Rockford Tornado of 1928

Rockford has always had a rich history of coming together to help in the times of our greatest need. I wanted to share one of the stories that I have researched from our city’s past to remind us all of that. I am always impressed with this city and what we can accomplish-together.

Even now when we are asked to stay apart the news is filled with ways that we can all do something to help each other. Just remember –even though you may be isolated you are not alone. We have come through much worse than this by sticking together and reaching out.

My best to all of you and your families.

~Kathi Kresol

The tornado that touched down on Friday, September 14, 1928, came in like a roaring train, leaving a path of destruction across Rockford. First, it touched down at the Rockford Chair and Furniture Company on the southwest side, at the intersection of Peoples Avenue and Kishwaukee Street, destroying the building and killing six men.

The funnel went back up and damaged poles and trees until it touched the earth again at Eighteenth Avenue and Eighth Street, where the Mechanic Machine Company suffered broken windows. The twenty girls who worked at the plant that day were cut from the flying glass but were otherwise unhurt.

The last section heavily hit was the Elco Tool Company, the National Chair Company and the surrounding neighborhood, where houses were wiped from their foundations. It was on Eighteenth Avenue that the three-story Union Furniture Company was destroyed. On the same corner, a little neighborhood grocery store owned by Cy Johnson and his wife was spun around several times and finally swept off of its foundation. “We huddled behind the counter while the roaring noise was going on and the wooden benches flew over our heads.” said the Johnsons, who escaped with just a few scratches.

Along Fifteenth Avenue, seven houses and their garages were knocked down. The northeast corner of the National Chair Factory was completely demolished as the tornado’s devastation continued. Houses at the top of the hill of the Rock View Neighborhood were untouched, but the hollow to the north was demolished. Nineteen houses on Nineteenth Avenue and Ninth Street were destroyed in the final fury of the twister. 

A miracle took place in a house on Eighteenth Avenue that belonged to the Ebarp family. Little two-and-a-half-year-old Donald was sleeping in his crib when the tornado tore its way through the neighborhood. The wind uprooted a huge tree that stood next to the house and slammed it down on the roof. It knocked the chimney and the wall right down on Donald in the rear bedroom.

Mrs. Ebarp was in the basement with her daughter, and Mr. Ebarp was sleeping in another bedroom of the house. Mr. Ebarp was the first to reach the boy, and Mrs. Ebarp entered the room to find her husband tossing bricks, branches and boards off their smallest child. The father was terrified when he first saw his son’s face covered in blood but he realized soon that the boy, while cut, was not seriously hurt. The family stood in the wreckage of their home and realized how fortunate they were.

The city was also grateful that even though the tornado came within a half a block of one school and very close to two others, the thousands of children that attended the schools were unhurt. Brown, Turner and especially Hallstrom School students and their families were feeling blessed. A mere half block down from Hallstrom School was a scene of terrible devastation. Houses all around the school had their roofs torn off and their windows completely blown out. Furniture was deposited in the streets, and trees were blown over. The four hundred students that attended Hallstrom were all kept safely inside the building.

Tony Martinkas, fifty, was found dead in a chicken coop on a farm on Harrison Avenue, four blocks west of Kishwaukee. He was from Spring Valley and was cleaning up the chicken and pigeon yard at a neighbor’s home. Tony was busy working between two buildings and did not notice the tornado approaching. The wind slammed the poor man between the two buildings before moving on to the Chair Factory B, where it killed eight more men.

George Palmer, employed at the Mattison Machine Works, was one of the very first men to reach the destroyed Chair Factory B. He was stunned by the devastation but hurriedly grabbed an axe and started to chop his way into the building. He was able to bring three men out before others came to help.

The first wave of responders was fire and policemen who walked through the destroyed buildings calling out for some sign of where the survivors might be. Their calls went unanswered. They attempted to start removing the debris, but it was too heavy.

O.W. Johnson worked as the superintendent of the Chair Factory B and was buried in the debris from the storm. He was trapped under heavy timbers for three hours before his son heard his calls and found men to help focus on the rescue. He was rushed to Swedish American hospital.

Building companies were contacted, and in an amazingly short time, the pleas for help were answered. Mayor Burt M. Allen, police chief A.E. Bargren and Sheriff Harry Baldwin, working with fire chief Thomas Blake and Captain Warren Aldrich of Company K of the National Guard, organized rescue efforts. This was the biggest response to a rescue operation ever in the history of the city. “Scores of contractors and factory officials, unaffected by the storm, offered the officials of the Rockford Furniture and Chair Company, trucks, men, steam shovels, hoists, and other equipment yesterday in a frantic search to find the bodies of the missing men.” 

State police officers arrived to assist deputy sheriffs, police officers and soldiers involved in organizing equipment, handling traffic flow and gathering information about the missing men. They also helped with crowd control as thousands of people rushed to the factory. Ropes and men kept the crowd under control for the two days of searching.

More than two hundred men from the city’s and county’s building firms were involved in the rescue effort at the Chair Factory B. They all knew they were looking for bodies. When a body was located, all work would cease, and everyone silently watched as the mangled bodies were tenderly wrapped in a blanket, loaded on a stretcher and carried to an ambulance. 

Forrest Lydden, a city building inspector, organized the crews. Tireless searching went on for two days. They recovered the body of Gunnar Ryden at 1:40 a.m. on September 17. He was killed on his twenty-ninth birthday.

