The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1851-08-30
PARTICULARS.

In our paper Of Saturday, we gave some
account Of violent and destructive whirl-
wind, that visited the towns Of West Cam.
bridge aud Mcdford, on Friday ancrnoou.--
The first shock was felt few minutes before
the toFnado peculiar cloud, ola dirty white,
mingled with the deepest black, was seen,
and shortly afterwards the winds burst forth
in great fury. The tornado lasted only about
tan minutes; hut during that time was fear
fully dcsGFUCtivg, htuwruV riuwrt nft,l tiass.ssz
ing over ono hundred houses in the towns Of
Medford and West Cambridge uprooting
trees Of large size, and causing injury more or
less serious, 10 quite n number Of persons
It's direction was from Southwest Ia Northeast
directly through the village Of West Cam
bridge, TO Mcdford ftpaEsgcd through thr
west part Of Maiden but its fury was nearly
spent then, and il did but little damage.
The air along the route was filled with
shingiUE. branthBE pf trrrs, aai4l aiAaF nihynaa-
bles The noise occasoncd by the whirl-
wind was like the rushing ola mighty cata-
racL
In West Cambridge, the West India goods
store OF Mcssrs. Fesscndcn x Wbitemore, a
large building, was converted into heap Of
ruins. Mr. f., who was in the store at the
same time, providcntially escaped, though
considerably injured. The chimney OF the
dry goods store Of John Fowlc K CO.. was
damage WAS done Widow Swans house
was blown down, and n barn belonging to
Charles Hill. The sheds aud bowling alleys
of Bates Hotel were blown down, and five
men and two BOYS were buried in the ruins
they escaped however, with severe bruises.
The roof was blown of Whitcmnn's Livery
Stable, and the house OF David Horton; Dan
iel Burbeck's house was partially iniured.and
the chimneys blown down. The roof Of Whit
n H.
damage was sustained. Edwin r. Prescotts
house was partly unroofcd and the chmneys
blown down; Samuel Buckmans house badly
damaged, and stable unroofed Thomas h.
Thorp's house unroofed and chmncys blown
down; Luke Agur's house, roof carried away;
John Fillebrown's building badly damaged
William Clark's harness shop, unroofed; the
houses OF John Frost, Russeis Proctor, were
unroofed and otherwise injured. Sheds and
-outbuldings belonging TO Thomas Cushing
. were levelled. The windows in the resi-
dcnce of Mr. Griffith were demolished, and
portions Of the furniture in his parlor were
blown out, and lodged in the tops oftrces A
bctlstcad in the upper p 4 of his house was
blown through the window and carried n dis
lance Of several hundred feet into Spy Pond.
The orchards, containing many choice and
valuable fruit trees, and belonging to the
Messers. Hill; also very fine orchard own
eral others, were completely ruined, the trees
being torn up by the roots, and in many in
stances tho trunks were entirely stripped of
stheir branches, most of them heavily laden
with choice fruit Some Of the farmers esti-
mate their losses by the destruction of their
orchards, at from $1,000 10 $1,000 each. The
damage to their crops is also quite extensive
A correspondent of the Transcript gives
the following details Of the destruction by the
tornado in West Medford;
"Friday afternoon, a whrlwind was seen
approaching the village of West Medfortl, a.
cross the fields from West Cambridge. The
appearance, TO the writer, was at first that of
a column Of smoke; but il was soon evident
that It was coming towards us, and that it was
tearing up all the trees in its course.
The first house in West Medford that felt
its fury was house being built by Mr. Charles
Rollins, of this city, for Mr. Bates. This house
was nearly finished, and was to cost $4,000.
1t was instantly demolished, and nothing left
standing above the ground. A man was at
work IN the attic OF this house, ffc was- r-rtr-
ricd to the ground on the attic floor, and re-
ceived no serious injury. The circlng air
just grazed the house of Mr. T. p. Smith,
tearing up trees within few feet ofthe house,
and destroying the carriage honse. The
whirlwind then crossed the railroad, And-
reached the house occupied by Mr. Sanford,
the depot master. Mr. 5. seeing its approach
closed up the depot, and ran towards his
house. fits son, young man Of 10, was at
tho harm, he also ran to the house. Bir 3.
telt the rush Of wind, broken as its force was
by his house He felt that he was injured in
several places by the flying timbersa In n
lrnom9nt be found his wife banging upon him,