A short-lived but savage tornado, sweeping out of the northwest with the roar of a huge siren, cut a mile-long swath, 600 feet wide, through the heart of Campbell Hill yesterday afternoon.
Whirling like a giant top, the vicious twister flattened at least 15 homes, the town hall and a barber shop. Eight other business buildings and at least 16 residences were damaged, most of them to such an extent that they are no longer livable. Two automobiles were crushed, others were seriously damaged.
It was all over in three terrifying minutes—at 2:58 p.m.
Seven persons were hospitalized. Approximately 150 were left homeless and damage was conservatively estimated at $200,000.
Most seriously injured were Mrs. Susan Cluster, 79, a widow, and Mrs. Emma Wedemeyer, 67, but attendants at St. Andrew's hospital in Murphysboro said their condition was "good" this morning and that physicians gave them a better chance to survive.
Mrs. Wedemeyer's husband, Chris, 78, was to be released from the hospital later today; Martin Alms, 78, and his wife, Lula, 67, went home this morning; and Mrs. Harriett Wilson, in her 70s, was released last night after treatment and X-rays.
Besides Mrs. Wedemeyer and Mrs. Cluster, the only victim remaining under hospital care was Mrs. Linda Gerberding, 41.
Wind and rain that accompanied the tornado had hardly subsided before rescue and repair operations had begun. Ambulances from nearby Ava and Murphysboro rushed the injured to hospitals.
State police blocked off streets to virtually all motor traffic and set up headquarters in a downtown restaurant where they recruited volunteer workers. Captain Walter Eichen and Lieutenant Denzil Wills supervised the five patrolmen and one sergeant.
National guardsmen from Murphysboro arrived before nightfall to patrol streets and prevent looting. Captain Conrad McElroy was in charge.
A Salvation Army unit from West Frankfort set up a field kitchen at the intersection of Main street and state route 43 and handed out hot dogs, coffee and doughnuts to refugees and rescue workers.
St. Louis headquarters of the American Red Cross responded to the Jackson county chapter's request for 150 cots which were set up in the gymnasium of the Campbell Hill grade school, near the south edge of the village, for members of 50 to 60 homeless families.
The community, whose 1950 population was listed at 336 and which lies approximately 15 air miles southwest of Du Quoin, was completely without electrical power and most of its telephone service was disrupted. Illinois Power Company and Commercial Telephone troubleshooters went to work immediately to replace riddled and leaning poles.
The community's one-story town hall was crushed and chairs were scattered about the area. Then the tornado ripped into the Wedemeyer, Meyer and Gerlatch homes, leveling the entire row.
The George Wagner residence, first house east of the Wedemeyers, was nudged 10 feet off of its foundation.
"I stayed out front until it started across the parkway, then I thought it was time to get out," Tegtmeyer said. "It was only about three minutes from the time I first heard it until it was over."
Mrs. Roy Mathis, railroad agent, who borrowed Wagner's car to go after her daughter, Brenda, a second-grader in the public school, saw the youngster among a group of approaching children and parked the machine in front of Tegtmeyer's store. Tegtmeyer advised Mrs. Mathis to take shelter in the store and told others there to run for the warehouse. It was too late for he and Mrs. Mathis to reach the room, so they stood beneath an archway.
Meanwhile Tegtmeyer's brother, George, herded the group of youngsters into Louis Rubach's tavern across the street, perhaps saving their lives. Besides Brenda, the children included Joan, Jane and Marla Lipscomb, Don Furhop, Sunny Donnell and Kathryn Miller.
It appeared to be about 600 feet high and four feet across and was black as coal. It looked like a black rope.
— Robert Lafferty of Cutler, who observed the tornado from seven miles awayMrs. Mathis' older son, Jimmy, 12, was in the parochial school, in the southwest corner of town. The building was not damaged.
First and second graders had been dismissed from the public school in the southeast corner of the village at the usual 2:30 hour, but approximately 90 others were still in the building when the storm struck. A small part of the roof was blown away and some window panes were broken but damage was not heavy.
Herman Schoenberg, janitor, saw the twister coming and shouted warnings to the teachers, who herded children under their desks.
The front of Tegtmeyer's brick store building was caved in, crumpling the Wagner automobile out front and another car parked beside the building. Across Main street, the Leslie Isom barber shop was leveled. Isom had closed to go hunting.
Virtually every house in the first block of Main street east of highway 43 was damaged, most of them heavily. The homes included those of Norman Misselhorn, Jacob Muller, Mrs. Madeline Knop, Dr. H. F. Busse, Garl Isom, Edward Knop, Albert Rathert, a Heil family and Griffin Redfield.
A combine belonging to Edward Misselhorn was carried 300 feet and smashed into the rear of the Norman Misselhorn home, a two-story residence which was moved 15 feet off its foundation. Behind the Misselhorn home, a garage which housed the community fire truck was carried away but the machine was not damaged.
Muller said he was sitting in the living room typing a letter when he heard the howl of the storm. He had lost a home in the 1925 cyclone at DeSoto and realized immediately that it was a tornado that was approaching. Mrs. Mueller was hurled to the floor when the storm struck, but neither was injured.
