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New England Weather

1773 Hurricane • on the Merrimac River

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Summer of 1771

The Storm of 1774

One of the most disastrous tornadoes or hurricanes that has ever been experienced in New England occurred in Massachusetts along the Merrimac river; Saturday, August 14, 1773. It commenced its havoc a few rods above Deer island, and took its course up the northern bank of the stream.

During the preceding night, which was one of intense darkness, there had been a hard rain, and a gentle breeze had come from the east all the morning. At a quarter before eight o'dock, there had been no perceptible increase of its strength, but a moment later, unannounced, the hurricane, terrible in its irresistible force, swept up the Merrimac. Its effect first appeared upon the water in the river, which rolled up its northern bank so furiously that the people near it were afraid that they would be washed away by a tidal wave. They had hardly glanced toward the stream, when the wind struck their houses, .and they were struggling to free themselves in the cellars and amongst the ruins elsewhere. Such was the manner in which it burst upon Salisbury point. In a moment more it had crossed the Powow, and laid low the village of Amesbury. Speeding up the river with almost the quickness of lightning it swept through Haverhill, causing destruction all along its path. There its force abated, and beyond it did no damage.

Its general course was westward following up the river, but the different localities it seemed to blow in other directions. This is accounted for by the tornado having the character of a cyclone, which is a revolving rather than a direct force. At Haverhill, a cloud which came up in the southwest was supposed by the people to have had some connection with the tornado. The wind blew about three minutes, at times whirling with surprising rapidity, and carried along with it not only lumber, fences, trees, and all sorts of movable things, but the frightened inhabitants themselves, who were let down upon the ground in safety after being carried some distance. The debris of some of the buildings was scattered in all directions for four or five rods.

The territory for one-fourth of a mile up the Powow river, which separated Salisbury and Amesbury, and for three·fourths of a mile below the Powow and the same distance above. on the northern shore of the Merrimac, were the portions of those two towns that suffered the most. At Haverhill, the wind continued near the river, over the hill which is now known as Mount Washington, and the principal part of the damage done in the town was in that section.

Only those who have seen the work of a cyclone have an adequate conception of what it is able to accomplish. It is difficult to form an idea of its force, and the way in which it acts. This instance of the display on its powers was said to be almost beyond description. Entire orchards and trees of all kinds and sizes were eradicated, stout oaks, strong walnuts, and towering elms being twisted and broken, and some of them thrown into the middle of the Powow river. Fields of corn were levelled, many of the fence rails were shivered to atoms and scattered over the ground for a great distance, and buildings of every kind were more or less injured. In the middle of its path every movable thing was driven before it; and the air was filled with pieces of a great variety of articles which were hurled along with impetuosity against houses and people who were out of doors, so that many lives were in great danger. Much household property was destroyed, and some never found. Large oak planks were taken from the stocks of the ship builders and hurled, almost with the velocity of cannon balls, through the roofs of houses; and more than one hundred and fifty buildings of all kinds were blown down or injured. In the buildings when they fell, there must have been more than two hundred persons. When the people perceived the houses falling over their heads, they sought the cellars for safety, or endeavored to get out of doors and run. Most of them escaped unhurt, others received slight wounds and a few were dangerously injured. No life was lost, and on Salisbury point, where the tornado displayed its greatest power, no bones were broken, nor anyone dangerously wounded. This is something wonderful as the buildings and chimneys fell sometimes fell in such a manner that the people were fastened down, and in some instances, were almost entirely buried, being afterwards dug out by their neighbors

At Salisbury point eight dwelling houses belonging to Archelaus Adams, Joseph Adams, John Bartlett, Issachar Currier, Thomas Hackett, Joseph Hudson, Capt. Joseph Stockman, and John Webster were completely levelled with the ground, fifteen others were unroofed, and twenty-six more were considerably damaged, amounting to forty-nine in all that were injured. Twelve barns were also blown to pieces, their fragments being strewn over the ground around their sites, and five more were greatly damaged. Four blacksmith shops were badly injured, three of them being blown down. Those that fell belonged to Joseph Adams, Ezra Merrill, and Lieut. Joseph Page, and the other to Meletiah Merrill. Several persons were injured by the falling of these shops, though slightly. Two new carpenter shops were injured, .and two warehouses were blown down. Issachar Currier's store was demolished; and in the store of Captain Hackett, salt, sugar, grain, fish, and other .articles, were damaged. In the fall of the barn of Jacob Stevens a chaise was crushed. Oliver Osgood's wife was wounded, and he and his son were buried by the falling chimney, being dug out unharmed save for a few bruises. His house was unroofed and wrecked, the chimneys falling with the roof, A small schooner, that was owned by Mr. Osgood was also much damaged. Samuel Webster's house, which was almost new, was unroofed, and the floors forced down into the cellar by the falling of one of the chimneys. In one of the rooms was a bed, on which was lying a sick child, and the child, the bed, and everything but the walls of the house were heaped together in the cellar, with tons of bricks on top. The child was so buried that it took willing hands more than half an hour to complete the rescue, and strange to say he was but slightly injured. The six other persons in the ruin. of the house escaped unhurt.

