Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1869-08-07
A NIGHT OF TERROR.

"A NAUhL OE IEhhOHs
A Kansas Village Demolished by a
HurrIeane-GraphIe Description of
the Scene. -
From the Lawrence (Kan Republican. July 81.
The storm that passed over Law
renee Tuesday evening will long be
remembered by our citizens, not
particularly for the severity of the
wind and fall of rain, as it will be I
for the unusal and almost continuous
glare of electricity that filled the
atmosphere. The heavens seemed
to have been lit up with one con-
tinual blaze of electricity, and the
otherwise dark night was more
brilliant than if illuminated by the
Tround laughing moon" The
thunder at times was very severe,
but its severity was more spasmo-
dic-it seemed we'll enough satisfied
with staying of at distance and
indulging in one incessant growl,
like an angry lion. No damage was
sustained near Lawrence that we
have heard of, except the damag-
ing of q number of young
shade trees and the striking
Of Mr. Whitcomb's house. The
fury of the storm had been spent
before it reached our city, but
northwest and west Of Lawrence in
some places it was terrific, especial
" when it reached the head waters
Of the Kansas river. Messrs.
Thomas Thompson and S. N. Be-
man, who reached this city on
Wednesday evening from the west,
inform US that they stopped on
Tuesday night at Detroit, a small
towa about six miles east of abb
lene, on the Kansas Pacific road,
and that about nine o'clock the
storm burst forth upon that devoted
village in all its fury. The thunder
and lightning were terrific, and the
wind swept past a perfect hurri-
cane The station is known on the
railroad map as Lambs Point, but
a town has just started up which
was named Detroit Some eightOr
ten houses had already been built,
and a number of persons were
camped on the town site, who were
living in their tents until they
could put up temporary dwellings.
Every house in the village, with
one exception, was entirely de-
stroyed. Fortunately, no one re
ceived any serious injury within the
knowledge of our informants,
although a number were slightly
injured. People were compelled to
stand out on the prairie, after the
buildings were blown away, and
endure the horrors of the hurricane,
and the pitiless pelting of the rain
and hail. Only two families had
secured anything like a shelter
from the storm, and one Of these
did so by taking refuge in a cellar,
after the building had been demol
ished, and by this means secured a
partial shelter from the fury of the
elements. Those IN tents Jared
better than those in houses. AL
though the tents blew down, yet
they fell upon the occupants, and
thus saved them from a severe
pelting. The house in which
Messrs. Thompson and Beman were
stopping was entirely demolished,
and the occupants had to seamper
away from the wreck at lively
pace. A log house that had braved
the storms for the past eleven
years, being the first house built in
that locality, and which had been
used as a house of entertainment,
or hotel, was leveled with the
ground In many places the corn
has been completely riddled by
the hail, and wheat that had
been harvested and shocked
in the field was scattered in
every direction. A dozen or
more telegraph poles were blown
down, and the wires lying on the
ground. The hurricane struck the
fated village from the northwest,
and the work Of destruction was
quick and terrible. hOur informants
had not learned of any additional
damage to the country surrounding
this station; nor what damage had
been sustained by the people on the
north side of Smoky Hill, as they
left early Wednesday morning, but
they say that no houses that lay in
the track of the storm could hardly
escape more or less injury. These
gentlemen have only been in Kan
sas a few weeks. They have been
out west looking for lands, and say
that they never before passed
through such night of terrors, and
that the people of that section agree
in the same thing. 1t is indeed q
miracle that no lives were lost, or
more serious results followed such
storm; and as it is, we may yet
hear of the loss of life from other
/ nlaces near bV.