Morning journal and courier., 1883-06-25
Freaks of the Tornado.

1 lIrOLl Iue oG.DOu1s hepuDlcanl
 The statement that during the cyclone of a 1 week ago in Montgomery, Warren. and St. Charles counties in this State, large trees were
 seen lifted several hundred feet in the air, l he's been laughed at as absurd story; but 1 the sober reports given by the country papers
 are of such an extraordinary character as to 1 rob this story of apparent absurdity and
 make it one of many similar strange actual l occurrences. Persons whe have had some l experience of cyclones before. say they meyer before saw anything like this, and it l is a wonder how anybody came out of 1t 1 alive" John w. Taylor, an old seaman, liv- 1 ing in Montgomery county, describes it as ''a
 huge mass of cloud, fog. dust and vapor, I funnel-like in shape, with the top leaning
 northeastward at an angle of 45 degrees, 1 bouncing right and left, with general 1 course, like water-spout at sea with the ad l dition of mass of wood, dirt, leaves and brush which it had gathered" Thomas Da- wis says it ''resembled immense turnip with the root down" A. s. Northcutt says
 like large turnip with the little end down and travelling little ahead balls of fire in the center and smoke and flames streaming ont behind" Daniel Coleman estimated it's di- ameter at 75 yards at the lower end and I5O yards at the upper end; 'color black, with occasional balls of fire enmitted from it. Dr.
 Jameson speaks of 'horrible grinding and
 cracking noise' that accompanied it Some
 of the houses injured were ''splattered with mud mixed with green leaves" Twisting and splintering were favorite methods of ex-
 hibiting it's foree and in many cases it's track
 was marked by the kindling wood which
 strowed it. At some places it passed over
 the tops of the trees, twisting their upper
 branches and scorching their leaves; in
 others 1t drew the trees out of the ground by
 tho roots, lifted them into the air and carried
 them to distance of hundred feet On one
 farm it lifted alternate fence posts planted
 two feet in the ground without disturbing the
 others. In John Godfrey's orchard, near
 Jonesburg, apple trees nearly foot in dia Ra-
 eter were lifted up by the roo!s and carried a
 mile off. Charles E. Edding homestead
 was completely wrecked and broken timbers
 shattered furniture, crockery, canned fruit
 glasses of jelly, beans, stones, bricks cloth ing and fence rails heaped together in such a
 mass as was never seen before. On another
 farm horses were crippled, cattle and hogs killed, and dead fowls plucked clean of feath- CTS left lying in heap. The track is de- scribed as g clean cut swath, 15 yards wide in one place; 150 yards in another, and 25O yards in another. Some of the trees uproot- ed were three feet in diameter. Cattle were caught up and borne quarter to half mile, and in one instance b mile. Squared timber 16 feet long and SIby 12 inches square were car ried three quarters.of asEaile. On,Henry Strutt- mans place a grindstone was blown $50 yards. A by 10 OAK JolSt was found arter the storm thrust in the ground to 9 depth of 4 feet it is supposed to have come from the wreck of house three miles distant in the direction in which the cyclone was travelling. This is one of several instances in which ob- jects were carried backward in the track of the storm. A carriage-house was caught up in the air, carried some distance and torn to 1 pieces, but the carriage dropped right side l up, uniDjured, on the ground a mile from l where it started. In many cases the bark | was stripped from the trees and the wood | left dry, as if exhausted of the sap. In the 1 of Joaesburg the cyclone went | up and down steep hill and through the hollow on the other side, leaving 8 track that 1 had all the appearance of having been dragged | by heavy logs. John Godfrey's pocketbook, | containing $200, was blown from the wreck of his house mile and found near the house 1 of Solon Kemble; 1t had the appearance of ! having been chewed. Mrs. Strong's pocket l book, containing two $10 bills and $2 bill, was in bureau drawer at the time her hus- ] bands house was wrecked. When the storm | was over the poeketbook was found in the peach orchard, with the two $1O bills still in ] it; the smaller bill was found sticking to a | tuft of grass 40 feet distant. A large trunk | belonging to Mrs. Glassford of Hickory | Grove, Montgomery county, was found, still | locked, and but little damaged, in Dog Prairie. St. Charles county, Is miles away. Persons standing few feet outside the track of the cyclone were perfectly safe, and to them it | as a distinct, clearly defined, black ! mass, moving through the air and fearful to i look at.