i879-J 
Tornado at Wisconsin . 
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three months old, were partly down when the house was taken 
bodily. At this time Mr. Osmonson, with a child in each 
hand, aged respectively four and six, stood at the cellar door 
waiting for the mother and her babe to get fully down. 
Besides these, there was in the house a girl twelve years 
old. This girl was found thirty yards distant north of east, 
senseless, nearly buried in mud, with two severe scalp 
wounds, and her right arm broken, three times between the 
shoulder and elbow. About four rods north of the house 
was the border of a large field of second growth oak and poplar 
timber, from 20 to 40 feet in height. The house was carried 
over the timber, with Mr. Osmonson and the two children, 
whom he still held firmly in his grasp. While in the air 
over this timber the house “ went to pieces,” the larger 
portion of it falling sixteen rods direCtly north of its starting 
point. One portion of the roof was twenty-five rods distant 
in a direction north 30° west, and another portion sixty rods 
distant north 25 0 east. The stove was mainly found seven 
rods direCtly north of the principal ruins of the house ; some 
parts, however, were carried several rods farther in the same 
direction. 
Mr. Osmonson and the two children fell about 20 ft. north 
of the main ruins of the house. Mr. Osmonson had his face 
scratched and one rib broken in falling through the top of a 
tree. The children were entirely unhurt, the youngest one 
did not even cry. Large hail was falling at the time, and 
the children were laid under the ruins of the house while 
the father hastened to find the other members of the family. 
The children in the cellarwere not hurt. Mrs. Osmanson was 
injured in the back, probably by something striking her as 
the house moved off. The stable in which the horses had 
been put was eight rods south-west of the house. One of 
the horses was blown into the cellar, and lay there upon his 
back when found, while the other was in the standing 
timber, twenty-two rods distant, north 38° east from the 
stable, with his hind feet resting upon the ground, while his 
fore feet were hanging upon a bent over sapling. The posi- 
tion of the horse, and the thick growth of timber rendered 
it impossible for him to get there only by being carried above 
the tops of the trees and dropped down. He was uninjured. 
An iron pump with 46 feet of zinc pipe was taken from a 
well, and carried north 15 0 west, a distance of fifteen rods. 
A lumber waggon was broken entirely to pieces. One wheel 
and an axle was carried north 65° east, seventy-five rods, 
while the larger proportion of the remainder went north- 
