Well, this post isn't original, to me. This is, however, a great recap of some little known St. Louis history. The main part of this post is my senior history paper from The University of Kansas. I am quite proud of this paper and have always felt that I need to get it published somewhere and this is my chance. This is a very, and I mean very, long post compared to my previous ones, but it is a great read and it sure makes you think about what if this happened today. That reminds me, all the today's estimates are as of 2009 when I wrote this paper. I look forward to your comments after you read this post.
FYI, on the original paper my citation marks are consistent and I have no clue why they changed when posting here.
Now, let's begin.
Living in a major city, one may
think that he never has to worry about falling victim to the extreme winds and
flying debris manifested by a tornado, especially a powerful one. This assumption has become increasingly more
unsupportable over the last ten years with the devastating hurricanes Katrina,
which hit New Orleans, Louisiana, and Andrew, which hit Florida, Louisiana, and
Texas, as well as the tornado that hit Oklahoma City. St. Louis is one of those cities that many
people would consider a ‘big city’, but no one should assume that St. Louis is
exempt from the devastating power of a strong tornado. St. Louis is one of the cities that commonly
experiences tornadoes. Going back to the
1870’s one can see that nearly every generation through the 1960’s experienced
a tornado of varying strength.[1] March 8, 1871, September 29, 1927, and
February 10, 1959 were substantial tornadoes to hit the city of St. Louis.[2] During the tornado season of 1896, there were
at least forty killer tornadoes across the country spanning from April 11 to
November 26.[3] The one that St. Louis and East St. Louis
endured was the most significant of that season; being the only one that killed
over one hundred people in two separate cities.[4]
Although the category F4 tornado that hit
St. Louis on May 27, 1896 is considered to be the most costly in U.S. history,
it came at a time when disaster relief was considered a local, private matter,
rather than being the responsibility of government, especially at the Federal
level.[5] With damages estimated at $50 million ($3.4
billion in 2006 dollars[6]), and an estimated 400
killed, 1200 injured, and 7000 homes destroyed beyond repair,[7] this natural catastrophe
is only one of the tornados that have made St. Louis the city with the highest
incidence of tornadoes in the country, even though it is not within the
generally accepted area of the so called ‘tornado alley’. Fifty year old trees flying through the air,
roots and all, was a documented sight during this crazed event.[8] Even while enduring the common challenges of
recovery from a tornado, St. Louis had made its struggles into an advantage of
self preservation and pride. After
experiencing an F4 tornado and hosting the Republican Presidential Convention
within a month of the storm, St. Louis went on to host, eight years later, the World’s Fair (The Louisiana Purchase
Exposition) and convinced the Olympic organizers to move the Games from Chicago
to St. Louis, to be held at the same time as the World’s Fair. This determination demonstrates how one
illustrious city can suffer dearly just to rebound stronger than ever. St. Louis is the forgotten example of how a
city that had fallen victim to a powerful storm was able to move beyond the
destruction and focus civic pride to get through the hard times and eventually
prosper, and become one of the largest cities in the nation.
In
the 1890’s, St. Louis was the fourth largest city in the United States. Civic pride was high, leading to an attempt
to host the 1892 Columbian Exposition, which it lost to its rival city,
Chicago. The new Union Station, opened
in 1894 was a source of pride in the progressive nature of the city. Business was booming and the city was
growing, which led to an extensive street paving program. The mayor was running for governor.[9] By the end of May, 1896, the city was focused
on the upcoming Republican Convention in St. Louis. The papers were filled with political
commentary and even the Coronation of Czar Nicholas in Russia.[10] Life was good. Nobody ever thought that they could ever fall
victim to such a devastating storm that would strike the center of the city.
The day of May 27, 1896 began with the Central Office of
the St. Louis Weather Bureau observing that there would be weather conditions
that tend to lead to severe weather, and in this case, especially locally.[11] This forecast was not their first of the day;
they had predicted just local thunder storms, until an ominous cloud overtook
the city.[12] This storm was initially believed to be
nothing more than the usual thunderstorm that the city was used to
experiencing. As the storm arrived, the
patrons at Louis Tisch’s Barber Shop, which was on the top floor of the
Wainwright Building (one of the world’s first ‘skyscrapers’ when completed in
1891[13]), noted that the clouds
came in two distinct color waves; first came yellow, then the ominous black[14] brought forth one of the
most impressive displays of lightning witnessed in the St. Louis area, in the
opinion of a Weather Bureau official.[15] At 4:30 PM, signs of a significant storm
became apparent.
“The
temperature fell rapidly and huge banks of black and greenish clouds were seen
approaching the city...All the time the wind kept rising and in the far
distance vivid forks of lightning could be seen. Gradually the thunder storm
came nearer the city and the western portion was soon in the midst of a terrible
storm. The wind's velocity was about thirty-seven miles an hour. This speedily
increased to sixty, seventy and even eighty miles, by the time the storm was at
its height. For thirteen minutes this frightful speed was maintained and the
rain fell in ceaseless torrents, far into the sad and never-to-be-forgotten
night.”[16]
Each
barber in Louis Tisch’s Barber Shop swore that the tornado was not the typical
funnel-shaped tornado cloud but rather a horizontal black cloud that seemed to
be twisting like a screw.[17] This description of the cloud formation
suggests a squall line which presents itself before severe thunderstorms which
are able to produce significant tornadoes.[18] Prior to the actual touchdown of the tornado,
the wind in Shaw’s Garden (today’s Missouri Botanical Gardens) caused severe
damage to the landscape. Nearby, the
Insane Asylum, The Women’s Hospital, and the Poor House, all city properties,
suffered damage as well.[19] The wind prior to the
funnel was described to be a downburst which accompanied the tornado through
the duration of destruction.[20] This may have been a microburst, as a
precursor of the damage to come later. The tornado finally made its first
touchdown and the impact began to be felt in earnest in the exclusive Compton
Heights district.[21]
Wind gusts were the first weapon used by this storm
before the funnel dropped from the super-cell storm. The world known Shaw’s Garden, one of the
finest botanical gardens in the world,[22] was the first significant
victim of these winds. This illustrious
garden had significant damages; artistically the damage was near complete.[23] The once superb place would take a full week
just to get back to barely half-way presentable shape.[24] The wind, as well as the rain, is what did
the most damage to nearly every plant and flower on the grounds.[25]
The
exclusive district of Compton Heights was the first to fall victim to the wrath
of the tornado. “Entering from the
southwest it attacked first the Compton Heights district, a thickly populated
section, with a large number of very costly mansions.”[26] The houses in this area had a variance of
cost ranging from $5,000 to $25,000.[27] Of the three hundred residents in the
district, every resident fell victim to some damage, many lost everything.[28] The areas to the immediate northeast of
Compton Heights were in dire need to take cover and prepare for this
devastating storm’s destruction. The
Union Depot street railway system, located at the intersection of Jefferson and
Geyer avenues, is where the first indication of the full force of this storm
was made apparent; one of the largest electrical plants in the world was
demolished.[29] The smokestack towering over the electric
plant “snapped in sunder”[30] and the massive building
was blown away. It was described as
appearing as if it had been bombarded by artillery shells.[31] With the destruction of this building,
streetlights all across the city went off and nearly every cable car stopped in
its tracks.[32]
Next in the line of destruction was Lafayette Park. In this very popular park, trees were
uprooted and bandstands were blown way.[33] While working at the Park Police Station,
“Superintendent Hunt, seeing the storm coming, dismissed the workmen, who left
for home just in time to save their lives.
