Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1883-06-21
Freaks of the Tornado.

The statement that during the cyclone of q
week ago in Montgomery. Warren and ST. Charles
counties, in this state. large trees were seen
lifted several hundred feet in the air. has been
laughed at as an absurd story: but the sober
reports given by the country papers are of such
an extraordinary character as to rob this story
Of apparent absurdty and make it one of many
similar strange actual occurrences. Persons
who have had some experience of cyclones be-
fore. say they .'never before saw anything like
this, and 1t Is wonder how anybody came out
Of it alive" John ". Taylor, an old seaman,
living in Montgomery county, describes it as
"a huge mass Of cloud, fog. dust and
vapor, iunnel-like in shape with the top
leaning nOrtheastward at an angle of IS
degrees, bouncing right and left. with a
general course. like water-spOut at sea with
and brush which it had gathered" Thomas
Davis says it ''resenbled an immense turnfp
with the root down" A. S. Northcutt SAYS
when the cyclone passed his house sit looked
like large turnip with the little end down. and
travelling little ahead balls of fire in the center
and smoke and flames streaming out behind"
Daniel Coleman estimated it's diameter at Is
yards at the lower end and 40 yards at the up
per end; "coor black with occasional balls of
fire emitted from it," DR.. jameson speaks OF
"horrible grinding and cracking noise that ac-
cOmpanied it. Some of the houses injured were
''spattered with mud mixed with green
leaves" Twisting and spiintering were favOrite
methods Of exhibiting its force, and in many
cases its track was marked by the kin
ding wood which strewed it. At some places
it passed over the tops OF the trees. twisting
their upper branches and scorching their
leaves; in Others it drew the trees out of the
ground by the roots, lifted them into the air.
and carried them a distance Of hundred feet
On one farm it lifted alternate fence posts
planted two feet in the ground without dis
turbing the others. In John Godfreys orchard,
near Jonesburg. apple trees, nearly foot in
diameter, were lifted up by the roots and car
ried mile of. Charles E. Edding's 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
feathers left lying in heap. The track is de-
scrtbed as clean cut swath, Is yards wide in
one place; $50 yards in another, and $50 yards
in another Some of the trees uprooted were
three feet in diameter Cattle were caught up
and borne quarter to a half mile. and in one
instance mile. Squared timber IS feet long
and by IL inches square were carried three
quarters OF a mile. On Henry Struttman's
place a grindstone was blown $50 yards. A 2 by
10 oak jOist was found after the storm thrust in
the ground to depth OF feet; it is supposed
to have come from the wreck of a house three
miles distant In the direction in which the cy-
clone was travelling. This is one of several in-
stances in which objects were carried backward
In the track Of the storm. A carriage-house
was caught up in the air. carried some distance
and torn to pieces. but the carriage dropped
right side up. uninjured, on the ground mile
from where it started. In many cases the bark
was stripped from the trees and the wood left
dry, as ii exhausted of the sap. In the neigh
borhood of Jonesburg the cyclone went up and
down steep hill and through the hollow on the
other slde leaving a track that had all the ap-
pearance of having been dragged by heavy logs.
John Godtrey's pocket-book, containing $500.
was blown from the wreck Of his house
q mile and found near the house Of
Scion Kemble; it had the appearance Of
having been chewed. Mrs. Str0ngs pocket
book, containing two go bills and 50 bill, was
In bureau drawer at the time her husbands
house was wrecked. When the storm was over
the pocketbook was found in the peach orchard
with the two 80 bills still In it; the smaller bill
was found sticking to tuft of grass forty feet
distant. A large trunk belonging to Mrs. Glass
ford, of Hickory Grove, Montgomery county,
was found, still locked and but little damaged,
in Dog Prairie. ST. Charles county, fifteen miles
away. Persons standing few feet outside the
track of the cyclone were perfectly safe, and to
them 1t appeared as a distinct clearly defined,
black mass, moving through the air and fearful
to look at.