The Lunenburg-Nottoway-Dinwiddie-Prince George Tornado In Virginia – May 5, 1834

The tornado family crossed into Prince George County near the home of Mr. J.V. Wilcox. There is no mention of damage at this location. It roared to the east-northeast and leveled the stable and all of the slave cabins at the Augustine Burge Plantation. Several people were injured there, but there were no fatalities reported. At the nearby Baird Plantation, the wagoner, John, was killed when a tree fell onto him. All of the tenant homes were demolished, and the only thing left standing was the two-story house of Mr. Baird. The twister crossed over the residence of Mr. William Shands Jr. It decimated a cotton gin, stable, and kitchen. Several slaves were in the kitchen, and at least two were severely injured. “One of them was carried with the wreck of the house at least fifty yards.”

Ann Thweatt’s residence was located about two miles north of Prince George Court House. Her property took a direct hit. It was reported that “every house upon the place, with the exception of the family residence, and one other protected by a row of very large locust trees, was leveled to the ground or hurled in shattered fragments through the air. The lighter articles such as shingles, corn and tobacco from the cribs and barns, were blown, in some instances more than a mile.” One slave was killed, and twelve others were injured.

Damage was reported at Prince George Court House, but it may have been due to downburst winds. A gentleman who traveled the path in this county to document the destruction noted that the courthouse was just “within the outer circumference of the vortex.” It was reported that the northern wall of the jail was destroyed.

The tornado was visible from Prince George Court House as it swept through Ann Thweatt’s Plantation. It was described as “resembling a volume of boiling water, the whole mass moving eastwardly, yet rapidly whirling around, and at the same time in a state of internal commotion like water foaming and boiling over.”

The Petersburg Intelligencer reported the following about the extraordinary tree damage that occurred in parts of Prince George County. “So tremendous was the storm that, from Walnut Hill, Mr. J.V. Wilcox’s country residence, to Preston, the residence of Mrs. Ann Thweatt, you have a vista scarcely interrupted by a solitary tree, a distance of four or five miles. The forests, too through which the tornado passed, were wooded with as majestic a growth as can be found probably in Virginia.”

The tornado then tracked through another forested area, annihilated a half-mile wide by two-mile-long swath of trees, and then moved into the property of Benjamin Fenner. Out of the ten houses on his property, only three were left intact. The gentleman mentioned before, who was gathering damage details, described what he saw on the land of Mr. Fenner. “And here was furnished a convincing proof that the devastation was occasioned by a whirlwind proceeding, (in a nearly direct line) with a violent rotary motion, and not by a hurricane blowing from one point of the compass to an opposite one. Two of Mr. Fenner’s houses stood nearly opposite, on the east and west sides of his yard: these were unroofed and carried toward each other so as to nearly meet in the middle of the yard. This proof however, was afforded throughout the whole course by the trees, which at some points lay thrown with their heads generally to the east, and at other places, at a very short distance, they as generally fell to the west. Many particular trees were observed lying transversely to the general direction of those near them, and in many instances the trunks of the largest trees were twisted off at various heights from the ground, as if by some powerful engine.”

What appeared to be a weakening tornado moved east-northeasterly, blowing down the occasional tree or two until it finally dissipated in the vicinity of Tarby and Coggin’s Point about 1.5 miles west of Powell’s Creek.