The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1878-09-05
THE TERRIBLE TORNADO.
Its Deadly work at W~aIIinyfOrd. Conn.
1wenIS .eishI PetAOBA Killed And
Many others Injured Houses
swept AWny, Leaving
Mn Trupe.

wenly =eiOhN FethOuh httlNu N"s
Many Others Injured Houses
Swept a"ns m,ca Leaving
A Times special from Wallingford,
Conn, says; No man who has looked
upon the ruin wrought in this place by
the storm OF Friday can conceive OF the
terrible force with which the elements
beat upon the plains of Wal!ingford du-
ring the few moments it lasted. Never
did storm come with more appalling sud.
denefa Friday afternoon was n Of the
loveliest Of the season. Light clouds
sailed across the sky until 3 or 4 O'Clock
in the afternoon, occasionally ~obscuriDg
the sun. Then a few black clouds por
tending disaster appeared over Mount
Lamentation, a high hill lying to the
westward of the village. Under the foot
OF this hill spreads Lake Windermere, an
artificial pond created by the Communi
ty people by dammiDg the Quinnipiac
River. WallingiOrd lies between this
hill and another not so high that runs
parallel to the mountain east of the town.
Hills surround the pretty village,
THE CLOUDS GREW DARKER
toward 5 O'Clock, when the workmen
about the village left the factories and
the mills, and started for their homes.
The wives set about preparing supper
for their returning husbands, and only
a passing glance was cast toward the
Uurky clouds that rolled over the west
ern hills. BY $50 o'clock they had be-
come intensely black. Still there was no
sen.e 81 impending danger. The utter
stiffness that precedes many thunder
storms settled down in the valley just
before 6 O'clock. All the wind seemed
to have died away, but aloft the clouds
went tearing wildly along at such a pace
that many observers took alarm, and
fastened through the streets to seek
shelter. Lightning began to play inces-
sanity across the low.hanging clouds.
WITH HORRIBLE sUDDENNEss
a change took place in the heavens. Un-
der the threatening clouds other and
b'acker clouds were driven. They came
up from the west almost with the swift
ness Of thought, before a dense black
mass that rolled we tho Wallingford
community. A heecy, white curtain
advanced, hiding the orchards and vines
yards az it moved forward. The light
nings flashed in binding forks from
this cloud, that was more like smoke
than vapor in its lightness. necessarily
the flashes lighted up the surround
ing country with a lurid purple light,
while the thunder ratified and doomed
with interminable and deaiening loud
ness.
1t was about 6:l5 that n second mass
of clouds was noticed approaching on a
different current of wind from the north
ward, and some say there was also a
Counter-current setting in from the
southwark, bringing heavy black clouds
that seemed to touch the tops of the
trees. A few drops of rain fell gently.
Men and women hurried to the windows
to close them, and home>gsing lab0rers
began to run. Little reckOned any one
the peril of that moment. Before q cry
could be raised, or preparation made to
escape,
A DEATH-DEALING BLAST
fell upon the homes of the poor. The
heavy clouds over Windermere lake
seemed suddenly to drop upon the lake,
and the waters were ChurneI into foam
with a great whirling and whistling.
The winds from opposite quarters seemed
to meet. A great volume of water was
lifted from the lake and went swirling
up and up into the air. Lightning is
not quicker than was the advance from
west to east of the column of water
and the clouds that seemed to mingle
with it, In a second it started on a for.
ward course. Before it lay the sand plains
on which about fifty.four families, mostly
Irish, have bought lots and established
their dwellings. The plains are nearly
flat for n distance west to east of
about q third of n mile. Then the land
rises rapidly to the ridge on which the
main street is laid out. The Walling-
ford Community had a water-wheel on
the shore of Windermere Lake, The
whirlwind caught it, and 1t was crumbled
as if it had been built of straws. A few
hundred yards from the lake was a poor
cottage, in which lived Michael Mooney,
his wife Mary, and their sons Daniel and
Michael. Michael was in the village,
With the first putfof wind the women st>
tempted to shut the windows; the boys
assisted her. Before they knew what had
happened the house was
LEvELED TO THE EARTH.
A power irresistible carried the building,
twisted into fragments, flying through
the air. Mrs. Mooney was caught up
and hurled along through branches OF
trees, and owe a telegraph wire, beyond
the railroad, across two lanes, q distance
Of nearly aquarter ola mile, when she
was flung down, battered, gashcd, and
The boys were blown through
windows along with bricks, pots and pans.
Michael was carried into the branches
Of aprostrated apple tree. Daniel was
whirled away on the gale $50 yards,
he was flung down 30 violently AZ
to have his arm broken, while his face
was a mass otlivid blue spots and deep
scratches.
The wind swept on, taking everything
in its way. High street and Wallace
Row intersect Colony street, and lead up
)ver the hill toward Main street. On
,hese streets were cabins and a few neat
new dwellings, and about them gardens
and well kept. In the twink.
ing of an eye
EVERYTHING WAS CRUSHED.
And the fragments OF what were but a
moment before houses were carried aloft