POPULAR REACTIONS TO THE NEW MADRID EARTHQUAKES, 1811-1812

BY
MARSHALL SCOTT LEGAN* Monroe, Louisiana

The pioneer on the Mississippi Valley frontier in 1811-1812 experienced difficulties not unlike those already encountered in other border regions. Isolated farmsteads remained prey to marauding bands of Indians. Warlike gestures by the British had not only the frontier, but the more heavily populated sections restless. Neither the Spaniards, bemoaning their loss of New Orleans with its flourishing Valley trade, nor the recent Burr "conspiracy" which still lingered in the minds of American expansionists, could be ignored. The mental pressures only compounded the expected rigors of the rough and tumble frontier environment. However, a new element of suspense was introduced in December, 1811, when the region experienced the opening throes of a series of earth tremors known as the New Madrid Earthquakes. One commentator ascertained that the earth was shaken from New York to the Floridas, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River, and speculated that an immense tract of country west of the Mississippi experienced similar effects. 1 During and after the trembling, both the illiterate and erudite wrote or related their stories embellishing their accounts to make better yarns. The personal accounts of the earthquakes, both fanciful and real, provide a valuable insight into frontier society and American folklore. In retrospect, the year 1811 had proven ominous. The oldest inhabitants of the Mississippi Valley could not remember the River ever being frozen twice in one season. Widespread floods during the spring thaw promoted the spread of remittent, and intermittent fevers which remained even after the water receded. Tornadoes ravaged the continent from Maine to Georgia. The oceans, subjected to volcanic action, disgorged entirely new islands. There were reports that even the forest creatures responded with a morbid recklessness as multitudes of squirrels obeying some supernatural urge left their northern retreat and migrated southward giving way to no obstacle although many drowned in the broad Ohio River. The fires, storms, tornadoes, freshets, duels,

*Marshall Scott Legan, Ph.D., teaches history at Northeast Louisiana University in Monroe, Louisiana. 1 The Panoplist, and Missionary Magazine United, New Series, IV (April, 1812), 526; Niles' Weekly Register, I (January 4, I812), 335; Eugene Lawrence, "The Lands of the Earthquake," Harper's New Monthly Magazine, XXXVIII (1869), 480-481.

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murders, and assassinations were seen as auguries of even greater calamities.2 Anxieties seemed confirmed on December 16, 1811, when numerous earth shocks began and continued into 1812, those of January 23 and February 7 being of extreme intensity. As late as the past decade, a geological text described the initial shock as the most severe earthquake in American history. 3 J. Brookes, who lived in Louisville, Kentucky and kept a chronicle of the tremors btween December, 1811, and May, 1812, wrote of the initial shocks: It seemed as if the surface of the earth was afloat and set in motion by a slight application of immense power, but when this regularity is broken by a sudden cross shove, all order is destroyed, and a boiling action is produced, during the continuance of which the degree of violence is greatest and the scene most dreadful; houses and other objects oscilate largely, irregularly, and in different directions .... The general consternation is great, and the damage done considerable. 4 Suspected causes of such phenomena ranged from the illogical and obscure to the technical and complex. The appearance of a splendid comet in the heavens generated speculation over astronomical causations for the earthquakes. Theoreticians merely emulated the ancient Babylonians who ascribed such phenomena to the influence of celestial bodies. A Negro in New Orleans prophesied forthcoming destruction by the comet on March 18, 1812, in honor of the birth date of a Roman king. 5 If such revelations were genuine, then, by what methods did the comet shake the earth? John Bradbury, a British botanist on an expedition down the Mississippi River, talked to one inhabitant who attributed the disturbance to the comet. The fiery visitor was described as having two horns. The earth had rolled over one of them, and its attempt to dislodge itself produced the tremz Henry Marie Brackenridge, Views o Louisiana: Together with a Journal o[ a Voyage up the Missouri River, in 1811 (Chicago: Quadrangle Books, Inc., 1962), 111; "A Retrospect of the Year 1811," The Monthly Magazine and Literary Journal, I (May, 1812), 33; Charles Joseph Latrobe, The Rambler in North America (2 vols.; London: R. B. Seeley and W. Burnside, 1835), l, 102; New Orleans Louisiana Gazette and Daily Advertiser (December 4, 1811); Lexington (Ky) American Statesman (December 17, 1811). William C. Putnam, Geology (New York: Oxford University Press, 1964), 210. Charles F. Richter in his Elementary Seismology (1958) estimates that all three of the severe New Madrid shocks exceeded magnitude eight which is significant since the largest recorded earthquakes have only neared eight and three-fourths magnitude. 4 Henry McMurtie, Sketches o[ Louisville and Its Environs; including . . . a Florula louisvillensis . . . To which is added an appendix, Containing an Accurate Account of the Earthquakes Experienced Here from the I6th December, 18ll, to the 7th February, 1812, Extracted Principally [rom the Papers of the Late J. Brookes, esq. (Louisville: Printed by S. Penn, 1819), 233. S Frankfort (Ky) American Republic (March 27, 1812); Richmond Virginia Argus (February 13, 1812); New Orleans Louisiana Gazette (November 27, 1811).

