Fires Audrain County MOGenWeb for History and Genealogy of Audrain County Missouri

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Major Fires and Natural Disasters in Audrain County

Mexico had more than it's share of major fires in the downtown area.
This is not the entire list of fires in the downtown area

refer: 1884 History of Audrain County and Centennial History

 

May 27 1871 Cyclone at Vandalia overturned a building belonging to the King Brothers and blew a box car from the tracks.
1873 Mexico, like all other cities, has had some fires. The two largest and most destructive occurred in the same year; the first on June 6, 1873, and  the second September 7, 1873. The fire of June 16th de­stroyed eight business houses. Among these were the buildings of George Kunkle, John Schumacher, J. L. Llewellyn, Daniel Leonard, Mark Roberts and others.  The fire in  September was the more de­structive, consuming some nine or ten business houses with their contents. The damage to buildings and their contents aggregated (both fires) fully $200,000, three fourths of which was covered by insurance. Refer: 1884 Audrain County History Chapter 10
August 29 1880 P.T.Barnum Circus was in town, on the Landon Craig Fairgrounds, located at what what is now Woodlawn Place. The main circus tent was destroyed with high winds.
December 26 1882 fire The frame buildings, south side of the square, which was once the site of the first courthouse were burned, later replaced with brick structures
   
May 25 1891 Cyclone, Tornado or Storm- north and west of Mexico- Killed were Balsam Kunkel, Sophia Doerge, Homer Rogers and H. C. Hunt.
Injured included: Mr. & Mrs. S. S. Norris and 2 children, Mrs. Emily Seal, Miss Addie Seal, Miss Gertrude Fletcher, Henry Kunkel and son Otto, Mr. & Mrs. William Doerge and their son and daughter, Mr. & Mrs. William Yostmeyer and two children, Mr. & Mrs. Squire Jarman, Mr. & Mrs. J. F. Harrison and two children.
May 271896 Major Tornado- across many parts of Missouri incuding the Saint Louis Area. Audrain County was hardest hit in the Bean Creek area, north east of Mexico, with the loss of life. Fatalities included Eliza Ware age 7 daughter of J. G. Ware; Hilda Blase age 6; Eulah Miller age 9; Rose Hodge age 6; Eugene Lott, Pearl Hodge age 8, ____Erdel son of Frank Erdel, ______ Knoebel son of Albert Knoebel, Riley Hagan age 22 of Laddonia. The children were all students Bean Creek or Dye Schools.
The storm touched down at Bean Creek and Dye Schools after entering the county between Clark and Renick, traveling northeast , crossing the Alton RR east of Laddonia and also touched down agan at Vandalia. The damage at Vandalia included a course of destruction five blocks wide through the town, with residences, churches and businesses damaged or destroyed. The "light plant" was completely wrecked.refer: Centennial History of Audrain County

From http://www.tornadoproject.com/past/pastts95.htm death count differs from above.

May 27, 1896
What may have been the first tornado of the day killed a woman near Bellflower, Missouri. At 3:15 PM, three students died and sixteen were injured in the destruction of the Dye School in Audrain County, Missouri. A few minutes later, the same tornado killed one student and injured nineteen at the Bean Creek School. At 6:15 PM, two children died on a farm in Osage County, Missouri. At about 6:30 PM, two tornadoes touched down almost simultaneously from separate storms. One leveled entire farms near New Minden, Hoyleton, Richview, and Irvington, Illinois. The other was the third deadliest tornado in US history, taking a total of at least 255 lives. In Saint Louis, Missouri, people died in homes, factories, saloons, hospitals, mills, railroad yards, and churches, as a half-mile-wide swath was cut across the center of the city. At least 137 people died at Saint Louis. Other people living on shanty boats may have perished in the Mississippi River, but were not counted because their bodies were washed downstream. At East Saint Louis, Illinois, the funnel had narrowed but may have also intensified. Devastation there was more complete, and 118 people were killed. Twenty seven more people died in other Illinois tornadoes this day.
July 2 1892 Wind blew the roof of the Waterworks away.
August 6 1892. Tornado in the :Worchester" neighborhood
May 23 1893 Damage in the county from a tornado
January 21 1913 fire Ferris Grand Opera House
April 12 1913 fire Central Hotel ( Greer Building)
July 28 1916 fire Buckner Building
July 30 1916 fire Tatlow Building
January 3 1920 fire Fatality- The Orpheum Theatre burned, with the loss of the life of O. D. Thompson, father of the manager Shirely C. Thompson. Mr. Thompson was trapped on the seond floor. ($60,000.00 ) Included a $10,000 pipe organ
April 29, 1927 fire New Grand Opera House ( location was later the Gorrell Motor Company )
May 9 1927 A cyclone that hit at night south of Mexico resulted in the deaths of Mrs. Rober E. Biggs age 65, north of Auxvass and Jewell Culver age 2 son of Mr. & Mrs. Harold Culver near Benton City. Injuries included members of these families and other near by house holds. Culver Family Website
August 7 1930 fire Fatality - Frank Kunkel, an employee of C. C. Wonneman & Sons, was fatally burned when the fuel oil tankscaught fire while he was filling the tanks
December 27 1933 fire Hamilton Apts, formerly the Clarkson or Windsor Hotel burned with $ 50,000.00 loss
May 23 1934 fire Barth Building, north side of the square
June 9 1934 Tornado went though Mexico
? 193_ Pollock Mill- grain piles smouldered for months after the fire.