Elizabethtown, PA Tornado, Mar 1830

TREMENDOUS HURRICANE AT ELIZABETHTOWN.

Pittsburg March 26.
Extract of a letter to the Editor.
At 7 o'clock on the 22d inst. our village was visited with a Tornado or Hurricane, more alarming than any thing of the kind ever witnessed by our oldest inhabitants. Not a house, tree, fence, or scarcely any thing, is left standing withing the space it appeared to occupy, which, we think, is about 1/4 of a mile wide, and in a vein from west to east.
Our village presents to the beholder a shocking spectacle. Fourteen houses are blown down and unroofed; five barns and stables, one boat-house, one mill and wool carding establishment, completely crushed, with many other houses much damaged. Many families are turned out without a roof to shelter them from the pitiless storm. Beds, bedding, and household furniture, are to be seen hanging amongst the broken timber, and strewn along the road. Among the principal sufferers in this place, are JOHN CRAIGHEAD, ESQ., F. C. FLANNEGAN, JOHN WILSON, ESQ., and JOHN and SAMUEL WALKER.
The boats along shore were lifted, and thrown on the beach, and broken; and, what is very remarkable, two flat boats were lifted from their moorings, and carried some distance, and torn to pieces, large parts of which have not yet been found. Much damage is also done in the vicinity. Captain THOMAS ROBERTSON'S brick house, kitchen, and ferry house, are all blown down. HUGH M. WILSON, who resides one mile east of this place, had his grist and saw mill, house and barn, carried away to the ground. We have not heard yet from farther than about three miles each way, but as far as heard from, the destruction appears general.
Thanks be to that Providence who watches over and protects us amid such calamitous visitations, no human lives are lost, though many have received slight wounds. We fear to hear from a distance, as the consequences must be disastrous.
Elizabethtown, March 23, 1830

The Republican Compiler Gettysburg Pennsylvania 1830-04-06
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!