Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1876-05-19
A Monster Blow.

A special dispatch to the Chicago
Tribune gives the following description
Of the terrible whirlwind which visited
Hazel Green, Wis, March the 10th. II
says:
1t is now definitely ascertained that
the whirlwind resulted from a collision
between two sections of cloud which
had divided and come together again.
The clouds joined, and a long cylindri-
cal shaft shot down. The cylinder was
about l2O feet in circumference and sew
enty feet in height. 1t struck the ground
mile southwest of Hazel Green. and
blowing furrow 600 feet long, four feet
wide, and several feet deep, seemed to
absorb the earth and rocks. AS il NOV.
ed along in a north easterly direction. it
looked like clay-colored column wbirl-
ing with incredible speed around a CEN
trail vacuum. 1t was a solid mass of
heavy rubbish.
As the cylinder came up the slope. it
attracted the attention Of the people of
Hazel Green, and they focked to their
doors and windows. Steadily it came
on, sometimes bounding fifty feet into
the air, then rushing down again. In
two minutes it descended 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 a 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, $50
feet from either, the column halted and
spun around over small space. and
then recommended its march. The air
was filled with the yells and lamenta-
tons of the people.
Tearing off corner of frame house
the column rose some 80 feet into the
AR, and there lowering for an instant
fell perpendicularly upon the roof of
the Masonic Hall, stone building. The
structure was mashed fiat. This was at
4;30, and meeting had been called for
D O'Clock, half an hour later. Seventy
souls would have been assembled in the
upper portion of the building. The
next house was frame, and occupied
by Mrs. Richard and her family. A
daughter-in-law and her two children
were saved by scantlings above them
while the rest of the family were killed
outright.
A frying pan containing three cakes
was on the stove, and the frying-pan
still containing the cakes, was found a |
mile and half north east of the VILLAGE
Twenty-six houses we're carried beyond
the ken Of mortals. Where they went
no one can tell. The track of the col |
umn isflled with sawdust and bits Of
wood, as though saw-mill had belched
out half-fnished lumber yard. The
trees for several miles are filed with
chairs, bits of furniture, carpets, cloth.
ing. bits of window-shades and house
hold materials.
Mrs. Looney was sitting in her kitch-
en-. The house disappeared as If by
wand, and the crushed body
Of Mrs. Looney was found 400 feet off
stripped of clothing and with the skin
peeled off her back from the neck down
OF the rest of those killed nothing can
be said beyond that the bodies were
iound about 200 feet from where thew
started. Probably the most remarka.
Die spectacle was that of DR.. Kittoe's
horses. An hour before the storm ar.
1ved, the Doctor had been sent for to
attend sick man some three miles off
de returned word that he would not
'isk his horses over the prevailing bad
'oads, and in sixty minutes those same
lorses, barn, buggy. and harness. were
lfted sixty feet in the air, and the horses
lropped at least 100 rods from the form.
r site OF the barn. The column was
hen huge mass of debris, and snec. A
ator says that the horses went mn
through the center of the column, whiri. ,