Source:  Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield, IL) Page: 4
Dated: Sept. 21, 1844
Mattoon Elks Leader In Double Slaying.
     Mattoon, Ill., Sept. 20 (INS) - H. C. Hardy, 55, secretary of Mattoon Elks lodge, and Mrs. Dale Popham, 29, a bride of less than two weeks, were found shot to death tonight in the ladies lounge of the club, in what police said was suicide and murder.
     Hardy and Mrs. Popham, the former Mildred Tinch, a beauty operator, had been keeping company for the last six years.  Less than two weeks ago she married a soldier who now is stationed at Chanute Field, Ill.
     The bodies were found by Henry Roark, 76, club janitor, who said he hard three shots early in the afternoon but paid no attention to them as Hardy frequently fired a pistol for practice.
     Mrs. Popham was shot through the heart and the right temple, and Hardy through the back of his head.  In reconstructing the shooting, police said it was evident that Hardy had killed Mrs. Popham and then shot himself.
     Roark said that Hardy had been at the club all day and that Mrs. Popham had arrived shortly before noon.
     An inquest was set for 7 p. m. tomorrow.

Source: Inter-Ocean, Chicago, Illinois
Dated: Mar. 3, 1896
THE OBITUARY RECORD
Three Deaths at Charleston, Ill.
   Charleston, Ill. March 2 - Special Telegram.
- Three deaths of old citizens occurred here yesterday.  Mrs. Perriba PROVE, aged 88; Mrs. John FERREN, and William H. CLARK,  Mr. CLARK was a war veteran, serving through the rebellion with Company I, One Hundred and Twenty-Third Illinois.  He had been a paralytic for sixteen years and at the time of his death was drawing a pension of $72 per month.

Source:  Idaho Statesman (Boise, ID) Issue: 44  Page: 2, 1
Dated: May 27, 1917
TORNADOES WRECK ILLINOIS TOWNS; 100 PERSONS KILLED
 Mattoon, Charleston, Manhattan, Joliet, Elwood, Modesto and Pearl Are Hit by Twisters; Number of Fatalities Can Only Be Estimated Now.
MORE THAN 300 ARE INJURED; PROPERTY DAMAGE ENORMOUS
     CHICAGO - Spring tornadoes, making their appearance earlier than usual in the central west, caused the deaths of more than and property damage which cannot be estimated because of serious loss in growing food crops.
     Mattoon, Ill., was the heaviest sufferer in the storms, from 50 to 70 being killed there late Saturday.  This was more than twice as many as were killed in Kansas on Friday, when the village of Andale virtually was wiped out and heavy toll taken in the surrounding country, the dead being estimated at from 24 to 30.  The storm Saturday wrecked the northern half of Mattoon including nearly all of the business section, and rendered 2000 persons homeless.
     While the principal force of the storm struck at Mattoon, other sections of Illinois were visited by vagrant tornadoes which left death and destruction as they hopped about through a rich farming territory.  Casualties were reported as follows:
List of Casualties.
     Westervelt, five dead, 21 injured, three of whom will die.
     Manhattan, one dead, six injured.
     Joliet, two injured
     Elwood, four injured.
     Modesto, one dead, nine fatally
     Pearl, one fatally injured, four hurt.
     Charleston, many reported injured but definite information lacking until wire communication restored.
     Early reports of property losses indicated that serious damage had been done to many towns.  Substantial factories were blown to splinters in Mattoon.  Joliet estimated a half million dollars' damage in Will county alone.
     Hail followed the wind in many places, beating growing crops to the ground.
FEAR DEATHS AT MATTOON WILL REACH ONE HUNDRED
     SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - Advices from the Mattoon Star at 1 o'clock Sunday morning stated that 42 bodies had been recovered from the wreckage of the tornado at that hour.
     Sixty more persons will be found dead beneath the wreckage of their homes, the Mattoon authorities estimated.  The dead are mostly working people, killed when 500 homes were destroyed.  A fire followed the tornado, but was said to have done only little damage comparatively.
CITY IN DARKNESS, RESCUERS WORK BY LANTERN LIGHT.
     MATTOON, Ill. - Thirty-five persons are known to be dead and it is estimated that an equal number are buried in the ruins of Mattoon as a result of a tornado which struck the city about 4 o'clock Saturday afternoon.  In addition more than 200 persons were injured by the windstorm, many of them fatally.
