The weekly Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1854-1861, 1858-06-10
DcvastatIon by n tornado
YIIIage DESTROYED.

On Sunday last the village Of Ellison
Illinois, was utterly destroyed by a tornado,
and nineteen'persons lost their.lives. Be-
sides the above, fifty persons were seriously
injured and many slightly. The Chicago
Press says:
The tornado struck the village about half
past FIVE O'Clock, and during It's continuance
no rain fell. The houses were frame struc.
tures. There was large tavern stand and
three stores, those of Samuel Johnson, Jas,
Knowles, and another. The appearance Of
the dwellings and structures after the pas
sage Of the whirlwind, is described by an
eye witness "as II one should tear to pieces
and scatter lumber yard" OF roofs and
wells, and the various structures, there were
seen in many instances scarcely a trace, as
If giants hand had reduced and torn them
to shreds and splinters. They lay scatter
ed over the fields. Here piece of broken
furniture, and there q shattered door, and
beyond and undistinguishable mass Of tim
bers and boards, floor beams, ceiling and
rafters. Even the bodies Of some OF the
sufferers were torn to pieces
As an evidence of the fearful force of the
tornado, it is mentioned in the telegraph
from our special reporter last evening, that
of the victims fragments of the bodies were
scattered in all directions.
An iron safe weighing nine hundred
pounds was taken from Johnson's store and
carri thirty feel. ,.
Horses, cattle and hogs were taken up by
the wind, carried in the air and dashed to
the earth, killed by the fail.
One COW was taken up, carried several
rods, and killed by the fall. Her body lay
at distance from anything that could have
inflicted wound or injury upon her.
A heavy cut stone door step, the dimen-
I sions of which are given to US as being some
seven feet long by three in width, and sev-
eral inches in thickness, was torn from its
site and carried more than its length, or
about twelve feet.
The first trace of this violence is notice.
able in the Ellison timber, about mile
west of the village, the place described by
John McWilliams as "the meeting of the
Clouds" thence on through the timber the
evidence of its force were astounding.
The trees do not seem to have been
prostrated They were pulled up by the
roots, twisted, turned about, simply, as if
they had been torn up by groups, as child
would wantonly twist the tops of adjacent
weeds and tear them from the ground.
The track OF the whirlwind seems not 10
have been very wide, nor was its course q
long one. Scattered farm houses about the
village in various directions still stand, and
though the wind was high, were uninjured
but of the village properly only three small
cabins or shanties which were to the south
ward Of the line of desolating destruction
were spared.
Knowing that the people of Ellison hat
lost everything they possessed, the citizens O
Monmouth, on Tuesday morning started
several teams laden with provisions, bedding
clothing and other necessaries to their re
lief.
The rortitude exhibited by the sufferers il
described as most remarkable, and although
forty or fifty broken limbs were required tt
be set in the course of Monday, all bore th
trial with singular patience.