A Full Description of the Great Tornado in Chester County, Pa.Darlington, Richard
History
A Full Description of the Great Tornado in Chester County, Pa.
Darlington, Richard
Chester County (Pa.) -- History; Tornadoes -- Pennsylvania -- Chester County
It is needless to attempt a description of the power exerted by the
storm at this point, as many visitors who have been there declare that
no description they had of it previously, conveyed any clear idea of
the reality, and the mind is utterly powerless to conceive how any
force can be generated to move an element so light and soft as the
atmosphere we breathe, with such tremendous velocity as that required
to produce the effect seen here, and many other places along its line
of travel. As it passed from this valley over the hill, in the
direction of Ercildoun, at a distance of about three-eights of a mile
from where I stood, I could distinctly see the branches of trees
flying rapidly as they were thrown off by the centrifugal force of the
whirl, the center being so densely filled with dust, leaves, etc., and
the motion so rapid, that in it nothing could be recognized. It now
moved across a cornfield but lately cultivated, belonging to Joseph
Brinton, and here the most terrible-looking sight yet beheld presented
itself, for the astonishing quantities of dust rolling upward,
together with the dreadful roaring, and the sun almost shining,
presented the appearance of a great moving fire, and such many
supposed it to be. Our nearest neighbors left their house
terror-stricken, and came towards ours, believing, the world was on
fire and the Judgment Day had surely come, a belief maintained by
others as well as by them, while the horses ran as far as they could
get from the frightful object.
It could now be distinctly seen that Ercildoun lay directly in its
pathway, and I was almost horrified to think of such a destructive
power moving through a village, for it seemed to a beholder as though
no structure erected by human hands could, for a moment, stand before
it, and it seems marvellous, considering the destruction done at this
place, that not a single human life was lost, and only one in its
whole line of about 20 miles travel. The new dwelling house being
erected by Richard Darlington, was about the first in the vicinity to
share the fate of destruction, and the moment it was struck the
timbers could be seen flying high in the air and scattering in all
directions. The next instant the school building was obscured from
view, but in a moment reappeared again, showing it to be on the
outside of the center, and not in the full force of the storm.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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