Chenoa, Illinois Tornado
May 1858
(From the Bloomington Paragraph,
Saturday)
Four miles south of Chenoa, the mail train for
Chicago which passed here in the afternoon, was
blown off the track into the ditch, the engine
alone remaining on the track. Many houses were
unroofed and greatly injured at Chenoa.
Mr. Darling,
of the firm Darling &
Thomas, Chenoa, describes the storm
at that place as terrific. In his own house
there happened to be some five men when the
storm struck it, some of them strangers who had
taken refuge there from the approaching tempest.
They all manned the doors and widows [sic], and
by pushing against them kept them from being
blown in, and the house was not injured. Most of
his neighbors were less fortunate.
Sam Emery’s
eating house was unroofed, and the furniture
&c., badly spoiled by the drenching rain. Damage
fall $500. The whole house was about going over
when the roof gave way and relieved the pressure
enough to save the rest of the building. The
station was unroofed, and the platforms around
it were litted [sic] from their fonudations
[sic] and torn to pieces.
Dr. McMahan’s
dwelling, a small one worth about $500, was
utterly destroyed and the fragments strewn to an
immense distance across the prairie. Dr. M. says
this house appears to have been thrown into the
air and completely reversed, the roof striking
the ground first. The family were inside, but
escaped with such slight injuries that they were
all able to assist in gathering up the scattered
contents of their house.
The Bush
House was unroofed. Eight houses were moved from
their foundations: One small two story house
actually slid for some three hundred yards
across the smooth prairie, with a family inside,
and finally stopped, remaining upright and
uninjured. Mr.
Heatberington’s farm house, near
town, was destrayed (sic). It was a small two
story house worth some $500. No one hurt.
Several farm houses on the prairie are reported
to have been rolled over, but no serious injury
to any person is reported. Eighteen or twenty
freight cars were standing on the Peoria &
Oquawka road at Chenoa. When the gale struck
them they started east like an express train,
and were soon out of sight. Mr. D. saw them
pushed into Chenoa again by a train coming west
on Friday, but did not learn how far they had
gone. The conductor of the train reported
several houses destroyed at Gilman. Several
empty freight cars on the St. L., A. & C. road
at Chenoa were blown off the track.
Chicago Daily Tribune, Chicago, IL 18 May 1858
Chenoa.
A man named KAPPA
was instantly killed by the timbers from
the roof of his house. He had been plowing in a
field near by, when observing the approaching
storm, he hastened homewards, put up his horses
and was on the way from the barn to the house,
when the roof of the latter was blown on to him,
burying him among the ruins.
Chicago Daily Tribune, Chicago, IL 20 May 1858
Articles transcribed by Rosemarie Thank you,
Rosemarie!
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