Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2025 All Rights Reserved USGenNet Data Repository Please read USGenNet Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott for the USGenNet Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ =========================================================================== Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== The Weekly Pantagraph Wednesday, 9 June 1858 THE ELLISON TORNADO The Chicago Tribune of June 3rd has an account of this fearful disaster, from a special reporter who was sent down immediately on learning of the occurrence. He says: Ellison was a handsome and pleasantly situated village, containing some two hundred inhabitants, fourteen miles southwest from Monmouth, in Warren county. It contained two stores, a warehouse, a tavern, and thirty dwellings, besides barns, sheds, &c. A handsome grove bounded the village on the west and south, while a large prairie stretched away to the north and east. The grove to the west is some three miles in width, and still west of the grove is South Prairie, about fourteen miles wide. On Sunday evening, the 30th of May, about 5 o'clock, the residents of South Prairie noticed a funnel shaped cloud, the fan or tail about five hundred feet wide, moving with almost inconceivable rapidity from west to east and so near the surface of the ground that at times it seemed to strike the earth and rise again. The cloud was black, accompanied with terrific thunder and lightning, hail and rain. Its extreme length was not over six or eight hundred feet and its thickness only some fifty feet, and those who witnessed its progress assert that at times they could see that the air was apparently entirely undisturbed and clear above and below it. This storm-fiend -- we know of no better name for the devastating cloud -- destroyed fourteen houses in South Prairie, killing and wounding a number of persons, and at a few minutes past 5 o'clock burst with the fury of a demon upon Ellison, destroying every building but four, killing seven persons outright and injuring every other inhabitant. It then rose and passed on to the east, strik- ing the earth again within a distance of three miles, destroying a few fences, then rose again high in the air and passed out of sight. When we arrived at the ruined village a scene of disaster presented itself which nothing we can write will exaggerate. Boards, timbers and debris of every description were scattered in all directions about the site occupied by the town, and over the prairie to the east for a distance of two miles. The first building struck was the two-story frame store of MR. JOSEPH KNOWLES. This was lifted from its foundation, whirled around two or three times in the cloud, and carried across the street, where it burst into small fragments, and its contents were torn to shreds and so scattered that not even a yard of goods has been found. The next house destroyed was DR. YOHO'S, a large frame structure. It was carried to the opposite side of the street, lifted high into the air and shattered into a thousand pieces. In this manner twenty-three dwellings, two stores and the warehouse were utterly destroyed; and so rapidly was this done that no time was permitted the terror stricken inhabi- tants to escape from their homes. So thoroughly complete was the destruction that not a vestige of the houses or their contents remains, save scattered boards and timbers and here and there a fragment of a garment or a broken piece of furniture. One of the residents, whom we saw searching for his scattered goods, informed us that he had been unable to recognize among the ruins anything he had owned. Another stated that he was quite certain that nothing of his had escaped total destruction. During the passage of the cloud the water fell in sheets, and the thunder and lightning was terrific. But four build- ings are left standing in the town, and two of these, although out of the immediate track of the storm, are so shattered as to be untenable. As soon as possible the farmers in the neighborhood were apprised of the disaster, and hurried to the rescue of the wounded, many of whom were found beneath the ruins or hurled beyond them to the open road. The following are mentioned among the many injuries to life and limb: MARY ANN McWILLIAMS killed outright THOMAS McWILLIAMS, brother of the above, and his sister, badly injured and not expected to live. MRS. McWILLIAMS, mother of the above, badly injured, but will probably recover. JOSHUA SHEETS who lived with the family badly injured. WILLIAM E. THOMPSON and infant child killed outright. His wife was found in the wreck of the house so badly wounded that she died a short time after. In one arm she held her infant, the top of its skull severed from the head and hanging over its face, and its bowels torn out. MISS JANE SHERWOOD, a school teacher, and boarder in MR. THOMPSON'S house, had a large sliver run through her thigh, yet she assisted for some time in providing for the safety of others before she knew that she was injured herself. She will recover. LINDLEY KELSHAW escaped with slight injuries, but his mother is so serously hurt that she will not recover; and his sister and niece are also much injured, but his family escaped with a few slight