A shattering great wind

Rochester, Minnesota circa 1883

What power had I Before I learned to yield? Shatter me, great wind: I shall possess the field. - Richard Wilbur, Two Voices in The Meadow "Between 7:00 PM and 7:05 PM, the tornado moved northeast through northern Rochester.  Charles Wilson's barn on College Hill was about the first building struck and demolished.  The tornado then unroofed W. S. Booth's house.  The cupola of the court house was lifted and dashed through the roof to the auditor's office.  Two chimneys on Albert Harrington's new residence were blown over and broke the rafters.  The steeple of the Methodist church was blown over and through the roof.  It pressed out the east wall and crushed through the audience room and eventually ended up in the basement.

Possible Tornado Track through Rochester, MN

The steeple of the Congregational church, where 35 children had just returned from a picnic, was blown off.  Fortunately, no children were injured. The Baptist church's roof was injured slightly.  Nearly every tin roof of the business blocks on Broadway was blown off.  Geo. Stockings's new brick  grocery store on the corner of Fourth and Broadway was demolished with its contents.  Vedder's block of three stores had the roof taken off and south side blown off.  Vedder's Farm Machinery depot was unroofed and badly wrecked.  Van Dusen & Co.'s elevator had about a third of the roof blown off and south side badly injured.  Whetton & Judd's elevator was unroofed.  Horton's elevator was cut into the middle and on-half thrown on a freight train on a side track.  The Rochester Harvester works buildings were completely demolished.  The Zumbro flouring mills had a portion of the third story blown out bodily and the whole structure is badly wrecked.  He had apparently left the mill to go home when he was killed by the storm.  The engine house and cooper shop were wrecked, two car loads of flour were blown into the race and eight cars on the track were turned over.  John M. Cole, the proprietor of the mill, was found dead in the street between the mill and his residence.  He had apparently left the mill to go home when he was killed by the storm.  The Chicago & North Western Railroad yards received severe damage from the tornado. Box cars, buildings and stock pens were destroyed.  Mrs. Gilbert Smith's house, standing west of the Asylum, had the roof of the main part blown off.  A railroad bridge was blown down. Trees and debris are scattered throughout the streets and great rolls of tin roofing were strewn around the business thoroughfares.  Chickens, absolutely devoid of feathers but otherwise uninjured, were found unharmed on North Broadway.

Over 135 homes were destroyed and another 200 were damaged.  All of the dwelling houses destroyed were occupied an owned by people in moderate circumstances, principally laborers, who lost everything they owned.  These buildings were mostly north of the railroad track.  Through the district, oak trees were stripped of their foliage, nearly all of them being twisted, broken and   blackened.  Sidewalks were carried away and fences were gone.  Household effects, or rather the remnants of them, were strewn all over the place.

Will Reicke was picked up by the tornado, hurled across the Zumbro River and deposited near the Oak Wood Cemetery, where all the gravestones had been blown flat.  He escaped with a broken leg, a fractured wrist, and minor injuries."

source: http://www.crh.noaa.gov/arx/?n=aug211883tornadoes