“The Earthquake”

Date

2-17-1812

Newspaper

Boston Independent Chronicle

Page and Column

Page 1, Column 5

Newspaper Location

Boston, Massachusetts

Serial Number

170

Abstract

Account from the Chickasaw Bluffs(Memphis, TN) dated December 21, 1811. gives the effects of the December 16, 1811 earthquake on the Mississippi River. Extracted from the Liberty Hall of Cincinnati, Ohio.

Transcript

FROM LIBERTY HALL - The Earthquake.- An interesting letter from a gentleman of respectability, dated at Chickasaw Bluff's, December 21, states, that the first shock of the earthquake occurred at 30 minutes past 2 o'clock, in the morning of the 16th, the same time it seems to have been felt in the Atlantic states and in this country. That shock was followed during the 16th and the following night by nineteen others; on the 17th there were three, and the following night several others; on the 18th there were seven shocks; and several through the succeeding night; on the 20th there were five, and on the 21st, when the letter was written, the earth was still trembling. The first and second vibrations, and that between 11 and 12 o'clock on the 17th were the most violent. The effect of these shocks appear to have been of the most alarming kind. The barge commanded by the author of the letter was anchored in 2 1-2 fathoms water, about 17 miles below New Madrid, or 87 below the mouth of the Ohio. The boat was acted on by the water in a manner that excited a supposition of her being grounded, but upon founding, they could find no bottom. The current increased to three times the velocity it had the preceeding evening; the crew of a boat at the shore testified that the river rose six feet in a short time; and that no spot on the land was to be found that was not (as they expressed it) "giving." Two flat-bottomed boats that were laying at the shore were destroyed. One was broken entirely to pieces, and the other overturned - the crew saved themselves. At the second shock, millions of trees that were imbedded in the mud in the bottom of the river, suddenly had one end elevated to the surface rendering the river almost impassable. At the same time the banks were shook into the river in large masses. Upon passing the Little Prairie, the inhabitants were found to have all fled to the highlands. It was stated by some hunters near the Bayou river, that the ground was cracked into innumerable fissures, and large quantities of water were issuing out of them. An island just above the mouth of the Bayou river, was extremely agitated, and seemed to require but little to sink it. The lakes which lie in the valley of the Mississippi, were discharging large quantities of water into that river; and the water fowl of that region were observed throughout the whole of the 16th to keep consistantly on the wing. The writer of the letter had not heard from any place farther down the river than the Chicasaw Bluffs, about 170 miles below the mouth of the Ohio; but his letter closes with an expression of the deepest anxiety respecting the country nearer the Gulph.

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