bruises. JACOB BRAZLETON, wife and son were killed outright. Two other children were seriously injured and another slightly. MRS. BRAZLETON was found a hundred yards from her house, with her bowels torn out and breast-bone broken. DR. A. B. YOKO was badly injured, and his child slightly. His recovery is doubtful. DR. HORACE SAWYER was severely bruised, and it was feared injured internally. MISS LEVINA LACY was killed outright. Her body was found under the ruins about midnight, neck broken, arm broken, head crushed and breast-bone broken. Her clothes had been entirely stripped from her body by the wind. MARTIN WENTWORTH was killed outright, his body being terribly mangled. Other injuries mentioned we condense as follows: RICHARD McWILLIAMS, considerably hurt; family only slightly. IRAM COOK, his hired man, seriously. MRS. OSTRAM, mother- in-law of MRS. THOMPSON, one arm and shoulder blade broken. JACOB SMITH, one arm broken in two places; wife and child serously hurt. ELISHA GODFREY, wife and four children, slightly injured. As soon as MR. G. saw the store destroyed he hurried his family into the cellar, and they barely succeeded in getting to the foot of the cellar stairs when the house was lifted into the air and torn to fragments. MRS. HANDY, severely injured; her eldest daughter supposed mortally hurt; a younger daughter slightly injured. MRS. BECK and child, severely injured. MESSRS. HANDY and BECK are clergy- men, and both were absent from home. JAMES WORNOM and WM. E. FLORENCE, serously bruised. LEWIS RAPPALEE, wife and three children, badly hurt; recovery doubtful. SAMUEL JOHNSON, wife and three children, badly hurt. GEORGE McCARTNEY, wife and two sons, very badly injured. One son had both arms broken; the other a leg broken. Recovery doubtful. Hired man, named HUGHES, seriously hurt. J. CLARK and family, not much hurt. The wounded were conveyed to the nearest remaining houses, and medical aid summoned as speedily as possible, and the dead were collected and buried. The people of Monmouth and of Young America station were active and liberal in relieving the sufferers. On South Prairie near its eastern edge, the following disasters are reported: MR. JOHNSON, his sister and three children were killed out- right. MRS. JOHNSON had her leg broken in two places and an arm broken. She was carried by the wind several hundred yards and thrown into the creek, but managed to crawl part way up the bank and was saved from drowning. While lying upon the bank she saw the body of her dead infant floating by and succeeded in grasping it. When found about daylight the next morning, she was unconscious, but still held her dead child as with the grasp of death. She will not recover. MR. HURD was hurled into the air, and received a severe blow on his side from a piece of flying timber which injured him so seriously that he died the next day. MRS. HURD had her infant in her arms at the time the storm struck the house, but it was torn from her grasp and both mother and child thrown into a slough where she remained all night. She heard the cry of her infant, but her injuries were so severe that it was only with the greatest difficulty she could crawl to it, and when she reached it the child was dead. She was found the next morning, and it is hoped she will recover. A son of MR. HURD was so much bruised that he will hardly recover. (transcriber note: Willard Hurd, his wife, Harriet, and infant son, Willard, Jr., all died.) MR. RANKIN, who lived farther back on the prairie, was so much injured that his life is despaired of. His family escaped with a few slight bruises. Some distance west of MR. HURD'S a group of four houses were torn to shreds and scattered over the prairie, but the occupants saw the storm coming in time to take shelter in a root cellar, detached from one of the houses, and thus escaped injury. Contributions are being made at Monmouth, and at the Tremont House in Chicago, for the relief of the sufferers by this tornado, many of whom have lost everything they possessed, even to their clothing. The reporter makes the following assertions respecting the minor effects of the storm: As it passed through the grove just west of the village it threw down the largest trees or twisted off their tops and hurled them far away, while in several instances trees were left standing from which every particle of bark was stripped, even to the smallest branches and fibers, while others were denuded of every leaf and not a limb broken. We saw clumps of crab-apple bushes stripped of every particle of bark and left standing as clean and white as though freshly peeled by some mischievous school-boy. In some places the grass was literally beaten into the mud as though it had been crushed by the wheels of of heavily laden wagon. Horses, cattle, swine and stock of all kinds which were overtaken by the storm were dashed down and instantly killed, and we saw, lying in the main street of Ellison, dead chickens from which the feathers had been literally stripped by the wind. A number of cedar posts, set for a rail fence, were blown down or broken off by the sheer force of the wind. These statements may seem exaggerated, but hundreds of witnesses can tesity to their truth. ===========================================================================