Between the 16th of December, 1811 and February 7, 1812, seven major earthquakes with a magnitude as high as 7.5 on the Richter scale shook the small community of New Madrid, Missouri Territory. There were as many as 1,874 aftershocks that were strong enough to be felt in Louisville, Kentucky, approximately 190 miles away.
The following letter, written by an inhabitant of New Madrid to the Rev. Lorenzo Dow was published in the History of Comopolite or, Lorenzo’s Journal, Page 344 to 346:
New Madrid, Territory of Missouri, March 22, 1816.
Dear Sir:–
IN compliance with your request, I will now give you a history, as full in detail as the limits of a letter will permit, of the late awful visitation of Providence in this place and its vicinity.
On the 16th of December, 1811, about two o’clock, A.M., we were visited by a violent shock of an earthquake, accompanied by very awful noise resembling loud but distant thunder, but more hoarse and vibrating, which was followed in a few minutes by the complete saturation of the atmosphere, with sulphurious vapor, causing total darkness. The screams of the affrighted inhabitants running to and fro, not knowing where to go or what to do – the cries of the fowls and beasts of every species – the cracking of trees falling, and the roaring of the Mississippi – the current of which was retrogade for a few minutes, owing as is supposed, to an interruption in its bed – formed a scene truly horrible. From that time until about sunrise, a number of lighter shocks occurred; at which time one still more violent than the first took place, with the same accompaniments as the first, and the terror which had been excited in every one, and indeed in all animal nature, was now, if possible doubled. The inhabitants fled in every direction to the country, supposing (if it can be admitted that their minds were exercised at all) that there was less danger at a distance from, than near the river. In one person, a female, the alarm was so great, that she fainted, and could not be recovered. There were several shocks of a day, but lighter than those already mentioned until the 23rd of January, 1812, when one occurred as violent as the severest of the former ones, accompanied by the same phenomena as the former. From this time until the 4th of February the earth was in continual agitation, visibly waving as a gentle sea. On that day there was another shock, nearly as hard a the preceding ones. Next day four such, and on the 7th about 4 o’clock, A.M., a concussion took place so much more violent than those which had proceeded it, that it was denominated the hard shock. The awful darkness of the atmosphere, which as formerly was saturated with sulphurious vapor, and the violence of the tempestuous thundering noise that accompanied it, together with all the other phenomena mentioned as attending the former ones, formed a scene, the description of which would require the most sublimely fanciful imagination. At first the Mississippi seemed (p. 435) to recede from its banks, and its waters gathering up like a mountain, leaving for a moment many boats, which were here on the their way to New Orleans, on the bare sand, in which time the poor sailors made their escape from them. It then rising fifteen or twenty feet perpendicularly, and expanding, as it were, at the same moment, the banks were overflowed with a retrogade current, rapid as a torrent – the boats which had before had been left on the sand were now torn from their moorings, and suddenly driven up a little creek, at the mouth of which they laid, to the distance in some instances, of a quarter of a mile. The river falling immediately, as rapid as it had risen, receded within its banks again with such violence that it took with it whole groves of young cotton-wood tress, which ledged its borders. They were broken off with such regularity, in some instances, that persons who had not witnessed the fact, would be difficultly persuaded, that it has not been the work of art. A great many fish were left on the bank, being unable to keep pace with the water. The river was literally covered with the wrecks of boats, and ’tis said that one was wrecked in which there was a lady and six children, all of whom were lost. In all the hard shocks mentioned, the earth was horribly torn to pieces – the surface of hundreds of acres, was, from time to time, covered over, of various depths, by sand which issued from the fissures, which were made in great numbers all over this country, some of which closed up immediately after they had vomited forth their sand and water, which it must be remarked, was a matter generally thrown up. In some places, however, there was a substance somewhat resembling coal, or impure stone coal, thrown up with the sand. It is impossible to say what the depth of the fissures or irregular breaks were; we have reason to believe that some of them were very deep. The site of this town was evidently settled down at least fifteen feet, and not more than half a mile below the town there does not appear to be any alteration on the bank of the river; but back from the river a short distance, the numerous large ponds or lakes, as they were called, which covered a great part of the country, were nearly dried up. The beds of some of them are elevated above their former banks several feet producing an alteration of ten to twenty feet, from their original state. And lately it has been discovered that a lake was formed on the opposite side of the Mississippi, in the Indian country, upwards of 100 miles in length, and from one to six miles in width, of the depth from ten to fifty feet. It has communication with the river at both ends, and it is conjectured that it will not be many years before the principle part, if not the whole of the Mississippi, will pass that way. We were constrained by fear of our houses falling to live twelve or eighteen months; after the first shocks, in little light camps made of boards; but gradually became callous, and returned to our houses again. Most of those who fled from the country in the time of the hard shocks have returned home. We have, since their commencement in 1811, and still continue to feel, light shocks occasionally. It is seldom indeed that we are a week without feeling one, and sometimes three or four in a day. There were two this winter past much harder than we have felt them for two years before; but since then they appear to be lighter than they have ever been, and begin to hope that ere long they will entirely cease.
(P. 646)
I have now, sir, finished my promised description of the earthquake – imperfect it is true, but just as it occurred to my memory; many of, and most of the awful scenes, having occurred three or four years ago. They of course are not related with that precision which would entitle it to the character of a full and accurate picture. Bit such as it is, it is given with pleasure – in the full confidence that it is given a friend. And now, sir, wishing you all good, I must bid you adieu.
Your humble servant,
Eliza Bryan (1780-1866)
The above 1816 letter was from Eliza Bryan to the prominent Methodist evangelist, Lorenzo Dow. In it she related her personal experiences in the New Madrid earthquakes. This letter was published in Dow’s book, History of Cosmopolite, on pages 344 to 346. She was a resident of New Madrid, moving there from here birthplace in Pennsylvania in 1791. Eliza was 31 years old when earthquakes took place. She died in New Madrid in 1866.
From: https://www.memphis.edu/ceri/compendium/eyewitness.php
The following websites all have further interesting accounts and descriptions of the New Madrid earthquakes:
https://missourilife.com/new-madrid-earthquakes-1811-1812/
http://www.new-madrid.mo.us/102/Earthquakes-of-1811-1812
https://missouriencyclopedia.org/events/new-madrid-earthquakes-1811-1812
https://gendisasters.com/missouri/8088/new-madrid-mo-earthquakes-1811-1812
https://www.britannica.com/event/New-Madrid-earthquakes-of-1811-1812
https://showmemo.org/collection/new-madrid-earthquake/
https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?fr=mcafee&ei=UTF-8&p=New+Madrid%2C+Missouri+Earthquake+of+1812&type=E211US0G0#id=3&vid=4b9f4b9a894d47ccdf1eebbd51a18984&action=click