The Massachusetts Spy, And Worcester County Advertiser

CROSS CREEK, PENN. SEPT. 2.

On Wednesday evening last, a little before sundown, this neighborhood was visited with the most frightful hurricane of wind, hail and rain, that we have had for many years. It commenced near Gen. Patterson's mills, and passed, in a south-east course, across six plantations, levelling, as it went, every fence that stood in its way. A part of the roof of one barn is taken off, and a number of cabin buildings totally uncovered. Several corn-fields are stripped of the blades, and many of the stalks broke down, and in some places the green timber is much torn to pieces. But the most appalling occurrence took place at the plantation of Mr. Johnson. Being engaged in erecting a tread grist-mill, a large open shed had been made to shelter the workmen from the sun and rain, and covered with loose boards; the first gust of wind whirled the whole covering away, and carried along with it Mr. Neal Gunn, one of the millwrights, and threw him on his head and face in the bottom of an empty water course, at the distance of 75 feet from where he was taken; (the fall and bruise on his head stunned him so much, that he could not rise, and he lay in nearly a state of insensibility, exposed to the pelting of the hail, until the flood produced by the rain on the high ground came down and aroused him. James Love, a carpenter, was in the second story of the mill house, a frame not weatherboarded. The same blast blew him and a number of loose boards out of the house: as he passed the corner post of the frame, he attempted to support himself by it; but not getting a good hold, was forced out, and came to the ground on his feet, 13 feet from the house. At that instant a second blast, with increased fury, met him, and carried him across a piece of low ground, a distance of 100 feet, and set him again on his feet, beside a green tree; around which he threw his arms and supported himself until the wind somewhat abated; he then let go his hold, and, in a moment, the wind whirled around and took him back about 70 feet, nearly on a line to the mill house; and a third time dropped him on his feet, so nearly balanced that he did not fall off them. In all this dashing from place to place, with the fury of a whirlwind, he escaped without receiving any injury. Both of these men say, they are not conscious of having touched the ground, in all the distance they were carried, in any other way than the toes of their shoes rubbing it, once or twice, as they were borne along by the wind. Every circumstance confirms the belief that they are not mistaken. James Love was twice taken across a water course, 5 or 6 feet wide, and 2 or 3 deep; had he been forced by the wind to stumble along with his feet on the ground, it is not at all probable he could have escaped being thrown into it, and severely bruised. Some doubts were entertained at first, that Mr. Gunn's skull might be fractured, but having regained his senses so speedily and perfectly, induces the hope that he has only received a severe bruise on the head and face, and that he will be able, in a few days, to resume his business as formerly.