Pueblo Beach, FL Violent Tornado Strikes, Sep 1889

A TORNADO'S FREAKS.

A HORSE, BUGGY AND BOY LIFTED INTO THE AIR AND CARRIED TWO HUNDRED FEET KILLING THE LAD -- A FREIGHT CAR BLOWN A DISTANCE OF SIXTY FEET -- DAMAGE TO A HOTEL.

Jacksonville, Fla, Sept. 24. -- A tornado passed over Pueblo Beach, sixteen miles from here, at six o'clock last evening and did great damage to Murray Hall, an immense beach hotel. The tin roof was torn off, the windows and doors burst in and the building left in a generally shattered condition. The servants' quarters and carpenter shop near the hotel were completely demolished. PRINCE O'NEIL, a boy thirteen years old, was standing by the horse and buggy of Lawrence Haynes, near the dancing pavilion, awaiting the arrival of the evening train. The horse, vehicle and boy were lifted into the air and blown nearly 200 feet to the beach. The boy was killed outright.
A freight car on a side track was lifted in the air, turned over twice and landed on the north side of the main track, sixty feet distant. A passenger train due at six o'clock was half an hour late, owing to obstructions on the track. Had it arrived on time a hundred cottagers returning from the city would doubtless have been killed or seriously injured. The force of the wind was such that pieces of timber were driven through the two-inch plank flooring of the railroad station and were with great difficulty extricated for the passage of the train. The cottagers escaped with little or no damage, andno serious injury to persons is reported beyond the death of the O'NEIL boy.
The damage to Murray Hall and surroundings is estimated at $10,000. It closed for the season last Wednesday. It is owned and managed by John G. Christopher, of this city. Great excitement prevails among the cottagers, but the weather is again perfectly calm. The tornado covered an area of not over seventy-five feet in its revolutions and buildings and persons outside of this circle were uninjured. The tornado was less than three minutes in duration and passed off toward the northwest.

Elyria Democrat Ohio 1889-09-26
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!