From The Democrat, Huntsville, Alabama, May 5, 1826, pg. 4:

Montgomery, (Ala.) April 7.

             Tornado – On the 29th ult., at about half past seven o’clock P.M. a hurricane passed within three miles of this town, which in its course, did considerable damage to the plantations between this place and the Creek line.

             The breadth of its destructive career, which N.E.E., was nearly a quarter of a mile, and its length so far as it could be traced by the eye, fourteen miles.

             The uproar occasioned by this dreadful visitor was distinctly heard at Montgomery, and his pathway was illumined by one continual blaze of lightning. The plantations of Messrs. Dust. Young, Harris, Sledge and Cleveland suffered severely. The dwelling house and out houses of the latter were swept from their foundations, some of which were literally blown from his plantation. – Much damage was done to the premises of Mr. Sledge. As yet we have not heard of any lives being lost, nor bodily harm done from the effects of the tempest.

             The above information is derived from a gentleman, who shortly afterwards, witnessed the ruins of the tornado, and who also says that no little inconvenience will be experienced in traveling through that section of the country.

             A scientific gentleman adds that he was in the neighborhood of Big Swamp, on an eminence, when the tempest passed, and that electric scintillations were thrown in every direction from the centre of its march. This certainly is an unusual phenomenon.  – Journal