Most of the buildings across the Powow, in Amesbury, were comparatively new, and the destruction of them was not quite as complete as in Salisbury. The house of Theophilus Foot, however, was entirely blown down, eight more houses were unroofed, and twenty-two others were more or less injured. Sixteen barns were levelled with the ground, and five others considerably damaged. Three blacksmith shops belonging to David Blazedell, Richard Currier, and Eli Gale, were blown down. and another, belonging to Thomas Pearsons, was partly unroofed. Richard Currier's mill-house was also blown down, and the hatter shop of Moses Chase was partly unroofed. A cooper's, and also a barber's, ,shop were damaged, and Captain Bailey's workhouse and storehouse, each measuring forty by twenty feet, two stories in height, were both blown down, Eliphalet Swett's house was half unroofed, the barn moved down into a gully, and his workshop considerably blown apart. Among the incidents of the gale in Amesbury was the breaking of the bones of both legs of an aged lady who was struck by a large oak plank from one of the vessels on the stocks, as she was fleeing from her falling house. When the cyclone struck the village, Captain Smith, whose home was in Beverly, was sitting in a sail-maker's loft over Captain Bailey's warehouse, and in a moment the building was swept away as quickly and easily as if it had been a child's card house, and the fragments were scattered far and wide. Captain Smith was found lying by a piece of timber on the bank of the Powow river, ninety-four feet from the loft where he was sitting. One of his legs was broken, and his head and other parts of his person suffered severe contusions; yet he survived. A white oak post, measuring fourteen feet in length, twelve inches wide and ten inches thick, was carried one hundred and thirty-eight feet. A very large bundle of shingles was taken from the ground and thrown three hundred and thirty feet in a direction opposite to that in which the post was blown, and at right angles to that in which two vessels, then on the stocks and unfinished, were carried. These vessels from each of ninety tons burden, and were lifted from the blocks on which they rested, being carried sidewise through the air twenty-two feet.

In Haverhill, the cyclone attacked a large dwelling house, and wrenched away every board and rib from the roof, shaking the chimneys to their foundations. This was the residence of Mrs. Bradley, on Silver hill, which was in modern times the home of Hon. Moses Wingate. The family were much frightened, and put in great consternation. Mrs. Bradley ran to the door, followed by the other members of the family that were in the house, to flee to the barn, which stood but a few rods away, thinking it would be a safe place of retreat, it being nearly new, and filled with about thirty tons of hay. Before she could get the door open, they were all thrown into the greatest confusion, and ran hither and thither amid the falling bricks, fragments of boards and timbers of various sizes and shapes that had fallen from the roof of the house, and broken glass from the windows, every one of which had been rendered paneless. When they glanced in the direction of the barn-yard nothing but the yard was there, the barn having been swept away, was lying in fragments in adjoining lots, some of the pieces having been carried three miles in a north-easterly direction. A valuable horse that was in the barn escaped unharmed, the large quantity of hay that was with him, probably being the cause of his preservation. In the attic of the house was a bundle of wool, which was carried by the wind to Great pond. No persons' limbs were broken in this town. Five barns were wholly destroyed, many houses, barns, and other building much damaged, and nearly five hundred apple trees torn from the orchards. The main force of the wind seemed to blow a little back from the immediate shore of the river, thus leaving the greater part of the buildings along the wharves uninjured.

If we could have cast a glance at the territory in Salisbury and Amesbury where the tornado did its most effective work, instead of seeing the pleasant luxuriant fields, and streets lined with commodious and well-kept residences, stores and work-shops, and hearing the hum of business, the carpenter's hammer, the ringing anvil, and the ship-builder's mallet, we would have seen piles and rows of broken boards and timbers, parts of chimneys standing above their fire places, houses and barns without roofs, being rent and twisted, the roots of gigantic trees with rocks and earth still clinging to them, and would have heard the sound of falling timbers and cries for help from many a heap of ruins. We cannot form an adequate idea of what the wind did in this strip of territory, measuring a quarter of a mile wide, and a mile and a half long.

The people suffered greatly from the loss of their houses and furniture, their barns and the hay that was in them, their places of business, tools and property stored in warehouses, most of that upon which the force of the wind came being lost or destroyed. The people in the towns around sympathized with the sufferers, and made contributions for their assistance, the churches in Portsmouth, N.H., and other places taking collections for their benefit.

Source: Historic Storms of New England by Sidney Perley, 1891

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