The Somerset reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1868-1909, 1909-04-15
NUMBER IS
Thursdays Gale Did Some Damage.


The wind storm which was al its
height during the few hours about
midday, Thursday of last week, did
some damage In thi, locality, although
the estimate Of the same in dolIars
and cents does not make very startl-
ing figures. skowhegan is not ex
tensiyely engaged in shipping and, in
a general way, may be said to have
her feet placed firmly enough, be-
tween the two ridges Of the Kennebec
valley, TO stand most anything in the
line of a gale. 1t is not strange, how
ever, that this storm, which was SO
destructive over such a wide area,
should have found some wea K places
on which to leave its mark in this To-
cality.
A pole Oh the line Of the Somerset
Traction Company was blown down
about noon Thursday. This was so
promptly replaced. however that no
interruption OF service resulted. The
Skowhegan Electric Light Company
had six poles down, IN different parts
Of the town, chiefly on Main and
Hathaway streets. At the corner of
Madison avenue and Maple streets,
portion of an elm tree, at the George
Philbrick homestead, fell across the
electric light wires, breaking them
from the poles to quite an extent.
The company SO managed that there
was no interruption u the lighting
service but some wires, blown toge-
Their by the storm, burned off on Fri
day and the current was off fer few
hours, while these were being repair
ed.
The Maine Telephone CO. had loo
poles effected by the wind. u or - of
them blown fat. Thee were mostly
in the south part Of Skowhegaa and
in Fairfield and Clinton.
At the residence Of DR.. Geo. O.
Smith en- Elm . = several limbs,
Que or more Is @slenEth, were
} 6,Uwn from hfa 40 trees Other
shade trees about town suffered some
what as to limbs and branches. At
the residence of Ira Norton Oh Madi-
son avenue, branch from one of the
NAPLES was wrenched off and blown
against the side of the house, break
ing in a window. Large branches
we're also broken from the trees at
the home of David Lewis on Court
street, at the DIR. Cushing place on
North avenue owned by Thomas How =
ard and a spruce near the residenc e
of Mr.. and Mrs. William Elliott on
Alder street was broken off about ten
feet from the ground. W. T. Seekins
on Leavitt street also lost one of his
naples and one or more trees on Tur-
ner avenue were blown down or had
branches split off.
Iron roofs seem to have been pc
culiarly susceptibly 20 this wind storm.
From the tops of the monitor roof, so
called, Of the Riverside Pulp Mills, an
area CT the metal covering, about so
by Is feet, was rolled up and blown
into the river. On the Island. the
power station of the Skowhegan Elee-
trio Light Company and Steward bro
Tiers grst mill were both damaged
i n similar manner.
There were doubtless many instan
ces Of minor damage To buildings. and
trees blown down in the surrounding
country At the Love place on the
river road, now owned by J. Palmer
Merrill. the westerly barn doors we're
blown inward and the door at the
easterly end Of the barn was blown
from its hinges and carried some
distance into the field. At the AL
bert Wharf place on the Hayden
Lake road shingles and boards were
blown of the roof of the barn.
From the experience of this storm
it is easy to see what might happen
to Skowhegan if the territory TO the
northwest were AN open prairie in
stead of a succession of hills and
mountain ranges.