112 NATURAL HISTORY AND TOPOGRAPHY OF GROTON, MASS. 



The tornado happened on a Sunday afternoon, between five 

 and six o'clock ; and the dark, heavy cloud betokening the 

 event was noticed by several persons at Groton. I was told 

 by the late Dr. Amos B. Bancroft, that Mr. Butler himself saw 

 the cloud from Walter Dickson's house on Farmers' Row, 

 where he and others were engaged at the time in practising 

 singing for the Sunday evening exercises. The Blotter and 

 Mr. Cobb's letter have been given to the Groton Historical 

 Society. An account of this tornado is found in Blake's His- 

 tory of Warwick, which says that " a part of a leaf [?] of an 

 account-book was found in Groton, about sixty miles from the 

 house where it was deposited in a chamber" (p. 107). The 

 distance as given by Mr. Blake is somewhat exaggerated. 



"The Massachusetts Spy" (Worcester), September 12, 

 gives the following description of the gale: — 



On Sunday afternoon last [September 9], about 6 o'clock, a 

 most destructive tornado was experienced in Northfield, Warwick 

 and Orange, in the County of Franklin. It commenced near the 

 middle of the town of Northfield, passing with desolating fury, in a 

 direction nearly east, until it was arrested by "Tully's Mountain." 

 about two miles north of Athol Meeting-House. It first struck 

 and demolished a house and barn in Northfield — and thence passed 

 to the easterly part of that town, and destroyed the house of Chapin 

 Holton, seriously injuring him. From Northfield it passed into War- 

 wick, completely demolishing, in its course, the house of a Mr. Brown, 

 a daughter of whom, about fourteen years of age, perished in its ruins 



— and the barn and out-buildings of a Mr. Ball. A little distance 

 east of Mr. Ball's, in Orange, a house, two barns, and a blacksmith's 

 shop, all belonging to Mr. Smith, fell prostrate before the blast. 

 The family, consisting of eleven individuals, escaped death by re- 

 treating to the cellar — all, save one, a young woman by the name of 

 Stearns, who was crushed to death by the falling timber. Several 

 others were, however, so seriously injured that their lives are 

 despaired of. 



We have not room nor time, at the late hour at which we write, to 

 detail the numerous circumstances which, we learn, attended this des- 

 olating whirlwind. The width of its ravages was from 40 to 60 rods 



— its length about ten miles. So resistless was its force that the stout- 

 est trees were up-rooted, stone fences removed, immense rocks torn 



