Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1879-06-21
Terrible Hail storm, i'm Kansas.

town, writes to her family in this place,
from Beloit, Kansas, giving descrlp-
lion of hail storm which visited that
town ON Wednesday night, the llth IN
slant. From her letter We are permitted
to make the following extract. She
says
| do not feel much like writing to-
day, but thought you would probably
see accounts of the storm III last night,
and be anxious to hear from us. We
are safe and well, but both feel tired out
and nervous to-day. Between eight
aud nine o'clock, after an extremely hot
dav, the storm commenced 10y hard
shower of rain, then such a hail storm
as YOU never dreamed Of. can think
of nothing to compare it with but the
bombarding during the war. II hailed
Tor nearly an hour, aud the hail stones
were the largest ever heard of; some
claim to have found them weighing as
much as five pounds, hnt | can not
vouch for the truth of This; but they
were found in different places weighing
one, and one and a quarter pounds, ana
measuring thirteen and fourteen inches
in circumterence-these were measured
and weighed at the different groceries,
many seeing them. The largest we
picked up was more than doubly as
large as a goose egg; it split IN two as
it struck the board pavement III front OF
the store, Many that had 10 other
way of measuring them put them i'll tin
cups TO melt, and would hive the cups
from half full to full Of water when
melted ! shovelel up quantity Oh
our bed room floor, as large as hcn-eggs.
The destruction to property here Is Just
fearful. There has not one house eS-
caped, and some houses had not one
whole window pane left IN them, others
half, and so on. There WAS not near
enough glass in town to supply the de
mand. They had to TELEGRAPH 70 Atch-
ison to have some expressed tonight
We had fifteen panes of glass broken,
twelve in one room, two in the kitchen
and one in the store. thought one
time we would lose everything we had,
but Mr. p brought rubber coats
from the store in, then nailed boards mp
to keep out tie rain, and covered our
bed up with rubber coats, so it did not
Get so wet. 1t did not come through
into the store, although there were sew
eral large holes made in the root by the
hail.
| thought last night we had an awful
time, but when | went out front thlS
morning and saw how much worse 9th
els had Jared, thought we could not
be sufficiently thankful that we escaped
50 well. Some Of the stores here are
nearly ruined; all the large glass fronts
on Main street are broken, and many
on our street (MilN. Tie fiat roofs,
too, were terribly used up. Al MIR,
Williams there are 1--WE holes through
the ceiling, Mr.. P says so large
they look as though you could ram your
doubled fists through them. They broke
through the sheet.iron roof, the boards
that it was nailed on, and The laihes
and plastering, and then fell i'll the
store. Mr.. Casey's was very bad, too;
he thought he would lose lis entlre
stock, but 10y working hard saved most
of it. There is an office down near the
depot where hail stone came through
the root and ceiling, then went through
the floor to the ground. have heard
of some stock being killed, but as yet
there is little news from the country.
! Everything looked so promising when
we were out riding last Sunday; the
corn then was knee high, and IN some
places more, and locked so well.
One fortunate thing, the storm wss
not general; two miles north OF here
they had no hail, and eight miles south
and east The wind swept everything
before it. tell you have no desire
now to have home of our own IN Kan
sas. l wish you could just see the
buildings along the other side Of the
sIreet-they are riddled. You will th:rk
of course that this ought to be enough
for one night. | thought so too. We
went to bed alter twelve o'clock, and
between two and three were walked up
by the cry OF fire; | think | heard the
first cry, and tie light was shining III
the kitchen window just opposite our
bed. 1t proved to be store or ware
house on fire, caused by a lot of lime
getting wet and Stacking, thus setting
the building on fire.
! can hear them sweeping and clean
ing glass in every direction this morn
ing. We were fortunate enough to get
our windows fixed today.
DgH TIE LATE STORM We contin-
ne to hear of great destruction done to
our farmers by the severe storm OF hail
and wind, as veil as rain, which passed
over and around us on Thursday after
noon of last week. Mr.. A. J. McCleary,
of Berkeley county, suffered considera-
bic loss in the destruction of large
portion of his wheat, fru. aud fences.
Mr.. Sperow, his neighbor, loses about
$1,000; Mrs. Mary Baker of this place,
loses aboat $500 in the destruction OF
growing wheat; Mrs. Janiier Hudgel
sustained considerable loss both in the
destruction of growing crops and fruit,
ard also damage done her house; Mr..
Nathan Osbourn and Mr. Thomas Files,
suffered severely by the destruction of
crons- and frees blown down: Mr.. a. w.