The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1871-06-21
Aittmond 1ispattEt.
THE CIRCULATION OF THE DISPATCH
rs LARGER THAN THE COMBINED CIR
CULATION OF ALL THE OTHER DAILY
OF THE CITY.
Remarkable Tornado Farm Build
ings Observation-Disclosures Es-
cape of Cattle Buried Beneath the
Wreck.

Galbe Oh DCAS<tGh kAS
Wreck.
Between 8 and 9o'clock yesterday morn
| ing some men on the truck farms on the
south side of the Christiana, near the mouth
of that river, heard singular roaring and
rushing noise. and shortly afterwards saw
| that whirlwind was passing across their
place. 1t crossed a tomato patch, wrench
ing and twisting the vines, passed thence
into Henry l.. Townsend's wheat field, and
appeared to gather strength as it went, for
as it passed the wheat field it snapped of
three pannels of fence, and then struck q
large brick barn, and passed around it to q
large hay barn, building 104 feet long.
Here 1t commenced the work of destruction
in earnest. 1t tore the building to pieces,
and leveled the very foundation walls on
which it was built.
1t next struck wheat barn about sixty
feet long by twenty wide, and completely
demolished it. Thence 1t passed to wheat
barrack, no portion of which, except the
uprooted posts, has since been seen. d.
1t next struck granary solidly built of
heavy white oak. The building was too
stout to be torn to pieces, but it lifted it
OIL of its foundations, moving it several
feet, and then upset corn crib adjoining
it, smashing beneath it q grain drill and a
sleigh.
1t also destroyed one or two other small
buildings, and tore up several large trees
by the roots, and split in two large locust
tree standing near rhc house.
One Of the most singular and fortunate
things about the whole affair is that it
passed completely around the house, with
out doing it the slightest,damage, or iniur-
except the locust tree just mentioned.
Some of the performances seem almost
like the fantastic freaks Of sportive geni.
The back barn, first struck, was not in
iured otherwise than by tearing off all of its
doors; but one of these doors, large one,
which it would require four men to carry,
was carried up into the air and whirled
about like a sheet Of paper. -y=-
One Of the grain fans standing in the
granary, moved by the wind. was upset,
and it's hopper was taken off and carried
quite distance and dropped in front of
| the house.
A sixteen-foot board was deposited in the
| top of Il cherry tree. The rake of revoly-
some distance, broken in two in the mid
die, and the two halves hung on two pins
on the side Of the granary.
it snapped the iron axle of neW-style
horse rake off at the bub.
! But the most remarkable feature of the
whole affair was that, though twenty cattle
were buried beneath the ruins of the large
hay-barn first demolished, they all escaped
without any serious injury. In many cases
they were pinned closely to the ground by
the debris, but rs fast as the wreck was
lifted from them they got out Of the wilder
ness of confusion around them with whole
skins and sound limbs.
| The property was owned by Zadoc Town
send, and occupied by his son, Henry L..
Townsend. The latter, with remarkable
good fortune, escapes all loss but that of
the sleigh. Had the cattle not escaped his
loss would have been very heavy. His
father is the principal loser, but says that
US most of the buildings were quite old, and
all would have had to be moved before long
to make way for the extension of city i'm
provements in that direction, he only esti-
mates his loss ut $1,000.
| In company with Mr.. Townsend, sr., we
rode over the track of the tempest this
morning. We never saw a more complete
or thorough wreck. The buildings were so
completely torn up that it seemed that
there was scarcely one piece of timber left
| fastened to another. The hurricane spent
| its fury there, and seems to have divided
up into several smaller ones, which dam
aged tree here aud there, and then sub
sided.