The metallic roof of the police station rolled up like a scroll and blew
off, while the office walls opened in large cracks. A heavy cap-stone supporting a lamp on one of
the gateposts near the station was lifted up and dropped near the base of the
pillar. Boats were blown out of the
water, some landing 200 feet from the lake shore. About five hundred large forest trees were
up-rooted and blown down, not one left standing.”[34] As an illustration of the strength of the
storm, the bronze, life-size “Washington statue moved on its pedestal three
fourths of an inch to the north.”[35]
One may think that being at the hospital during an event
such as a tornado would be ideal; not in this case. At Fourteenth Street and Lafayette Avenue,
the City Hospital stood proud, only to be heavily damaged when the storm
struck. Surprisingly, of the four
hundred patients at the hospital, only one death was caused by the tornado; two
others died later, one of a heart attack[36] and the other of a
“fright in the night”.[37] The surgical ward was heavily damaged and partly
demolished. Other buildings were unroofed and many of the walls suffered large
cracks.[38]
A couple blocks down Lafayette Avenue stands St. John
Nepomuk Parish Church. At the time of
the storm, St. John Nepomuk was at the height of prosperity.[39] “Six year-old Frank Vavra lived with his
family at eleventh and Soulard Streets…just a block south of the church.”[40] When the storm was nearing, his mother made
him close their shutters, thinking that would help their home endure the storm.[41] While closing the shutters he looked up the
street to see the church steeple blown from the church; the storm turned a once
great church into a pile of rubble.[42] With the church and many homes reduced to
rubble, there were no parish funeral entries between May 26 and June 5 in their
record books.[43] About a half mile to the south, on the south
side of the Soulard district, was yet another church. This church was not destroyed to the degree
of St John Nepomuk, but had its own significant type of damage. At this church, Sts. Peter and Paul, the
spire was the first notification of the damage it received; being slightly bent
to the northeast and the cross on top was badly twisted.[44] Inside the church there were such further
damages that the parishioners would be heart-wrenched. The recently completed frescoes were ruined,
the roof caved in and crushed everything, and the giant stained glass windows
were all broken.[45] A few blocks further south in the Soulard
district the Anheuser Busch Brewery Co. suffered $10,000 in damage.[46]
As the storm progressed toward the river, its next victim
of significance was the Four Courts, as the city jail was known. “The rickety Four Courts building shook like
the leaves of a tree during the progress of the storm.”[47] The prisoners in the jail were extremely
confused when the walls and roof of the northwest wing caved in.[48] There were about seventy-five male prisoners
in the jail corridors when the storm hit, they ran in all directions; the women
in the female section where moved to a safer area.[49] The male prisoners became extremely difficult
to control, causing the alarm to ring, requesting reinforcements in the shape
of detectives from the area to help maintain the situation.[50]
While the jail was getting pummeled, the comparatively
frail, temporary auditorium across the street suffered minor damage.[li] The wind ventilator had a small portion
damaged as well as other minor portions of the structure, including part of the
roof, but the main building was unharmed.[lii] This was considered minor damage in
comparison to every other building significantly affected by the storm. This temporary building was constructed with
the sole purpose of housing the Republican Convention, to be held less than a
month after the storm’s appearance in the City.[liii]
With the tornado arriving at the river, the destruction
took a horrendous turn; driving steamers and ferryboats ashore. One steamer, the Grand Republic, was thought
to have been completely destroyed by the winds, but it had not experienced the
full brunt of the storm since it had already left for Alton, Illinois at the
time of the storm.[liv] Wiggins Ferry Company was the most crippled
ferry company located on the wharf.[lv] All but one of their boats was wrecked for
various causes brought on by the storm; some got caught up at the base of
bridges, some blown onshore and torn apart, and others broke free and
disappeared.[lvi] “With a large transient population living on
boats on the river, the death toll may be inaccurate due the bodies washed down
river.”[lvii]
When
the storm reached the river, it turned north and went up the river right
through Eads Bridge.[lviii] The massive Eads Bridge, (which was thought
to be tornado proof after the tornado of 1871 that hit St. Louis) was unable to
protect itself against the fury of the storm.
The bridge is “frequently spoken of as unnecessarily massive and heavy.”[lix] Even being as large as it was, the bridge
lost more than three hundred feet of the eastern approach due to the storm.[lx] When this portion of the bridge was lost, the
trains traveling on the bridge were in imminent danger. One story illustrating this was about William
C. Swancutt.
Swancutt ran a Chicago and Alton passenger train off
Eads Bridge at the time of the St. Louis Cyclone in May 1896. The train
was blown from the track as it reached the east approach and would have fallen
in the river had not Swancutt ignored a signal to stop and thrown the throttle
of his engine wide open, thereby getting his train ‘to where there was
something to fall on’ as he expressed it after the incident.[lxi]
He was considered a hero
because he saved so many lives; passengers who were on the train gave him many
presents afterwards to show their appreciation of his service.[lxii] Other trains were blown off the tracks while
they were standing still to avoid the destruction of the tracks ahead of them.[lxiii]
The
tracks of the bridge were not the only portion of the bridge to sustain
damage. One exceptional piece of
evidence about the might of the winds is that a white pine plank, 2 by 8
inches, punctured a five-eighths inch steel girder on the bridge.[lxiv] This force was not just felt by steel girders
supporting the bridge but crucial structures required by the city to function
correctly. Located and the foot of the
eastern approach of the bridge was Laclede Gas Light’s Station A and Station C,
both of which were heavily damaged.[lxv] Laclede Gas was immensely important since it
provided the gas for all the gas lighting throughout the city.
