The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1878-08-17
An APPALLING TORNADO.
How n Connecticht Village was Wreekesi in
an Instant and Many Lives Lost.

How n Connecticht Village was wreskeain
an Instant and Many Lives Lost.
The recent tornado at Wallingford,
Conn. by which about thirty persons
! lost their lives and many houses were
torn from their foundations and scat
! tered to the. winds in a'twinkling, was
one Of the most disastrous events in the
history of the State. A New York paper
describes some of the scenes and Incl
dents as follows;
Before CRY could be raised, or pre-
paration made to escape, death-dealing
blast fell upon the homes of the poor.
| The heavy clouds over Windermere
Lake seemed suddenly to descend, to
drop upon the lake, and the waters were
churned into foam. With great whirl-
ing and whistling, the winds from oppo-
site quarters seemed to meet. A great
volume of water was lifted from the lake,
and went swirling up and up into the
air. lightning is not quicker than was
the advance from west to east of this
column of water and the clouds that
seemed to mingle with it. In second
| it started ON a forward course Before it
/ lay the Sand Plains, on which about
/ fifty poor families, mostly Irish, have
bought lots and established their dwell
ings. Many of the buildings were old,
i but few were new, and their owners
were proud of having built them for
wife and children. The plains were
nearly fiat for distance west to east of
about a third of mile. Then the land
rises rapidly to the ridge on which Main
street is laid out. Corn and tobacco
grow on this hillside, and at the top are
pretty country homes, spacious barns,
and country road lined with elm trees
that are scores of years older than the
Oldest inhabitant The Wallingford'
Community had water-wheel on the
shore of Windermere Lake. The whirl-
wind caught it, and it was crumbled as
if it had been built of straws. A few
hundred yards from the lake, to the east
of it, was poor cottage in which lived
Michael Twohey, his wife Mary, and
their sons Daniel and Michael. Michael
was in the village. With the first puff of
wind the woman attempted to shut the
windows. The boys assisted her. Before
they knew what had happened, the
house was leveled to the earth. A power
that seemed irresistible carried the
building, twisted into fragments, flying
through the air. Mrs. Twohey was
caught up and hurled along through
branches of trees and over telegraph
wires, beyond the railroad, across two
lanes, a distance of nearly quarter of a
mile, when she was flung down battered,
and gashed, and bloody. The boys were
blown through windows along with
bricks, and pots, and pans. Michael
was carried into the branches of pros
trated apple tree. Daniel was whirled
away on the gale $50 yards, where he
was flung down SO violently as to have
his arm broken, while his face was q
mass of hvid blue spots and deep
scratches.
AS the wind sped on it whipped the
| tops off of the corn, cut the clover as if
it had been moved, tore up telegraph
poles and tossed them into the air as if
they had been feathers. The wind
swirled and gyrated more swiftly, and its
power seemed to develop as the cyclone
advanced. When it passed over the
railroad, carrying with it q hurting mass
of rubbish from the Twohey cabin, and
from one or two other places that had
been crushed, it fell with terrible effect
upon the. houses of Mrs. Margaret
Mooney and her son, John Mooney. In
| Mrs. Margaret MONEYS house there
were four persons, three of whom were
children. In the little cabin of John
Mooney were himself, his wife and three
children. Near by, in Colony street,
was another row of small buildings,
cabins of story and half in height,
dotting each side of the road for half a
mile. High street and Wallace's row
| intersect Colony street, and lead up over
| hill to Main street. On these streets
were other cabins and few neat, new
dwellings,, and about them were gardens
all thriving and we'll kept. The deadly
blast needed not the pretty gardens, or
the little children whose faces were
pressed against the window panes to
watch the storm, against which they felt
so secure. In the twinkling of an eye
everything was crushed, and then the
fragments of what were but a moment
before houses were carried aloft in the
consuming gale, to mingle with masses
of tree trunks and branches, potato
vines, chairs, clothing, and all manner
of things in the craziest confusion.
Houses in Colony street were lifted from
their foundations and crushed, while
the roofs went sailing over the plain to-
ward the hill, crumbling into fragments
as they went.
Right in the path of the gale stood
the Roman Catholic church, hemmed in
on three sides by cemetery, In which
stood some handsome btown-stone and
marble monuments. The church was a
plain one, worth perhaps less than
go, 900, and was fitted with an organ and
church furniture of ordinary description.
The storm plowed into the foundations,
pressing them away from the Frame
work. Then the walls, side and back,
were crushed in, and the roof fell SO as
to cover all completely. A more com
plete wreck than this church could not
have been made, except by fire. It was
literally mass of fre-wood. As if to
make the devastation more complete, the
wind carried laths in masses mile over
the ridge to the east, and flung them
down in the fields broadcast, like SOW
ing of seed. Opposite the church were
several little tenements, all occupied by
large families. When the gale had
passed nothing remained to indicate
that there had been houses there except
the gaping cellars, emptied OF contents,
and a line Of splinters, leading into other
lines that at last met in an unbroken
covering to the ground Of broken loists,
fences, dead fowls, kitchen utensils, and
clothing.
In this spot, an eighth of a mile on
each side of and opposite to the Catholic
Church, the great loss of life occurred.
It is remarkable fact that every per-
son killed was member of the Catholic
Church. In one of the houses lived
Mrs. Downes, middle-aged woman.
She was whirled away 900 feet, and was
picked up dead and almost naked. A
hay-stack on John Lynch's farm was
carried an eighth of mile, and then
dropped upon the side of the hill.
All this destruction was done in much
less time than it takes to write it. With
appalling velocity the wind swept up
the hill. toward Main street, still whirl-
ing and eddying about, and dropping d
! obou7or of r77hhish on the fnhoaco f1alde