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ors. If the other horn was successfully surmounted, the world would remain safe; otherwise, inevitable destruction would follow. Of this incident Bradbury wrote: "Finding him confident in his hypothesis, and myself unable to refute it, I did not dispute the point.... ,,o. A New Orleans newspaper ventured the opinion that since the comet had passed its perihelion, perhaps its touching the mountains of California caused the shake toward the eastern side of the globe, and a widely circulated periodical contained an extensive article on comets. Its author, pleading ignorance of scientific relationships between comets and earthquakes, discussed parallels of former calamities in 1807 with the simultaneous appearance of a comet. To him, such a hypothesis was by no means slightly founded. Even a poet's license was inspired to ask of the comet: "Or dost thou floods and earthquakes bring! Or com'st to wrap in flames the world? ''8 Nevertheless, the plausibility of the comet theory was criticized by an Irishman who ended a debate on the comet by declaring that in the old country he had roasted potatoes in the tail of them. Kentuckian William Brown recorded details of both occurrences, but as his defender observed: "It is evidence of his freedom from superstition that he does not suggest any connection between the comet and the earthquake. '' Since evidence neither supported nor rejected a relationship between earthquakes and comets, the debate remained unresolved to an American frontier strongly wedded to independence of thought. Heavenly bodies other than the comet shared the blame for such destruction. The earth's satellite was thought to be coming in contact with the world, and the frequent repetition of the shocks were attributed to their rebounding. However, this notion was soon "knocked as low" as the quake had leveled chimneys by the appearance of the moon the next evening? The learned Daniel Drake in Cincinnati some months before the tremors observed the sun surrounded by concentric circles and the moon encircled by a halo exhibiting prismatic colors. A brilliant ball with the reflective power of the full moon passed over the

6John Bradbury, Travels in the Interior o] America, in the Years 1809, 1810, and 181l; Including a Description of Upper Louisiana, together with the Illinois and Western Territories, and Containing Remarks and Observations Useful to Persons Emigrating to those Countries (Liverpool: Printed for the Author by Smith and Galway, 1817), 206. 7New Orleans Louisiana Gazette (December 21, 1811); "Comets," Niles" Weekly Register, II (March 21, 1812), 50-52. s Frankfort American Republic (December 27, 181l). 9 William Allen Pusey, "The New Madrid Earthquake--An Unpublished Contemporaneous Account," Science, New Series, LXXI (March 14, 1930), 286; New Orleans Louisiana Gazette (December 2, 1811). 1Richmond Virginia Argus (February 24, 1812); Baltimore (Md) American and Daily Advertiser (February 21, 1812).

