Various Towns, MO Tornado Damage, May 1858
Posted March 20th, 2008 by Stu Beitler
TORNADOES AT THE WEST -- A RAILROAD TRAIN BLOWN OFF THE TRACK -- LIVES LOST, &C.
St. Louis, Saturday, May 15.
A violent tornado blew the passenger train of the Chicago Alton and St. Louis Railroad off the track at Lexington, Mo., on Thursday night, and several persons were seriously injured. The towns of Lexington and Peoria at the junction of Towanda also suffered severely, half the houses in them being prostrated. At Towanda three men were killed.
Yesterday, another storm of like character passed over the region between Bloomington and Springfield, doing much damage. A large number of houses in Elkhart and Williamsville were demolished, one of them falling in and crushing a family of five persons to death.
The New York Times New York 1858-05-17
__________________
Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!
Search for more information on this disaster and other train wrecks, fires, accidents, etc. in historical newspapers in the Newspaper Archive. Over one billion newspaper articles online!
Search for your ancestors among the billions of names at ancestry.com Find death records, census images, immigration lists and genealogy other databases for your surnames. Use this Free trial
to search for your ancestors.
Start Your Family Tree It's FREE and easy. Start with yourself, your parents, grandparents and you're on your way to building your family history! Get Started Now and build your family tree at ancestry.com. It's Free!
Find Your Ancestors For Free!
Take advantage of a free trial and start finding more information on your ancestors!
Military Records - 7 days for FREE! Fold3 Civil War, World War I, World War II, and more
Birth, Death, Marriage & Divorce Records, Obituaries - 7 days for FREE! Find genealogy records at archives.com
Census Records, Vital Records, Old Newspapers - 14 days for FREE! Trace your families history at ancestry.com Search millions of records.
Yearbooks, Death Records, Histories, Obituaries, - 3 days for FREE! Search huge database of Records at worldvitalrecords.com
|
gendisasters.com is a genealogy site, compiling information on the historic disasters, events, and tragic accidents our ancestors endured, as well as, information about their life and death. Database and records searchable by surname. Compilation, design, artwork and concept covered by copyright. Copyright ©2006-2011, All rights reserved. Contact me. Privacy Policy. |
This was actually in Illinois
The original article had a huge typo (unknown if on the part of the TIMES or the St Louis paper). The Lexington referred to is in Illinois (read the whole article for context). The CA&StL RR, in this corporate form, never made it into Missouri. In later reorganization, under the Chicago & Alton flag, it crossed the Mississippi River in the 1870s. Railroad mileage in Missouri was miniscule before the Civil War, but what there was played a huge role during the war.