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��EXTRAORDINARY OCCURRENCES IN NEW HAMPSHIRE.
��EXTBAOBDINABY OCCUBBENCES IN NEW HAMPSHIBE.
��BY ASA MCFARLAND.
��Supposing one of the purposes of the Granite Monthly to be to record un- usual events transpiring in New Hamp- shire so longtime since as not to be with- in the memory of most people now upon the stage, the writer of this article takes pen in hand to write of the " Great Wind," as it was many years called, and the Hurricane which swept over that re- gion of country of which Kearsarge Mountain is the centre; both within the recollection of some people who still live.
THE GREAT WIND.
This destructive tempest took place on Saturday, September 23, 1815, and sur- passed, in extent and violence, any wind that has blown over New England dur- ing the present century. The writer of this article, then a youth in the house- hold of his parents at Concord, was kept in doors by an injury to one of his feet, but has a perfect recollection of the vio- lence of the storm and the destruction it caused. The day was rainy, and the wind came from an easterly quarter, we think the south-east. In Concord, although, from its situation in the valley of the Merrimack, the damage was less than in more exposed places, yet here buildings were unroofed, growing crops damaged, and wood and timber-trees torn up by the roots, which, at their present valua- tion, would be worth many thousands of dollars. The rotten trunks of trees, blown down in that memorable gale, have hardly yet disappeared from forests in this city; a circumstance to be ac- counted for in this wise : Sixty years ago wood was of so little value that people neglected to remove these fallen trees until they fell into such decay as to be worthless.
The following account of this gale ap- peared in the New Hampshire Patriot, Sept. 26, 1815 :
��"Dreadful Storm. — Last Saturday was experienced in this vicinity the most severe gale of wind, or rather hurricane, known by the oldest inhabitants.' The wind commenced in the morning at N. E. At about noon it changed to S. E., and for two hours seemed to threaten every- thing with ruin. The sturdy oak, the stately elm, and the pliant poplar were alike victims to its fury. The destruction of orchards and buildings has been great. There is scarcely an apple left on the standing trees. Many cattle have been killed by falling trees. Had this violent wind occurred in the season of vegeta- tion there is no calculating its effects. It might have produced a famine. When witnessing the overwhelming force of the elements, at the distance of fifty miles from the sea-board, blowing from that direction, we were involuntarily led to contemplate its great devastation on and near the watery element ; how many lives were at that moment sacrificing to its fury; how many widows and orphans made ; how many thousands of property lost ; how many fond hopes forever blast- ed. May this prove only a vision of the fancy."
The following is from the Amherst Cabinet, Sept. 23, 1815 :
" Equinoctial Storm. — To-day, about half past 11 o'clock, the severest gale of wind from the south- east, ever known here, attended with rain, was experien- ced in this place. Sheds, trees, fences, etc., were blown down, buildings unroof- ed, and limbs and fragments of trees strewed in every direction. It continued with unabated fury nearly two hours. It arose gradually, and has now — half past 1 — subsided." The Boston Patriot of Sept. 27, said : " In the forenoon of Saturday last an awfully tremendous blast swept across this town. [Boston had not then adopt- ed a city government.] The fall of chim- neys, turrets, battlements, slates and shingles; the wreck of vessels at the wharves ; the uprooting of large trees, some of which had braved the fury of the elements for nearly a century, denoted a tempest of no ordinary character. The greatest force of the tornado was at Prov- idence, where several lives were lost, and property destroyed estimated to be worth $1,500,000."
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