“Earthquakes”

Date

2-22-1812

Newspaper

Vincennes Western Sun

Page and Column

Page 2, Column 2

Newspaper Location

Vincennes, Indiana

Serial Number

130

Abstract

Report of the effect of the February 7, 1812 earthquake at Vincennes and the surrounding region. Plus a synopsis of damage in the United States.

Transcript

EARTHQUAKES. Between the hours of 3 and 5 on the morning of Friday last, a shock of the Earthquake was felt in this place, much more violent and alarming than any which have hitherto been experienced. It was also of greater duration and accompanied with a rumbling noise and flashes of light from the N. W. The bricks on the houses were in some places, removed from their positions. The buildings were violently agitated, and the walls are known in some influences to have been cracked. At Louisville the gable ends of houses have tumbled down, and at Frankfort we hear that the penitentiary has partially suffered. Except the last, all the other shocks which have occurred, seem to have been very generally and sensibly felt throughout North America. Orleans has entirely escaped, and a few other places have been visited with but slight shocks and experienced very little alarm or injury. From New Madrid, we learn that several men deserted their families, during the last shocks, and have never been heard of since-that several persons were wounded in their houses-that about Little Prairie, where the earth burst open, mud, sand, water and stone coal were thrown up to a considerable distance; and that large trees were split open 15 or 20 feet up. At Masac on the Ohio, the earth on both banks of the river, has been rent by a fissure 16 or 18 inches wide. A Natchez paper, states, that several gentlemen had arrived at that place from the Chickasaw bluffs on the Mississippi, who inform, that the damage sustained at that place, from the earthquake, was immense. Previous to their leaving it, seven Indians came in, who had been out as far as the Rocky mountain, in the northwest in pursuit of game. Those Indians who are known and can be relied on are said to have stated, that when they left their camps, the mountains appeared to be tumbling to pieces-large trees were snapped off at their roots, and dashed together in the greatest disorder-rocks as large as houses were thrown into the vallies from the tops of mountains in many places the earth seemed to be much heated, and every direction were to be seen evident signs of volcanic eruptions. The Indians rode day and night, believing from the convulsive shocks which they felt, that a general destruction was to ensure, and determined to perish with their relatives amidst the material wreck. Accounts from Ashville, Buncombe county, North Carolina, state the Earthquake on the 15th and 16th December, to have filled the inhabitants with unusual horror. The last appearance of the Comet-the brilliant illuminations of the aurora borealis for several nights previous, together with the bloodlike colour of the sun for some days, greatly alarmed the timid and superstitious. The inhabitants of the place were roused by a dreadful rumbling noise, which was represented as louder than the sound of a hundred wagons driven precipitately down the adjacent mountain.-Several shocks succeeded each other during the day, when the undulations of the earth are said to have resembled those of the waves of the sea. The women and child shrieked with alarms, several persons was thrown on their feet-as also were cows, indicating their fears by painful bellowings. It was more violent in valleys than on the mountains. In a valley near Ashville, the vats in a tan yard were displaced, their edges in some cases raised three feet above their former level, and in others turned partly round, and left in a zigzag condition. So many fervent prayers have never been put up in that place before. The manners of the people have so much chainged as to resemble very much a revival in religion. Intelligence from the warm springs in N. Carolina, states the effect of the Earthquake to have been still more terrific. The most tremenduous noise was heard from the neighboring mountains for several hours before the last shock. These shocks succeeded each other with increased violence, and excited apprehensions that nature was about to expire. A few huts at the springs for the accommodation of invalids received the only damage that was sustained. Flashes of fire were seen issuing from the sides of the mountains, attended with snaps or cracks like those resulting from the discharge of an electric battery, but one thousands times louder. In the morning of the 16th a large stream of water heated as high as 142 degrees by Farh. Was observed to issue from the fissure of a rock in the side of a mountain which had been opened the preceding night. During the last shock the tops of the trees were greatly agitated-the earth shook with violence, and the water of the warm springs, (which was at the time overflowed by the French broad river) was thrown up several times to the heighth of 30 or 40 feet. Masses of stone were loosened and precipitated from the tops and sides of the mountains. The Painted Rock well known to travelers was torn from its base, fell across the road leading from the springs to Knoxville, and completely shut it up against the passage of wagons. Those who are moving to the westward are unable to proceed until a new road is made round the rock.

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