When looking from Eads Bridge on the
east side or the river, East St. Louis appeared to have been annihilated once
the storm finished its reign over the area.[lxvi] Once crossing the river, East St. Louis
became the newly acquired target of this devastating storm. “Nearly half of East St. Louis was wrecked.”[lxvii] The bulk of the damage received from this
storm was felt by East St. Louis.[lxviii] The storm nearly blew East St. Louis out of
existence due to the absolute desolation.[lxix] The path through East St. Louis was easily
visible by the torn down trees and complete destruction of everything in its
path.[lxx] “Hueschle’s butcher shop, the Douglas School,
Stock’s house, Sullivan’s on the dyke and all buildings south of old Crooks
street, as far down as the Kowhler Mills, and east to the slough were
leveled. The four square blocks were
absolutely swept away, and many of the inmates of these houses are beneath the
ruins.”[lxxi] The area around the east end of Eads Bridge
was an area of railway yards, none of which escaped damage, including two steam
engines that were “thrown down an embankment and destroyed”.[lxxii] Further down, along the levee more wreckage
was to be found, including seven steamboats.
As if the wind damage wasn’t enough, fire broke out. Unfortunately, since the water works had been
destroyed by the storm, there was no water from the hydrants, and the fire
department was forced to resort to bucket brigades to attack the fires.[lxxiii]
It took nearly thirty minutes for the
tornado to leave a path of destruction nearly ten miles long and a mile
wide. The violent wind dissipated at
5:35 leaving just the blanket of rain to soak the masses scurrying though the
streets.[lxxiv] In St. Louis, with the streetcars out of
service, the telephone system in ruins, and the streetlights out, worried
workers hurried home, without knowledge of what they would find. In the storm district, many streets were
filled with rubble, making passage even more difficult. To add to the confusion, fires were breaking
out due to the damage, but, with the fire alarm system in ruins, the fire
trucks had no clear idea of where they were going.
Luckily, for the City’s ability to recover, and
eventually prosper, the storm had missed the crucial areas of the city,
especially the downtown business district and the new train station. The tornado’s wrath was felt by older residential
districts and the business section on the south side of the city, which had
been experiencing a decline due to the diminished river traffic.[lxxv] These sections of the city had enough
distance from the thriving business area, which was spared by significant
damage, as seen on the map displaying the tornado’s path.[lxxvi] The damage was still substantial, but it
would have been much worse if the exclusive west end of the city, or the up and
rising business district had borne the brunt of the storm.[lxxvii] Considering how East St. Louis was nearly
erased from the map, the heart of St. Louis being hit would have caused total
destruction, and seriously affected its ability to recover. The East St. Louis Cold Storage Co. was in
ruins while the remnants of Kehlor mills were across the street.[lxxviii] One of the sadder survival stories of the
storm took place in East St. Louis. The
tornado came close to wiping out the Windhaus family when their house was
totally demolished. The daughter was
dead and Bernard and Mrs. Windhaus, the parents, were in St. Mary’s hospital
fighting for their lives. Mrs. Windhaus
was injured the worst of the parents; she sustained a crushed chest and leg
when their house collapsed on them.[lxxix]
One curious aspect of this horrendous event is that it
was basically predicted in the summer of 1895 by astronomer and weather prophet
Reverend Irl R. Hicks, when he “foretold that between May 27 and May 30, 1896,
the Midwest would experience many storms with heavy rain and hail.”[lxxx] Rev. Hicks made and published his weather
predictions at the end of 1895 for the entire upcoming year in his Almanac.[lxxxi] Surprisingly, nobody took his vision
seriously even as he reiterated his prediction just ten days prior to the
storms arrival in St. Louis, not that there was much they could have done. Since this prediction was originally made
nearly five months prior to the tornado, people were weary of having faith in
this horrendous prediction. Despite the
use of astronomy and natural signs, apparent to Rev. Hicks, the city chose to
take his prediction for granted and not attempt to take any precautions. (It would be sixty years before St. Louis
implemented a primitive storm warning system that might have helped.)[lxxxii]
The number of people affected individually varies from
source to source, thus the true number is impossible to recover. No one knows how many people were taken away
never to be seen again by the mighty Mississippi River. The most common estimate of the dead (in both
St. Louis and East St. Louis) is around four hundred[lxxxiii] but that could vary
by about twenty depending on where you look.
The reported number injured tends to be around one thousand two hundred,[lxxxiv] but that is just the
people who reported their injuries. As
with any disaster of this magnitude, there were many people who did not report
their injuries and just took care of them themselves.
Damage to the houses caused much turmoil in the wake of
the destruction. The demand for new
homes by victims exceeded the supply by over one thousand homes.[lxxxv] This shortage of available homes was because
over seven thousand homes were damaged by the storm.[lxxxvi] The fact that many people needed their homes
fixed or rebuilt helped the construction companies over the next couple of
years; giving the workers the opportunity to make a living and, at the same
time bring money into the City’s economy. The local trade unions reported that
they hadn’t raised prices due to the overwhelming demand. If anyone was guilty of gouging, they
suggested that it was the carpenters and brick masons who descended on St.
Louis for the repair business boom[lxxxvii]. The amount of damage endured by different
houses varied depending on their locale and the strength of the winds as the
tornado passed through. The homes on the
east side of the river suffered greatly and lost much if not everything.[lxxxviii]
Even as houses, churches, and other buildings were
collapsing all throughout the storm ravaged areas, many people managed to
escape just in the nick of time. One of
the more interesting stories is of a tinner who was on the roof of a seven
story building repairing the roof.
At the Drummond Tobacco Company’s building, on Fourth
and Spruce streets a tinner was on the roof of the seven-story building
repairing the roof when the storm came up.
He ran under a little shed that had been erected on the roof next to the
smoke stack. When the worst of the
tornado struck the building it lifted the shed, with the tinner in it far up in
the sky, twirled it about hundreds of times with the tinner hanging to the scantling
of the roof, then the thing began to come down at a terrible rate, when it
struck a chimney on a building near Seventh street and Chouteau avenue, toppled
it over into the street and then went sailing on. It crossed Chouteau Avenue, raised in the air
and continued its western course. It
struck the slanting roof of a house on Ninth Street, near Hickory, slid down
that and fell on a tree that had been blown down by the storm, and the tinner
walked out of the shed uninjured save for a few bruises.[lxxxix]
After
his experience he made sure to go to a nearby saloon where he shared his
miraculous story with the saloon-keeper.[xc] This may have been a drunken story told to
bar patrons, but numerous contemporary publications told an identical
story. His escape was just one of many;
it was just one of the more popular stories; being repeated in many newspapers
across the country.
