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The events of a startling character which take
place in a new and thinly settle place like this, must necessarily be few.
And yet, this town was not without its incendiarism and
tragedy.
The only fire that occurred, that was believed to
have been maliciously kindled, was that of the burning of the house of
Joseph Reiff about a mile north west of the village where Richard Stoller
lives now. The fire occurred on the night of the 4th of March, 1858. It
was supposed to have been set by one Jacob Hilderbridle, who lived in an
adjoining township. There was a light snow on and in the morning fresh
horses tracks led to Hilderbridle's house. He was arrested and taken to
jail, but the evidence was not strong enough to convict him. Apparently
Hilderbridle had "borrowed" a set of splitting wedges from a government
woodlot where Reiff had been working and the discussion of their return
had caused hard feelings.
Murder
In the winter of 1870-71, a murder occurred in the
west part of the township. Mr. Christian Schertz was shot through a window
while sitting at his fireside. Suspicious circumstances led to the arrest
of Daniel goldsmith. It appeared in evidence that he had been hunting the
day before, that one barrel of his gun had been fired, and the ball fund
in Mr. Schertz's body was of the same type. The evidence was
circumstantial and Goldsmith was released.
In the Fall of 1875, this township was visited by
one of the most violent tornadoes that has every been known in this
section of country. Though confined to a narrow belt - in some places not
exceeding fifty yards in width - the destruction of all within its compass
was complete. Houses, barns, trees, cattle and horses were literally swept
out of existence.
Tornado
The whirlwind struck in the southwestern part,
demolishing the school house, that stood a mile from the west and three
miles from the south line. It was just before 4 o'clock in the afternoon,
and the teacher of the school, seeing the storm approaching and being
desirous that the children should reach their homes before the storm
broke, dismissed them. They had not all passed a dozen yards outside the
track of the tornado, before the house was crushed into fragments. From
this point it passed across the road and completely obliterated the house
occupied by E. E. Bingham and family. There were four persons in the house
at the time. They barely escaped with their lives by taking refuge in the
cellar, one old lady being badly injured, and rendered a cripple for life.
From thence, in its course lay A. C. Bullington's (Warren Hodel) house,
which shard a similar fate. After leaving this point, a second school
house was destroyed. Gideon Jeter's barn (Marion Schirer) was the next
object of its fury. It finally left the town after the destruction of C.
H. Waldron's House (Larry Moritz now). Fortunately, no human lives were
lost, though a number of persons were more or less seriously
injured.
The freaks of the wind were extremely curious, and
in many instances, almost incredible. Large stones, partly imbedded in the
earth, were scooped up and carried long distances from their beds. Horses
were carried through the air. Fence posts were drawn from the ground. A
child was blown from its mother's arms, and deposited safely in a straw
stack, and was fund afterward by some person hearing its
cries.
June 22, 1892 Tropietz
Power House Fire
A bolt of lightning struck the east elevator and
set fire to the engine room. The engineer of a freight train standing on
the tracks blew his whistle until help arrived. Water was carried from the
west end of the lumber yard. The hand engine was brought out, but was
useless from having stood idle for so long. About the time the flames were
put out the "Little Giant" began to throw water at a live rate. It is said
the leathers in the pump had dried out. The train mentioned was right next
to the elevator when the lightning struck and both the engineer and
fireman were shocked by the bolt but suffered no serious injury. The
machinery in this elevator, which was W. B. Rickey's old stand, was driven
by a large cable on a pulley near the top and running down to a gas engine
on the ground nearer the west elevator. The lightning followed this cable
into the building.
October 1893
Fire
Roanoke has suffered seriously at various times
from fire. October 23, 1893. The west block was burned, destroying a
number of buildings, entailing a loss of nearly $20,000. The fire started
about midnight, and there was no means of fighting it save by the use of
buckets. In an hour and one-half nine buildings were completely consumed.
A strong wind was blowing from the northwest. the blaze was discovered
creeping up the side of Martin Brown's building on the southwest corner.
This was almost immediately engulfed and in turn ignited D. B. Zimmerman's
drug store. Nothing was saved. Next came the old post office and drug
store of J. F. Wheelwright, who lived in the rear of the store with his
family. At Dr. Shull's office, most of the furniture and the doctor's
medical library were saved. This had been Dr. J. M. John's office, in
which the first election was held. A small dwelling at the alley was last
to be destroyed before the fire burned out in it westward travel. South of
Wheelwright's corner, across the street, the hotel was saved by wetting
it's roof and side. Stephens building stood next, north of where it
started. There was barely time to remove the post office case with the
mail, John Isch's jewelry cases, and part of George Boger's tailor goods
and machines. Nick Herzog's saloon came next and suffered the same fate.
