September Gale of 1815.-On the 23rd day of September, 1815, a most terrific storm, accompanied with thunder and lightning, visited the coast of New England and spread desolation and dismay in every direction. In a southeasterly direction from South Kingstown, a confused mass of bright copper-colored clouds was seen, which dazzled the sight almost as much as the sun would, shining with its full effulgence. A mass of clouds arose from the horizon and after assuming the arch-like proportions of the rainbow, was driven with frightful rapidity toward the zenith, whilst upon either side were broken clouds that kept up a kind of vibrating and trembling motion that it is difficult to describe.

It was generally supposed that the storm was caused by a submarine volcanic eruption. This opinion was somewhat confirmed by the statement of the captain and crew of a vessel on her way from the Bermudas to Boston, who positively stated that, when about one hundred miles distant from Point Judith in a southeasterly direction, they saw a dense smoke arise from the ocean some miles in-shore, followed by a blaze and fire which appeared to extend over a space of a quarter of a mile. A violent southeast wind arose and continued to increase until it became a frightful hurricane. It was different from any gale ever before witnessed. The wind would blow in one direction for fifteen or twenty minutes and then it would lull for a moment and again resume its former direction with increased velocity. All buildings that had not substantial frames were blown down and the materials scattered in every direction; many others were unroofed, and the tunnels of the chimneys were swept away. Trees of all descriptions were either broken down or uprooted, and even the white oak, which is called the "monarch of the forest," was prostrated to the ground. Fences, and in some cases stone walls, were no protection to corn fields, for they were blown down and the cattle had free range after they had got over their fright. Stacks of fodder were blown over and the contents scattered all over the meadows. The spray was driven twenty miles from the sea, and was recognized by the fruit which had a salt taste. The waves of the sea rose to a frightful height, and broke over Little Neck Beach and washed the sand hills in every direction. Before the gale a range of sand hills extended nearly the whole length of the beach, with intervening spaces which were partly covered with a rank growth of beach grass and a few scattering bunches of bayberry bushes, which afforded shelter for many small birds who deposited their eggs there during the summer season and reared their young birds. The middle bridge over the Pettaquamscutt river was swept away, as the water extended from the foot of the hill on the Dyer farm to a considerable distance up the pasturage, beyond the first wall east of the bridge. Two families occupied a house which stood at the northeastern extremity of Little Neck Beach, and some members of each family were drowned, for the house was swept away by the flood. James Phillips, the father of one of the families (a white man), after the water had ascended some feet above the floor, laid hold on a chest and floated a mile up the river and cove and landed alive on the Hannah Hill meadow. Jesse Weeden (a colored man) was last seen alive on the top of the house hanging to the chimney, but was at length carried away and found dead upon the farm of Mr. Nichols. William Short, a lad ten years of age, was found on the Samuel Helm lot adjoining the homestead of Stephen Caswell, and two colored children were also found there. These three children were buried in the evening in the orchard of the Dyer farm, then owned by John J. Watson.

Captain John A. Saunders was building his first vessel on the training lot (as it was called) at this time, but she was not carried away, for he had blocked her up very high in order to square her bottom ; but his temporary workshop was thrown down and tools scattered all around. The water rose very high at New York and at all the intervening places between there and Boston. The most furious work of the hurricane was on the coast between Cape Cod and New London. Several vessels were wrecked and quite a number of seamen were drowned. When the storm commenced six men on Point Judith, whose names were William Knowles and his son William, Joseph Hawkins, Jabez Allen and two colored boys named Joseph and Peter Case, went to the beach to secure a boat, but becoming frightened by an enormous wave (which was thought to be forty feet high when it broke by those who saw it, took refuge in an ox-cart, but were swept away and drowned. The bodies of all of these men were found when the waters subsided, with the exception of William Knowles' son, whose body was found twenty-one days afterward on Ram Island by Jeremiah W. Whalley, who in company with his cousin Ezekiel was on the island, gunning. William Knowles' son, without doubt, landed on the island alive, and had crawled up on a stone little distance out of reach of the tide, but was so much exhausted that he died there.

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