Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 2.djvu/370

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��NEW LONDON CENTENNIAL ADDRESS.

��pose we call it the ninth day of Sep- tember, 1 82 1. It is one of the earliest days that I can remember, and yet, though I was then only five years of age, I shall never forget it. The day was Sunday. The morning was bright and sunny. The air was soft and balmy. The day was hot, and especially in the afternoon was still and sultry. About five o'clock there were signs of a thun- der shower, dark clouds gathered in the west, and soon overcast the sky. The stillness that precedes the storm was soon interrupted by the mutterings of the distant thunder, the clouds grew darker and blacker, until presently a strange commotion was seen among them in the west ; vivid lightnings light up the dark and angry masses, the roaring of the distant tornado is heard as it approaches, and anon the most terrible whirlwind ever known in the state burst upon the terror-stricken in- habitants of New London.

I gather the following facts from a description of the great whirlwind of 1 82 1, as found in the collections of the N. H. Historical Society, vol. 1, page 241. The whirlwind entered the state in Cornish, and moving easterly through Croydon, demolished the house and barn of Deacon Cooper, thence through Wendell (now Sunapee) to near Suna- pee Lake, where it blew to pieces the house, barn and out-buildings of Har- vey Huntoon, destroying and blowing away all the furniture and other proper- ty in his house, and the contents of his barns and other buildings, and blowing an infant nearly a year old, that was lying on a bed in the house, away into the lake, where the mangled body was found the next Wednesday, on the op- posite side of the lake, and the feather bed on which the child was sleeping was found in Andover by a Mr. Durgin and restored to Mr. Huntoon. A horse was blown up hill a distance of forty rods, and was so injured that it was necessary to kill him. No human lives were lost in that town except the child, though the other seven members of Mr. Hun- toon's household were injured, and some of them very severely. From Wendell the hurricane passed across

��Lake Sunapee in a most terrific man- ner, assuming the form of an inverted pyramid in motion, and drawing up in- to its bosom vast quantities of water. Its appearance on the lake was in the highest degree sublime and terrible, ap- parently about twenty'rods in diameter at the surface of the water, it expanded on each side towards the heavens, its vast body as dark as midnight, but oc- casionally illuminated by the most vivid flashes of hghtning.

From the lake it passed into New London and through the southerly part of the town, destroying property to the estimated value of $9,000 or $10,000. But fortunately no person in the town was killed. The house and other build- ings of John Davis, standing directly in the path of the tornado, were entirely demolished. Not a timber nor a board was left upon the ground where the house had stood, and not a brick in the chimney remained unmoved. A huge hearth stone weighing some seven or eight hundred pounds was removed from its bed and turned up on one edge ; all the furniture of the house, beds, bed- ding and clothing was swept away, and not the value of five dollars of it was ever found. The family chanced to be absent from the house. Three barns belonging to Josiah Davis, with their contents, were blown entirely away, and his house much shattered and dam- aged. A house belonging to Jonathan Herrick was unroofed, the windows brok- en out, and much furniture and cloth- ing blown away, but fortunately none of the family were injured. A new two- story house frame, nearly covered, be- longing to Nathan Herrick, and two barns, were blown down. A house and barn of Asa Gage were unroofed, and two sheds carried away. Anthony Sar- gent had one barn demolished, another unroofed, and two sheds blown away. Deacon Peter Sargent had a barn blown down, another unroofed, and a shed blown away. A barn of J. P. Sabin was torn to pieces ; another barn of Levi Harvey was blown to pieces, his saw- mill demolished, and some twelve thou- sand feet of boards in the mill-yard car- ried away ; his grist-mill was moved

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