By this time the whole town was up and helping save whatever could be
gotten into the street. The doors of Froehlich and Herbst's furniture
store were thrown open and much of the furniture on the first floor
carried out. The heat and smoke prevented anything on the second floor
from being saved. Every one helped rescue the stock of Ernest Zimmerman's
drugstore since there was no hope of stopping the fire until it reached
the brick wall of the Herbst, Altorfer and Sauder Hardware store. Here the
engine was fun back and the hose used to good advantage from the roof. The
buildings across the street east began to crackle from the heat. These
were kept wet down by pouring buckets of water down the fronts from the
roof. Sparks, embers and burning shingles sailed in the air over the
elevator, lumber yard and roof tops. Some went as far as the Christian
Church in the southeast part of town. Tuesday morning W. P. Moore set up
his post office in the south side of the hardware store after sending to
Eureka for stamps.
Reportedly, this fire resulted from an argument
between two men in a card game in an upstairs room of one of the
buildings. One threw a kerosene lamp at the other. In spite of the
tragedy, may amusing things happened such as the people throwing the
"looking glass" out of the second story window and carrying the wrought
iron poker carefully down the stairway.
November 4, 1901 East Side
Fire
At 8:35 p.m., Ernest Zimmerman, Jr., discovered
smoke coming from Rosenaks' Store and gave the alarm. The building had
only been completed three months previous. The dry goods department was
saved, but the second story was a complete loss.
Mickel Brothers fruit and dry goods store was the
second to succumb and most of the goods were taken across the street to
the hardware store for safety.
Parkins and Sands Saloon came third. The cigars,
bottled goods, and other stuff was saved. This building belonged to Mrs.
Full.
C. F. Yeck's Barber Shop was the fourth to fall to
ashes. All the furniture and fixtures were saved.
Mrs. James' restaurant was the last building on
the line and here the fire gave the workers difficulty in keeping it
within the block. A strong northwest wind endangered the adjoining lumber
sheds and N. R. Moore's elevator across the street. Salt and water were
used freely to fight the flames.
During the fire, the building fronts across the
street on the north and west were kept from igniting by lowering all the
awnings and wetting them from the roof tops. Blankets were soaked in salt
water and tacked over the windows. In spite of this, the large plate glass
of the Supply store, Altorfer and Sauder's, E. Zimmerman, P. Froehlich and
the Farmer's Bank were broken. At one point the roof of the hardware
ignited but was soon drenched. The tin ornaments melted and fell off. Tim
Collins' Saloon was badly scorched. Burkholder's store suffered no damage.
The square was covered with goods over which Mayor Claudin placed a force
of watchmen to prevent looting.
Tuesday morning Adolph Rosenak set up temporary
quarters in the Town Hall. C. F. Yeck placed his chairs in the office of
Mr. Scoon the cattle buyer, adjacent to N. R. Moore's grain office. Mrs.
James moved her belongings to her daughter's home. Parkins and San placed
their goods in Ernest Zimmerman's drug store on the northeast corner of
the square. Mickel Brothers sent their goods back to their Eureka store.
They occupied Samuel Ramsey's building which formerly housed the Rapp's
meat market with a full equipment of butcher's fixtures and machinery.
Louis Klinge was driven from his hall on the second floor of the Full
building.
The fire pump was not taken from the shed, hence
its usefulness was neglected from some unknown reason. The village was
without a water system at this time.
Electrician Husseman went to work and by evening
had all the store lights working except in Altorfers and Sauders. When the
alarm for fire was sounded, the mine whistle remained silent and many did
not learn of the disaster until next morning.
September 6,
1903
On September 6, 1903, around 10:30 p.m., a
watchman spotted a fire in the basement of a Roanoke store which
completely gutted it before help could come. The loss was $20,000 -
covered by insurance. The saloon next door was damaged by an explosion
which cause a loss of $300. Rosenak started his business the next day in a
building across the street. This business had just burned two years
before.
April 23,
1909
Another fire occurred in the Audi building which
faced Main Street north of Broad Street. The fire broke out at 2:30 p.m.
and the place was consumed in thirty minutes. It took a saloon-pool hall,
meat market at the cost of $5,000. Crowds of spectators hindered the fire
fighters immensely.
ABC Fire February 12,
1914
A fire occured that night in the new ABC Washing
Machine Factory. It was almost completely destroyed in 20 minutes, having
started by the chimney and furnace. Futile attempts were made to rescue
the patterns. All equipment, machines, dies, etc., were lost. Several
railroad cars were burned also. Eight hundred new washers were destroyed.
The company owners, the Altorfers, started builing again a week
later.
