The Lake County star. [volume] (Chase, Mich.) 1873-current, 1876-03-30
That Illinois Tornado.
Especial to the Chicago Tribune. ]

Hazel Green is situated on slight
elevation, surrounded with ravines from
which the ground rises and falls, but at
no time to the height Of the village. 1t is
quite popular resort for pleasure par
ties, and hence people from all parts of
the surrounding country have friends at
4" the Green" as it is called, and during
the summer visit there. 1t has always
been known as an unlucky town. Three
years ago an explosion of nitrO-glycerine
lifted Jim Mayor forty feet into the air,
and spoiled an apple-tree in letting him
down again. Several harsh storms have
done more or less damage, and when, two
weeks ago, the scarlet fever attacked the
town, carrying off three children a day,
it occurred to the good people that some
thing was wrong, and a protracted
meeting was held in the Primitive
Church, and invocations offered that the
scOurge might pass away.
1t is now definitely ascertained that
the late storm resulted from a collision
between two sections of cloud which
had divided and come together again.
The clouds joined, and long, cylindri-
cal shaft shot down. The cylinder was
about one hundred and twenty feet in
circumference and seventy feet in height.
1t struck the ground mile southwest
of Hazel Green, and plowing furrOw
six hundred feet long, four feet wide, and
several feet deep, seemed to absorb the
earth and rocks. As it moved along in
north easterly direction, it looked like
a clay-colored column whirling with
incredible speed around central vacuum.
1t was solid mass ofheavy rubbish. Oc-
casiOnally q rock or stick would shoot
off at tangent and was driven into the
ground, until the swelling stretch be-
tween the point of contact with the
earth and the edge of the village is
diminutive grove composed of pieces of
scantling, huge rocks and the branches
of trees. They are driven into the
ground with their heads pointing in all
directions, demonstrating that it was
whirlwind, and that the counterfeit
grove resulted from Off,shOots from the
outer circumference.
AS the cylinder came up the slope,
the rush, and yell. and whirr of the
column-sounding like the rush and
shrieks of the wind on the sea, and like
the thunder of guns.--attracted the at
tention of the people of Hazel Green, and
they flocked to their doors and windows.
Steadily it came on, sometimes bound
ing fifty feet into the air, then rushing
down again. In two minutes it de.
scended on the little hazel grove Just
southwest of the town. The trees were
snatched up by the roots and whirled
ninety feet into the air and supported
there.
The cap of the column was stone
eight feet long, four feet wide, and three |
feet thick. This stone was held in its
position while the column covered a
space of three-quarters of mile. Just |
between the grove and the town, too |
hundred and fifty feet from either, the |
column halted and spun around over a
small space, and then recommended its
march. The air was flied with the yells |
and lamentations of the people. Never |
before had such a tornado reached 80 far |
north, yet 30 fearful and threatening was |
the coming column that the prophetic |
souls of the people seemed to warn them |
of the danger, and those who were not |
paralyzed dived into their cellars, and
there, shivering, awaited the doom they |
felt must come.
Tearing off the corner of a frame house,
the column rose some thirty feet into the |
air, and there, lowering for an instant,
fell perpendicularly upon the roof of the
Masonic Hall, a stone building. The |
structure was mashed fat. This was at
4:30, and meeting had been called for |
. o'clock, half an hour later Seventy |
souls would have been assembled in the
upper portion of the building. The next
house was of frame, and occupied by
Mrs. Richards and her family. A
daughter.in.law and two children were
saved by the scantlings above them,
while the rest of the family were killed
outright.
A fryillg-pan containing three cakes
was on the stove, and the frying-pan,
still containing the cakes, was found
mile aud half northeast of the village. |
Twenty-six houses were carried beyond
the ken of mOrtals. Where they went
no one can tell. The track of the column
is filed with sawdust and bits of wood,
as though a sawmill had belched out a
half.fnished lumber-yard. The trees for
several miles are filled with chairs, bits
of furniture, carpets, clothing, bits of
window-shades and household material.
Mrs. Looney was sitting in her kitchen.
The house disappeared as if touched by
the magician's wand, and the crushed
body Of Mrs. Looney was found four
hundred feet of, stripped of clothing; and
with the skin peeled off her back from
the neck down.
Of the rest Of those killed, of which a
former dispatch fully informed you,
nothing can be said, beyond that the
bodies were found not less than two
hundred feet from where they started.
A boy and girl were found out on the
prairie, wandering about hopclessly.
They were in house of which no account
has been received. They remember being
lifted into the air, and, when found
were nearly quarter of mile from
where the house used to be, badly
bruised and unable to account for their
condition. Probably the most remarkable
spectacle was that of DIR. KittOe's horses.
An hour before the storm arrived the
Doctor had been sent for to attend sick
man some three miles of. He returned
word that he would not risk his horses
over the prevailing bad roads, and in
sixty minutes those same horses, barn
buggy, and harness, were lifted sixty feet
into the air, and the horses dropped at
least one hundred rods from the for
mer site of the barn. The column was
then huge mass of debris, and spec
tator says that the horses went up
through the center of the column,
whirling around so swiftly that they
looked as If torn in pieces. They were
found utterly unbruised but stone dead,
and not more than ten or twenty feet
apart.
town to the cemetery, which is in the
northwest, there is track, say eighty
feet wide, which looks as though rail-
road had been laid out. Here and there
is hole such as you see where man has
started to build house, has walled his
cellar, and then failed. Scattered about
these holes are masses of splinters and
saw-dust. Just across the main street