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city of Pittsburgh? 1 Attendant with these astronomical fears was the belief that the earthquakes were extensive enough to throw the globe out of its orbit, or cause it to lose its repellant force and come within the gravitational power of some superior body causing a collision of planets.12 Indians in the Mississippi Valley before 1811 had legends of great earthquakes that destroyed the area. Indeed, geological evidence as well as written records attested to the validity of their stories. Immense cracks in the earth with trees fully 200 years old growing at the bottom and on the slopes were observed in the area of disturbance before 1811-1812. A Catholic missionary as early as December 25, 1699, in the general region recorded: We were greatly astonished to see the earth tremble at one o'clock in the afternoon, and although this earthquake did not last long, it was violent enough for all to perceive it easily, is Chief Black Feather, a Shawnee, traveling with a detachment of American soldiers on their way to Fort Melts [Ohio] in 1812, felt the earth totter. When queried whether he had ever before experienced a similar sensation, he replied that at three different times during the previous forty years he had felt tremors. 14 Most of the Indians associated the earthquakes with the Great Spirit. However, one Indian when asked what brought on the shocks solemnly pointed to the heavens and replied: "Great Spirit--whiskey too much. ''xs Other tribes interpreted the earth tremors as sent to destroy the whites; the Otos believed the Big Knives [soldiers] were being punished for killing the son of the Master of Life as he rode through the forest on a white stallion. The Missouri Indians linked the earthquakes with a supernatural agency, like thunder, and assumed they were merely part of the operations of the Master of Life. Indians in pursuit of game as far as the Rockies, after witnessing mountains tumbling to al Daniel Drake, Natural and Statistical View, or Picture o] Cincinnati and the Miami Country (Cincinnati: Printed by Looker and Wallace, 18155, 239-240; Richmond Virginia Argus (March 2, 18125. 12Baltimore American and Daily Advertiser (March 3, 18125; Richmond k'irginia Argus (January 9, 1812); Niles'-IVeekly Register, It (March 21, 18125, 51. as Samuel Cole Williams, Early Travels in the Tennessee Country, 1540-1800 (Johnson City, Tennessee: The Watauga Press, 1928), 66; Sir Charles Lyell, A Second Visit to the United States o/ North America (2 vols.; New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 18505, II, 180. 1, McMurtle, Sketches o[ Louisville and Its Environs, 25. 15 Thomas Bangs Thorpe, "Remembrances of the Mississippi," Harper's New Monthly Magazine, XII (December, 1855), 33; Edwin Adams Davis, "A Northern Sojourner's Remembrances of the Mississippi," Journal o/ Mississippi History, XII (July, 19505, 140.

