The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1847-06-25
Frnm NE FrOTIa TTp.s June To.
1he Hnii ste, ni aud its RHgti..


On Saturday evening last, our city
was visited by one of the most ire
mendous hail storms, we presume,
that the American continent ever
witnessed. 1t certainly excelled
any thing of the kind in the history
ofthis country-and all pers ms with
whom we have Conversed since the
storm, admit that they at least have
never read of or witnessed such a
raining down of ice before.
About hall-past three o'clock, a
cloud with nothing very extraordina-
ry in its appearance, was visible to-
wards the northwest, and betoken.
ed rain. A light wind was blowing,
and soon the rain began TO fail, but
in few seconds it was followed BIZ
hail stones of the ordinary size, and
it seemed that every successive bal
or lump that came to tie earth was
larger than the one that preceded it.
Thick and fast it fell, until the
ground in many places was covered
over with balls Of ice three and six
inches deep and on it hailed, the
Jumps growing larger and larger, and
falling in such vast quantities that
many OF our citizens bccamc alarm
ed, not knowing what this awful dis
ppnsation of Pro. idencc was going
to terminate in. The wind changed
several times during the storm, and
the greatest destruction Of property
that took place was when it blew
from the south west. The storm
ragged with the utmost violence for
about fifteen or twenty minutes, and
was Immediately followed by Il smart
rain which came very nigh FILING the
cellars on Main street with water.
Ancr the rain had subsidized, we
p.ckcd rp a numbcr Of hail stones
tat waig' rd from hp0 GYd hall
t. fy5 Daace5-and some gentlemen
gathered balls that weighed more
t3a1 t..sl I'm shape, many of them
were nearly round, aud theirs re-
sembled fragments Of ice that had
become united into one lump, and
measured from hro IL three end a
half mcheS an di0meter. There
were many fell much larger than
those picked up, but were dashed to
pieces on the ground by the fall
Forty eight hours afterwards, hail
stones could bepickcd up in the
uncovered cellars as large as a hull
ed walnut.
There is scarcely a house in the
city but what was more or less dam
aged by the falling Of these massive
lamps of bail. The buildings on
Main and Water streets, we think
suffered the most. There are many
houses on those streets in which
there was not one whole pane OF
glass left in their windows. In the
building where we have our office,
there are hcentV-Mrec Wind0ws,
containing in all 273 panes Of glass,
and out Of this number, there are
but 80 whole panes of glass left
Not only was the glass broken, but
in many instances the SaSh were
broken in such a manner as to rem.
der them useless. The roof Of many
ofthe houses suffered much from the
hail stones battering upon and liter
ally breaking into pieces the slim
giles, and seriously damaging the
cornice and spouting. Every gar
den in the city and suburbs that the
storm visited, is entirely cut to pie
ces-thc tops and leaves of the veg.
etablcs and shruhbcry having been
torn from the main stems, and the
roots "run into the ground" a little
further than they "bargaincd for
The fruit we fear is much injured
we have seen number of peach