     Saturday night every available vehicle in the city was in service carrying the dead and injured to hospitals, churches and other public places thrown open to them.  Mattoon was in complete darkness except for the light of hundreds of lanterns carried by volunteer rescue workers and not until daylight can the full extent of damage be known.
     The funnel-shaped cloud came swirling its way toward the city, and before persons on the streets could seek safety, a district on the northern side of the city two miles long and about four blocks wide had been devastated, almost every building in the path of the storm being in ruins.  The property damage, it was estimated Saturday night, will exceed $500,000.  Hundreds of families are homeless.
RELIEF FROM OUTSIDE
     Immediately the plight off the community became known, special trains bearing physicians and nurses were rushed here from Pana, Champaign, Carbondale and other neighboring cities. Handicapped by proper hospital  facilities, every effort was being made to care for the injured, and many of them were being treated in private homes.  Many of the injured were struck by wreckage, which filled the air for several minutes after the storm had passed.
     The T. W. Clark Manufacturing company, in whose plant 100 men were at work at the time of the tornado, suffered the heaviest property damage, the loss being estimated at $200,000.  That none of the workmen was killed was one of the freaks of the storm.
     Pending the arrival of national guardsmen from Effingham for patrol duty, 100 citizens were sworn in as special policemen.
     Reports from the surrounding section indicate that the storm, passing over the city form west to east, did heavy property damage and caused loss of life for a distance of 30 miles in each direction from here.
VILLAGE OF KOUTS HIT HARD.
      HEBRON, Ind. - The village of Kouts was virtually destroyed by a tornado which swept Porter county late Saturday.  The community, which has a population of 500, was cut off from communication.  The storm caused heavy property losses throughout the country.
TOWN OF HEBRON DESTROYED.
     LIMA, O. - Erie railroad officials here report Hebron, Ind., on the Vandalia, 50 miles from Chicago, wiped out by tornado.  A relief train is being sent to Koutz, the nearest town.
TROOPS REACH MATTOON.
      SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - Adjutant General Dickson was notified at 2 a.m. Sunday that the Effingham troops Sunday that the Effingham troops had reached Mattoon.  Captain W. W. Austin telephoned General Dickson that from 75 to 100 persons were killed, 300 seriously injured and that 100 blocks of buildings and houses had been destroyed.
33 REPORTED DEAD IN STORM AT CHARLESTON
     DECATUR, Ill. - Charleston, Ill., 10 miles east of Mattoon, suffered a loss of 33 known dead and many injured in Saturday's tornado, which swept eastward after destroying the larger part of Mattoon.
     The storm damaged both the business and the residential quarters of Charleston.  This information was carried to Mattoon by a resident of Charleston, who was seeking aid for the stricken residents of his community.
     All wires to Charleston were prostrated.
MANHATTAN AND ELWOOD HIT.
     JOLIET, Ill. - Manhattan, Ill., 10 miles southwest of Joliet, was partly wrecked by a windstorm late Saturday and wreckage strews the roadway for two miles out of the village.  A call for help reached this city Saturday night saying that many were injured and possibly some dead.  Stores and homes were blown to bits.
     Elwood, six miles south of Joliet, was also damaged by the storm.  One boy was killed by lightning.

Source: Kalamazoo Gazette (Kalamazoo, MI) Page: 7, 1
Dated: May 27, 1917
305 KILLED BY TORNADO IN ILLINOIS
HALF OF MATTOON BLOWN DOWN BY GREAT CYCLONE
2,000 Are Made Homeless; Regiment of Militia Sent to Maintain Order in the Stricken District of State.
STORES ARE BLOWN TO BITS
Churches and Public Buildings Filled With Injured as Relief Work begins But Hour After Great disaster.
     DECATUR, Ill., May 26 - Railroad officers here have received word of serious loss of life in a tornado at Charleston, 10 miles east of Mattoon, estimates placing the number of deaths there as high as 250.  A company of the Fourth Infantry, Illinois National Guard, ahs been ordered to Charleston  from Paris.
50 DEAD AT MATTOON.
     MATTOON, Ill. - May 26, About fifty persons were killed and more than three hundred injured when a tornado struck Mattoon late today.  The entire business section of the town is wiped out and upward of 2,000 are homeless.