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pieces, trees snapped off at the roots, and signs of volcanic eruptions, rode night and day in order to perish with their relatives, le Two events of monumental significance for the history of the Mississippi Valley occurred almost simultaneously with the earthquakes. In the minds of the Indians, these occurrences were intimately intertwined. Tecumseh, the brilliant Shawnee leader, visited the southern tribes to gain their adherence to his proposed confederacy. When a Creek chieftain remained obdurate, Tecumseh threatened upon his return to Detroit to stamp his foot upon the ground and shake down every dwelling. The Creeks became awe-struck when a mighty rumbling was heard and their homes began to reel. Immediately the warriors shouted that Tecumseh had arrived in Detroit because they could feel the stamping of his foot. Another Indian recalled the calamity was foretold by the "'Prophet" [Tecumseh's half-brother] for the destruction of the whites; British traders counseled tile red men to hold American malice responsible for the unprecedented tremors?7 Along the Mississippi River, the Indians accused the New Orleans, the first steamboat on the western waters, of causing both the comet and the earthquakes. Describing the steamboat as "Pinelore" or "Fire Canoe," the sparks from the smokestack were likened to the tail of the comet, and the rumbling of the earth resulted from the beating of the water by the fast moving paddles? s The defeat of Tecumseh and the success enjoyed by the New Orleans, in retrospect, assume a symbolic importance in the eventual westward movement of the frontier from this region.
z6 Lexington American Statesman (February 11, 1812); Account of an Expedition from Pittsburg to the Rocky Mountains; Performed in the Years 1819, 1820. By order of the Hon. 1. C. Calhoun, Secretary of War, Under the Command o/ Maior S. H. Long, of the U. S. Topographical Engineers, Compiled ]tom the notes o[ Maior Long, Mr. T. Say, and other Gentlemen of the party by Edwin ]ones (3 vols.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1823), II, 57. Appears in Reuben Gold Tbwaites (ed.), Early Western Travels (32 vols.; Cleveland: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1904-1907), XV. 1 Albert James Pickett, History of Alabama and Incidentally of Georgia and Mississippi from the Earliest Period, Second edition (2 vols.; Charleston: Walker and Jones, 1851), II, 246; Dale Van Every, The Final Challenge: The American Frontier, 1804-1845 (New York: William Morrow and Company, 1964), 105; Lexington American Statesman (January 21, 1812). For other embellishments on the Tecumseh incident see Henry S. Halbert and T. H. Ball, The Creek War o/ 1813 and 1814 (Chicago: Donohue & Henneberry, 1895), 67, and Glen Tucker, Tecumseh: Vision o/ Glory (New York: The BobbsMerrill Company, Inc., 1956), 211. 18 Latrobe, The Rambler in North America, I, 103. The experience of the New Orleans and the earthquake is a frequently quoted story. A prepared bibliography on the incident could extend ad infinitum; however, illustrative references include: Emerson W. Gould, Fifty Years on the Mississippi; or, Gould's History o[ River Navigation (St. Louis: NixonJones Printing Co., 1899); John F. H. Claiborne, Mississippi as a Province, Territory and State, With Biographical Notices of Eminent Citizens (2 vols.; Jackson Power & Barksdale, Printers, I880); Ethel C. Leahy (ed.), Who's Who on the Ohio River (Cincinnati: E. C. Leahy Publishing Co., 193I); Leonard V. Huber, "Heyday of the Floating Palace," American Heritage: The Magazine of History, VIII (October. I957), 15-25, 96-98, and Carl Vitz, "The Steamboat Comes to the Ohio," Bulletin of the Historical and Philosophical Society ot Ohio, X (July, 1950), 197-214.

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The Cherokee Chieftain Skaquaw (the Swan) admonished his tribe to move after the Great Spirit appeared to him in a vision. The chief related to his tribesmen how the Spirit was determined to put an end to mankind and only save his red children. In his words: . . The fire of war is burning already in all four corners of the earth. Watch for a sign and the earth will soon shake, like a horse shakes the dust from his back, but be sure to move away from the St. Francis. The result of this prophecy was total evacuation of the St. Francis River Valley (Arkansas), and movement to the White, Arkansas, Big Mulberry, and Missouri Rivers. 1 Despite such displacement, stories emerging from Indian country were indeed grim. Warriors near the Arkansas River told of seeing a large lake or sea where many of their brothers had previously resided. Believing their comrades had perished in the general wreck, and to escape a similar fate, the band traveled three days up the Arkansas, frequently having to cut down large trees to cross the chasms in the earth. Newspapers reported seven Indians swallowed up, only one of them escaping after being taken into the ground to a depth of two trees in length and being forced out of the earth again when water came up under him. Wading and swimming four miles, the Indian reached dry land to tell of his experiences, s White men, at times, attempted to be more objective and logical in their reactions to the causes of the tremors. A prevalent delusion was that volcanic eruptions elsewhere caused the plight along the frontier. Shocks were ascribed to eruptions in the Southwest, perhaps in Mexico, New Spain, Quinto, or southward in the West Indies. During the same period, violent explosions and tremors did sweep through South America. An earthquake in Venezuela on March 26, 1812, destroyed nearly all of Caracas and the town of Laguira. With over 10,000 inhabitants buried under the rubble, survivors interred the dead in the sea or cremated them because of the awful stench. A night conspicuous for subterranean thunder in the United States proved to be the same one in which the Venezuelan disaster occurred. To many scientific minds, flashes of light and subterranean noises were closely associated reactions. A Charleston newspaper made reference to vulcanism after receiving a letter from Raleigh, North Carolina, which asserted that a volcano had 19 Louis Brinier, '*Notices of the Geology, Mineralogy, Topography, Productions, and Aboriginal Inhabitants of the Regions around the Mississippi and its confluent Waters-in a letter from L. Bringier, Esq. of La. to Rev. Elias Cornelius--communicated from this Journal " The American Journal o/Science and Arts, Ill ( 1821 ) 40. 2o Baltimore American and Daily Advertiser (February 21 and March 3, 1812); Lexington American Statesman (January 21, 1812); New Orleans Louisiana Courier (February 3, 1812); Richmond Virginia Argus (February 24, 1812.)

