The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-05-28
AN AWFUL WRECK AT EAST ST. LOUIS
Vandalia Freight House and Many Other
Buildings Reported to Be Demolished
Lives Of About 200 People Crushed Out in the Illinois Town.
Children in Sch0olhOuses Mangled.

and Madison, where it veered to the east
again.
Judging from the reports of the greatest
damage done, the path of the storm was on
width. The worst damage was done in
path about six blocks wide. extending east
ward from Grand avenue TO Tenth street,
and from Lafayette avenue on the south
every other block the wind seemed to reach
out and crush the buildings and unroof res
licences outside of its maik path. Every
wire along Chouteau avenue ffom Grand east
to Twelfth street was down. and the poles
and their heavy freight OF cables were scat
trered along the streets. All streets from
Park avenue to Choteau avenue were in a
esimilar condition. one Of them was pass
able with a horse or vehicle, and walking
was a difficult and dangerous experiment.
What few telegraph and telephone wires
remained above ground were draped with
battered tin roofs from neighboring resi-
dences, and the tin seemed to
have blackened in token of the ruin
that had been wrought. In the
neighborhood of jefferson avenue and the
railroad tracks and for three blocks north.
including Eugenia, Adams and Randolph
streets. it was impossible to drive through,
and nearly every residence and building
along either OF them within three blocks of
Jefferson avenue was more or less damaged
No words can do justice to the horrors of
the scene at Seventh and Rutger streets In
one wreck alone it is known that more than
twenty bodies are still imbedded Five shock
ingly mangled forms were uncovered and
removed just before midnight.
Fred Manchenheimer kept saloon on the
southeast corner Of Seventh and Rutger
streets, three-story brick building, fitted
up overhead as tenement house, and no
less than eighteen families called it home"
A few minutes after the tornado struck the
structure pile Of brick, woodwork and
plastering and beneath it an unknown num-
ber of men. women and children met a
shocking death. BY the light of a few Ian
terms Assistant Fire Chief Gross and corps
of assistants labored under great difficulties
all night. Just before midnight the bodies
of Fred Manchenheimer. who kept the sa-
loon. and o. Thomas. Harry and William
Kilhan, the latter boys under twelve years
| of age, were recovered. together with that
| Of an unknown man. The search still went
on. Manchenheimers wife and not less than
twenty people, probably many more are
known to be pinioned under the ruined tene-
Eyer's livery stable, near at hand. They pre-
sented frightful appearance. In an adjoin-
| ing apartment at the stable were the re-
mains of an old French woman, said to have
building operated as a grocery by E. H..
Gundlach, on the opposite corner, at No. 1901
| South Seventh street. 1t was stated that
| more bodies are in the latter wreck, while a
few yards south are three more people, said
| to have been caught in their suddenly coll
lapsed home
One corner of the City Hospital was
blown out and the building otherwise dam
aged One patient died from fright. ana two
others were killed by falling debris, with
many seriously injured. number of whom
win die. Arrangements were made to nave
the patients to another building. Engine
house No. ! was blown down. and all the
firemen buried. Every hospital in the city
is filled with the wounded victims of the
storm. and the morgue is taxed to the ut
most to accommodate the large number ol
dead bodies that are being brought in from
every section OF the devastated district.
The Laclede Gas Company tank at Four.
teenth and Gratiot was struck by lightning