Mrs. Carl Isom said she was returning home from the store when she saw the twister. She ran to the house and shouted for her daughters and grandchildren to get into the cellar of the family's vacant house next door. Three youngsters and five adults found safety there. The twister "looked like a funnel of muddy water" to Mrs. Isom.
Wilbur Ehlers, who operates a tavern and cafe at the intersection of Main street and highway 43, saw the tornado in time to rush his customers into a basement there.
The door blew shut before Sig Haberman, who operates a service station next door, could get into the cellar. Haberman darted back for his station and barely caught hold of the door knob in time to keep from being blown away.
A restaurant building owned by Haberman and housing a cafe operated by Ralph Moore was flattened and hurled across the highway. John Stokes of Dixon, who was visiting the Moors, suffered a broken collar bone when he was caught beneath a falling counter.
In the same vicinity the homes of D. J. Schuster, Henry Misselhorn and Susan Cluster were wrecked. Misselhorn, who is 90, is ill and was confined to his bed. His only injury was a slight cut on the forehead.
The residence of Mrs. Emma Svanda, a widow, was badly damaged but she and her daughter, Mrs. Viola Smith, and two grandchildren, Berneice Kay, 2 and Jacqueline Ann Svanda, 3, daughters of Mr. and Mrs. Norman Svanda, were uninjured.
The storm finally spent itself on the Lester Thies farm about one mile east of the village. Outbuildings were blown away but the house and barn were not seriously damaged.
Mrs. George Tegtmeyer said her lawn swing was torn to bits and the leaves in her yard appeared to have been raked into a pile. A two-by-four was driven through a garage door and giant timbers from atop the Tegtmeyer store were found in the yard of William Hegtmeyer home, a city block away.
Robert Lafferty of Cutler said he saw the tornado from a distance of seven miles, while he was enroute home from work at a Sparta mine. "It appeared to be about 600 feet high and four feet across and was black as coal," he said. "It looked like a black rope."
"I don't know how I got out."
Mrs. Caroline Meyer, one of Campbell Hill's oldest residents, surveyed the wreckage of her home in the more devastated area of the tornado-riddled Jackson county community and wondered how she escaped the fate of her friend and neighbor, Mrs. Chris Wedemeyer.
Mrs. Wedemeyer was taken to St. Andrew's hospital in Murphysboro, critically injured by falling timbers within her home next door to the Meyer residence. She had been visiting with Mrs. Meyer but departed when it began to thunder and lightning, 10 minutes before the twister struck.
The two residences are located in the northwest section of Campbell Hill, the area that was first and hardest hit.
Mrs. Meyer crawled out from the wreckage of the rear part of the home. She was scratched and bruised about her hands and knees but insisted she wasn't hurt and refused hospital care.
"Oh God, it's all gone," the aged woman sobbed as she inspected the debris of what once was her home. "Look at my sewing machine!"
Mrs. Meyer said she had no insurance to cover her loss and that she was able to save only one dress. "My new shoes are in that mess," she cried, pointing to the pile of rubble.
A lone chair sat upright in the front yard as if it had been placed by someone to enjoy the spring-like temperatures that preceded the tornado.
Mrs. Meyer, a widow, lived alone. Her laundry was on the line and she had been preparing home-made soap when the storm struck. Poking through the wreckage and wandering about the yard, Mrs. Meyer picked up bars of the soap and other small articles and placed them off to one side.
She noticed the protective covering off of the cistern in the rear yard and asked a group of men to replace the top before some youngster was swallowed up in the gaping hole.
Mrs. Meyer's son, Harold, finally persuaded his mother to go to his farm home near town to spend the night.
Two doors down the street from the Meyer home the Louis Gerlatch residence lay in ruins while a flock of 150 chickens pecked around the yard. The Gerlatch cat, who evidently survived the tornado with at least part of his nine lives, roamed aimlessly around the neighborhood, inspecting the damaged homes.
Scores of residents of this city, St. John, Sunfield and Tamaroa watched a tornado swirl through southwestern skies late yesterday afternoon, unaware that the twister was sweeping the Jackson county village of Campbell Hill.
Harry Bunge, formerly president of the St. John village board, said he was emptying wash water for his wife when he saw the funnel dip up and down and finally disappear into a cloud. He thought it was probably in the vicinity of Chester. Back in 1925 Bunge said he had been within six miles of the Murphysboro cyclone.
At the Du Quoin Coca-Cola Bottling Company plant, south of this city, five members of the office force stood at windows to watch the twister after Miss Nell Braden's niece, Mrs. Millous Swartz, had telephoned to call her attention to the strange cloud.
Others in the group were Bonnie Biggs, Virginia Yates, Frances Martin and Arch Lehn, who had experienced a previous tornado.
They said the tornado appeared like a large snake or rope dropping out of a black cloud directly west of the plant. After a few seconds it disappeared back into the cloud which appeared headed in this direction. High winds and a heavy rain followed here.