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burst forth in the Buncome Mountains between North Carolina and Tennessee. The unwary editor hastily concluded: "Should the account prove correct, we shall find 11o dilculty in ascertaining the cause of the late numerous earthquakes. ''21 The news of the volcano between North Carolina and Tennessee proved to be immensely popular. On February 15, 1812, the Charleston paper reprinted the text of a letter giving an account of the eruption. On the morning of the 16th ultimo, a great smoke was seen to issue from the top of Spear's Mountain [with] . . . great noise heard thro the de). The continued smoke left no doubt but it was a volcano that had burst forth during the earthquake.... It still continues to burn with great violence and throws up lava, scoria, ashes, calcined stones and vitrified matter in great quantities and with the most tremendous noise.... In the night time the ignited stones, cinders, etc. which are thrown two or three hundred feet into the air present a grand appearance and have a great resemblance to artificial fireworks such as rockets, etc.... In a few days, I shall go and take another view of this Western Aetna. It is hoped that it will draw the attention of some geologist or man of Science who will be able to draw a correct description of it. I have seen but two pieces of pumice alone. John Clark Edwards. m On the next page the paper reflected that Edwards was the same gentleman who had furnished a marvelous account of the falling of Painted Rock during the earthquake, a story which was soon afterward contradicted. Indeed, several visitors from the supposedly affected area had neither seen nor heard of anything of the kind. The paper concluded: "We think this story of the volcano should be received with great caution notwithstanding the .circumstantial description which he gives of the phenomenon. ''23 Nevertheless, Edward's story was widely publicized by news hungry editors and there is no way of determining the number of gullible minds that fell prey to the spurious reports of volcanic activity. 24 =1Charleston (S.C.) Courier (February 13, 1812); Richmond Virginia Argus (April 23, 1812); Timothy Flint, Recollections o[ the Last Ten Years, Passed in occasional residences and iourneyings in the Valley of the Mississippi, from Pittsburg and the Missouri to the Gulf o[ Mexico, and from Florida to the Spanish Frontier; in a series o[ Letters to the Rev. James Flint, of Salem, Massachusetts (Boston: Cummings, Hillard, and Company, 1826), 224. See also "Earthquakes on the Mississippi; extracted from the Travels of Mr. Flint,;' The American Journal of Science and Arts, XV (1829), 366-368; The Panoplist, N.S., IV (April 1812), 29-77, and Lyel[. A Second Visit to the United States ot North America, If, 172. u2 Charleston Courier (February 15, 1812). 23Ibid. For a report of Edwards's Painted Rock story see: Baltimore American and Daily Advertiser (January 30, 1812); Charleston Courier (January 25, 1812), and Richmond Virginia Argus (February 6, I812). 24 Frankfort American Republic (March 27, 1812); Lexington American Statesman (February 25 and March ?,, 1812); Richmond Virginia Argus (February 10, 1812).

