Dawson, IL Tornado, May 1883

The Deadly Cyclone

Along the track of the fearful monster in that vicinity could be found nothing that had not been damaged. In all the fields were dead horses and cattle. Trees were prostrated and fences were no more, the roads in some places being blockaded. In one place a haystack impeded travel- a shapeless mass. It had been raised and set down from an adjoining field. The cyclone at Dawson and other points, according to eyewitnesses, presented the appearance at times of a vast ball of fire. Shaped as a mass funnel, it seemed to possess heat and power at the little end. Nothing of human construction could survive its touch. One and half miles east of Dawson the old Hamilton place was wrecked. The saddest human calamity occurred here. A woman and a child recently born were killed outright. At Buffalo the force of the cyclone was as strong as at any other point. Visitors from that place say it is shrouded in mourning. MRS. THOMAS CHANDLER was killed by flying timbers from her beautiful residence, which fell a victim. Two of Mrs. Chandler’s children were also severely, but not fatally, injured.

Decatur Daily Republican, Decatur, IL 30 May 1883
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Transcribed by June. Thanks June!