100 years ago: Deadly Tri-State Tornado blows through southern Illinois, community rallies

Yahoo

20-03-2025

Looking back at stories that appeared in the O'Fallon Progress 100, 75, and 50 years ago.
(These stories appeared in the O'Fallon Progress about local connections and reactions to the Tri-State Tornado of March 18, 1925, that left a 219-mile path of destruction through southeast Missouri, southern Illinois and southwest Indiana. According to the National Weather Service, 695 lives were lost, including 234 in Murphysboro, Illinois. It is still considered the deadliest tornado in U. S. history.)
When the heavy casualty lists from the storm stricken area in southern Illinois became known through the press, Schwarz Brothers, local undertakers, immediately arranged to assist the city of Murphysboro.
H. P. Schwarz, one of the embalmers of the firm, departed at three o'clock last Friday morning for the stricken city and reported to the American Red Cross to whom he offered the services of the concern until such time that the city could recover from its lamentable plight.
Mr. Schwarz was assigned to the partly demolished Presbyterian church where storm victims were being prepared for burial in the basement. He remained in the church until Sunday, when the greater portion of the dead had been taken care of. On that day a large number of bodies were buried and Mr. Schwarz assisted in conducting the funerals, returning to this city that night.
Mr. Schwarz states that during his stay in the church basement they prepared 61 bodies for burial. When this work was completed he was assigned to conveying critically injured to the depots from where they were taken to hospitals in East St. Louis and other points for treatment.
On Sunday the funerals were held from various churches, several being conducted at the same time.
Mr. Schwarz relates many pitiful instances while in the stricken city and states that the grief caused by the destruction of life and property is undescribable. Bodies of many of the victims were badly mutilated, some of which were almost beyond identification.
Of this number many were fire victims, who escaped the storm but later were caught in fires which resulted from the tornado. Others from here who offered their services to the stricken territory were Assistant Fire Chief Harry Daniels, Samuel Taylor, William Sanspeur and Ferd. Schau, members of the O'Fallon Fire Department, who rushed to Murphysboro via automobile when they learned that the city was on fire.
They reported to the Fire Chief of that city but their services were not needed as the city had the situation well in hand. The chief marveled at the interest displayed by the local firemen whom he thanked in the name of Murphysboro, stating that he knew the citizens appreciated the offer from a fire department located more than 100 miles from Murphysboro.
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O'Fallon citizens and business firms have responded in a praiseworthy manner to the call for financial aid for the benefit of the victims of the most disastrous tornado in the history of the country which swept over southern Illinois taking as its toll more than 800 lives, injuring and maiming 3,000 and laying waste millions of dollars worth of property.
While O'Fallon had no fixed quota for cash donations, up to this time more than $1,100 has been received without solicitation or a meeting of any kind.
Immediately after the storm the Advisory Board of the Business Men's Association met and unanimously decided to assist the Red Cross in securing finances for the Relief Fund to be used for the storm sufferers.
Mayor Ralph Kampmeyer also issued an appeal calling upon the citizens to subscribe to the fund. Contributions are still coming in and predictions are that O'Fallon will give more than $1,200 to the cause.
(Donations could be dropped off at the First National Bank and the First State Bank in O'Fallon.)
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Mike Keller, Mrs. Anna and Mrs. Mary Faitz received word that their sister, Mrs. Charles Schott is in Barnes' Hospital at St. Louis, suffering with serious injuries resulting from the cyclone at Murphysboro last Wednesday.
She has a fracture of both arms, a fracture of the right leg and four broken ribs. Her husband is in the same hospital with a fractured skull.
Mrs. Schott was home alone when the storm broke, her husband being at work in the M. & O. shops, which were destroyed. After the storm, Schott, although seriously injured, rushed to his home to find it on fire.
He heard his wife, who was in the burning building, call for help and came to her rescue by removing debris which had pinned her to the floor. By heroic work he saved her from the flames and took her to the street, where she lay prone for some time before medical aid came. Their home and belongings were completely destroyed, according to members of the Keller family who were in the stricken city, Sunday.
(Catherine Schott and her siblings were natives of O'Fallon and Charles Schott was a native of Shiloh. Both survived the tornado. Mike Keller lived on the Keller Farm O'Fallon.)
The new and modern fire truck of the O'Fallon-Shiloh Valley-Caseyville Township fire protection district, the only one of its kind in this section of the state as to equipment, which arrived here last Tuesday, received its test under state regulations and for approval Friday.
The truck was taken to the Independent Engineering Company lake where it was subjected to a series of tests in the presence of firemen and district trustees. The pumper had a steady run for three hours under different pressure, at one time producing 800 gallons per minute.
Firemen were highly pleased with its performance, indicating that it is more than suited in fighting fires in the rural areas.
Saturday night the firemen provided a program of first-aid and life-saving with their disaster truck equipment at a meeting of Shiloh Valley Grange. The new pumper was also taken to the Grange Hall where an unusually large crowd of interested farmers inspected the equipment, firemen being kept busy in explaining the many accessories embodied in the fire-fighter.
Walter Seibert, of Shiloh Valley Township, a member of the rural fire protection district, was in attendance.
A major fire was narrowly averted Monday night in the Marie Schaefer School south building when a custodian discovered smoldering paper stuffed in a hole under a stairway in the basement.
Robert Bittles, employed at the school, smelled smoke and alerted the fire department. Paper was found stuffed in two similar holes in the school.