Throughout the city, people
realizing what had just hit them, rushed to fire-alarm boxes and telephones.[xci] To their dismay, “nearly one third of the
city’s fire alarms were destroyed.”[xcii] With fire breaking out all over town, the
fact that wires, poles, alarm boxes, and other instruments being ruined kept
the fire companies from promptly responding to the areas in desperate need.[xciii] The ones that made an attempt to make their
way to the path of destruction left by the tornado struggled with the blinding
rain, debris-clogged streets, and sparking wires.[xciv] The extremely heavy rain that came with the
storm[xcv] crippled the emergency crew’s ability to
assist those in need. The mixture of
hundreds of areas needing aid, the torrential downpour of rain and debris
causing the roads to become nearly impassable, and the lack of sufficient
numbers of firemen to help inhibited the ability for assistance. As of 1893, there were only 439 firemen
employed by the city in just 32 fire engine houses.[xcvi] Restricting the amount of firemen aiding the
buried and injured was due to several fire houses being damaged, including Engine
House 7 which was completely demolished.[xcvii] It took until a little bit after midnight for
the fire departments to get the fires in St. Louis under some control.[xcviii]
The city was in utter and complete
darkness.[xcix] This may in fact have added to the death toll,
since relief work and discovery of the injured the night of the tornado was
limited to torch and lantern light, guided only by the moans and cries of the
injured. As of June 3, 1896, the city
was still in total darkness, not just due to the fact that every wire was blown
down, but that the power plants that supplied the electricity to the entire
city were too severely damaged to run, rendering every streetlight useless.[c] The only source of light was the minor lights
owned by individuals such as candles and small oil lamps designed for
households. This was not enough light to
maintain a city and ease the recovery efforts.
The availability of gas lamps was scarce due to the Laclede Gas Company
on Fifteenth and Gratiot streets collapsing and the gas tanks igniting,
frightening the neighborhood with the flame towering high in the sky.[ci] It would be several days before gas service
was restored.
With the dawning of a new day on May
28, 1896, the City began to take stock of its new situation. As news of the disaster spread around the
country, the City’s recovery kicked into gear.
In several cities, the notion of St. Louis being wiped off the map was
making its place in headlines.[cii] On May 29, 1896, the New York Times had the headline of “Half a Thousand Tornado
Victims: The Loss of Life in St. Louis and Vicinity Fully as Great as First
Reports Made It.”[ciii] The Newark
Daily Advocate of Newark, Ohio had a section of their paper on May 29, 1896
titled “The Death Roll,” which was about the events that took place in St.
Louis.[civ] Offers of aid began pouring in to city
officials. Mayor Cyrus Walbridge’s
initial response was that St. Louis was not in need of outside assistance, and
that his city could handle itself.[cv] Accepting such assistance risked the city’s
rugged self-reliant image that urban leaders were wary of risking for the
potential of additional suffering endured by the people living in the city.[cvi] This was a prime example of an urban leader
choosing civic pride over the risk of additional suffering and damages endured
by the people he was chosen to serve.
Mayor Walbridge’s persistence in rejecting help from outside the city
certainly didn’t endear him to his constituents in the storm stricken area of
the city. After a meeting called to
discuss the relief effort on June 2, a group of citizens, dissatisfied with the
Mayor’s continued reluctance to accept aid from other cities, hung him in
effigy.[cvii] Ultimately, the mayor recanted his position
and accepted contributions from other cities.
The official governmental response
in regard to the disaster was limited.
At the federal level, the only response was the approval for the War Department
to loan tents for the homeless, if the Mayors of St. Louis and East St. Louis
requested.[cviii] At the state level in Missouri, the Legislature
was not in session, and Mayor Walbridge sent a letter to the Governor to request
that the Legislature hold an extra session “to submit to the people a Constitutional
Amendment enabling St. Louis to issue bonds for the relief of tornado
sufferers.”[cix] In addition, he requested that the state
relieve people in the storm stricken area from state taxation for a ‘reasonable
period’, and that the City Assembly be allowed to provide direct relief to the
storm sufferers[cx]. His request was denied;
Governor Stone did not feel that the tornado’s damage warranted the cost of an
extra session.[cxi] The governor also claimed “a law to relieve
the storm swept district from taxation for a given period would be
unconstitutional.”[cxii] The fact that the Governor was a Democrat and
the Mayor a Republican may have played a part in this decision. However, the result was that no help came
from the state either.
Mayor Walbridge proposed a
resolution to the council of the Municipal Assembly for $100,000 to be spent on
relief.[cxiii] This proposal met objections as well. Objections were raised to this proposal
claiming that such an ordinance would violate the oath of office that the
delegates had taken as well as the charter itself.[cxiv] Ultimately, this Ordinance passed with a
modification that set aside the money for repairs of public property with an
expectation that those left jobless as result of the tornado would be hired to
do the bulk of the repair work.[cxv] There was to be no help for the tornado
victims themselves from the federal, state, or city governments; they were
truly left to fend for themselves.
Into
the gap stepped the Merchants Exchange.
This organization, one of the leading commodity exchanges of the time,[cxvi] took two major steps in response to the
storm. First, it was very aggressive in
reassuring business partners around the country that it (and the city) was
conducting business as usual[cxvii]. The second, and much more important action of
this business organization, was to organize a Relief Committee and establish a
fund for relief of the victims.[cxviii] This fund became the primary vehicle for
community based relief. Other relief
funds that were established by the Post Dispatch, the Globe Democrat, the real
estate agents, the Collector’s Office, and the Fairgrounds, were consolidated
into the Merchants Exchange fund.[cxix]
As
an encouragement for others to give, the Globe Democrat ran daily listings of
the contributors to these funds (except of course their competitor The Post
Dispatch’s). Review of these published
donor lists displayed a mix of both small, individual donations, as well as larger
business donations[cxx]. The largest individual contribution (though
not reported in the Globe) was $5,000 from Joseph Pulitzer, the publisher of
the Post Dispatch[cxxi]. These contribution lists identify
contributions from all over the country and Europe as well. Some criticism was raised over the limited
contributions by the City’s millionaires, who were viewed as not stepping up to
do their part.[cxxii] By June 21, 1896 these funds had raised a
total of $237,877[cxxiii] which was the
equivalent of about $16 million adjusted to 2006 money.
The
diversity of the sources of contributions to the funds illustrates the broad,
community based response to the disaster.
Groups around the city and country held fund raisers to raise money,
most of which received appropriate notice in the daily papers[cxxiv]. One of the most amusing means of raising
funds was the ‘Fat Man’s Baseball Game’, in which a group of overweight
residents of Chicago came to St. Louis to play a baseball game with a similarly
sized team from St. Louis. This game,
which received extensive coverage in the Post Dispatch, sold over 10,000
tickets, with the proceeds being donated to the Relief Fund.[cxxv] Other unusual contributions ranged from $0.50
in postage stamps from a man in Mendota, Minnesota,[cxxvi] a metal hat rack to be
raffled off for the benefit of the Relief Fund,[cxxvii] to 10 tons of flour
donated by the citizens of Broken Bow, Nebraska.[cxxviii] The widespread sources of relief, from both
public and private donors, clearly demonstrated the prevailing attitude that
relief was a concern of non-governmental organizations and individuals, rather
than an expectation that the Federal government would take care of everything.