     The storm, traveling from east to west, destroyed practically the entire northern half of the town, leaving no buildings standing in a section several blocks in width.
     The lumber yard directly in the path of the tornado contributed largely to the damage.  Flying planks struck a number of pedestrians who had been unable to find shelter, and other pieces of the timber were hurled for miles around the country-side, one being discovered sticking through the side of a farmer's house.
STEEL HURLED THROUGH AIR.
     Bits of broken and twisted steel also flew through the air, damaging buildings entirely out of the path of the storm.   A canning factory contributed to the loss in this way.
     Rescue work was begun almost immediately.  Within an hour every church and public buildings standing was filled with injured, many of whom were unable to obtain adequate medical service.
     Efforts to estimate the casualties were futile because of the confusion which followed the tornado.  Hundreds of persons reported members of families missing but it was believed many of these would be found tomorrow.
HAIL STORM FOLLOWS.
     A heavy hail storm which followed the wind, hampered the work of the rescue and late into the night person s were being dug from the ruins of wrecked buildings.  City officials asserted that there is a possibility that the death list may be materially increased when the full extent of the damage is determined tomorrow.
     Few reports from the surrounding farm country was available but it was not believed that the damage anywhere in this vicinity was as  great as Mattoon.
     In addition to pleas for doctors and nurses, the mayor sent an emergency call to Governor Lowden for at least two companies of the state national guard to be used in policing the ruins.
WIND PLAYS FREAKS
     The wind played the usual number of freakish tricks.  A scantiling from the lumber yard passed entirely through a home in which the family was dining, hurling through the air over their heads and out through a window without injuring any of the diners.
     Wire and rail traffic was practically at a standstill for hours after the disaster, miles of telegraph poles in each direction from Mattoon being leveled.  Rails and ties were torn from their fastenings for yards at a time.
     WESTERVELT, Ill., May 26 - Sweeping through a 20-mile stretch of country, between Westervelt and Owaneco, a tornado late today caused the death of five persons and the injury of 21, three of whom probably will die.  Nearly all the injured were children practicing a children's day program in a church, which collapsed pinning them under heavy timbers.
     The dead:
     Mrs. Herman Christman, 60 years old.
     Miss Myrtle Christman, 40 years old.
     Mrs. Sadie Jackson, 63
     Davis McDonald, 65
     Eugene McDonald, 20
     Physicians from Pana, who hurried here, in response to distress calls, hardly had time to administer to the injured when they were summoned to Mattoon, likewise devastated by a tornado
STORES BLOWN TO BITS.
     JOLIET, Ill., May 26. - A call for help from Manhatton, Ill., 10 miles southeast of Joliet, reached this city tonight saying that many ere injured therein a windstorm and possibly some were dead.  Stores and houses were blown to bits.
     Elwood, six miles south of Joliet, also was damaged by the storm.  One boy was killed here by lightning.

Source:  Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia, PA) Vol: 176 Issue: 147 Section News, News  Page: 4, 1
Dated: May 27, 1917
Part of Mattoon Destroyed, Town of Modesto Swept Away, Many Houses Torn Down at Westervelt and Elsewhere by Fury of Big Storm's Swath.
     CHICAGO, May 26, - At least fifty persons are reported dead in Mattoon Ills., as the result of a tornado which today destroyed the northern part of the city.  Wires were prostrated and word of the disaster reached Champaign, Ills. when a messenger arrived by automobile to ask help.  He estimated that the dead might total as high as 350 when reports were in from nearby towns.
     A special train has been sent from Champaign by the Illinois Central with doctors and nurses to Mattoon.
     Four persons were killed at Westervelt, Ills. late today when a tornado struck that hamlet and destroyed six or eight houses.  About twenty persons were injured.
     Westervelt is in Shelby county on the Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad.
     The dead :
     Mrs. Mary Christman, Miss Myrtle Christman, Mrs. Sadie Jackson and David McDonald
     Reports received at the telegraph office of the Chicago, Peoria and St. Louis Railroad at East St. Louis are that one person was killed and two were fatally injured in the tornado at Modesto, Ills.
     The property damage, according to the reports here, was not large.
     Reports carried to Waverly, a neighboring town, by a train crew, were that Modesto virtually had been swept away.  The town had a population of about 800.
