“The Late Earthquakes”

Creator

John H. Robinson

Date

6-4-1812

Newspaper

Philadelphia Aurora and General Advertiser

Page and Column

Page 2, column 4

Newspaper Location

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Serial Number

186

Abstract

Primary source account of the effect of the December 16, 1811 earthquakes at New Madrid and surrounding area. It was possibly written by Dr. John H. Robinson a physician practicing at St. Genevieve at the time of the quakes. Robinson was also on the Zebulon Pike expedition and knew Dr. John Sibley of Nachitoches author or another primary source document on the earthquakes.

Transcript

THE LATE EARTHQUAKES EXTRACT TO THE EDITOR-DATED St. Genevieve, April 1st, 1812, Louisiana Territory The violent shocks of the 16th of December, and 23rd of January last, were severely felt in that part of the district of New Madrid, called the settlement or township of Little Prairie, about 30 miles south south west of Madrid; there the ground had sunk in many places-there were tissues of considerable length; and numberless apertures of a circular form emitting large bodies of water, sand, and a kind of stone coal, or pyrites, mounds of sand rose in several small lakes or swamps, and took the place of their waters; the beds of the cypress swamps rose also en masse 10 to 15 feet high, and appear to be dried up; their banks had sunk in, and there now stands the little water that remained after the shocks; several cabins had sunk in with the ground, all the surface was covered with water, and the inhabitants, apprehending greater inundations, waded through carrying their children with them, and went up to the town of New Madrid, for a place of refuge-the waters having soon subsided, several of the men were able to go back and bring up some part of their property to New Madrid, where they live under tents and light shelters: the shocks of the 16th Dec. and 23d of Jan. had done much injury to the houses (though all frame and log) in the town and township of New Madrid; then a few fissures and apertures were to be met only in the swamps; but the awfulness of the scene produced at the latter place, by the shock of the 7th of Feb. about 3 o'clock in the morning, can hardly be described; the light and less frequent shocks which had been felt since the 23d of Jan. to that day, had lulled a great part of the inhabitants into a kind of security and hope, that no more violent shocks were to come, so that many had left their tents, and slept in their houses-my cares for the safety of my family at the moment of the shock, prevented me from noticing exactly its duration, but the general belief is, that it lasted about three minutes; during which the waters in the Mississippi rose upwards of 20 feet, and unnaturally running back towards their source, filling up instantly the creeks and swamps; whilst the waters, omitted out of the numberless apertures or pits, for 15 miles back in the country, jointing the waters from the Mississippi, threatened a sweeping and total destruction of all that stood on the soil, which is flat for 40 miles back; upwards of 20 boats and barges which were lying for the night on the shore of New Madrid, were hurried up the Mississippi and up the creeks by the retrogradation of the waters, the atmosphere was dark and gloomy, and nature appeared as if violently convulsed in all its elements; at that moment the falling down of chimneys, houses, &c. the shrieks of the woman and children, the holloaing of the boatmen in distress, a roaring, resembling a violent tempest, occasioned by the waters of the Mississippi and those rushing through the woods and bushes, the falling of large trees on every side, all co-operated to fill up every heard with anguish and terror; fortunately the Mississippi soon resumed its natural course; the waters over the soil subsided, some running to the Mississippi, and some running back into the bowels of the earth through the same circular apertures they had come out, filling them with sand and that kind of coal mentioned before. At the dawn of the day the earth was less convulsed, but the atmosphere was still very gloomy, and the shocks continued till 7 o'clock in the evening; at day light it was ascertained that nine boats or barges had been wrecked, more or less, the greater part of the crews had saved themselves, but the greater part of the cargoes were entirely lost; several houses in the country and in the town of New Madrid were leveled with the ground-the chimnies of the rest were shaken down to the foundation, and hardly one house was left tenantable, so that the inhabitants erected light plain shelters, under which they are living still, with great inconvenience, fearing that the freshets in the Mississippi, and the Ohio happening to join, which is often the case between the middle of April and the latter end of May, will overflow the whole flat country, the more so as the banks of the Mississippi at New Madrid have visibly sunk in 10 to 12 feet-the lands back for several miles appear to have sunk in also en masse, but the level has not been ascertained. The farmers seeing the ground cracking, opening, sinking, and those small volcanos mentioned before, breaking out about them, left their plantations in haste, flying in various directions; some loaded their wagons with their light effects, leaving the produce of their farms and bulky effects behind them, and did not stop till they were several hundred miles from the spot of desolation; thus within a few days the district of New Madrid lost the greater part of its best inhabitants. "The question with our best observers in this country, is whether there be really a first cause or principal focus, such as a volcano, &c. producing those far expanding convulsions in the greater part of the two hemispheres at the same time? Whether it cannot be supposed with consistency, that the earthly globe is shaken to its center?-Whether it could be supposed that the first cause is at that very center. Whether, not supposing such general cause, but only local ones, those local ones may not be supposed to have those extensive connections between them, through some conducive ways within the globe?-Whether a certain state of the atmosphere, observed generally long before the convulsions and eruptions, is the moving cause, or the effects of moving causes within the bowels of the earth, &c? I take a great interest in their debate, but unfortunately am not able to put in any share of elucidation on those deep matters."

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