Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1875-04-08
THE GEORGIA CYCLONE


ton, but that in several important par
iculars they differed materially from
any storms ever before witnessed in
Georgia. The Macon Telegraph, in
summing up some of the remarkable fea-
lures of the cyclones, says that the dam
age wrought In some instances was al
most incredible in character and extent.
In Twiggs county, the destruction ON
the 10Th was heavy. The track of the
hurricane was not over seventy-five or
100 yards wide. 1t entered the county
from the west, and as it approached the
middle, it appeared to separate, and two
divergent cyclones passed on and out of
the county, each doing its own work of
destruction.
But perhaps the most remarkable oc-
currence took place upon the farm of Mr..
John l.. Gilbert, in Bib county, four
teen miles from Macon. The first infor-
nation Mr.. Gilbert had of the approach
of storm was from negro boy, who
ran in and told him that the woods were
on fire. On looking out, he discovered
that what the boy had mistaken for
smoke was clouds, some distance off,
which seemed to be assembling for the
onset. These clouds, in two bodies,
reached to the ground, while the open
I hot ,o1 10 1,2, oil
over with still another cloud. Finally
all appeared to blend into one, and then
its terrible march commenced. Emitting
a sort of a roaring or believing sound,
which increased the terror inspired by
its movements, it rolled and swirled
along in its course, crunching and crash
ing through the trees, finging them
about as if Titans were engaged in a
/ furious warfare. 1t was an awful spec
tacle, but one which the spectators had
but little time for contemplating. II
was moving directly towards Gilbert's
store, and inspired an impulse of self
preservation.
Thinking the store was the best pro
lection, it being an unusually substan
tial wooden building, Mr.. Gilbert
and his friends rushed in there Six OF
them took hold of the front door and at
tempted to close it, but the storm was
upon them in its most terrible fury. The
door was flung open by it, and all the
men dashed upon the floor, and possibl,
their lives were thus saved. The storm
came upon them with crash-not like
the severest gust of wind the party hat
ever heard before-nOt with the shriel
and the howl of an ordinary tornado
but as if some dreadful weight of matte
had been loosened from an Overhangine
eminence, and crushed down with tn,
force of an irresistible avalanche. Al
awful shivering and cracking of timbe
followed, as if the building was being
crushed to atoms or torn into strips
and the terrified men expected to b.
crushed beneath the falling timbers; blu
not so. The roof was lifted from tn,
plates and scared away over the tree
tops, and was closely followed by tn,
walls of the building. Only the foo
was left, and that was held down by TIN
weight of heavy groceries that was upoi
it. Everything else appeared to grow
light as feathers and hoated away upol
the wings of the direful tornado. Roof
walls, shelving, counters, drawers, al
went as many missiles, whirling ant
flying through the air, and hare no
since been found The walls of tn.
building have been reported to Mr.. Gil
bert as having been found two miles off
A heavy salamander safe was over
turned, blown open, and books and pa
pers scattered for miles. One very valu
able book has not yet been recovered
A negro returned over 200 nickles which
he had found two miles off. These prob
ably dropped from drawer in its flight
over the country. There was regular
stock of goods in store, and these, with
the exception of the heavy groceries,
were scattered heller SHELTER, pell-mell,
for miles. A four-ply, ten-inch wide
belt, eighty feet long, was blown half a
mile across the Tobesofkee, where it was
found and brought back. The flying
roof and walls of the building moved off
the tops of the trees as they went. Two
negro men were blown to distance of
200 yards. The feet of one of them
struck the top of the chimney of the
cook-house as he passed over it. Both
were severely but not dangerously
bruised.
The cyclone that swept through the
State on Saturday last seems to have
been equally as violent. The Telegraph
learns from passengers from Milledge-
vile that the storm passed over that city
Al