In late May, 1896, Porter and his young son Phillip planned a trip to East St. Louis in order to deliver several head of livestock to the market located there. The boy was anxious to go, even though he was only nine years old, since he had a large number of "his goats" that were ready for market and were being shipped with the other stock. By May 27, 1896 the livestock had been delivered and sold and Porter and his son were ready to leave the Tremont Hotel in East St. Louis.

The weather had been hot but no doubt, Phillip Sheridan Porter had not objected. The trip had been an adventure grand, a long train ride, the excitement of the market place and the stay in a big hotel with his father. With $7,000 in his pocket, and a small amount of luggage, Anderson Porter and his son were entering the lobby of the Tremont to leave for the return trip home when the tornado of May 27, 1896 roared up the Mississippi River valley and swept across East St. Louis, crushing, like egg-shells, the Tremont and other buildings in its path.

When the rescue teams converged upon the Tremont, they found, among others, the body of an older man tightly holding that of a small boy. The body of the man appeared to be shielding the boy from what must have been a shrieking and horrifying few seconds in the last experience of the little boy who had traveled so far and who had looked forward to going home "today" to tell of his adventure with dad.

In a large and small coffin the bodies of Anderson and Phillip Sheridan Porter were shipped back to Broughton. Mr. Moody, of the livestock commission company in East St. Louis, had taken care of the arrangements in the city and had also seen to it that the large sum of money was also returned. It is said that the roads around Broughton were jammed with wagons and buggies on the day of the funerals for Porter and his little boy. The orations were delivered outside in the woods which until recently stood to the west of Anderson Porter's grand home near Broughton. The interments were made at Big Hill cemetery about four miles northeast of the little town and Porter's home.