In addition to the Merchants Exchange efforts,
the new Archbishop of St. Louis, John Joseph Kain sent a letter to all of his
parishes to collect donations in the form of money and clothing, as well as
other things, for distribution by the St. Vincent de Paul Society.[cxxix] The St. Vincent de Paul Church was the site
of distribution, due to the fact that it was not damaged with any significant
amount if any.[cxxx] Many churches were heavily damaged as listed.
A long list of houses of worship ruined
and damaged by the storm.
Churches Estimated losses[cxxxi]
Lafayette Park Presbyterian . . . . . . . $16,000
Lafayette Park Methodist . . . . . . . . . 10,000
Lafayette Park Baptist . . . . . . . . . . . 8,000
Church of the Unity . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10,000
Mount Calvary Episcopal . . . . . . . . . . 20,000
Memorial German M. E. . . . . . . . . . . 20,000
Holy Cross, Saxon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12,000
Compton Hill Congregational . . . . . . . . 1,000
Compton Heights Christian . . . . . . . . . 1,000
St. Henry's Catholic . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10,000
St. Paul's Evangical . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20,000
Trinity Lutheran . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18,000
St. Vincent's Catholic . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,000
SS Peter and Paul . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30,000
St. John's Episcopal . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13,000
Annunciation Catholic . . . . . . . . . . . .18,000
Churches Estimated losses[cxxxi]
Lafayette Park Presbyterian . . . . . . . $16,000
Lafayette Park Methodist . . . . . . . . . 10,000
Lafayette Park Baptist . . . . . . . . . . . 8,000
Church of the Unity . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10,000
Mount Calvary Episcopal . . . . . . . . . . 20,000
Memorial German M. E. . . . . . . . . . . 20,000
Holy Cross, Saxon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12,000
Compton Hill Congregational . . . . . . . . 1,000
Compton Heights Christian . . . . . . . . . 1,000
St. Henry's Catholic . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10,000
St. Paul's Evangical . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20,000
Trinity Lutheran . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18,000
St. Vincent's Catholic . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,000
SS Peter and Paul . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30,000
St. John's Episcopal . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13,000
Annunciation Catholic . . . . . . . . . . . .18,000
In addition to raising funds, the
Merchants Exchange Relief Committee coordinated distribution as well. The Relief Committee organized several
district offices across the damaged area for distribution of relief.[cxxxii] Utilizing the services of several existing
charitable organizations, such as the St. Louis Provident Association and the St.
Vincent de Paul society, each district sent representatives around its
territory with the objective to locate the needy.[cxxxiii] Lists of the individual sufferers as well as
their losses were published in the paper.[cxxxiv] In addition to distributing clothing,
furniture, and food, the Relief Committee helped the sufferers move surviving
belongings to new homes and paid a month or more rent.[cxxxv] The Relief Committee made a point to not give
cash to the sufferers, but instead chose to use a voucher that they could use
for a specified purpose.[cxxxvi] These payments continued through January of
1897.[cxxxvii] The Relief Committee emphasized that none of
the disbursements were for permanent repairs.[cxxxviii] Instead, the Relief Committee established an
emergency loan fund sub-committee for solicitation of contributions to a low
interest loan fund for permanent repairs.[cxxxix]
Where national press predicted that
twenty years later there would still be piles of rubble marking the path of the
tornado,[cxl]
reality was much different. Harper’s
Weekly published a story that said, “twenty years hence men will point to heaps
of brick and timber in the old part of the city as relics of the great tornado
of 1896.”[cxli] Instead, three weeks after the tornado,
significant repair and cleanup in the tornado district was reported in the St. Louis Globe Democrat on June 21,
1896.[cxlii] Although not all parts of the tornado
district showed parallel progress, much of the debris had been hauled away,
many roofs and buildings had been repaired, and some new growth was showing on
the trees in Lafayette Park.[cxliii]
Immediately after the storm,
questions were raised whether St. Louis would still be capable of hosting the
Republican Convention. The city was
proud of the fact that it had been able to attract the Convention, causing it
to spend $50,000 in private funds to build a Convention auditorium just for the
occasion.[cxliv] Fortunately, the Convention Center was not
seriously damaged by the storm, and repairs were made with minimal cost.[cxlv] The hotels were undamaged
and were still able to provide housing for the delegates.[cxlvi] The absence of comment regarding the tornado
in the official proceedings of the Convention, suggests the success the City
had in its immediate recovery.
By 1899, a book published by the business
community of St. Louis made no mention of the tornado.[cxlvii] In fact, this book was part of the public
relations campaign in anticipation of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition planned
for 1903.[cxlviii] By 1898, the city had shifted its focus to
hosting the Louisiana Purchase Exposition.
This was the City downplaying the tornado that devastated it two years
prior, and looking past the storm, not using it as an excuse for troubled
times. Over the next nine months, the
committee responsible for soliciting public donations had received $4,244,679
towards the required $5 million. In 1904,
St. Louis hosted not only the World’s Fair with exhibits by forty-four U.S.
cities, States, and territories and twenty-two countries, but also the first
Olympic Games held in the United States.[cxlix] Civic pride took over, resulting in the
eventual absence of the storm in people’s memories. St. Louis was back!
Were
St. Louis struck by this storm today,
there would be global as well as local implications, especially if struck at 5:00
during rush hour. Nestle Purina and
Energizer Battery World Headquarters, located in the heart of the path of the
tornado would be severely damaged.[cl] Other iconic structures such as the St. Louis
Gateway Arch lay extremely close to the direct path of the tornado. With Busch Stadium, located in the heart of
the tornado’s path, the potential impact of being struck by a tornado during a
Cardinal’s baseball game is unimaginable. The Eagleton Courthouse, the federal
courthouse for the Eastern half of Missouri, is in the area of the downburst
region labeled ‘D’ in Figure 1&2.[cli] Three separate interstates converge and cross
the Mississippi River into Illinois in the heart of the serious F4 damage, as
shown in Figure 1, which would result in many travelers being stranded on
either side of the river. Of the major
interstates, Interstate 70, which spans the entire country, is the most
significant. The loss of life on the
four Interstate Highways that converge in St. Louis, if the storm hit at rush
hour, would be enormous. However, since
much of the path of the storm has been taken by the construction of Interstates
44 and 55, the number of homes destroyed would be much lower. Certainly the potential for severe damage to
river traffic, with the large number of barges traveling the Mississippi every
day, could exceed the damages experienced in 1896. Although the modern storm warning system
would probably minimize the loss of life, should a tornado with the force of
that of May 28, 1896 hit St. Louis at the same time of day, the total impact
would probably exceed that of the earlier storm.