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Observations of other geological disturbances closely associated with vulcanism lent support to its connection with the tremors. Thomas Nuttan, visiting the Arkansas Territory in 1819, watched very deep mud boiling up into circular masses like fumeroles. He assumed that vast beds of lignite or wood-coal filled with pyrites had decomposed near the Mississippi River and produced the earthquakes.2 Other westerners speculated that fire feeding on some hidden deposit of underground combustible matter produced the upheavals. As the fire burned, occasionally it penetrated subterraneous streams creating powerful steam which shook everything above until '_'t gained sufficient room underground or was discharged into the air. The motion extended great distances either by the continuity of the solid earth or by subterraneous vacuities into which the steam darted. This action caused the earth to shake hundreds of miles away almost at the same instant. The fire theory seemed plausible to those who affirmed that fire caused the subterranean thunder that rumbled through the countryside. Inhabitants in New Madrid, Missouri, witnessed at the time of the heavy shocks, not only fissures open in the earth, but also something like smoke or steam issue out of them. One observer expected "every moment to see it blaze and believes it would have done so if it were not for the large quantity of sand discharged with it. ''26 Charred wood thrown up in several places gave more conclusive proof, as well as lava observed floating on the Mississippi River. 27 Since people experienced sensations much like those produced in being shocked by a strong galvanic battery, the electrical hypothesis was debated widely. Louis Bringier, a New Orleans engineer, attributed the quivering to electricity, and Daniel Drake of Cincinnati conducted experiments with an iron rod supporting a cork ball electrometer inserted six or eight inches into the ground. Another published opinion supposed the affinity of terrestial for celestial elctricity and its violent efforts to escape from the earth's bowels created the agitations. 2s Credence was lent to this theory after each shock was observed to end with a snap or crack like that heard on discharging an electric battery. A Kentuckian finally concluded that if the earthquakes were caused by the emission of elec2 Thomas Nuttall, ]ournal o[ Travels into the Aransar Territory, During the Year 1819. IVith Occasional Observations on the Manners of the Aborigines (Philadelphia: Thomas H. Palmer. 1821), 85. Appears in Thwaites (ed.}, Early Western Travels, XIII. 2e Stanley Griswold, "Information Concerning the Earthquakes which have prevailed in the United States since December. 1811; particularly in the States and Territories adjacent to the River Mississippi. In several letters from the Hon. Stanley Griswold, of Kaskaskia, to the Hon. S. L. Mitchell," The Medical Repository, New Series, I (1813), 304-305; Frankfort American Republic (February t4 and March 27, 1812). 27 Lexington American Statesman (December 24, 1811); Richmond Virginia Argus (February 24, 1812). 2s Bringier, American Journal of Science and Arts. IlI, 20; Drake, Natural and Statistical View or Picture of Cincinnati, 240; Nilef ]Veekly Register, ]I (March 21, 1812), 51.

