The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1883-11-22

THE RECENT CYCLONE.
Further Particulars of Hts Destructive
ness.


Waldo Pettingll, ESQ.,, of Rumford, one of
the County Commissioners of Oxford county,
says an immense amount of timber was de-
stroyed by the cyclone-six millions in Frye
burg, five millions in Andoves, and three mil
lions in Bethel. The cyclone seemed to begin
its ravages at Gilead and swept through Bethel,
Riley Pla ntation, Andoyer, Letter D., Byron,
Roxbury, Phillips, Salem, Strong, and SO on.
In Letter D.. nearly all the timber was de-
stroyed. Not much damage was done at the
Lakes.
The late gale made sad work with the tim
Der on the Dead River. Alonzo H. Chase,
who has been in to fit up for his winters oper-
ations on No IL, reports the timber all fiat.
Yellow birches two feet through were twisted
off. He says it would cost more than the tim
Der is worth to get it out. Sportsmen who
were in the woods during the gale have come
out with the toes of their boots and front of
their pants legs gone, worn OF by crawling on
their bands and knees. One party were two
days and half going twelve miles
private letter from Andover gives the fol-
lowing vivid account of the cyclone.
cat dark, Monday, the wind blew very
hard. We retired at ten o'clock. The wind
continued TO rise to the most terrific roar that
I ever heard in my life. The doors flew open
and slammed all through the house and shed
but the locks held the outside doors fast. About
two o'clock we got up and tried the best we
could to keep the doors shut and keep from
freezing. About this time we were joined by
a neighbor and family who had been frighten-
ed from their own home, expecting every mo-
ment that it would be blown down, and think
ing (as we did ourselves) that the pines would
protect our house; but at about quarter of
three the trees began to fall in rapid success
ion, many OF them falling on the house with a
tremendous crashing sound, and smashing the
glass in nearly every window in the back of
the house; no windows hurt on the front or
ends of the buildings. The limbs of the larg-
est of the trees were driven through the roof of
the house in great many places, sticking
through into the chambers all the way from
two to six feet in length shingles badly strip
ped off in places, some boards broken but no
rafters or timbers in any part of the house or
hhe1, but the shed was started about two inch
es where it joined the barn, and the roof of the
barn was starten ontheseast side and the whole
almost entirely stripped of shingles.
The pines back OF the house are all down
fiat, some torn by the roots, and others broken
all the way from two feet to twelve above
ground. More than half our apple trees
are crushed and buried under the pines. About
half the roof of the Congregational church
was torn off, and the schoolhouse badly
church being driven through the schoolhouse,
and one large pine smashed the roof badly and
crushed all the horse sheds and outbuildings of
both church and schoolhouse. All the beauti-
full pine groves in town are lying fat on the
ground or piled in all kinds of shapes and the
ground for miles around il thickly strewn with
pitchy cones and branches of trees, broken
shingles and bricks. 1t makes me shudder
now wnen / think of the horrors of that night.
From two o'clock until seven, every one was
u fno tn hoe hal fD11
It was very cold, and people dared not build
fires, scarcely dared to have lamp lighted,
for if fire had got started amidst all the COM
bustibles and hedged in as we all were by the
fallen trees, a terrible confagration must have
eDsued. Our neighbors were greatly alarmed
on our account, knowing that We were directly
in range of our falling trees
Our house was completely hidden from view
by fallen trees, bit after all we were more for
tunate than some of oursneighbors, for we had
NOT lost chimney, and could give some of our
less fortunate neighbors chance to get their
breakfasts.