Elm Tree School

Elm Tree School

picture taken after 1933..possibly around 1943...submitted by Roy Girard

Teacher: Mrs. Hathaway
Dorothea Arnett	Virginia Wilcoxen
Dorothy Geeting	Mildred Weaver
? Humphry	Helen Arnett
Maralee Weaver	Lute Black
Billy Dean Smith	Leon Estes
Charles Raker	Eldon Wilcoxen
Wanda Lee Hughes	Wilford Geeting
Mary Lou Shields
Maud Weaver

Canton Daily Ledger and Daily Register, Canton, Illinois

May 2, 1933, Monday, at 4 p.m. Tornado Struck Just North of Maples Mills (Slab Town)

The Tornado Struck the Elm Tree School

     The teacher was a heroine of the Monday storm. Miss Lucille Jameson, teacher at the Elm Tree School, is the heroine of the Fulton County tornado, her action of rushing 15 pupils to the basement of the school building saving them from death or serious injury. In talking to a Ledger reporter this morning, Miss Jameson said; The children was all at recess and I was busy making out report cards when the storm approached. Some of them came into the building and said a funnel shaped cloud was coming toward the School from the south west. I went to the door and immediately sensed the danger. Calling all the pupils into the building, I told them there was nothing to fear, but that we would all go to the basement, considering it the best place if the storm struck nearby.
     "The children and myself had just reached the basement room when a roaring and hissing sound was heard just before a terrific crash above us brought a realization of the fact that the building had been struck. After a few moments I had one of the older boys to crawl through a window in the corner to learn whether or not it would be safe to attempt to leave the structure, the stairway having been blocked by debris.
     "When I learned it would be safe to leave, I aided the children in getting out and then crawled through the window.
     A neighboring farmer who had seen the building collapse rushed to the scene and with his aid, the children were taken to their homes, none of them injured.
     Today was to have been the last day of the school term. [I, Roy Girard, was 7 years and 8 months old and in the school when it was struck by the tornado. When we came up from the basement, the only things left were the chairs the pupils had sat in and the floor which the chairs were bolted to. The school was rebuilt in the exact same spot...out of brick.]

This interesting article was submitted by Roy Girard.