Look Back: Reflections on the strange…
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WINDSTORM
The windstorm which passed over this region of country on last Sunday afternoon, was accompanied with considerable damage. Fences and trees were swept down before it, and the shingles from the roofs of houses flew in all directions. If the fire which broke out at Odbert's refinery about the same time as the storm had been in the city, Parkersburg would have been laid in ashes before midnight. We fear this will be our fate someday, unless we speedily provide against such a probable calamity, by securing water works without delay.
The Parkersburg Daily State Journal,
March 31, 1873
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LIGHTNING BOLT Cut All Sorts of Queer Capers.
From Tuesday's Daily
Daniel Gilchrist, who resides with his family on Lee Creek, is thankful that they are all alive after the exciting experience they had during the terrific storm on Saturday night.
Mr. and Mrs. Gilchrist slept downstairs, the little son lying across the foot of the same bed. When the storm was at its height Mrs. Gilchrist arose, went to another room and lighted a lamp, leaving husband and son asleep. There came a blinding flash of lightning followed instantly by a terrific crash of thunder. The bolt struck the side of the house, entered the upstairs rooms, played around and tumbled things around generally. Then descended to the first floor. Where balls of fire flitted across the room in front of Mrs. Gilchrist, almost blinding here, but Gilchrist slept through it all until the bolt shot through the wall, smashed the bed posts and tore the mattress he was lying on into tatters. As the bed was dropping to the floor in a wreck, he wakened up but strange to say, he was not shocked, though his head was within six inches of one of the bed posts when it was shattered. The mattress was set on fire, and a blaze broke out on the second floor, but they were extinguished before gaining any headway. The furniture and house were pretty badly damaged.
Mr. Gilchrist believes that he was saved from death by the feather tick on top of the mattress. He says he was always told that feathers were non-conductors of lightning, and he now firmly believes it. Had he not been lying on the mattress he certainly would have been killed.
The Parkersburg Semi-Weekly Sentinel,
July 1, 1901
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EXPLOSION ON KANAWHA BOAT
Albatross Had a Narrow Escape at Local Wharf - and the Captain Had His Whiskers Singed.
The Little Kanawha River gasoline packet Albatross, which plies in the trade between this city and Creston, had a narrow escape from being destroyed by fire at the local wharf Wednesday afternoon.
The Albatross had been lying up at the wharf taking on freight, the French [another boat] taking on freight at the same time. When the boat was ready to leave on the trip, Captain Wirt Ball, who was in command, went aft to start the engine, which is operated by gasoline. The engine, when started, ignited a spark and an explosion followed in the hold, which had sufficient force to throw Capt. Ball out the door, but fortunately he escaped injury though his hair was badly singed. A small blaze followed the explosion, but this was extinguished by the men on the boat, assisted by the crew on the French, who turned the hose of that boat on the Albatross.
The supposition is that when the gasoline reservoir was filled a day or two before, that some of it was spilled and that it leaked through to the hold of the boat and the gas forming from volatile fluid ignited as soon as it came in contact with the spark from the engine. Only slight damage was done to the boat, and it left shortly afterwards on the upriver trip.
The Parkersburg Sentinel,
July 28, 1908
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Bob Enoch is president of the Wood County Historical and Preservation Society. If you have comments or questions about Look Back items, please contact him at: roberteenoch@gmail.com, or by mail at WCHPS, PO Box 565, Parkersburg, WV 26102.