The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1858-06-17
FEARFUL TORNADO.

i
Fourteen persons were instantly killed |
and a large number seriously hurt
The town was situated in the midst Of "a
prairie, a belt Of timber being about o
mile distant on the West. Sunday even.
ing a fearful cloud Of inky blaokness
came up sweeping the prairie as an eye |
witness relates. The town was compos- |
ed Of about sixty frame houses ranged /
along a straight street. A Mr. MoWil- |
liams noticed the approach Of the storm |
from his house about a mile noE'h Of /
the town.
He saw two threateningly black clouds |
meet apparently about a mile west Of F.
the village, with the widest commotion,
and move on towards the village. The !
utmost alarm filled the minds of his fam |
lily, and Of those in adjacent farm houses, /
but how much less than the abiect ter |
rOr Of the villagers, who saw, but not in |
season to avoid, the destroyer bearing
down upon them. The tornado struck f.
the village about half-past Eve o'clock |
and during it's continuance no rain fell. |
The houses were frame structures
There was a large tavern stand and
three stores, those of Samuel johnson,
Joseph Knowles, and another. The APP
pearance Of the dwellings and struc-
lures after the passage of the whirlwind
| is described by one eyewitness Gas if
one should tear to pieces and scatter
lumber yard" OF roofs and walls, and
the various structures there was seen in
many instances scarcely trace, as if
giants hand had reduced and torn them
to shreds and splinters. They lay scat
tered over the fields. Here a piece Of
broken furniture, and there a shattered
door, and beyond an undistinguishable
mass Of timbers and boards, floor beams.
ceiling and rafters. Even the bodies of
some of the sufferers were torn to pieces.
An iron safe, weighing nine hundred
pounds, was taken from Johnson's store
and carried thirty fset
Horses, cattle and hogs were taken up
by the wind, carried into the air and
dashed to the earth, and killed by the
| fall.
The first trace Of this violence is no
ticeable in the Ellison timber about a
mile west of the village. the place de-
scribed by John McWilliams as "the
meeting Of the clouds" thence on
through the timber the evidences Of its
force were astounding.
The trees did not seem to have been
prostrated. Tfey wore only so in fact
when released from the grasp Of the an
cry Storm King. They were pulled up
by the roots, twisted, turned about, sim
ply, and in places noticed by our in
formant, it seemed as if they had been
torn up in groups as achild would wan
tOnly twist the top of adjacent weeds
and tear them from the ground Trees
foot in diameter were thus made the
sport of the tornadoo and were dashed,
crushed and broken to the ground
The track Of the Whirlwind seems not
to have been very wide, nor was its
course a long one. Scattered farm
houses about the village in various di-
rections still stand, and though the wind
was high, were uninjured, but Of the viii
lage properties only three small cabins
or shanties which were to the southwark
of the line Of desolating destruction
were spared, and they alone remain Of
the ill-fated village Of Ellison.
Among the dead are Mr.. John Hand,
his son, about ten years of age, and a
babe, the latter of whom is supposed to
have been drowned. The whole family
appear to have been whirled with the
fragments of their dwelling, quite up
into the air, and deposited a considera-
bic distance from where the house stood
near a slough. Mr.. Hand was carried
about fifteen rods, and in his terrible
flight, received a frightful wound in his
side from a timber. He survived till
the next morning Mrs. Hand had her
infant in her arms when she was struck
to the ground, but the ooncussion com
PEELED her to let go her hold upon it,
and it was tossed some distance into the
slough, where she heard its cry, but OW,
ing to her severe injuries, was unable to
attempt its rescue. There she remained
all night her person partly in the water
; and in the course of its dreary watches
the dead body of her infant drifted tc
the shore, and she had it in her arms
when discovered in the morning.
Another family named MoWilliams
suffered terribly. Miss Mary Ann Nc.
Williams, about %; her sister Harriet
aged about 16, and her brother Thomas
about IA, are among the dead, and the
{ poor old mother, so years Of age-tho
: only remaining member Of the family
4 except some older children who were
e living at a distance-was very badly in,
r jured. The hoy Thomas was not at frs
o conscious Of having received any inju
G ry, and rescued the body of his oldes
- sister from the ruins soon after the ca
- tastrophe, but he was so badly injured
n internally that he died next morning.
70 W. e. Thompson, his wife and child
r Mrs Brazleton and her two children,
s son and daughter, Martin Wentworth
Levina Lancey, Hiram johnson AM
child and two other persons who's
names we're unknown to the informant
" make up the list Of the fourteen instant
o Ily killed.
= AS near as can be ascertained in th
- confusion which prevailed, about Eft
!. persons were very seriously and man
= more slightly injured.
II -tot-=-
IT THE Cars HORSES - How Fl,