----
Wichita's Death List Twenty-four
     WICHITA, Kas., May 26 - The death list resulting from yesterday's tornado near here stood at twenty-four this afternoon.  Authoritative reports from the stricken district showed twelve to have been killed at Andale, a small town twenty-three miles  northwest of here, nine in the country district near Sedgwick, two near Newton and one near Elbing.  Eleven were said to be injured serious at Ansdale.  The work of clearing away the debris at Andale proceeded rapidly today, under the supervision of National Guardsmen from Wichita, local citizens and others. 

Source:  Evansville Courier and Press (Evansville, IN) Page: 1
Dated: May 27, 1917
Tornado Kills 70 in Mattoon, More Than 100 Dead in Eight Towns.
2,000 Homeless in Mattoon; Churches Filled with Maimed.
Relief Train Filled with Doctors and Nurses Dispatched from Champaign to the Stricken City - Governor Sends National Guard to Police the Ruins.
CHURCH FALLS IN CRUSHING THRONG OF CHILDREN
Modesa, Ill., Town of 800, Almost Wiped Out - Five Dead in Westervelt, Ill. - Many Hurt in Charleston - Manhattan, Near Joliet is Calling for Help.
_______________________________________________________
A map showing the Illinois cities and towns which were victims of the |
tornadoes yesterday will be found on page 2.  The shaded portion        |
shows the storm path.                                                                            |
_______________________________________________________|
The Mattoon Dead
TERRE HAUTE, Ind., May 26 Partial list of known dead at Mattoon.
     MRS CHARLES TEMPLE
     MRS. EMMA
     MRS. ORA HERTAGE
     MRS. OWEN WAGGONER
     CHILD OF CHARLES HICK
     HARRISON STOKES
     MRS. NANCY KOON
     IRWIN WAGGONER
     MR. ____ BEAVERS
     MRS. _____ GRUBBS
     _____ DAVISON, a boy.
     MRS. LEE TAYLOR
     VIRGIL MALCOLM
     _____ THOMPSON
     JOHN WILLIAMS
     EDWIN DAUGHERTY
     IGNATIUS FITZ.
The Charleston Dead:
TERRE HAUTE, Ind., May 26. - Following is a partial list of known dead at Charleston, Ill.:
     GEORGE KILGORE
     JESSE HUDDELSTON
     JOHN WENTZ, JR.
     MRS. JACK COLBY and five children
     MRS. _____ M'MANN
     MRS. GEORGE BRIGGS
     MRS. WILLIAM LANGE and daughter, MADELINE
     CLARKEY NELSON
     BERT WAIMAN
     MRS. ____ SMITH
     MRS. _____ WRIGHT
     MR. _____ REEDE
     MR. _____ JENKINS
     DOUGLAS NUGENT
     TED KNAUSS
     DAUGHTER OF GUY STEWART
     FRANK CASE
     MR. AND MRS. CHAS. BARNES
     CHILD OF HARRY OWEN
-----
     CHICAGO, May 26. - Spring tornadoes, making their appearance earlier than usual in the central west, caused the deaths of more than 100 persons today and the injury of several hundred more and property damage which cannot be estimated because of serious loss in growing food crops.
     Mattoon, Ill., was the heaviest sufferer in the storms, from fifty to seventy persons being killed there late today.  This was more than twice as many as were killed in Kansas on Friday when the village of Andale virtually was wiped out and heavy toll taken in the surrounding country, the dead being from 26 to 30.  The storm today wrecked the northern half of Mattoon including nearly all the business  section and rendered 2,000 persons homeless.
The Storm Toll.
     Casualties were reported as follows:
     Westervelt - Five dead, twenty-one injured, three of whom will die.
     Manhattan - One dead, six injured.
     Joliet - Two injured
     Elwood - Four injured
     Modesto - One dead, nine fatally hurt
     Pear - One fatally injured, four hurt
     Charleston, many reported injured, but definite information lacking until wire communication is restored.
     Early reports of property losses indicated that serious damage had been done to many towns.  Substantial factories were blown to splinters in Mattoon.  Joliet estimated a half million dollars damage in Will county alone.
     Hail followed the wind in many placed. beating growing crops to the ground.
Business Section of Mattoon Demolished
     MATTOON, Ill., May 26. - Forty-two persons are known to be dead and it is estimated that twenty-eight are buried in the ruins of Mattoon as a result late today.  In addition more than 200 persons were injured, many of them fatally.
