Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1909-05-21
GREAT STORM OF $50.


pie who assembled. to do him honor.
GREAT STORM OF $50.
Following the suggestion contained
in the communication from Chester,
published in another column, an exam
ination has been made of the files OF
The Enquirer of May, 1859, for the rec
ord of the great storm referred to. The
storm, it appears, occurred on May 10,
and in the first issue Of The Enquirer
thereafter, that Of May 10, there Is
pretty full account; but the issue OF
Nav 26, contains more accurate details.
The story published May rs, Is as fol-
lows: ...
Since the last issue we have receiv-
ed full accounts Of the terrihc storm
which recently passed over the western
and southwestern portion OF our dis-
trict. In every instance they confirm
our previous statement, and in many
instances the idea we have given comes
short Of the reality. We take the FOL
lowing paragraph from a letter dated at
Bullock's Creek, May goth. The reader
will remember that the storm occurred
on the 18th:
81 see that you have given a tolera-
bly, correct description OF the storm
that laid waste our section Of the coun-
try last Sunday night. You are incor-
rect, however, in stating that II ex-
tended to the west Of Bullock's Creek
church. This locality is on the western
border Of the track, and the sufferers
are those living east Of the church.
mr. old 10 1u tyho tIyoo killad WAS Mrs.
Nelly Alberson, and Mrs. Sarah Zen
derson, the younger Mrs. Alberson's
mother, had her leg and skull broken.
The attending physician, DR.. Feemster,
reports that she cannot recover from
her injuries. Since the storm, 1t has
been raining every day, and farmers
cannot do anything toward replanting.
There is yet plenty of ice in places, from
one to two feet deep"
Another correspondent from the
same section, where the tempest SEEM
ed to have ragged most severely, writes
thus under date Of May 16:
Yesterday evening, about o'clock.
We saw a black and threatening cloud
rise in the direction Of Kings Noun
tain. It came rapidly in southerly
direction; but after time changed its
course toward the southeast, the wind,
rain, hail, thunder and lightning COM
bining to make the most terrific specta-
Gle I have ever seen. A neighbor de-
scribes the roar to be nearer than any
thing else like a thousand wagons and
teams running away in q crowd. The
lightning was constant, and the whole
heavens appeared to be an intensely
burning sheet Of fame.
when the cloud came overhead, 1t
appeared.to be about a mile and half
OF
moderately to width Of from three to
four miles. So rapid was 1t that in half
an hour from the time the cloud ap-
peared the destruction was complete,
and we could only hear the roaring Of
the elements far ahead as their fury
passed away.
I'm an instant almost, the. branches
were swollen into creeks and rivers. A
solid sheet Of water and hall covered
uplands and lowlands, and added its
inestimable force to the power Of the
other elements. The land Is washed
into gullies; the fences were all floated
for hundreds Of yards: the timber Is
strewn over the fields and forests liter
ally stripped Of foliage more complete
ly than ever by the frosts Of winter,
for the evergreens are as bare as The
more tender trees. The pine forests
present the appearance Of a new 81 ound,
after the timber has been dead long
enough for the leaves to drop ard the
birds to pick away the bark: ard the
undergrowth Is as bare Of leaf and bark
as willow basket.
'Tn the bottoms great RATS have
lodged which in depth and size are to
be compared to crystal mansions, and
In the gullies and elsewhere there re-
main great mountains Of hailstones,
measuring ten feet in depth! OF course,
the growing wheat Is literally beaten
and ground to atoms; large plots,
growing beautifully, almost in an in
stant present the appearance Of stub
BILE field that has been severely pastured
for a month after harvest. You can
sec but little signs of the straw. 1t is
cut up and mixed with the soil. Corn
and cotton too. is ruined. Passing to-
day, you could scarcely tell what Is
planted in any field. The plants were
all cut down by the hail, and then
washed away.
1.-The section have passed over to-
day has thousands Of wagon loads of
hail, scattered in every direction; and
the appearance presented Is like that
Of dead winter, when the ground Is
covered with sleet drifted in heaps %
to feet deep. did not measure 1t,
Ilulll6 q DC lO Ctio-
lily lifted up a handful Of hailstones
without dismounting. They were not
larger than a partridge egg, but must
have decreased in size since falling.
MANY other houses were blown
down: but no other life was lost. At
one point a corn crib was blown away;
the corn strewn along in a continuous
heap for more than a hundred yards;
ard a wagon in a shed attached to the
crib unloaded and driven fifty yards
against another outhouse, and torn in
to hundred fragments A rock more
than three feet square. was carried
across a hollow, a distance of twenty
yards. A washpot was taken from a
spring. and fragments Of 1t found in a
field three or four hundred yards dis
tant.
But it is impossible to give an ac-
curate idea Of the terrible calamity.
Those only know it's awful violence,
who were overwhelmed in the ruin it
has made I do not pretend to tell you
all have learned today: but hone you
can nut in shane what have hastily
written so as to make 1t seryiceable" I"