The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1890-01-16
SWEPT BY A CYCLONE
DESTRUCTION IN THE CITY OF ST.
LOUIS.

The city of st. Louis was visited
last Sunday by a frightful wind
storm which did great damage to prop
erty, and resulted in loss of life. The
storm struck the southwestern section
of the city and swept through to the
northern limits. making pathway
nearly quarter of a mile wide and leav-
ing death and desolatien in it's track.
There was scarcely any warning of the
approaching storm, owing to the fact
that the sky had been overcast for sew
eral hours before the full force of the
wind was felt, and it was all over in an
incredibly brief period of time, those re-
siding in and near the path of the cyclone
scarcely realizing what had happened
until it was all over.
In addition to dozens of dwellings and
stores in the southern, central and north
ern sections of the city more or less
wrecked, the following buildings were
damaged: The Anchor mills, Goodwin
candle factory, Pullman shops, Van
Brooks furniture factory, KingSland &c
Ferguson's farm implement works, Mis-
souri, Pacific hospital, Hodgen school,
German Evangelical church, Second
Presbyterian church and others yet to
be heard from. The losses on property
are roughly estimated at 100000, but
will likely prove more.
The cyclone seemed to have entered
the city in it's full force at Twenty-third
street and Choteau avenue, passing
northeast until it reached Seventeenth
and Olive streets, where it swerved, TAX
ing direct easterly course to Four
teenth, and then again turned to the
northeast, leaving the city and striking
the river just north of Tyler street. The
only announcement of the approach and.
progress of the storm was dull, Sullen
roar, quickly followed by a torrent of
rain, which in turn was succeeded by
sleet, and before the victims could real
ize what had happened the storm swept
by and on, leaving wreckage and man
gled humanity in it's pathway. Trees
were torn up by the roots and broken
off, telegraph poles swept down as
though mere sticks, while the roofs of
buildings were lifted from their moor
ings like feathers and tossed into the
streets.
Mrs. Charles Miller, who resides with
her husband at Twentieth and Eugene
streets, was sitting in rocking chair,
with her babe in her arms, when the roof
was lifted from her house. She rushed
to the window, and just then the wall
gave way and Mrs. Miller and her babe
were buried under the debris. The babe
mirculOuSly escaped without a scratch,
but the mother was badly hurt and may
not recover. Mr.. Miller was in anoth
er part of the house and escaped unhurt.
This is but one of dozens of incidents of
the storm.
1t is just reported that number of
passenger cars were blown from the
tracks in the upper part of the Mill
Creek valley, the western outlet of the
union depot yards. The list of killed, SO
far as known is as follows:
MRS. MAGGIE CONNERs, aged 40
BERNARD M. CONNERS, aged 49,
JOE WEAVER. aged s.
WILLIE MARKS, aged 6.
The injured are.
TERESA WEAVER, aged 6, both legs broken;
will probably die.
MRS. CHARLES MILLER, badly cut and
bruised.
ANNIE CoNNORs, badly bruised.
MAGGIE CONNoRs, bruised and cut badly.
FRANCIS CoNNORs, slightly bruised.
DIR. Nichols, who is attending Mrs.
Miller, says that she is dangerously hurt.
The babe is all right.
The last death reported is that of
Willie Marks, aged years, whose
parents reside in the northern part of
the city. He was in bed sick with
fever. The storm blew the roof off the
Marks home and bricks came crashing
into the room, resulting in the death of
the boy from sheer fright.
The cyclone was of not longer dura-
tion than five minutes time, but in that
short space it left behind it track of
ruined buildings, unrOofed houses, shat
tered walls, dismantled churches and
schools, wrecked factories and mills,
streets heaped with debris, telegraph
poles blown down by thousands,
the wire service of the city
temporarily destroyed, and the
usual dread accompaniment of loss
of life and widespread injury to human
beings that left panic-stricken popu-
lace gathering at every street corner to
discuss the sudden horror. From the
evidence Of eye-witnesses the storm was
an undoubted cyclone, dropping upon
the city at about the initial point desig-
mated and gaining in intensity as it
swept in a diagonal path toward the
river. The usual sudden darkening of
the skies at the point where the cyclone
burst, the awful descent of the funnel
shaped cloud, and the havoc of ruin fol-
lowing it's touching terra frma, are all
told in the stories of those whose terri
flying fortune was to mark the approach
and passage of the hurricane.
The telegraph and telephone wires
were badly knocked out by the cyclone.
The Western Union and Postal have
been at their wits end with but half a
dozen wires between them, while 700 of
the telephone wires of the city are down.
A messenger just arrived from the
east side of the river says that the storm
in ST. Clair county, Illinois, was unus-
ually severe. Brooklyn, village of
about FIVE hundred people, seems to have
suffered most. The damage at East ST.
Louis and Venice was largely con-
fined to railroad property and
small dwellings and telegraph and
telephone poles. Brooklyn is
about three miles north of East ST. Louis.
Its population is largely composed of
colored people. 1t was first reported in
East ST. Louis that the little village had
been swept off the face of the earth. 1t
proves not quite so bad as that, though
bad enough, and though several were in
iured no lives were lost A number of