“From Mr. Smith of the Firm of Braken and Smith”

Date

2-13-1812

Newspaper

Natchez Gazette

Newspaper Location

Natchez, Mississippi

Serial Number

473

Abstract

Natchez merchant by the name of Smith with a long account of the New Madrid earthquakes on the Mississippi river. Very good primary source.

Transcript

From Mr. Smith, of the Firm of Braken and Smith, of this city, who arrived on Friday or Saturday last from Pittsburgh, we have received some further accounts of the violent shocks of earth quake, and their consequences, on the River. Mr. Smith lay aboard his boat, at Marietta on the night of the 15th of December; but himself and boatmen being much fatigued, accustomed to the agitation of the boat on the water, and asleep, did not perceive the shocks which were comparatively slight at that place. He was, however, informed in the morning that they had been very sensibly felt by the inhabitants of the town. From Marietta to Limestone the shocks had been felt all along the River. At the latter place they had been violent; and at Washington, four miles from thence on the Road to Lexington, some chimnies were thrown down. The effects were similar at Cincinnati, Louisville, Shawnoe town, below the mouth of the Wabash, and other places. At Shawnoe town the people had been dreadfully alarmed by the steam boat descending in the night, having seen the gleaming of the light on the river, and heard the noise of the machinery like distant thunder. They expected a repetition of shocks more terrible than the former. At the mouth of Cumberland, Massac and New-Madrid the Chimnies the plaister and daubing of the houses, and almost every thing most subject to be affected by such concussions, were shaken down. Various slight shocks were felt on board the boat at different places. From the Little Prairie to near the lower Chickasaw Bluffs the banks and channel of the river have suffered great change. At the lower Bluffs, Mr. Smith remained a week, the shaking of the earth was felt almost daily, and while he was there two or three very violent shocks. He mentions that the effects about the Bluffs were great, but that that part of the country had suffered little in comparison with that from New-Madrid all across to the Arkansas, particularly the settlement at the little prairie; where the earth burst and threw up cinders, gravel, white sand, substances resembling stone and charcoal, with a sulphurous smell, and water to the height of twenty feet. The inhabitants had all moved off from that quarter. He saw about thirty families by whom he was informed that during the time of the most severe shocks, the brute creation appeared terribly astonished and distressed. That the horses neighed, cattle roared, dogs barked and howled; the feathered tribe screamed, and all nature seemed struck with a kind of horror, as if the last day was approaching. The vibrations were so strong as to split large trees from the tops to the roots. A gentleman of veracity, who had kept an account, told him that there had been as many as eighty shocks felt. Some Indians, who had been on the head waters, of the Arkansas, a distance of fifteen days journey, came in, who related, that before the first great shock, they had seen a great light towards the rocky mountains; that they had been dreadfully frightened, and fled from their hunting camp as fast as possible. They said they knew no cause for the shaking of the earth, unless the Great Spirit was angry with his red children for quarrelling with the white people on the Wabash about their land, and in order to chastise them, had confined all the thunder in the bowels of the earth, in the heart of their own country, to destroy their whole race if they would not live in peace, and have nothing further to do with the prophet. In some places up the Ohio, Mr. Smith understood that an opinion prevailed, that from the encreasing force of the shocks lower down, the whole Natchez country with New-Orleans, had been totally ingulghed and destroyed. He has been able to furnish a variety of other information, and has brought with him a collection of the substances thrown up from the chasms. A number of cattle have been lost; and Mr. S. saw the father of a young lad who had perished between St. Francis and Arkansas. It appears that the earth in sundry places, as well as the sand bars in the river, swelled up to a considerable height; and afterwards subsided and sunk beneath their usual level, after the explosion and discharges, which in many places took place.

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