The "Hard Shock:" The New Madrid Earthquakes.

in a letter dated march 20th 1816 school teacher eliza bryan wrote to methodist minister lorenzo dao the awful dark of the atmosphere which was saturated with sulfurous vapor the the violence of the tempestuous thundering noise and all the other phenomena formed a scene the description of which would require the most sublimely fanciful imagination she was talking about an event that she witnessed on february 7th 1812 the largest of what were called the new madrid earthquakes the largest earthquakes in u.s history east of the mississippi river are still somewhat of a mystery to both scientists and historians but there were a few first-hand accounts from that sparsely populated land describing the events and they painted a grim picture indeed it is history that deserves to be remembered situated on an oxbow bend on the mississippi river the missouri state historical society writes that new madrid was the first american town in missouri although missouri life magazine notes that the site of new madrid had been a prime location for local tribes long before the coming of the europeans and that the french arrived in the 17th century the town established as new madrid in 1789 was established by land developer an american war for independence veteran george morgan the historical society recalls named for madrid spain the town was to be an american colony morgan was promised 15 million acres by the spanish ambassador eager to check u.s expansion with large land grants the bend in the river was a natural landing point for boats on the river and missouri life notes the location seemed ideal for farming as well as fur trading because the lands had higher than that around it ostensibly protected from river flooding settlement was difficult the area was very remote but a spanish census in the 1790s showed a respectable 800 people living in the town it was part of the vast territory of louisiana which had first seen european claim with the french but it had been handed to the spanish in 1762 after the end of the french and indian war it'd been handed by the spanish back to the french in 1801 and then sold by the french to the united states in 1803 new madrid and it's not clear when the name pronunciation changed from madrid to madrid was a growing river in farming community by 1811. missouri living explains for years after the establishment of new madrid the settlers french british and american lived in their log and frame houses in relative security by winter 1811 the bulk of the season's work had been done crops had been harvested and supplies of food and stores of fire would have been laid in for the winter the first shock came in december eliza bryan writes on the 16th of december 1811 at about two o'clock am we were visited by a violent shock of an earthquake the screams of the frightened 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 the trees falling the roaring of the mississippi the current of which was retrograde for a few minutes formed a scene truly horrible because as united states geological survey notes in the central and eastern regions of the united states the seismic energy experiences a low rate of absorption the earthquake centered around new madrid were felt over a very great distance the usgs contrasts the effects of a midwestern earthquake as opposed to earthquakes on the west coast where the earth's crust better absorbs earthquake energy can be estimated that in the new madrid earthquakes the area of intensity five or greater effects was approximately two and a half million square kilometers this can be contrasted with the 1906 san francisco earthquake for which the area of intensity five or greater effects was about 150 000 square kilometers john reynolds who would later become governor of illinois wrote in his autobiography that his family felt the earthquake 230 miles away in the town of vincennes illinois he said our family was all sleeping in a cabin and my father leaped up and screamed the indians are at our door we all laughed at my father's mistake but we soon found out it was worse than the indians following the initial quake in december brian wrote that the earth was in constant agitation with another major shock on january 23rd but the worst came in february on the 7th about 4 o'clock am a concussion took place so much more violent that those which had preceded it that it was denominated the hard shock matthias m speed was a riverboat captain one of many playing trade down the mississippi river on the night of february 6 he had tied off to a willow bar cops of trees on the shore north of new madrid as was a common practice they had lashed off to another river barge for the night his account was printed in several newspapers about three o'clock in the morning of the seventh we were waked by the violent agitation of the boat attended with a noise more tremendous and terrific than i can describe or anyone can conceive who was not present or near to such a scene the constant discharge of heavy canon may give some idea of the noise for loudness but this was infinitely more terrible on account of its appraising to be subterraneous brian wrote that at first the mississippi soon to recede from its banks and its waters gathering up like a mountain leaving for a moment many boats which were here on the way to new orleans on the bear sand it then rising 15 or 20 feet perpendicularly and expanding as it were at the same moment the banks were overflown with retrograde current rapid as a torrent speed took his boat into the river as the trees at the shore were falling but he reported after getting out so far as to be out of danger from the trees which were falling from the bank the swells from the river were so great as to threaten the sinking of the boat every moment speed was not the only one whose boat was in danger a newspaper from lexington kentucky reports one gentleman mr vatner states that the earthquake that occurred during the night of the seventh occasioned his barge with 600 barrels of flour besides other articles to sink and the hole was lost vetner was also quoted in the pennsylvania gazette saying they were on shore five miles below new madrid on friday morning the seventh