Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1896-06-02
St. Louis and Vicinity Over
~.
whelmed by the Greatest
Disaster in Years.
Struck by a Terrible Cyclone,
Leaving a Trail of Desola-
ton in Its Wake.
Scores of Buildings Demolished
and the Inmates Buried
in the Ruins.


ions, is the record made by the 9th day
of May, 1885, This is conservative
estimate.
South St. Louis was Uttered with the
bodies of the dead East St. Louis is
gigantic cemetery; under debris of the
. buildings Of that city are scores buried
whose bodies will not be brought to the
light for many days, perhaps never.
1t was the most disastrous storm from
every point Of view in the history Of the
city. The storm did little damage in
the business and northern portions of
the city, save along the river front,
where the damage cannot be estimated,
nor will it ever be known just how
many gave up their lives in the waters
of the Mississippi when the tornado
came and tore all the boats in the har-
Dor from their moorings. The channel
is full of wreckage. In South St. Louis
the storm spent its force
All the way from Papin street to Car
ondelet it put stamp on the face of the
city that
Will Not Be Effaccd For Years.
Big, strong buildings fell before the
wind like houses made of cards. From
where it entered the city, ont i'll the
southwestern suburbs, to where it left,
somewhere near the Eads bridge, there
is wide path Of ruins. Factory after
factory went down and piles of bricks
and timbers mark the spots OH which
they stood. Dwellings were picked up
and thrown i'll every direction. Bust
ness houses We're flattened and the ruins
cover bruised and manglcd bodies.
Thousands of families in South St. Louis
are homeless, practically, and the tenn
porary hospitals shelter scores and hun
dreds.
EARLY i'll the storm the plant of the
Laclede Gas company, at Fourteenth
and Poplar streets, WAS destroyed, and
large portion Of the central part of the
city was cut off from its gas supply.
This affected the newspaper Offices
severely. In The Republic office no gas
could be obtained to heat the metal on
the linotype machines, and the only
type setting done was on machines in
which the metal was melted by blow
lamps.
Wires are down all over the city.
Liggett & Myers big factory in Comp
ton Heights is q ruin, and many were
killed and injured in the wreck. Ele-
vators were blown down, boats were
sunk, and churches and school houses
were demolished.
Fire Added to the Destruction.
After the wind and rain had done it's
work, fire added to the destruction.
Hetzel's mill was the first to become
ignited and it was totally destroyed at
loss Of $4,000. Harris; barrel factory.
90 loaded cars in the terminal yards,
Lynch's boarding house, Boards feed
store, Lee's blacksmith shop and other
smaller places, were burned The de-
struction of the waterworks early in the
storm cut off the water supply and
Chief Purdy and his men fought the
fire with a bucket brigade as best they
could. The whole central portion Of
the city was threatened by the burning
mill, but all hands worked with such O.
will that it's further spread was pre-
vented.
Were Very Fortunate to Escanc.
The St, Louis Refrigerator and Wood
enware company's entire plant at Main
street and Park was destroyed. The
plant consisted Of history factory, q
4-story warehouse, a bicycle factory and
several smaller buildings. When the,
cyclone struck the place, there were at
work between 400 and 500 men and
women. The top stories of the ware
house and factory were blown off. For
tunately there were only few people
OH the top floor, and all but two are
thought to have escaped with
slight T. injuries. Fire broke out
in the warehouse just after
top floor was destroyed. The panic
stricken employees rushed pell nell from
the buildings, leaving many disabled
behind them. TO add to their horror,
hundreds of heavy pieces of lumber
from an adjoining lumber yard came
flying through the air and forced many
back into The blazing buildings. Alarms
were sent in from all the fire alarm
{ boxes in the vicinity but the wires were
already useless. Chief swingley hap
pened to be crossing the Fourteenth
street bridge and saw the blaze. He
drove to the nearest engine house and
b piloted the apparatus to the fire ..5=s9:
Some Of the Damaged buildings.
The. following are among the dam
aged buildings
The main Office building, freight.
depot and five Wareh0 Houses OF the Iron
u Mountain railroad, completely demOl-
I 1shed roof elevator B, Standard ele.s
Yator company, blown away and build
ing badly damaged /; SouthW estern Lead.
company, warehouse comp etely demol=a
ished !; Plant S milling elevator wrecked:
q property q the Brown Lumbe company
scattered to the four winds; roof Amer
\ lean Refining comp scattered roof
81 St. Louis Reffrige rattor and Wooden Gut:
ter. company, Park avenue, de1nol
later took fires. Regina -four mil, badly