American Lancaster gazette. [volume] (Lancaster, Ohio) 1855-1860, 1858-06-10
AwfuI Tornado In IIIInols..-A Town De.
afroyeda-.persous NfffaA

sNaAg - = iAuA VI
lornadoes. Oar readers have reeeptlv
read the details OF = disastrous storm that
passed through tbst State doing great dam.
age 10 property. causing the loss Of sever
slhyes. and nakiug macy wonderful sx.
bibiIions Of power. We have now 10 rs
cord the particulars Of = tornado IN the
same State siill more terrible. We have
already published list Of the lives lost. as
received by telegraph Tho village OF
Ellison. situated in Warren &C.. H., was
destroyed by = tornado Sunday evening
last Fourteen psr.ors were instantly
killed and IUrge numb.r sniou,Iy huH.
The town was situated 10 the miIst of a
prairie. bilt Of timber beiag about mile
distant on the West. Sunday eveninr n
fearful cloud Of inky bl4ekness came up
sweeping the prairie" as an eve witness
relates. The town was composed OF about
sixty frame houses rang ID along a straight
street. A Mr.. McWlliams noticed the
approach Of the storm from his house a.
bout mile North Of the town:
lie saw two threateningly black clouds
meet apparently about mile west Of The
village, with the widest commotion, and
move on towards the village. The Mt.
most alarm 6llsd the minds Of his family.
and Of those 10 adjacent farm houses, but
how much less than the ahjsct terror Of the
villagers, who saw. bat not in season TO a.
void. the destroyer bearing down upon
them. The tornado struck the village al
about half past five o'clock. and during its
continuance no rain FELL The Houses were
frame structures. There was large tay
ern stand and three stores, those ofSamu.
el Johnson, Joseph Knowles. aud another.
The appear ance OF the dwellings aud slruc.
lures after the passage of the whrIwind is
described by one eye witness, 'as il one
should tear to pieces and scatter a lum.
Der yard OF roofs aad walls, and vari.
Gus structures there was seen in many in.
sances sc'rcely trace. as if a giants
hand had reduce anil torn them u shreds
AMI sp'intars; They lay scttered over the
fields. Here piece OF broken future. and
there shattered door, and beyond an
uudistinguishabls mass of timbers an,
boards, floor beams, calling and rsfters-
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 feet.
Horses, cattle and hogs were taken up
by the wind, carried ia the air and dashed
to the earth. and killed BY the fall.
The first trace of this violence is notice.
able in tho Ellison tinber, about mils
west otthe village. the place described by
John McWilllams as "the meeting of the
clouds" thence on through the timber the
evidences OF its force were astounding.
The trees d ! not seem to have been
prostrated. They were only so in fact
when released from the grasp of the angry
Storm King. They were pulled up by he
roots. twisted, turned about, simply. and
in places noticed by our informant, it
seemed as ii had been torn up in grlups
AS child Eould wantonly twist the tops
Of adj AGENT weeds and tear them from the
grounJ. Trees foot in diameter were
thus made the sport of the tornado, and
were dashed. crushed and broken to tie
ground.
The track OF the whirlwind seems not
TO have been very wide. nor was its course
long one. Scattered farm houses about
the village in vario1s directions still stand
and th h>ugh the wind was high, were un
injured, but oil the villiag, property only
three small cabins or shanties which were
southwark Of the line of desolating des,ruc-
ton. were spared. and they only remain
Of the i'll fated village OF Ellison. Among
the deal arc Mr.. John Hand, his son a.
bout ten years of age. and babe, the lat
ter Of Shom is supposed to have teen
drowned. The whole family appear to
have bsen whirled with the fragments Of
their dwelling quite up into ths air, and
deposited considerable distance from
where the house stool near slough. Mr..
Hand was carried about fifteen rois. and
in his torribls fight. received a frightfu
wound in his side from timber. He sur
vived till the next morning. Mrs. Hand
had her infant in her arms when she was
struck TO the ground, but the conclusion
compelled her to let go her hold upon it.
and it was tossed some distance into the
slough, where she heardit cry. but Sowing
to her severe injuries. was enable to at
tempt its rescue. There she remained all
night, her person partly in the water, and
in the course Of its dreary watches the
dead boly OF her infsntdrifted to the shore
md she had it in her arms when discover.
ed in the morning..
Another family namsd MiWlllisms suf-
fsred terribly. Miss Mary Ann McWill-
iams, shout %; her sister Harriet. aged a.
hout l6, and her brother Thom,s; About
Ia. are among the dead, AMI the poor old
mother. 80 years of age-the only rem ain
ing member of the family. except some
older children who wsrs living at distance
was very badly injured. Thu boy Thom.
as was not at first conscious Of having re-.
ceived any injury. and rescued the body OF
his older sister from the ruins soon after
the catastrophe, but he was SO badly inju
red internally that he died the Lext morn
ing.
w. E. Thompson. his wife and child.
Mrs, Brazetou and her two children,
son and daughter, Martin Wentworth, Lc-
vna Lsncey, Hiram johnson and child,
and two other persons whose names were
unknown to the informant, make up the
list Of the fourteen instantly killed.
AS near as can be ascertained in the con-
fusion which prevailed. about City persons
ware verv aariouslv and many more sliuht. |