Figure 1
Figure 2
On May 27, 1896, a major tornado, ‘some thought possibly
two’, struck the southeastern part of the City of St. Louis and continued
through East St. Louis, Ill, leaving in its path of destruction, hundreds
injured and killed, and thousands made homeless. Typical of the time, governments did very
little to relieve the suffering. Instead
the civic leaders organized a relief program that fed, clothed, and housed
those impacted by the storm. As
suggested in an editorial in one of the leading newspapers of the time, this
storm served as a catalyst for the revitalization of the city. As evidence of the revitalization, the city
hosted the World’s Fair just eight years later.[clii]
[1] Ron Przybylinski;
et al., "St. Louis City Tornadoes", St.
Louis Tornado Climatology, National
Weather Service,
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/lsx/climate/torcli/city.php,
(accessed November 28, 2009).
[2] Ibid.
[3] Tom Grazulis,
Doris Grazulis, "1896 Tornadoes", The Tornado Project, http://tornadoproject.com/past/pastts95.htm#1896, (accessed November 28, 2009).
[4] Ibid.
[5] “All over the city, bells were
tolling for the dead,” St Louis Post
Dispatch, May 21, 2006, M2.
[6] Ibid.
[7] “Killer Tornado Tears Through St.
Louis: 400 Dead, 1200 Injured,” St. Louis
Inquirer, May 1991.
[8] Ibid.
[9] “Our Ambitious Mayor: too busy
with his gubernatorial boom to attend to municipal affairs,” St. Louis Post Dispatch, May 26, 1896,
2.
[10] Front Page, St. Louis Post Dispatch, May 26, 1896.
[11] Judith Campoli, “The St. Louis
Tornado of 1896: Mad Pranks of the Storm King,” Gateway Heritage 2, no. 4 (Spring 1982): 25.
[12] NOAA Photo Library, “Text
accompanying: Photographic Views of the Great Cyclone at St. Louis, May 27,
1896,” http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/nws/tornado.html (accessed September 19,
2009).
[13] “Wainwright Building – St. Louis
Missouri” Waymark, http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMK7N (accessed December,
16, 2009).
[14] Campoli, The St. Louis Tornado, 25.
[15] Frank W. Lane, The Elements Rage, (Philadelphia and New
York: Chilton Books, 1965), 43.
[16] Scott k. Williams, The St. Louis Cyclone of 1896,
http://www.usgennet.org/usa/mo/county/stlouis/cyclone.htm (accessed September
20, 2009).
[17] Campoli, The St. Louis Tornado, 25.
[18] Weatherquestions.com, “What is a
Squall Line?,” http://www.weatherquestions.com/What_is_a_squall_line.htm,
(accessed December 17, 2009.
[19] Journal of the House of Delegates (of the Municipal Assembly) St.
Louis, June 2, 1896.
[20] Katherine Eschelbach, “Coastal
Hazards Management: Meteorological Hazards,” FEMA, Session 8,
training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/edu/chm/Session%2008%20Meteorological%20Hazards.doc -
2006-02-07, (accessed November 27, 1009), 8-24.
[21] Travilla, James C 1896, map showing
location of principal residence districts in St. Louis. Map showing cyclone path May 27, 1896.
[22] “At Shaw’s Garden,” St. Louis Post Dispatch, May 30, 1896.
[23] Ibid.
[24] Ibid.
[25] Ibid.
[26] NOAA Photo Library, “Text
accompanying: Photographic Views of the Great Cyclone at St. Louis, May 27,
1896,” http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/nws/tornado.html (accessed September 19,
2009).
[27] Ibid.
[28] Campoli, The St. Louis Tornado, 26.
[29] Julian
Curzon, pseudo., The great cyclone of St.
Louis and East St. Louis, May 27, 1896: being a full history of the most
terrifying and destructive tornado in the history of the world, with numerous
thrilling and pathetic incidents and personal experiences of those who were in
the track of the storm; also an account of the wonderful manifestations of
sympathy for the afflicted in all parts of the world, (St. Louis: Cyclone Publishing
Company, 1896), 26.
[30] NOAA Photo Library, “Text
accompanying: Photographic Views of the Great Cyclone at St. Louis, May 27,
1896,” http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/nws/tornado.html (accessed September 19,
2009).
[31] Bill Beck, Laclede Gas and St. Louis: 100 Years of Working Together 1857-2007,
(St. Louis: Laclede Gas Company, 2007), 44-45.
[32] “Winds Deadly Work,” St. Louis Globe Democrat, May 28, 1986,
4.
[33] Campoli, The St. Louis Tornado, 26.
[34] Encyclopedia of the History of St. Louis.
“A Compendium of History and Biography for Ready Reference,” William Hyde and
Howard L. Conard, Ed, (The Southern History Company, 1899), Vol II, pp
1211-1212.
[35] Ibid.
[36] Allen E. Wagner, A History of the St. Louis Metropolitan
Police Department 1861-1906, (St. Louis: Missouri History Museum, 2008),
309-310.
[37] “The Great Cyclone of 1896,” St. Louis Post Dispatch, May 26, 1996,
11.
[38] Stu Beitler, “Clyclone
Horror at St. Louis,” St. Louis, Missouri Tornado May 28, 1896, http://www.gendisasters.com/data1/mo/tornadoes/stlouis-tornadomay1896.htm
(accessed September 19, 2009).
[39] Compiled by Rev. Albert F. Prokes,
The Terrible Cyclone, May 27th
1896, (St. Louis: At. John Nepomuk Parish, 1929), 79.
[40] Nini Harris, Bohemian Hill and American Story, (St. Louis: St. John Nepomuk
Parish, 2005), 36.
[41] Ibid.
[42] Ibid.
[43] Ibid., 39.
[44] “The Tornado’s Awful Work,” St. Louis Globe Democrat, May 29, 1896,
18.
[45] Ibid.
[46] Tom Franey and Marian Junge, Sharing the Mission: 150 Years of Service to
St. Louis by the Parish of St. Vincent de Paul, (St. Louis: St. Vincent de
Paul, 1995), 35.
[47] St. Louis Globe Democrat, May 28, 1896, 4.
[48] Ibid.
[49] Allen E. Wagner, A History of the St. Louis Metropolitan
Police Department 1861-1906, 311.
[50] Ibid.
[li] George Grantham Bain, “The St.
Louis Disaster,” Harper’s Weekly,
June 6, 1896, 570.
[lii] “The Appalling Disaster that fell
on Fair St. Louis,” St. Louis Post
Dispatch, June 3, 1896, Special Tornado Edition.