     Tonight every available vehicle in the city was in service carrying the dead and injured to hospitals, churches and other public places thrown upon to them.  Mattoon was in complete darkness except for hundreds of lanterns carried by volunteer rescue workers and not till daylight can the full extent of the damage be learned.
     The funnel-shaped cloud of the tornado was so sudden in its appearance that before persons on the streets could seek safety, a district on the northern side of the city, two miles long and about four blocks wide had been laid in ruins.  The property damage will exceed a half million dollars.  Two thousand people are homeless.
     Special trains bearing physicians and nurses arrived from neighboring cities to aid in rescue work.  Many of the injured were struck by wreckage which filled the air for several minutes after the storm had passed.
     The T. W. Clark Manufacturing company, where 100 men were at work at the time of the tornado, suffered the heaviest property damage, the loss being estimated at $200,000. That none of the workmen were killed is one of the freaks of the storm.
     Pending the arrival of national guardsmen for patrol duty among the ruins, 100 citizens were sworn in as special policemen.
     Passing from west to east the storm caused heavy property damage and loss of life for a distance of 30 miles in each direction from here, but owing to the prostrated wires, definite reports have not been received.
     The storm, traveling from east to west, destroyed practically the entire northern end of the town, leaving no buildings standing in a section several blocks in width.  A lumber yard directly in the path of the tornado contributed largely to the damage. 
     Flying planks struck a number of pedestrians who had been unable to find shelter and other pieces of timber were hurled for miles around the countryside, one being discovered sticking through the side of a farmer's house.
     Bits of broken and twisted steel also flew through the air, damaging buildings entirely out of the path of the storm.  a canning factory contributed to the loss in this way.
Churches Filled with Injured.
     Rescue work was begun almost immediately.  Within an hour every church and public building standing was full of injured many of whom were unable to obtain adequate medical service.   Efforts to estimate the casualty with accuracy were futile because of the confusion which followed the tornado.  Hundreds of persons reported members of families missing, but it was believed many of these would be found tomorrow.
     A heavy hail storm which followed the wind hampered the work of rescue and late into the night persons were being dug from the ruins of wrecked buildings.  City officials asserted that there is a probability that the death list may be greatly increased when the full extent of the damage is determined tomorrow.
     Few reports form the surrounding farming country were available, but it was not believed that the damage anywhere in this vicinity was as great as in Mattoon.
Mayor Appeals for Guards
     In addition to pleas for doctors and nurses the mayor sent an emergency call to Governor Lawden for at least two companies of the national guard to be used in policing the ruins.
     The wind played the usual number of freakish tricks.  A scantling from the lumber yard passed entirely through a home in which the family was dining, hurtling through the air over their heads and out through a window without injuring any of the diners.
     Wire and rail traffic was practically at a standstill for hours after the disaster, miles of telegraph poles in each direction from Mattoon being leveled.  Rails and ties were torn from their fastenings for yards at a time.
Springfield Guards Ordered Out.
     SPRINGFIELD, Ill., May 26 - A company of the fourth infantry Illinois National Guard was ordered tonight to Mattoon for patrol duty.
Autoist Messenger Feared Dead Were 350
     CHAMPAIGN, Ill., May 26. - At least fifty persons are reported killed in Mattoon as a result of a tornado which late today destroyed the northern part of the city.  Wires were prostrated and word of the disaster reached this city when a messenger came by automobile to ask for help.  He estimated that the dead might total as high as 350 when reports were in from nearby farming regions.
     A relief train was made up by the Illinois Central as quickly as possible and all available doctors and nurses were sent to the stricken city.
33 Known Dead in Charleston, Is Report
     DECATUR, Ill., May 26. - Charleston, Ill., ten miles east of Mattoon, suffered a loss of 33 known dead and many injured in today's tornado which swept to the eastward after destroying a large part of Mattoon.
     This report was sent from Mattoon tonight by a reporter for the Decatur Herald who said that the loss in Charleston might prove to be greater than in Mattoon.  Both the business and the residential sections of Charleston were damaged, according to a resident of Charleston who went to Mattoon seeking aid.
     All wires to Charleston were prostrated by the storm and it was thought details of the disaster would not be known before some time Sunday.
Charleston Begs for Surgeons.
