It's an ill wind

No particular reason to post a link to a story about a bunch of tornadoes in eastern Kansas and western Missouri in 1883. The Milton Crockett named in the piece was a member of the Missouri House once, which is why I looked at the story in the first place.

I do like to read these old newspaper articles for their style and their, I guess I'd call it, youthfulness. The injury and loss-of-life reports in the link are hard to follow, kind of a mixture of "nobody knows the extent of loss" and bizarre details. I could hope Mrs. Trainor's knees made a complete recovery, although limb injuries have a way of never quite going away.

The Liberty, Mo., newspaper was a weekly so it didn't have a piece about the storms until May 18. With that time lag they were able to report:
It is claimed that there came with the cyclone a bird never seen before in this section of the country. Mr. Charles Oberg and Mr. T. Fredericks were out shooting in the East Bottom yesterday and killed a large number of these birds. The breasts and heads of the birds are black; grayish wings, 2 feet across; black beaks, 1½ inches long: web feet.
So these birds survived the storm only to be killed in large numbers?

In March 1925, what came to be known as the Tri-State Tornado traveled 219 miles from Ellington, Missouri, to Princeton, Indiana, in an astonishing fury. Nearly 700 people died, thousands more were injured and over 15,000 homes were destroyed in three and one-half hours. Entire towns were flattened and economies were ruined.

A tornado that hit Rochester, Minnesota, on August 21, 1883, was the impetus for the creation of the Mayo Clinic. So it's true. It's an ill wind that blows no one good. Nice couplet to end that piece (written by songwriter Sylvia Fine):

The oboe it is clearly understood
Is an ill wind that no one blows good.