[liii] George Grantham Bain, “The St.
Louis Disaster,” 609.
[liv] “The Death Toll,” Newark daily Advocate, May 29, 1896.
[lv] “The Tornado’s Awful Work,” St. Louis Globe Democrat, May 29, 1896,
2.
[lvi] Ibid.
[lvii] “Top Five Deadliest US Tornadoes,”
http://tornadoeshurricanes.suite101.com/article.cfm/most_deadly_us_tornadoes
(accessed October 9, 2009).
[lviii] “The Appalling Disaster that fell
on Fair St. Louis,” St. Louis Post
Dispatch, June 3, 1896, Special Tornado Edition.
[lix] NOAA Photo Library, “Text
accompanying: Photographic Views of the Great Cyclone at St. Louis, May 27,
1896,” http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/nws/tornado.html (accessed September 19,
2009).
[lx] Bill Beck, Laclede Gas and St. Louis: 100 Years of Working Together 1857-2007,
44.
[lxi] “Cyclone Hero’s Funeral will be
this Afternoon,” St. Louis Post Dispatch,
February 25, 1916.
[lxii] Ibid.
[lxiii] NOAA Photo Library, “Text
accompanying: Photographic Views of the Great Cyclone at St. Louis, May 27,
1896,” http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/nws/tornado.html (accessed September 19,
2009).
[lxiv] H.C. Frankenfield, “The Tornado of
May 27 at St. Louis, MO.,” Monthly
Weather Review 24, no. 3 (March 1986): 79.
[lxv] Bill Beck, Laclede Gas and St. Louis: 100 Years of Working Together 1857-2007,
45.
[lxvi] Julian Curzon, pseudo., The great cyclone of St. Louis and East St.
Louis, May 27, 1896: being a full history of the most terrifying and
destructive tornado in the history of the world, with numerous thrilling and
pathetic incidents and personal experiences of those who were in the track of
the storm; also an account of the wonderful manifestations of sympathy for the
afflicted in all parts of the world, 51-52.
[lxvii]Ibid.
[lxviii] “The Great Tornado of St. Louis,
May 27, 1896,” (St. Louis: Graf Engraving Co., 1896).
[lxix] NOAA Photo Library, “Text
accompanying: Photographic Views of the Great Cyclone at St. Louis, May 27,
1896,” http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/nws/tornado.html (accessed September 19,
2009).
[lxx] “The Great Tornado of St. Louis,
May 27, 1896,” (St. Louis: Graf Engraving Co., 1896).
[lxxi] “East St. Louis in Ruins”, St. Louis Globe Democrat, May 28, 1896.
[lxxii] Ibid.
[lxxiii] Ibid.
[lxxiv] Julian Curzon, pseudo., The great cyclone of St. Louis and East St.
Louis, May 27, 1896: being a full history of the most terrifying and
destructive tornado in the history of the world, with numerous thrilling and
pathetic incidents and personal experiences of those who were in the track of
the storm; also an account of the wonderful manifestations of sympathy for the
afflicted in all parts of the world, 22.
[lxxv] George Grantham Bain, “The St.
Louis Disaster,” 570.
[lxxvi] Travilla, James C
1896, map showing location of principal residence districts in St. Louis. Map showing cyclone path May 27, 1896.
[lxxvii] Ibid.
[lxxviii] The Tornado’s Work, “Scene of
Complete Desolation,” http://genealogytrails.com/ill/stclair/tor2a.htm
(accessed December 17, 2009).
[lxxix] Julian Curzon, pseudo., The great cyclone of St. Louis and East St.
Louis, May 27, 1896: being a full history of the most terrifying and
destructive tornado in the history of the world, with numerous thrilling and
pathetic incidents and personal experiences of those who were in the track of
the storm; also an account of the wonderful manifestations of sympathy for the
afflicted in all parts of the world, 321.
[lxxx] Campoli, The St. Louis Tornado, 25.
[lxxxi] Ancestry.com, “100 Years Ago In My Home Town
Wellston, St. Louis County, MO,” http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~haefner/Hicks/
(accessed November 27, 2009).
[lxxxii] “Low Level Winds in Tornadoes and
Potential Catastrophic Tornado Impacts in Urban Areas”,
http://www.flame.org/..cdoswell/publications/Brooks_etal_08.pdf, (accessed
December 15, 2009).
[lxxxiii] “Killer Tornado Tears Through St.
Louis: 400 Dead, 1200 Injured,” St. Louis
Inquirer, May 1991.
[lxxxiv] Ibid.
[lxxxv] “The Rush for Houses,” St. Louis Post Dispatch, May 30, 1896.
[lxxxvi] “Killer Tornado Tears Through St.
Louis: 400 Dead, 1200 Injured,” St. Louis
Inquirer, May 1991.
[lxxxvii] “Rebuilding Problems”, St. Louis Globe Democrat, June 2, 1896,
9.
[lxxxviii] NOAA Photo Library, “Text
accompanying: Photographic Views of the Great Cyclone at St. Louis, May 27,
1896,” http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/nws/tornado.html (accessed September 19,
2009).
[lxxxix] “Blown Eleven Blocks,” St. Louis Post Dispatch, May 28, 1896.
[xc] Ibid.
[xci]“Killer Tornado Tears Through St.
Louis: 400 Dead, 1200 Injured,” St. Louis
Inquirer, May 1991.
[xcii] Frank C. Schaper and Betty
Burnett, Images of America: St. Louis
Fire Department, (Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2003), 29.
[xciii] Ibid.
[xciv] Ibid.
[xcv] “Killer Tornado Tears Through St.
Louis: 400 Dead, 1200 Injured,” St. Louis
Inquirer, May 1991.
[xcvi] John Lethem, Historical and Descriptive Review of St. Louis, 1894, (St. Louis:
Ennes Press, 1896), 12.
[xcvii] Allen E. Wagner, A History of the St. Louis Metropolitan
Police Department 1861-1906, 310.
[xcviii] Stu Beitler, “Clyclone
Horror at St. Louis,” St. Louis, Missouri Tornado May 28, 1896, http://www.gendisasters.com/data1/mo/tornadoes/stlouis-tornadomay1896.htm
(accessed September 19, 2009).
[xcix] Ibid.
[c] “The City in Darkness,” St. Louis Post Dispatch, June 3, 1896,
Special Tornado Edition.
[ci] Julian Curzon, pseudo., The great cyclone of St. Louis and East St.
Louis, May 27, 1896: being a full history of the most terrifying and
destructive tornado in the history of the world, with numerous thrilling and
pathetic incidents and personal experiences of those who were in the track of
the storm; also an account of the wonderful manifestations of sympathy for the
afflicted in all parts of the world, 321.
