“Earthquakes”

Date

3-2-1812

Newspaper

Wilson’s Knoxville Gazette

Page and Column

Page 3, Column 2 and 3

Newspaper Location

Knoxville, Tennessee

Serial Number

449

Abstract

Article from the American Statesman(Lexington, Kentucky). Notes damage from various places in the United States. For the February 7, 1812 earthquake.

Transcript

From the American Statesman. February 11. EARTH-QUAKES. Between the hours of three and four on the morning of Friday last, a shock of the Earth-quake 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 North West. The bricks on the Houses were were in some places, removed from their positions. The buildings were violently agitated, and walls, are known in some instances, to have been cracked.-At Louisville the gable end of the houses have tumbled down and at Frankfort, we hear that the Penitentiary has partially suffered. Except the last, all the other shocks which have occured, seem to have been very generally and sensibly felt throughout North America. Orleans has entirely escaped, & a few other places have been visited with both slight shocks. and experienced very little alarm or injury. From New Madrid, we learn that several men deserted their families during the late shocks, and 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 Massac 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 earth quake was immense. Previous to their leaving it seven Indians, who had been out as far as the rocky mountain in the North West; in the 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 the roots, and dashed together in the greatest disorder; rocks as large as houses was thrown into the vallies from the tops of mountains-in many places the earth seemed to be much heated, & in 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 about to ensue, and determining to perish with their relatives amidst the material wreck.

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