instant at the time of the hard shock and the water filled their barge and sunk it with the whole of its contents losing everything but the clothes they had on they offered at new madrid half their loading for a boat to save it but no price was sufficient for the hire of a boat the kentucky newspaper reported that another gentleman whose name is not recollected stated that during the convulsion the bank the river just below new madrid caved in and let loose his boat about which the same time there was a back current in the river which drove the boat several miles up a small bayou during the convulsion the motion of the boat was so violent as to stave many of the barrels of flower in the boat the quaking continued three days when this gentleman thinking it prudent to not go further left his property and returned the effects on the river were dramatic speed still latched to the other barge fought the raging river till daybreak but during all this time we had made only about four miles down river from which circumstance and from that of an immense quantity of water rushing into the river from the wood it is evidence that the earth at this place or below have been raised so high as to stop the progress of the river and cause it to overflow its banks brian continued that the river falling immediately as rapidly this risen receded within his banks again with such violence that it took with it whole groves of young cottonwood trees which lodged its borders perhaps more frightening for the boats on the river the movement of the river created sudden obstacles speed said we took the right-hand channel of the river at this island and having reached within about a half mile the lower end of the town we were frightened with the appearance of a dreadful rapid or falls in the river just below us we were too far in the sock that it was impossible to now land all hopes of surviving was now lost and certain destruction appeared to await us the new obstacle was massive he continued from the state of alarm that i was in i cannot pretend to be correct as to the length or height of the falls but my impression is that they were about equal to the rapids of the ohio yet the two barges managed to survive the rapids keeping their boughs forward but another crew did not do as well he reported there was one boat coming down on the same morning i landed when they came inside of the falls they were so frightened of the prospect that they abandoned their boat and made for the island in their canoe three managed to make it to the riverbank but one man was stuck on the island with the rest of the crew too afraid to brave the river to rescue him speed says he remained on the island from friday morning until sunday evening when he was taken off by a canoe from a boat coming down there the man experienced the terror the quakes aftershocks i was several days in company with this man he stated that during his stay on the island there were frequent eruptions in which sand and stone coal and water were thrown up the violent agitation of the ground was such that at one time it induced him to hold to a tree to support himself the earth gave way at the place and he with the tree sunk down and he got wounded in the fall the rapids at speed encounter were not the only ones she wrote that later a new madrid there were upwards of 20 boats landed all of whom spoke of the rapids above several persons who came up the river in a small barge represented that there were falls in the mississippi about seven miles below new madrid principally on the eastern side more dangerous than those above and that some boats had certainly been lost in attempting to pass them a report in the pennsylvania gazette wrote it is said that a falls equal to that of the ohio is near new madrid and that several whirls are in the mississippi river some so strong as to sink every boat that comes within it suck one boat was sunk with a family in it the reports of two men in the kentucky newspaper concurred both these gentlemen state that some obstruction has presented itself in the river something like a rapid or falls which greatly endangers navigation there is a certainty that a bar composed of stone coal burnt substances and etc has been thrown up directly under the bed of the river island number eight from the junction of the ohio to the mississippi is entirely sunk indeed the effects already ascertained are terrible the indications are progressing through the lowlands the sharks are now running up the river and through what is called the american bottom it is not known how many people die but it's assumed that many drowned on the river eliza bryan noted that the river was literally covered with the wrecks of boats and that it was said that one boat was wrecked that had on it a lady and six children all of whom were lost the town of new madrid which had been trying to rebuild after the previous shocks faced what seemed to be a final deadly blow speed reported we landed at new madrid about breakfast time the appearance of the town and the situation of the inhabitants was such as to afford but little relief to our minds there was scarcely a house left entire some wholly prostrated others unroofed and not a chimney standing a newspaper from russellville kentucky wrote we have seen a statement made by a couple of gentlemen just from new madrid which says that the place is much torn to pieces by the late earthquake so much so that it is almost impossible to get along in any way but entirely so on horseback the houses of brick stone and lager torn to pieces and those of frame thrown up on their sides not only was the town in ruins but it had literally sunk leaving it threatened by the river speed reported that the former elevation of the bank on which the town stood was estimated at about 25 feet above common water when we reached it the elevation was only about 12 or 13 feet a report from russellville kentucky said the ground near the place for a hundred acres has sunk so low that the tops of the tallest trees can barely be seen above the water in other places more than half the length of the timber is underwater reports from survivors who arrived in lexington kentucky said in innumerable places is open large fissures and the