     TERRE HAUTE, Ind., May 26. - Telephone messages received here from Ashmore, Ill., asked that all available physicians be hurried to Charleston, Ill.  The information was that scores had been injured in a tornado which struck Charleston and vicinity late this afternoon.  Wires to Charleston are down.
-----
Children are Caught in Collapsing Church.
     WESTERVELT, Illinois, May 26. - Sweeping through a 20-mile stretch of country between Westervelt and Dwaneca a tornado late today caused the death of five persons and the injury of 21, three of whom probably will die.  Nearly all of the children were practicing a children's day program in a church which collapsed, pinning them under heavy timbers.
     The dead:
     MRS. HERMAN CHRISTMAN, 60 years old.
     MISS MYRTLE CHRISTMAN, age 40
     MISS SADIE JACKSON, age 63.
     DAVIS M'DONALD, age 20
     Physicians from Pana who hurried here in response to distress calls hardly had time to administer to the injured when they were summoned to Mattoon, likewise devastated by a tornado.
-----
Modesto, Town of 800 Is Almost Wiped Out
     ALTON, Ill., May 26. - A tornado struck Modesto, Ill., 56 miles northeast of this city today, causing many casualties city today, causing many casualties and heavy property damage, according to a report received here this afternoon.  Wire communication with the town has been interrupted.
     Reports carried by a train crew were that Modesto virtually had been swept away.  The town has a population of 800.
     EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill., May 26. - Reports received at the telegraph office of the Chicago, Peoria and St. Louis railroad here are that one person was killed and two were fatlly injured in the tornado at Modesto, Ill.
-----
Manhattan Calls for Aid; Many Injured.
     JOLIET, Ill., May 26. - A call for help from Manhattan, Ill., ten miles southeast of Joliet, reached this city tonight saying that many were injured there in a windstorm and possibly some were dead.  Stores and homes were blown to bits.
     Elwood, six miles south of Joliet, also was damaged by the storm.  One boy was killed here by lightning.    

Source: Muskegon Chronicle (Muskegon, MI) Page: 1
Dated: May 29, 1917
ILLINOIS CITY REDUCED TO RUINS; PROPERTY LOSS IN MILLIONS

     AS if bombarded by huge cannon, Mattoon, Ill., is here shown, a city of death and destruction, Mattoon Suffered more than any other city by a tornado sweeping form the west which left 63 dead, about 500 injured and a property loss estimated at $2,000,000 in Mattoon alone.  Charleston nearby suffered a loss of 50 dead, 150 injured and $1,000,000 in property damage.

Source: Idaho Statesman (Boise, ID) Issue: 265  Page: 2
Dated: May 30, 1917
CENSUS SHOWS SIXTEEN MATTOON PEOPLE MISSING.
Feared Now That Some Tornado Victims Lie Buried in City's Wreckage.
     MATTOON, Ill. - Possibility that bodies may be buried in the wrecked homes of Mattoon developed Tuesday night when a census of the city revealed that a number of persons were unaccounted for.  Sixteen persons were reported missing by the Red Cross relief organization and immediately a force of men began a thorough search of the ruins left by the tornado Saturday.
     Scientists of the United States weather bureau arrived Tuesday to investigate the cause of recurring storms in the west, with a view to possible prevention.

Source: Wilkes-Barre Times-Leader (Wilkes-Barre, PA) Page 12
Dated: June 20, 1917
AMERICAN COURAGE AT WORK
     Courage is found not only on battlefields.  Courage is found wherever there is a need for courage.  Always human nature seems to respond to the demands made upon it. 
     Hearken to the courage of this little town - Mattoon, Ill.
     Mattoon was in the recent tornado area.  One side of the little place was swept as clean as the deck of a warship stripped for action.
     Scores of houses were wiped away.  Sixty-four have died.
     Ruin and death, desolation and broken hopes - all in the path of a swift, lashing blast of twisting wind.
     But Mattoon is not mourning.  Mattoon is not downhearted.  Matton is not moaning for help.  Mattoon is not doing anything you would expect a town sosorely stricken to do.
     Mattoon is just going along, caring for its stricken families helping them to their feet, clearing the wreckage and getting a new start.  Here is courage, fine, upstanding courage in this little town in middle Illinois.
     There's no bewailing fate - just looking ahead, fighting the way out of a bad jolt.
     Human nature is about the most, wonderful thing in the world.  And it is a mighty inspiring thing to contemplate in the midst of a torn-up world.