100 years ago: Tornado wiped out southern Illinois towns, left thousands without homes

Looking back at stories that appeared in the O’Fallon Progress 100, 75, and 50 years ago.

100 years ago, March 19, 1925

A tornado, which swept over southern Illinois yesterday afternoon at 3 o’clock, wiped out several towns, left thousands homeless and caused great property damage over a wide area in the southern part of the state.

Reports over the radio give the dead and injured at 3,251, in one of the worst storms in the history of the state. Incomplete reports give the dead at 957 with 2,294 hurt.

The storm started at Annapolis, Mo., crossed the Mississippi river (and) swept through Illinois before it died out at Princeton, Indiana.

Murphysboro and DeSoto are reported as having received the brunt of the tornado, both cities having a casualty list of 100 dead and 300 injured. At Murphysboro a school house was blown down over the heads of 245 pupils. A school house at DeSoto also was razed and only three of the 250 occupants escaped unhurt. Buildings were wiped out completely in this town, with dead strewn on the streets. The population is 700.

Reports from West Frankfort give the dead at 350 with 650 injured. Fire followed in the wake of the twister at Murphysboro, where the electric light and water plants had been put out of commission. Dynamite was resorted to in an effort to check the flames which for a time threatened the city with destruction.

Southern Illinois towns affected by the storm were Murphysboro, Gorham, DeSoto, Bush, Hurst, West Frankfort, Benton, Logan, Parrish, Thompsonville, McLeansboro, Carmi, Crossville, Elizabeth, Gorin. Indiana towns affected were Owensville with 75 dead and 100 injured and Princeton with 100 dead and 200 injured. At Cape Girardeau, Mo., 12 were reported killed and 50 injured.

(According to the National Weather Service, the Tri-State Tornado of March 18, 1925 left a 219-mile path of destruction across southeast Missouri, southern Illinois, and southwest Indiana, taking the lives of 695 people, including 234 in Murphysboro, Illinois. It is considered the deadliest tornado in U.S. history. This excerpt from the O’Fallon Progress reported what was known at the time. More about O’Fallon’s connection to the tornado next week.)

75 years ago, March 16, 1950

Announcement has been made by the O’Fallon Athletic Club that preparations are rapidly shaping for the organization of a good baseball team for the coming season.

The Athletic Club, headed by Floyd R. Rogers as president and comprised of civic-minded sports fans, is making every effort to give the city an outstanding club. The services of Herb Baum, veteran baseball player, have already been secured as manager of the team. He is to be assisted by such veterans as Robert Million, Delmar Warma and Edgar Busch, all of whom were in the limelight during their playing days.

Weather permitting, an organization meeting for the formation of a club is to be held at the senior diamond in Community Park next Sunday afternoon at 2 o’clock. Players desiring to try for the team are asked to be on hand at this time with playing equipment.

The O’Fallon Athletic Club, although an apparently new organization in this city, came into being last October, its membership being comprised of more than 150 business men and citizen fans who are interested in advancing athletics in the community, primarily baseball.

50 years ago, Mar. 20, 1975

Six teachers at O’Fallon Grade School District 90 will not be rehired for the 1975-76 school year. The six were given honorary dismissals Tuesday evening effective at the end of the current school year.

A crowd of 30 people, mostly teachers, jammed into the board’s meeting room to watch the action by the board. When the motion was made to give the teachers the dismissal slips at the end of the year, board president Wilmer Knewitz asked for comments form the floor. There were no comments made from either the board members or floor.

The six teachers dismissed were: Willem Blees, a music teacher; Brenda Hatfield and Rebecca Klostermann, both remedial reading Title I teachers; Dee Melliere, a music teacher; Richard Smith, an art teacher and Durreline Witkus, a classroom teacher. Blees and Smith are second year teachers while the others are finishing up their first year as District 90 teachers.

Superintendent of Schools Harold Landwehrmier said the dismissals were made for economic reasons. A total savings of $61,933 will be made, according to Landwehrmier, by dismissing the six teachers. The superintendent said the six teachers will be given first chance to have their positions back when funds are available to reinstate the positions. According to the contract with the teachers association, all teachers must be notified of their employment, whether hired or dismissed, by April 1. A total of 68 teachers will be rehired for the 1975-76 school year.

Landwehrmier said it is the first time since he has been superintendent of the district that teachers have had to be dismissed for economic reasons.

“We had been hiring people and adding to the staff. Now we have to go the other way,” said Landwehrmier.

Landwehrmier said that additional cuts in areas other than teaching staff will be announced in the future but declined to comment in what areas the cuts will be made.

The two Title I teachers dismissed from which the district receives some funding from the federal government for their salaries, will probably be rehired when the program is started again. Landwehrmier said that teachers will probably not be overloaded with students due to the cuts but some programs may be affected by the cutbacks.

“We may raise the grade level for band instruction from the fifth grade to the sixth grade in order for our teachers to handle the number of students involved,” Landwehrmier said.

He added, however, that the grade level for band was a board policy and would have to be changed.

One dismissed teacher, after the meeting, said, “What can a person say when you lose your job. There’s really nothing you can say.”

In other action, the board approved the hiring of the Honeywell Company for a control maintenance program on the district’s heating system at a cost of $429 per month for one year.