[ci] Campoli, The
St. Louis Tornado, 157-158.
[cii] “The Center of Attention”,
St. Louis Post Dispatch, May 29, 1896, 4.
[ciii] “Half a Thousand Tornado Victims: The Loss of Life in St.
Louis and Vicinity Fully as Great as First Reports Made It. Homeless People
Numbered by Thousands Work of Rescue and Relief Greatly Delayed by Darkness and
the Impassability of the Streets. Four Million Dollars Damage in one Section of
St. Louis Hospitals Crowded with Wounded -- Hundreds of Families Sleeping in
the Ruins of Their Homes -- Relief Measures Taken -- Effect On the Republican
National Convention 1896,” New York Times, May 29, 1896,
http://www.proquest.com.www2.lib.ku.edu:2048/ (accessed December 17,
2009).
[civ] “The Death Toll,” Newark daily Advocate, May 29, 1896.
[cv]
Ted Steinberg, Acts of God: The
Unnatural History of Natural Disaster in America, (New York: Oxford
University Press, 2000), 17.
[cvi] Ibid.
[cvii] “Mayor Hung in Effigy”, St. Louis Post Dispatch, June 3, 1896.
[cviii] Congressional Record—Senate/House, May 28, 1896.
[cix] “No Extra Session,” St. Louis Globe Democrat, June 10, 1896.
[cx] “Asks for a Special Session”, St. Louis Post Dispatch, June 6, 1896.
[cxi] Ibid.
[cxii] Ibid.
[cxiii] Journal of the House of Delegates (of the Municipal Assembly) St.
Louis, May 29, 1896.
[cxiv] “The Relief Ordinance,” St. Louis Globe Democrat, June 2, 1896,
4.
[cxv] Journal of the Council of the Municipal Assembly, St. Louis, June
5, 1896. City of St. Louis Ordinance No. 18526
[cxvi] “Merchants Exchange of St. Louis 1880's -
Early Commodity market - Eads Bridge Vignette,”
http://www.scripophily.net/merexofstlou1.html (accessed September 21, 2009).
[cxvii] Holt, S. D. to C.H. Spencer,
President, Merchants Exchange, June 1, 1896, Merchants Exchange Correspondence,
Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis; Kidd, G. W. to C.H. Spencer, June 1,
1896, Merchants Exchange Correspondence, Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis.
[cxviii] “The Work of Relief,” St. Louis Globe Democrat, May 29, 1896.
[cxix] “The Work of Relief and Repair,” St. Louis Globe Democrat, June 2, 1896.
[cxx] “The Work of Relief”, St. Louis Globe Democrat, May 29,
1896;”Relieving the Distress”, St. Louis
Globe Democrat, May 31, 1896; “Work of Relief and Repair”, St. Louis Globe Democrat, June 2, 1896;
“Post Dispatch Relief Fund”, St. Louis
Post Dispatch, June 4, 1896.
[cxxi] “Noble Work of Relief”, St. Louis Post Dispatch, June 1, 1896.
[cxxii] “Give Little for Aid”, Chicago Daily Tribune, June 2, 1896, ProQuest
Historical Newspapers Chicago Tribune (1849 - 1986), 2.
[cxxiii] “The Storm Swept District,” St. Louis Globe Democrat, June 21, 1896.
[cxxiv] “Was Immensely Successful”, St. Louis Post Dispatch, June 8, 1896;
“To Concentrate the Work”, St. Louis
Globe Democrat, June 6, 1896.
[cxxv] ”The Earth will Tremble”, St. Louis Post Dispatch, June 4, 1896;
“Fat Men’s Ball Game”, St. Louis Post
Dispatch, June 5, 1896; “Infatuating in its Fleshiness”, St. Louis Post Dispatch, June 7, 1896.
[cxxvi] C. L. Dixon, Asst. Secy to the
Mayor to George Morgan, Merchants Exchange, June 15, 1896, Merchants Exchange
Collection, Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis.
[cxxvii] St. Louis Star to George H.
Morgan, June 15, 1896, Merchants Exchange Collection, Missouri Historical
Society, St. Louis.
[cxxviii] George Morgan to Mayor, Broken
Bow, Nebraska, June 27, 1896, Merchants Exchange Collection, Missouri
Historical Society, St. Louis.
[cxxix] “District Stations Closed, ´ St. Louis Globe Democrat, June 7, 1896,
22.
[cxxx] Stu Beitler, “Clyclone
Horror at St. Louis,” St. Louis, Missouri Tornado May 28, 1896, http://www.gendisasters.com/data1/mo/tornadoes/stlouis-tornadomay1896.htm
(accessed September 19, 2009).
[cxxxi] Ibid.
[cxxxii] “The Work of Relief and Repair,” St. Louis Globe Democrat, June 2, 1896.
[cxxxiii] Ibid.
[cxxxiv] “Active Relief Work Begun,” St. Louis Globe Democrat, June 1, 1896,
2.
[cxxxv]St. Louis Provident Association
General Manager Thomas Finney, letter to the Merchant Exchange relief committee
member George H. Morgan, October 24, 1896.
[cxxxvi] Merchants Exchange relief
committee: Disbursements of St. Louis Cyclone of May 27, 1896 Relief Fund,
5-30.
[cxxxvii] Ibid., 30.
[cxxxviii] “The Work of Relief and Repair,” St. Louis Globe Democrat, June 2, 1896.
[cxxxix] “Aiding the Tornado Victims,” St. Louis Globe Democrat, June 9, 1896.
[cxl] George Grantham Bain, “The St.
Louis Disaster,” 570.
[cxli] Ibid.
[cxlii] “The Storm Swept District,” St. Louis Globe Democrat, June 21, 1896.
[cxliii] Ibid.
[cxliv] George Grantham Bain, “The St.
Louis Disaster,” 610.
[cxlv] “The Convention Auditorium”, St. Louis Post Dispatch, June 3, 1896,
Special Tornado Edition, 5.
[cxlvi] George Grantham Bain, “The St.
Louis Disaster,” 610.
[cxlvii] St. Louis: Queen City of the West, (St. Louis: The Mercantile
Advancement Co., 1899).
[cxlviii] Ibid., cover.
[cxlix] Major J. Lowenstein, Official guide to the Louisiana Purchase
Exposition at the city of St. Louis, state of Missouri, April 30th
to December 1st, 1904: by authority of the United States of
America,” (The Official Guide Co, 1904).
[cl] Kyle A. Beatty, What Would be the Monetary Loss if the 1896
St. Louis/East St. Louis Tornado Happened Today?, (Newark, Ca: Risk
Management Solutions, Inc), 7.5.
[cli] Ibid.
[clii] “Our Losses and Prospects,” St. Louis Post Dispatch, May 28, 1896.
