Tornado Hits Bellevue

A fearful Tornado passed over the village of Bellevue, just above Newport, on Saturday afternoon, between one and two o'clock.  Six or seven frame houses were in course of construction in the place, and all were blown down or damaged by the storm.  The buildings were being erected for the following individuals, viz: Reuben Tedrow, Frederick Heintz, V. Harris, Job Thompson, and a Mr. Robb of Cincinnati.  Mr. Thompson's house was greatly damaged.  The buildings of Mr. Harris and Mr. Robb were almost completely wrecked.  The damage to each of them is about six hundred dollars.  The houses of Tedrow and Heintz were not in a very forward state of construction, and the damage to them, therefore, was not so great as the others.  Mr. Spencer Reeves had just finished a large stable in Bellevue, which was completely demolished, many of the timbers being carried a distance of a quarter of a mile.  Mr. Reeves loss will amount to between $1,200 and $1,400.  Several carpenters who were engaged at work on the frame houses, when they saw the stable blow away, ran to an open field for safety.  They state that the air suddenly became dark, and that boards, rails, and pieces of timber from the buildings were hurled over their heads at a frightful rate.  None of them, however, was injured.  The small building at Taylor's Creek Bridge, which is used as a tollhouse, was blown into the air for a considerable distance, and finally came down on the opposite side of the road.  A large sycamore tree, which stood near the bridge, was blown down and the trunk twisted in a fearful manner, showing the great force of the tornado.  Wolf's Rolling Mill and the Miami Coal Oil Refinery, which situated but a short distance this side of Bellevue, were partially unroofed by the storm.   The steamer Allegheny Belle as passing up the Ohio River, opposite Bellevue, at the time of the storm, having a number of barges in tow, two of which were blown loose from her and drifted down the stream, but were afterward caught by one of the ferry boats.  The tornado came from the northeast and seems to have extended a considerable distance up the river.  The Maysville packet Columbia encountered it a short distance below Dover, but the boat was not injured.  The passengers, however, were considerably alarmed for a while.  After the storm five or six cows were found minus their horns.  It is supposed they were knocked off by flying timbers.

 From the Cincinnati Enquirer, Monday, August 26, 1867