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trical matter from the bowels of the earth, then they would cease after the atmosphere became saturated, hopefully without any material injury to any part of the country,s In many localities, inhabitants remembered other less scientific oddities which speculation linked with stimuli producing the earthquakes. In South Carolina before the first tremor, the ocean roared with unusual loudness, while on the Mississippi River an old navigator, feeling the initial shock, dismissed the water's turbulence as banks caving into the River. Among the more foolish of the enumerated causes was the uninformd man who feared that the shocks were produced by the reaction of chemicals on copper that he buried in order that it might undergo a process that would fit it for use in coining counterfeit money,z However, this absurdity seemed matched by the fear of an Arkansan who accidentally opened an Indian grave and feared the shaking was the Indian "turning over," or the young child possessed of a guilty conscience blaming himself after he had gathered hazelnuts on the sabbath.31 Each individual, whether frontiersman or scientist, had his own explanation for the tremors and no single cause was proclaimed universally. The weather, constantly changed from oppressive heat to severe cold, and nature's creatures seemed to conform to the moods of the earthquakes. Heaviest shocks usually occurred in the coldest extremes of weather and in the coldest time of the day. The naturalist, John James Audubon, on horseback near Hendersonville, Kentucky, during the first tremor, noticed a strange darkness in the west. Hearing what was thought to be the distant rumble of a tornado, Audubon spurred his steed in order to find shelter. After the shock, he recalled: "The heavens again brightened as quickly as they had become obscured. ''m In other communities, days became hazy with fog arising, and a strong sulfurous smell permeated the atmosphere, m It was reported that great 29 Frankfort American Republic (February 14, 1812); Baltimore American and Daily Advertiser (January 30, 1812). 30 Richmond Virginia Argus (March 2, 1812); Walter Brownlow Posey, "The Earthquake of 1811 and Its Influence on Evangelistic Methods in the Churches of the Old South," Tennessee Historical Magazine, Second Series. I (1931), 109; Walter Brownlow Posey, The Development of Methodism in the Old Southwest: 1783-1824 (Tuscaloosa, Alabama: Weatherford Printing Company, 1933), 51. 31 Horace Jewell, History of Methodism in Arkansas (Little Rock: Printed and Bound by Press Printing Company, 1892), 26; Margaret Ross, "The New Madrid Earthquake," The Arkansas HistoricalQuarterly, XXVII (Summer, 1968), 99. 3Mrs. John ]ames Audubon (ed.), The Life of John ]ames Audubon (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1883), 53; Constance Mayfield Rourke, Audubon (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1936), 106-107. 33Lexington American Statesman (March 3, 1812); New Orleans Louisiana Courier (February 3, 1812); Lorenzo Dow. The Dealings of God, Man, and the Devil; as Exemplified in the Life, Experience, and Travels o/ Lorenzo Dow, in a period of over Half a Century: Together with his Polemic and Miscellaneous IVritings, Complete. To which is Added: The Vicissitudes of Life br Peggy Dow (2 vols.; New York: Cornish, Lamport & Co., 1851), I, 156; William Leigh Pierce, An Account of the Great Earthquake in the Western States, Particularly on the Mississippi River; December 16-23, 18ll (Newburyport, Massachusetts: Printed at the Herald Office, 1812), 3, 12.

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numbers of stupefied wild creatures, bear, deer, wolves, and panthers pressed closer to humans for companionship in their hour of terror. Even the fowls lost all power and disposition to fly, lighting on people's heads, about fires of those who had left their dwellings, and on rocking boats on the Mississippi River. Domesticated stock was much agitated with frightened horses nickering, cattle lowing, hogs squealing, and all running to the inhabited dwellings for protection and comfort. 34 The terrible unrest of the animals made the experience even more terrifying for human existence. Men confessed to auras of giddiness during the earthquakes. Insomnia and solitude were common symptoms of the melancholia which gripped human habitations. On board the New Orleans, silence prevailed, even necessary conversations being whispered. Barges and flatboats, instead of the usual exchange of greetings, passed almost sullenly. Mrs. Nicholas Roosevelt lived in constant fear "unable to sew or read. ''aS The rolling of the earth was so violent in places that settlers could stand only with ditficulty. Many of those standing experienced sensations of vertigo. Several ladies complained that they were afraid of falling from their seats. Fainting and nausea indicated the convulsive nature of the tremors. 36 Although statistical evidence is lacking in the number of deaths caused by the earthquakes, the mortality rate was low chiefly because of the small population and their habitation in shoddily built log cabins. Settlers had only to be wary of opening chasms, drowning or being hit by a falling tree or chimney,s7 Inevitably, popular consensus came to ascribe the tremors to divine sanctions, however they might be induced. The gloom produced by the horrors of the earthquakes found perhaps its most fruitful reaction in renewed religious fervor. Scripture passages were assiduously combed for st Van Every, The Final Challenge, 109; J. W. Foster, The Mississippi Valley; Its Physical Geography (Chicago: S. C. Griggs and Company, 1869), 23; Zadok Cramer, The Navigator; Containing Directions [or Navigating the Monongahela, Allegheny, Ohio and Mississippi Rivers; With an Ample Account of these Much Admired Waters, From the Head of the Former to the Mouth of the Latter; And a Concise Description of their Towns, Villages, Harbors, Settlements, etc. lVith Maps of the Ohio and Mississippi, Eighth Edition (Pittsburgh: Robert Ferguson & Co. Printers, 1814), 303-304; Daniel Berry, "The Illinois Earthquake of 1811 and 1812," Illinois State Historical Library Publications, XII (1908), 78; Francis A. Sampson, "The New Madrid and Other Earthquakes of Missouri," Missouri Historical Review, VII (July, 1913), 186. s5 Leahy (ed.), Who's Who on the Ohio River, 350; Huber, "Heyday of the Floating Palace," American Heritage, VIII (October, 1957), 19; Richmond Virginia Argus (February 10, 1812). 3"New Orleans Louisiana Courier (February 3, 1812); Richmond Virginia Argus (January 9 and February 3, 1812); John Haywood, The Natural and Aboriginal History o[ Tennessee up to the First Settlements therein by the White People in the Year 1768: Including Archaeological, Geological and Historical Annotations Bringing the Ancient Account into Focus with Present Knowledge (edited by Mary U. Rothrock; Jackson, Tennessee: McCowat-Mercer Press, 1959), 31. s7 Foster, The Mississippi Valley, 19, 22.