The other men that were killed in Chair factory B were:

• Olaf Larson, twenty-seven years old
• Herman Wydell, forty-seven years old; left a wife and two children
• Martin Anderson, thirty-four years; old left a wife
• August Peterson, fifty-two years old
• Frank Strom, thirty-four years old; left a wife and a child

All six of the bodies were found near the elevator shaft, close to the heavy water tank, which plunged from the roof through the crumbling floors, crushing the men and causing their deaths. All of the men were working in the finishing department on the second floor when the tornado struck. John Brunski, forty-five years old, and George Fagerberg, fifty-one years old, were the two other victims in the plant.

Other men working at the Chair Factory B were up on the fourth floor when they heard yelling that a cyclone was approaching the building. The group started to run down the stairs when the funnel hit the building, right in the area where they were. The men were all piled on top of each other, and everything was completely dark. They were trapped for several hours before being pulled from the debris.

The Union Furniture Company’s east end was demolished, adding to the city’s death toll. Swan Swenson, forty years old, and Axel Ahlgren, forty-three years old, were found beneath the wreckage of the water tank. Ahlgren’s body was carried all the way down through the building by the water tank and buried under tons of debris. The men trying to rescue him had to cut their way through the shattered timbers of several floors.

Seventeen-year-old Virgil Cornmesser, sixteen-year-old Everitt Cornmesser and fourteen-year-old Bernard Cornmesser were sent to a nearby gas station to buy a gallon of gas. The boys noticed the approaching storm and were racing to their homes before it hit. They reached the corner of Seventh Street and Seventeenth Avenue when, suddenly, an entire garage roof was blown off and came down right on top of them. Everett and Bernard were killed instantly, and Virgil died later at St. Anthony’s Hospital. The family held a triple service for the boys in the home of S.O. Cornmesser at 1728 Seventh Street on Sunday, September 16, with Reverend O. Garfield Beckstrand officiating. Virgil and Bernard were brothers and the sons of Mr. and Mrs. John Cornmesser. Everitt was their cousin, and his parents were Mr. and Mrs. S.O. Cornmesser. Virgil and Bernard’s parents shipped the boys’ bodies back to Iowa with the help of some of the tornado funds donated by the city, and Everitt was buried in Rockford.

A blinding rain started to fall right after the funnel hit the area, and ambulance drivers had trouble getting to the boys quickly because of the rain and debris that lined the streets. They loaded all three of the boys into an ambulance.

All of the other bodies were taken to the undertaking rooms of Fred C. Olson. Family members gathered there, anxiously waiting for some word on their missing men. Piercing cries were the notification that another man had been identified and another family’s hope shattered.

Besides the fourteen men killed, there were over 80 people injured that needed hospitalization. Over 360 buildings, 181 of them houses, were damaged, costing over $1,000,000. There were 1,200 people left homeless, and because most of them worked in the same neighborhood where they lived, they had also lost their place of employment. These families were in dire need of assistance.

The Rockford Chamber of Commerce kept busy collecting donations for the families of the men that were killed in the tornado and other families that were left homeless by the storm. The money just came pouring in, and they were able to gather $25,000 in a very short time.

Committee members from several different organizations visited over 164 families to assess their needs and determine how to fund them. Agencies, including the Rockford Register newspaper, were busy collecting funds as well. The Red Cross was working with the other agencies to go into the affected area and assess the property damage. Wilbur J. Adams was the director of storm relief and in charge of getting the needed supplies to the people.

On Sunday, September 16, people from all over the state came to visit Rockford to view the damage. Estimates put the number somewhere near 150,000 people that came to town on that Sunday following the tornado. They surged into the area and stopped at local restaurants to eat. By the end of the day, most of the restaurants were running out of food. One estimate put the total served at 60,000. Some of the people were family members who came to help, and police and other rescue workers were very impressed with the crowds. There were issues with traffic, but everything stayed orderly. There was no looting or destruction caused by the visitors.

The theaters in town donated half of their proceeds on different days toward the relief fund. The Palace Theater showed motion pictures of the destruction during the Pathe newsreel. It featured three hundred feet of film highlighting the damaged areas.

Rockford has always been known for stepping forward during times of need, and this crisis was a perfect example of that. Many in the community gave selflessly of either their time or money, even those who were themselves in dire straits.

Fred Machesney, manager of the Rockford Airport, gave a percentage of the proceeds of his sales for transporting passengers to the relief fund. The Women’s Society, headed by Jessie Spafford as its president, visited damaged homes and brought much-needed supplies. The Rockford Girls served donated food and drinks to the searchers and men working on the rescue efforts at the factories; Boy Scouts helped to maintain a line of safety for visitors and family members at different locations. E.A. Brodine, secretary of the local carpenters union, reported that local carpenters would be gathered to help with repairs on damaged homes. It was an incredible outpouring from everyone, and Mayor Allen was very proud that his city was able to care for its own without assistance from outside agencies.

The city bounced back, and even before the first night was done, plans were being made to rebuild the factories. Aid was given to the neediest families, homes were repaired and families were reunited. Because of the tireless searching by the men and donation of equipment by various companies, every body was recovered quickly. The families that lost their men were given extra aid to rebuild their homes. The community responded so quickly and so generously that many of the families felt grateful that they lived in such a caring community when disaster struck.