Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes County, Ohio) 1856-1865, 1860-06-28
The Mighty Power of the Whirl.
wind.

The freaks and the forces of the wind,
as exhibited in the late tornado by which
one hundred and thirty -four lives were lost
and twenty -four hundred people rendered
houseless in Iowa and Illinois, would be in
credible without strong attestations. To
the many illustrations already published,
We add the following from the newspapers
of the vicinity of their occurrence, which
are if possible still more remarkable,
though no doubt truthful statements:
At Camanche, one of its most singular
features is found in the entire absence Of
furniture among wrecks. Here and there
the round or leg of a chair or sofa may be
found, but that is about all. Trunks,
clothing, beds, carpets, and all kind Of fur
niture seemed entirely missing; all that re-
mains Of the contents of the many houses
that were destroyed, could be placed in
room twelve feet square. The rest must
have gone into the river.
A plank two inches thick effectually
closed the door of Waldore's new Hotel,
by driving through the door and floor of
the building in a slanting direction, and
sticking there one end out of the door, the
other through the floor. The lower story
of store on First street was cut away as
smoothly as if sawed, and blown into the
river, when the upper story settled down in
its place almost uninjured. The from. of
a frame house was blown away in the up
per part of the town, and the furniture in
it left uninjured while in Mr.. Parks house,
the windows were blown in and all the fur
niture crushed to pieces, and yet the house
was only slightly injured. 1t must be
remembered that partial destruction occur
red only in the outer edge of the Tornado.
In its direct course, the destruction was
complete in every instance. One man told
us his first realization of the storm con-
sisted in seeing horse come through the
air about twenty feet from the ground, fol-
lowed by COW about the same heighth.-
The COW must have been carried 20 rods
from where she was when the storm began.
Mr.. Butler saw his stable taken over the
tops of some cherry trees, leaving his
horses on the ground (there was no floor
to the stable) attached TO the rack.
At Albany, large warehouse, about
so by 100 feet, was moved from its foun-
dations, and is now standing at the dis
tance of square from them; the building
must have been moved some three hun
dred feet. Mr.. Ralsten, living three miles
west of Camanche, saw the black column
of destruction directly advancing upon bis
house, and, sent his family TO a small grove
of locusts, with directions TO lie upon the
ground and cling to the trees. While ly-
ing there they saw the house taken and
carried about twelve rods west, and return
ed to within few feet of its original po-
sition. 1t was then, as Mr.. R. expressed
it, rubbed out as you would rub out a
SNOWFALL between your hands," Not
fragment remains. At De Witt, where the
course was due east, building with the
whole family in it was carried from the east
to the west side of the Highway, and de-
posted without even breaking the crockery.
South of De Witt, just in front of the
spot where Mr.. Hatfeld's house stood, a
lot of cordwood, containing according to
the estimate of the Wood Agent of the
c., l. n R. R., about twelve cords, is de-
posted in a Leap. The strange part of
this incident is that no wood of this char
acter can be found within several miles of
the place where this was deposited.
A singular instance of the power Of the
tornado, has been furnished by Mr.. Reed,
of the firm of Reed & Harper, of Bertram.
A large rock, weighing over twenty tons,
about twelve feet long, eight feet wide, and
six feet thick, was embedded in the east
bank of the Cedar River. Only about
eighteen inches of the rock projected from
the bank of the river, the rest was firmly
planted in the clay. The tornado, striking
the rock. wrenched it from its bed, and
turning it over, end for end, until it sur
mounted the bank, and carried it about one
hundred yards. In many places where the
soil was ploughed, its surface has been
wholly blown away, as if washed off by a
freshet; and in several instances which
have been brought to our knowledge;
where the prairie had been broken, the sods
turned by the plow have been wholly
swept away. On Mr.. Burgess farm, south
of Mt. Vernon, an orchard of $50 apple |
trees, of large growth, was carried off, root
anb branch, and not a vestige is left to
show that any tree had ever grown there.
In several instances, wagons were torn
in pieces, and the tires of wheels straight
eued out perfectly fiat. A portion of the
warehouse OF Rabinan d Pfautz, at Lisbon,
was found sixteen miles away, north of
Onion Grove. 1t was recognized by the
particular color of the paint. There is the
testimony of four eye witnesses, living in
Bertram, who say they distinctly saw a man
in the very vortex of the tornado as it pass
ed Bertram, high above the tops of the
tallest trees.
at the Rogers Settlement, two little
sons of Mr.. Carney and German were
fishing, and seeing strange looking cloud,
two Of them rushed towards it to see what
it was. They were literally torn limb from
limb, only their trunks remained.
In the vicinity of Mount Vernon and |
Lisbon, The tornado appeared dreadful
in the extreme. The air was filled with |
branches of large trees, and the fragments
of the buildings it had destroyed in its
course. Cloud flakes were whirled from