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revelations of approaching doom, and voluminous amounts quoted to justify the wrath of the Almighty. The psalmist David had prophesied of the Lord that "he looketh on the earth, and it trembleth," while the apostle Matthew wrote of "earthquakes in divers places." Sin-hardened frontiersmen were urged to take heed of their ways and ready themselves with lamps trimmed and burning. Thus prepared, even the dissolution of the world would justly be a subject of rejoicing? s The western mind, long respectful of signs and omens, thus was easily swayed by ministers who made shrewd use of natural phenomena. By the last severe shock on February 21, 1812, most settlers recognized the tremors as mere physical reactions. Whatever the causes, whether natural or supernatural, there was a tapering off period when the shocks grew fainter. An Illinois resident recalled that the water in his father's well was never still for more than two years after the event. John James Audubon became so accustomed to the earth's trembling that he rather enjoyed the fears manifested by others?9 After the initial shock, a Kentuckian expressed a strong desire to experience another. When his wish was instantly met, he recalled: "I was then quite satisfied and had no desire to see any more shocks. ''4 In less than three months, people became so accustomed to the recurring vibrations that they paid little regard to them, not even interrupting their dances, frolics, and vices. In 1824, Timothy Flint noted that occasional shocks were still felt. Staying in New Madrid, he remembered: In the midst of some of these conversations, prolonged over the vinter fire, we were not unfrequently interrupted for a moment by the distant and hollow thunder of the approaching earthquake. An awe, a slight paleness passed over every countenance. The narrative was suspended for a moment, and then resumed. 41 The causes of the tremors were long debated by the frontier settlers, illustrating well their addiction to beliefs in the supernatural. Personal experiences during the earthquakes grew with each retelling. To an American society strongly wedded to independent thought, the actual stimuli triggering the earthquakes remained unsolved. Perhaps the most as Charleston Courier (February 21, 1812). 30 Mrs. Audubon (ed.), Li/e o[ lohn James Audubon. 54; Walter Brownlow Posey, The Baptist Church in the Lower Mississippi Valley: 1776-1845 (Lexington: University of Kentucky press, 1957), 58; Berry, "Illinois Earthquake of 1811 and 1812," Illinois State Historical Library Publications, XII (1908), 78. 40 William Warren Sweet, Religion on the American Frontier, 1783-1840: A Collection o/Source Materials (New York: Cooper Square Publishers, Inc., 1964), 821. 41 Flint, Recollections o/ the Laft Ten Years, 222; John Ervin Kirkpatrick, Timothy Flint: Pioneer, Missionary, Auther, Editor; 1780-1840 (Cleveland: Arthur H. Clark Company, 1911), 134-135; "New Madrid Earthquake: Account of John Shaw," Missouri Historical Review, VII (July, 1913), 192.

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significant reactions to the tremors were the religious revivals that ascribed them to the power of God. However, ignorance remained a predominating force as settlers contributed popular hypotheses to the New Madrid Earthquakes. As the rumbling subsided, conditions in the Mississippi Valley quickly degenerated into the familiar rough and tumble mode of frontier society.