“The Earthquake”

Date

2-1-1812

Newspaper

National Intelligencer

Page and Column

Page 3, Column 1

Newspaper Location

Washington, D. C.

Serial Number

977

Abstract

Synopsis report about the December 16, 1811 and the January 23, 1812 New Madrid earthquakes. Notes that there was a time lag between it being felt in the Ohio valley to Washington with the difference being one hour between those two points and between Charleston, West Virginia, and Washington a time lag of five to ten minutes was noted or that they were simultaneous. This is followed by a felt report for the January 23, 1812 earthquake at Coshockton, Ohio. Time of the quake was 8:17 am. Observed effects were the cracking of ice on the river, cracking of chimneys, sloshing of water out of a bucket to the point of it being half full. Trees were shaken where people outdoors noticed the earthquake’s effects. The filler between logs(chinking) was noted to have been shaken out. the author of the report was A. Johnston. The next report is from Charleston, South Carolina and is a detailed account of the January 23, 1812 earthquake. Time of the earthquake was 9:15 am (local time) duration was one minute. pavement was observed to be cracked, and a three story brick house was noted to have been cracked from top to bottom(Mr. Brownlee’s house on King street). An earlier shock was noted at 8:00 am(local time) as being felt sensibly. The next account is from Natchez and is report of a passenger on the boat of damage on the Mississippi river from the earthquake. The final report is from Chickasaw Bluff(modern Memphis) about the damage on the river. Source of the final report is the Cincinnati Liberty Hall. All reports are detailed and informative,

Transcript

The Earthquake.--We continue to receive accounts of this phenomenon of nature from all quarters. The following letter from a subscriber informs us of its being felt on the Ohio; and the subjoined article, from a Charleston paper, apprizes us of its effects having extended as far south as that place. It will be observed that in Charleston and this place (Washington) the shocks were simultaneously felt, or, at most, within five or ten minutes of the same moment; whilst, on the Ohio, the shock was felt an hour earlier than at either this city or Charleston. If any thing is to be inferred from this circumstance, it is, that the progress of the subterranean impulse, which caused the shock, was from west to east. Were we to give the reins to our imagination, we might conjecture, in the vast and almost unexplored region between the Mississippi and Pacific, the existence of the cause of this tremendous commotion, whose vibrations have affected so vast a continent to its remotest limits. Coshockton, Ohio, Jan. 23d, 1812 MR. EDITOR, This morning, at seventeen minutes past eight o'clock, a severe shake of a earthquake was felt in this place. It lasted nearly a minute; it shook so as to nearly half empty a bucket, standing on the floor, full of water; and the river being frozen over, it caused the ice to crack considerably. A stone chimney in the house of col. Williams in this place, seven by five feet square, solid and well built, was so severely shaken as to cause it to crack in several places; and one or perhaps more brick chimneys in this place have been considerably injured by the shock. I have been informed that several houses in the neighborhood of this place were so shook that much of the chinkin drops out; and the commotions of the trees and bushes was so great as to cause persons in the woods to observe the phenomenon. The shock was succeeded by a thick haze, and several people were affected with giddiness, although the air was quite serene at the time of the shock. The course of the above shock was from S. W. to N. E. nearly. A. JOHNSTON. Charleston, Jan. 24 Earthquake.--Yesterday morning, at fifteen minutes after nine o'clock, another shock was felt in this city. The vibratory motion was more severe than any we experienced last month, and continued for one minute. The pavements in several of the streets are cracked, by the loosening of the cement; and a three story brick house in King street belonging to Mr. Brownlee, has received very considerable injury. The walls are cracked from the top to the bottom and the wooden work and plastering in the inside, are split and broken. Many persons in different parts of the city were sensible of a shock at eight o'clock in the morning. Several families left their beds. Both those concussions were unaccompanied with any noise. Natchez, Jan. 1 The Steam-Boat built at Pittsburgh, so long expected here, arrived on Monday evening last with several passengers, after a very remarkable short passage. This boat, it is said, is intended to be a regular packet from this place to New Orleans, and will make a trip down and back in from 5 to 7 days. We have conversed with a gentleman who came passenger in the Stream-Boat lately arrived here and are informed that the Earthquake, shocks of which were felt here a week or two since, has done great injury to the settlements on the Ohio and Mississippi, by throwing down houses, chimnies, &c. and in one or two instances, islands in the Mississippi, of considerable magnitude had been sunk or destroyed; that the banks of the river on both sides fell in to a prodigious extent, and at one place about 300 acres caved in of a solid body. He also informs, that the western side of the river was the most affected-and that the shocks lasted about twelve days, with intervals of fifteen or twenty minutes. FROM LIBERTY HALL-[CINCINNATI, OHIO] 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 sounding, they could find no bottom. The current increased to three times the velocity it had the preceding 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 over-turned-the crew saved themselves. At the second shock, millions of trees that were inbedded 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 high lands. 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 constantly on the wing. The writer of the letter had not heard from any place farther down the river than the Chickasaw Bluffs, about 176 miles below the mouth of the Ohio; but his letter closes with an expression of the deepest anxiety respecting the country nearer the Gulph. We are, however, credibly informed that a letter has been received from New Orleans, dated the 2nd of December, which is entirely about as to the earthquake.

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