This tornado formed near Scenery Hill, snapping trees and telephone poles. It also destroyed several silos and outbuildings. Passing through Beallsville, it toppled two huge poplar trees onto the highway. Here, it also tore the roof off a house and dropped it 100 yards away. At Richeyville, the brick walls of a theatre under construction were blown away. The storehouse at the Rosefield Beach Gas Station was turned upside down. At the Nemacolin Country Club, the clubhouse had roof damage, and trees were torn down.
A farmer in Centerville saw a “big black cone.” He said, “you could see corn stalks, pieces of wood, whole branches of trees flying in the air like confetti.” At the historic Taylor M. E. Church in Centerville, the roof was blown off and windows smashed out. The McCutcheon Monument, a 60-foot tall obelisk located in the cemetery was destroyed. Its huge blocks were scattered over a considerable distance and other tombstones were lofted and scattered “like pebbles.” Across the street from the church, a house was unroofed. A garage was blown away but the car that was inside was unscathed. Corn crops in the area were leveled. Scores of trees were toppled, some of which smashed through roofs and porches. At the Dorsey Brothers Orchard, three miles west of Brownsville on Route 40, over 100 trees were leveled. Several homes through this path were collapsed or destroyed.
The tornado crossed the Monongahela River into Brownsville. This town was the hardest hit by the tornado. The 50-foot steeple of the Central Presbyterian Church was knocked through the roof. The Brownsville Telegraph building was unroofed. A school bus garage was leveled with buses being damaged or destroyed. About 20 stores in Downtown Brownsville were damaged or destroyed, as well. 150-160 homes in Brownsville were unroofed or torn apart, and several others were called “collapsed” or destroyed. Eyewitnesses at Brownsville reported “bricks flying through the air like paper.”
Near Grindstone, at the Newcomer Farm, the large dairy barn was leveled killing three horses and two cows. The south side of the farmhouse was “blown away.” The Methodist-Protestant Church at Rowe’s-Run, a brick structure, was thrown off its foundation and down a hillside. Several other houses in the Grindstone and Rowes’ Run area sustained varying degrees of damage.
At Smock, an 8-year-old boy and a 23-year-old man were killed and one other person injured when a grandstand was blown apart. A nearby warehouse was destroyed. The Union Supply Store was unroofed. Part of the roof was carried 100 feet and landed on the Colonial 3 Hotel. From Smock, the twister continued producing minor damage for about three more miles before it lifted. In addition to the two fatalities, at least 17 people were injured, nine severely enough to be hospitalized.
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