WOMAN SEES TORNADO RAZE BIRTHPLACE

Historic Old Sears Home at Whitewright Destroyed by Twister
by G.B.Ray

WHITEWRIGHT, Texas, April 12 -- When Mrs. W.A. Kirkpatrick stood at the window of her home last Thursday and watched the zigzag path of a tornado, she witnessed also the destruction of her childhood home, the famous old house and early landmark known as the J.H. Sears home.

Mrs. Kirkpatrick who was Miss Alice Sears before her marriage to the Rev. W.A. Kirkpatrick, is the sole survivor of the family that was born and reared in this house.  She has lived her entire life of more than seventy-five years within a quarter of a mile of her birthplace.  Now the storm has erased it from the landscape, and the tall, stately cedars which had been planted by J. H. Sears more than seventy years ago, and carefully tended by his descendants, now are twisted, stripped and broken.

J.H. Sears came from Alabama in 1850 with his father, Christopher Sears, and eleven brothers and sisters.  They liked this country and decided to settle here on the blackland on the western edge of Fannin County.  They became large landholders and prosperous farmers.  J. H. Sears early realized the need of a church in this area and not long after his arrival he built a small building for that purpose and called it Sears Chapel.  It was used by people of all faiths and was the scene of many great revivals.

In 1855, Joe Sears returned to Alabama for his bride.  In 1856 he began the construction of the house pictured here.  All of the lumber was hauled from Jefferson and the house was put together with pegs.  It became a rendezvous for traveling preachers of every sect.  No traveler was ever turned away; there way always enough food cooked to set an extra palate or two.  The hospitality extended visitors made the home widely known and popular.

The family of two brothers and two sisters were born and reared there.

Mr. and Mrs. Sears, the original owners of the house, lived in it for over fifty years and until their deaths in 1907 and 1908.  Since then it has been the property of a son, the late T. T. Sears.

Mrs. Kirkpatrick's recent experience in weathering a Texas twister is not her first one.  Exactly twenty-four years ago, on April 8, 1919, a severe tornado struck the same area.  Windows of the Kirkpatrick home were broken and a part of the roof was blown away; the windmill was wrecked and the barns were unroofed. The storm of last week skirted the east side of the Kirkpatrick home and did no more than rattle the windows and shake the doors. Thus, the home has twice escaped the full fury of the twisters.

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At the T. H. Sears home, a show place and an old and well known landmark about a mile east of town, the old home was swept away and the smokehouse and water tower were demolished, scattered pieces of wood and a few pieces of iron left in the wake.  No sign of meat stored in the smokehouse was found.

The grove of large trees surrounding the place was badly damaged some trees torn up by the roots.  The two-story white colonial home, built about 25 years ago just south of the old house, was covered with mud as if it had been sprayed with a gun.  Other than a few broken windows, this building was undamaged.  Mrs. sears was alone at home at the time.

The twister struck the Oak Hill cemetery, uprooting and breaking trees and blowing over monuments.  At the Jerome May farm, the home was blown off the blocks to the site of an old house, which was demolished.  Mr. and Mrs. May and daughter, Mrs. Audrey Evans, were in the newer house but were uninjured.

On the Claude Birdwell farm, the house, barn and other outbuildings were destroyed.  The family had sought safety in the storm house and were unharmed.  Two barns on the C. B. Bryant farm were also destroyed.  Grover Smith and Clarence Burden are tenants on the Bryant farm.  The home of Mrs. Walter Pritchett on the farm east of the Bryant farm was badly damaged and a barn was destroyed.

Little warning was given to residents of the approaching storm.  Following a rain which had lasted most of the day, the sky and atmosphere turned almost totally dark about 2 p.m. and was followed by the cyclone, after which came a deluge of rain.

Those who surveyed the course of the storm and the ruins reported it followed a south to northeasterly siz-sag course, doing the most damage in valleys and ravines and other low places.  Property damage and loss of livestock has not yet been estimated.