Brick Yard October 19,
1914
The brick yard built by George Willems in 1889
burned to the ground. It was a two-story wooden structure and all the
equipment and machinery were lost. A value of $15,000 was placed on the
loss. The property was owned at the time by American Clay Products Company
and later sold to Barrons and rebuilt in 1914-15.
October 10, 1942 Oak
Theatre
The Oak Theatre burned October 10, 1942. It was
owned by Carl Phillips. This building had previously been known as P. B.
Herbst's "Palacette", and operated by Bodhaine & Sand a while (also
known as Roanoke Opera House), then sold in 1914. The building and
projector equipment were damaged so badly the building was then taken
down. Maple Lanes Bowling Ally occupies the spot today.
Fire
Friday afternoon about 3 o'clock fire completely
gutted the cleaning plant of Louis C. Boger, located at the rear of his
mother's home near the Sante Fe standpipe. It was a frame building
containing all his equipment for the cleaning and renovation of garments
for his business, the Roanoke Cleaning Works. The fire originated from
gases escaping from the heating department which then caught fire and
spread to the woodwork, soon was a mass of flames. The plant was a full
operation and about fifteen or twenty pieces of ladies and gents garments
were in process of being cleaned. These were all distroyed. The fire
company was on the scene as quickly as possible, but the building was all
in flames on their arrival. Water soon abated the blaze, but the entire
structure was beyound repair. The loss to Mr. Boger is a heavy one and it
makes it far more so for he asserts that he will make good every garment
which is lost. No insurance was on the plant. He will rebuild with a
fire-proof building as soon as possible.
By June 12 the new cleaning establishment was
built, ready for business on the same spot (May 2 issue of
1916).
June 19, 1964
More recently, the Apostolic Christian Church
(three miles southwest of town) was struck by lightning and burned to the
ground. This was on June 19, 1964, at night. A motorist on Route 116 saw
and reported it. Six fire companies helped but it was of no use. There was
an approximate $500,000 loss which was partially covered by insurance.
They rebuilt on the same location at the cost of almost a million
dollars.
November 6, 1973 Roanoke
Concrete
On November 6, 1973, Roanoke Concrete Company was
completely destroyed. Fire companies from several adjoining towns came to
protect adjoining businesses. The damage was $250,000, with the loss of a
new concrete truck and a new block machine. Insurance covered a great
proportion of the loss.
Flood
In August, 1924, there was a big flood where the
Legion Home now stands. The Leo Bodhaine family lived near the Legion
park. In the Barling Hotel, the Darling boys were safe upstairs. Batiste
Micheletti threw them ropes and they swam in. Sam Anliker with his team
and dray wagon were swept downstream. William Sand, Ed Husseman, and Steve
McGraw were with him. They cut the harness under the water. One horse
drowned. The wagon and harness washed away.
Julia Nafziger stood for two hours with one foot
on the dining room door knob. Dr. Rodaway swam in with a rope and reached
her as she was clinging to the top of the door. Rescuers brought a raft
and got her out. Her parrot and its cage were never found.
The railroad was washed out.
Storms
January 12,
1927
Sweeping practically the entire country and
putting the traveling public to great inconvenience, one of the worst snow
storms ever to hit Central Illinois blanketed the area Wednesday, January
12, in the morning and from that time until late Thursday evening. So
heavy was the snow that between 12 and 14 inchs covered the
ground.
It was reported that in some places on the hard
roads drifts had reached a depth of from four to five feet.
June 2, 1927
After raining all Thursday afternoon, June 2, and
another heavy down pour which continued for several hours Friday afernoon,
a terrific wind storm swept this section (west side of Roanoke) about 10
o'clock Friday night, creating a terrible condition in Roanoke. Hundreds
of telephone and electric light and power wires were torn down by falling
trees, while many poles were down at different places. It was the worst
storm of the year, with the wind reaching gale proportions.
Death of
Balloonist
Labor Day celebrations were the only way the Fire
Company had to make money until a tax was established. This included
carnival rides, food stands (some run by ladies of church organizations,
some by individuals), free entertainment on the town square, parachute
stuntmen, ball games (baseball, bocci ball) and fireworks.
At Labor Day celebration in 1938, Edd Ray, a
balloonist took off from the Legion Park. His belt broke and he fell 1200
feet to his death. His body fell into the back yard at the home of the
Rocke sisters on Church Street. One parachute fell onto the school rood,
(about a block as the crow flies) and the other on Matt Aeschleman's
barn.
It is said Ray was not originally scheduled to
make the ascension, but had come along as a helper to the pilot. Having
made the equipment ready well in advance of the appointed hour for lift
off, the two men made the rounds of the streets to view the festivities.
The young pilot seems to have partaken of too much liquid refreshment and
at the time of take-off was not able to perform his duties, so Edd Ray
took his place.
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