by Roger Thomas
(Galesburg IL)

I grew up in Smithshire Illinois and always heard stories of the tornado that destroyed Ellison. Supposedly a huge tornado hit this west central Illinois town around 1858 killing several of its residents and almost completly leveling the town but I have never been able to find any information on the internet about this event would be very interested in anything anyone could come up with.

Also the story goes that instead of rebuilding there the remaining residents moved one and half miles to the north and started Smithshire along the Santa fe railroad.