“From the Bardstown Repository”

Creator

Matthias Speed

Date

4-2-1812

Newspaper

Ohio Centinel

Page and Column

page 2, Column 1, 2, 3.

Newspaper Location

Dayton, Ohio

Serial Number

1276

Abstract

Long account by Matthias Speed to the Bardstown Repository

Transcript

EARTHQUAKE. From the Bardstown [Kentucky] Repository. In descending the Mississippi on the night of the 6th February, we tied our boat to a willow bar on the west bank of the river, opposite the head of the 9th Island (counting from the mouth of the Ohio) we were lashed to another boat-about 3 o'clock on the morning of the 7th, we were waked by the violent agitation of the boat, attended with a noise more tremendous and terrific that I can describe or any one conceive, who was not present or near to such a scene. The constant discharge of heavy cannon might give some idea of the noise for loudness, but this was infinitely more terrible, on account of its appearing to be subterraneous. As soon as we waked we discovered that the bar to which we were tied was sinking, we cut lose and rowed our boats for the middle of the river. After getting out so far as to be out of danger from the trees, which were falling in from the banks-the swells in the river were so great as to threaten the sinking of the boat every moment. We stopped the oar holes with blankets to keep out the water-after remaining in this situation for some time, we perceived a light on the shore which we left-(we having a lighted candle in a lantern on our boat) were hailed and advised to land, which we interrupted to do but could not effect, finding the banks and trees still falling in. At daylight we perceived the head of the 10th island. During all this time we had made only about 4 miles down the river-from which circumstance, and from that of an immense quantity of water rushing into the river from the woods, it is evident that the earth at this place or below, had been raised so high as to stop the progress of the river, and cause it to overflow its banks. We took the right hand channel of the river at this Island, and reached within about half a mile of the lower end of the town, we were affrighted with the appearance of a dreadful rapid or falls in the river just below us, we were so far in the suck that it was impossible now to land-all hope of surviving was now lost and certain destruction appeared to await us! We having passed the rapids without injury, keeping our bow foremost, both boats being still lashed together. As we passed the point on the left hand below the island, the bank and trees were rapidly falling in. From the state of alarm I was in at this time, I cannot pretend to be correct as to the length or height of the falls-but my impression is that they were about equal to the rapids of the Ohio. As we passed the lower point of the island, looking back up the left channel, we thought the falls extended higher up the river on that side than on the right. The water of the river, after it was fairly light appeared to be almost black with something like the dust of stone-coal. We landed at New-Madrid about breakfast time, without having experienced any injury-the appearance of the town and the situation of the inhabitants were such as to afford but little relief to our minds. The former evaluation of the bank on which the town stood, was estimated by the inhabitants at about 25 feet above common water-when we reached it the elevation was only about 2 or 3 feet-there was scarcely a house left entire; some wholly prostrated, others unroofed, and not a chimney standing; people all having deserted their habitations, were in camps and tents back of the town and their little water crafts such as skiffs and canoes, hauled out of the water to their campus, that they might be ready in case the country should sink. I remained at New-Madrid from the 7th to, the 12th, during which time I think shocks of earthquakes were experienced every 15 or 20 minutes-those shocks were all attended with a rumbling noise resembling distant thunder, from the south-west, varying in report according to the force of the shock. When I left the place, the surface of the earth was very little, if any, above the tops of the boats in the river. There was one boat coming down on the morning I landed; when they came in sight of the falls, the crew were so frightened at the prospect that they abandoned their boat and made for the island in their canoes; two were left on the island and two made for the west bank in the canoe; about the time of their landing, they say that the island was violently convulsed; one of the men on the island threw himself into the river to save himself by swimming, one of the men from shore met him with the canoe and saved him. This man gave such an account of the convulsions of the island that neither of the three dared to venture back for the remaining man; the three men reached New-Madrid by land-one man remaining on the island from Friday morning till Sunday evening, when he was taken off by a canoe sent from a boat coming down. I was several days in company with this man; he stated that during his stay on the island there were frequent eruptions, in which sand, storecoal and water were thrown up. The violent agitation of the ground was such at one time as induced him to hold to a tree to support himself; the earth gave way at the place and lie with the tree trunk down; he got wounded in the fall; the fissure was so deep as to put it out of his power to get out of that place; he made his way along the fissure until a sloping side offered him an opportunity of crawling out. He states that frequent lights appeared that in one instance after one of the explosions near where he stood, he approached the hole from which the coal and sand had been thrown up, which was now filled with water, and on putting his hand into it found it warm. During my stay at New-Madrid there were upwards of twenty boats landed, all of whom spoke of the rapids above and conceived of it as I had done. Several persons who came up the river in a small barge, represented that these were other falls in the Mississippi about 7 miles below N. Madrid, principally on the eastern side; more dangerous than those above; and that some boats had certainly been lost in attempting to pass them; but they thought it was practicable to pass by keeping close to the west shore. From what I had seen and heard, I was deterred from proceeding further; and nearly gave away what property I had. On may return by land up the right side of the river, I found the surface of the earth for 10 or 12 miles cracked in numberless places, running in different directions; some were bridged, others filled up with logs to make them passable. In some of these cracks the earth sunk from the level to the distance of five feet, and from one to three feet there was water in most of them. Above this the cracks were not so numerous nor so great; but the inhabitants had generally left their dwellings and gone to higher grounds. Nothing appeared to have issued from the cracks; but whenever there was sand and stonecoal, they seem to have been thrown up from holes in most of those, which varied in size, there was water standing. In New-Madrid there was 4, but neither of them had vented stone or sand; the size of them in diameter varied from 15 to 50 feet, and in depth, from 5 to 10 feet, from the surface to the water. In traveling out from New-Madrid those holes were very frequent, and were to be seen in different places, as high as Fort Massae, on the Ohio. MATTHIAS M. SPEED

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