Freeborn County, Minnesota Storm
August 1858
The Great Hail Storm in Minnesota.
The late hail storm in Minnesota was of a most
destructive character. In Freeborn County, we
are told, it raged as a tornado, tearing
hundreds of oak trees almost into shreds,
tumbling down fences, flattening corn fields,
demolishing gardens, and doing much other
damage. In Fairfield, Geneva, Clark’s Grove,
etc., the storm was characterized by severe
hail, which cut in pieces whole fields of grain,
and completely destroyed numberless gardens.
Some of the hail-stones were of the size of
hen’s eggs. In the neighborhood of Faribault
chickens, pigs and sheep were killed outright,
and cattle and horses who could not get under
shelter, were almost crazy with the fierce
peltings of the storm.
The Hastings Daily Ledger contains the
following item:
“Mantorville appeared as though an army of
infantry had been using it as a target to fire
at; windows were broken, and even the siding was
pierced by hail, and the gardens and fields of
grain could not have been in a worse plight if a
herd of ten thousand buffaloes had come rushing
over them from the western plains. One farmer in
that vicinity said his loss was full [sic] $500;
he was just preparing to harvest his wheat that
had escaped the ravages of the rust and weevil,
when the hail came and utterly destroyed it
together with everything else in the ground.
Some of the hail gathered after the storm,
measured ten and twelve inches in circumference;
and several animals had been killed from being
hit. Our informant weighed one stone, or block
of ice, whose heft was one pound.”
Chicago Press and Tribune, Chicago, IL 19
Aug 1858
Transcribed by Liz Dodson.
Thanks Liz!
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