St.
Charles, Missouri Tornado
July
8, 1915
MISSOURI TOWNS HIT
Loss of Life and Great Property Damage Recorded.
St. Louis, July 8.—Five persons were killed
in a tornado which swept through Charles county,
this state. The damage is estimated to have been
at least $500,000. Mrs.
Thomas Slattery and her two children,
residing at Dardenne, eighteen miles west of St.
Charles were killed when the wind wrecked their
home.
The church of St. Charles Barromeo at St.
Charles was leveled by the wind. It was reported
that a woman had entered it and was praying when
the sides caved in. The church was valued at
$70,000.
Nearly 100 patients in the St. Joseph’s hospital
at St. Charles were thrown into a panic when
part of the roof was blown from the structure.
Attendants and patients who were able to leave
their beds restored order and carried the
helpless to places of safety. The electric light
plant was put out of commission and miles of
electric light, telephone and telegraph wires
were twisted together on the streets.
Water was running four and five feet deep in the
streets of St. Charles. In the lower part of the
town, the business section, water engulfed the
floors of stores. The great steel plant of the
American Car and Foundry works was badly
damaged.
Lancaster Daily Eagle, Lancaster, OH 8 Jul
1915
St. Charles, after a night of total
darkness–the electric light plant having been
put out commission–today looked upon the ruins
of the entire central portion of the city,
including more than 100 residences.
Search was instituted for the bodies of a woman
and two small children, who took refuge in the
St. Charles Borromeo Catholic church, a few
minutes before it was razed by the wind.
It is supposed they perished. The Borromeo was
the oldest church in St. Charles, having been
built in 1862, at a cost of $100,000. The
property damage in St. Charles alone, it is
believed, will aggregate nearly a half million
dollars. The damage to wheat in St. Charles and
St. Louis counties is estimated at more than
$100,000. A dozen towns in these counties were
isolated last night, as miles upon miles of
telephone and telegraph wires were on the
ground, a tangled mass.
Reports today from the storm-swept area of
eastern Missouri and western Illinois left the
death roll at seven. Three persons were reported
missing at St. Charles, Mo., the largest town in
the path of Wednesday’s tornado, but were found
later to be safe.
Dawn disclosed that the damage done at St.
Charles had been overestimated. While the
tornado swept a section of the city eighteen
blocks long by nine blocks wide, the damage,
with the exception of the demolition of one
church and the partial wrecking of another
church, a factory, a hospital and a convent, was
confined largely to the unroofing of housing and
the uprooting of trees.
The Newark Advocate, Newark, OH 8 Jul 1915
Articles transcribed by Sandra Ries.
Thanks Sandra!
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