ing rate down the track. The en-
giueer couli not control the train, and,
fortunately for US, the brakes were not
/ on. Trees w.re upEooted and the cars
were lifted of their wheels. The passage
of the cyclone must have occupied az
! lEASL IWO ullA L Auluh hDls 1ulAf unlk
the town was totally wrecked, sId to add
| to the horror CT the wind many fires
| broke out among The ruins. From the
train we could see smoke and flames ris-
| ing from s dozen different houses. Our
train did not visit long enough in town
| for ne to learn the accurate loss Of life
and property, but the devastation WAS
terrible. strange thing was that three
| aIE
| shining brightly and Berenely over the
scene CT desolation."
| FURTHER PARTICULARS.
MOUNT VERNON, ILL, Feb 20.-The
/ cyclone that visited this city yesterday
afternoon at O'Clock Destroyed nearly
800 residences and places of business, and
unhoused from 1900 to 1000 people. In
the fall of the walls many per-
sons we're buried under the debris
and thirty-fye killed, while twice
as many more were injured, eight or ten
SO seriously that their recovery is des-
psired CT Preceding the destructive
| wind was heavy fall Of rain for half an
hour which drove all the Inhabitants to
shelter. This was followed by slight
hail storm accompanied with lightning
and then furious blow which formed
7 into . funnel shaped cloud. The Cyclone
struck the soutnwester6 portion OF the
city unrooflpg everything in its patti,
taking dlsgoIa al course through the bus
LESS portion OF town, unroofiag and dis
mantling the Supreme court building
ear the Louisville ana Nashville depot
and skipping along the Methodist and
Baptist churches, csving them
INTO WORTHLESS MASSES.
| At one point the destructive element
| jumped upward and missed several stores
and residences, but soon pounced down
again aud began q career OF unparalleled
ferocity and destruction, tearing down
heavy brick buildings, wreDc0iDg and
twisting frame structures out of SEM
olsDce and making useless mass of solid
walls. The massive court house
| thqt occupies the public square in the
center of the city was literally torn to
pieces, the walls being twisted aud crush
ed. The tower was lifted ana dropped to
the westward and demolish d the hand
! some pillars that supported the entrance
This was the extreme points to the north
| that the storm reached, although the bus
| mess block in which is the mt. Vernon
! National Bank and other business houses
were somewhat dismantled by flying
| brick and timbere. Fifty yards south of
the court house the storm seemed to be
at its height. On the corner of Washing
ton street and the pubic square WAS the
| Crews block, three story brick building
eighty feet front occupied by Evans Bank
as grocery and salOon.t This building
WAS THOROUGHLY DEMOLISHED,
and then taking fire all tneslnd4mmsole
material was consumed TIE owner Of
the building, P C. Murray, was caught
in the falling walls and was crsmated.
Ed Hannah, wife and small boy were in
the basement, having taken refuge from
The storm ana were buried OF the walls,
but the man burroWed mis- way out OF the
ruins making a passage for his
wife and child, and then made
an EFFORT to extinghish the flames. The
DIRE was intensely hot and at noon to-day
the bricks gave of the heat Of furnace.
Across the street on Washington street
was row Of two story frame and brick
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