Noah Webster and the Tornado

June 6, 2018

I’m still amazed by all the tree damage done to Connecticut by the “storm” on May 15th. I think the man who wrote to the editor was Noah Webster. You know, the guy who wrote the dictionary! He wrote of a tornado in 1839:

“I was at the house of Mr. Cooke, ten miles from New Haven on the Turnpike road to Hartford. The only circumstances worth notice, at that place, were the immense quantity of water which fell between 12 and 1 o’clock, and the calmness of the air.”¹

Webster also wrote of a tornado that hit Connecticut in 1787. He would’ve been in his 20’s at that time.

¹ “From the New Haven Herald,” letter to the editors, N. Webster, Hartford Courant, Conn., 9 August 1839, p. 2, col. 4.

Find A Grave, https://findagrave.com/, memorial 1084, image of Noah Webster Jr. gravestone (Grove Street Cem., New Haven, Fairfield Co., Conn.) by “H.C.~Maine,” 20 November 2010.

About Author

Vanessa Wood is a genealogical researcher and writer specializing in American family history, with particular depth in Southern states, California, and families with roots in the United Kingdom. She is a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists (APG) and the National Genealogical Society (NGS), and holds a Certificate in Genealogical Research from Boston University. She is a First Prize winner of the 2026 Montana Family History Writing Contest and has 25+ published articles in journals including the National Genealogical Society Quarterly. Vanessa is the author of Pryor Wives: Stories of Family, Fortune, and Fiasco (2023), Board in Venice (2025), and The Kinship Papers, Vol. 1. Her books are available on Amazon.com. She can be contacted via email.