inhabitants of new madrid entertain the opinion that the ground in which the town stood has sunk about 15 feet this threat had compelled most of the inhabitants of the area to abandon the town speed said the people having all deserted their habitations were in camps and tents back of the town in their little watercrafts such as skiffs boats and canoes hauled out of the water to their camps that they might be ready in case the country might sink the lexington paper reported also the buildings in new madrid are greatly damaged much of the land roundabout was under water and the few remaining inhabitants were encamped out the witnesses quoted in the russellville paper said the town of new madrid has sunk 12 feet below its former standing but is not covered with water the houses are all thrown down and the inhabitants have moved off except for the french who live in camps close to the riverside and have their boats tied near them in order to sail off in case the earth should sink still new madrid was better off than the tiny town of little prairie the lexington paper wrote the land where the town of little prairie stands is 16 feet underwater missouri life magazine describes the odyssey of the inhabitants of this wrecked town that night little prairie residents abandoned their homes unaware that new madrid had been devastated by the same natural disaster the refugees set out on foot for the 30-odd mile journey to new madrid the clearly marked trail was no more beset with crevices and fissures felled trees and newly made quicksand bogs with muddy water that went from shallow to deep without warning the settlers dodged panic snakes and other creatures desperately seeking safety as were the settlers from the unpredictable toil the situation the survivors was paper reported desperate the russellville report said the citizens have flown to the mountains and were when the informants left there waiting for an opportunity to move to kentucky it is said they are near one thousand in number merciful god what a horrible situation one thousand sufferers collected together without any means of subsisting having escaped from the ruins with nothing but their lives and clothes still threatened with a light catastrophe to which they have escaped and above all are suffering for food the picture is too horrid to dwell upon our sympathy is with them and our prayers presented for their delivery it's really remarkable given how spicy the population was at the time that so many clear accounts remain and these terrifying accounts by both river travelers and local residents demonstrate the awesome power of this earthquake that the united states geological survey notes was felt south to the gulf coast southeast to the atlantic coast and northeast to quebec canada speed wrote that in the period after the february 7th earthquake aftershocks came every 20 to 30 minutes and eliza bryan wrote that in 1816 four years after the major earthquake that the shocks continued although she said that they were becoming more light and less frequent it took a very long time for new madrid to recover the missouri life magazine notes at a quarter century after the quake the population was down to just 450 people but eliza bryan noted that most of the people who fled the country in the time of the hard shock came home as a result of the quakes in 1814 missouri territorial governor william clark convinced congress to pass the nation's first disaster relief act the act provided that anyone who lost land during the earthquake could receive a land certificate redeemable for between 160 and 640 like acres of public land elsewhere in missouri the earthquakes coincided with the great comet of 1911 an exceptionally bright comet visible with the naked eye the coincidence of a portentious comet in the wrath of god in the form of the earthquakes affected the nation missouri life writes earthquake christians as they came to be called suddenly sought to get right with god as membership in local methodists and baptist churches soared according to historian david w fletcher preachers attested significant numbers of baptisms and conversions since sinners wanted to avoid further outpourings of god's wrath as one minister recalled it was a time of great terror for sinners the description of the event in 1812 provides a stark warning today as the u.s geological survey says continuing minor to moderate seismic activity in the central mississippi valley area is an indication that a large magnitude tremor can someday be expected there again although exactly when such a quick might occur is the survey rights difficult to answer the survey wrote in 1974 that a repeat of the 1811-1812 quakes would result in a much greater loss of life and property today because of the much larger number of people and man-made structures in the region than were there 162 years ago the risk isn't lost on the people of new madrid today missouri life magazine notes that the residents of the town whose population hovers around 3 000 tends to look at the geological possibilities philosophically one observer the magazine writes sums up the town's sense of both caution and inevitability its citizens the observer says keep one eye on the mississippi and one eye on the hills but perhaps the u.s geological survey notes the greatest risk of all comes from the sense of complacency or perhaps total ignorance of the potential threat of a large earthquake just another reason that history deserves to be remembered i hope you enjoyed this episode of the history guide check out our community on the historyguyguild.locals.com our webpage at thehistoryguy.com and our merchandise at teespring.com or book a special message from the history guy on cameo and if you'd like more episodes of forgotten history all you have to do is subscribe [Music] you

Channel: The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered

Views: 89,785

Keywords: history, history guy, the history guy, missouri, earthquakes, new madrid

Id: nj-cYe9yMNU

Length: 17min 38sec (1058 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 07 2022

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[u/programwitch]

Powerful earthquake along the Mississippi River felt here in Oklahoma.