“Near Cheeks Cross Roads”
Date
2-24-1812
Newspaper
Wilson’s Knoxville Gazette
Page and Column
Page 2, Column 2
Newspaper Location
Knoxville, Tennessee
Serial Number
447
Abstract
Report of a wave formation in a mill pond(sesche) at Cheeks Cross Roads in East Tennessee. Location is near Russelville, Tennessee which is northeast of Morristown in East Tennessee.
Transcript
Near Cheeks Cross Roads, Feb. 7, 1812. MR. WILSON, This morning about 3 o'clock the shock of an Earth-quake was felt in this neighborhood much more severe than either of the lately preceding ones on taking a customary walk about day-light observed the banks of the small creek on which I live, appeared to have been overflowed in the course of the night, the first idea which occurred was that my mill pond had broken loose, but upon examining the fact proved otherwise, I can explain the phenomenon in no otherway than supposing that a surplus quantity of water was thrown over the breast of the dam by the oscilation of the earth during the shock. The springs of two of my neighbors which have never been known to yield any but the purest streams and whose bottom has never exhibited any appearance but that of a mirror, were an hour ago, and I expect still are (12 o-clock) sending forth water angry looking muddy and totally unfit for the common purposes of life. Utterly disclaiming being in any matter shackled by the influence of superstition, we cannot help thinking that the machinations & devastations of the sons of lawless power and ambition in the older hemisphere & the calamities produced & still threatened by the common, & mysterious power and agents of nature in the new. combine to render the present era gloomy and portentous. And whilst feeling we trust a suitable degree of awe in consequence of what has happened we cannot help smiling at the whimsical ideas with which the appearance of the comet, the subsequent battle on the Wabash and the now succeeding shocks of earth-quakes have inspired the minds of the mass of our less intelligent, though not upon that account less respectable brothren. An Old friend.
Recommended Citation
"“Near Cheeks Cross Roads”" (1812). New Madrid Compendium Far-Field Database. 439.
https://digitalcommons.memphis.edu/cas-ceri-new-madrid-compendium/439
