St. Landry democrat., 1878-01-26
The Earthquake at New Madrid
and ReefOOt Lake i'm 1911.

Extract from a letter from Capt. John
Davis to his friend in Sweet Springs,
Va, dated Natchez, NJ. T., Jan. 5, 1872
1t will be seen the celebrated earthquake
occurred at New Madrid,ss ,ssMo., sixty-fve
years ago: "We arrived at night on the
fifteenth of December, at the Twenty
fifth island, and on the sixteenth, at ten
minutes past two o clock in the morning,
we were surprised by the greatest emotion
that can possibly be supposed of the boat,
which could compare to nothing more
picturesque than that of team ofhorses
running away with wagon over the
most rocky road in our part of the country.
There were forty boats in the company,
and each thought his boat adrift and
running over the sawyers but man on
board boat lashed to us limited it to be
an earthquake. An old navigator of the
river just above hailed us, and said it
was occasioned by the banks falling in.
We were under a bluf-bank, which i'm
mediately cast of, and fell in about a
quarter of mile, which drew US into the
current on the right side of the island,
which was much the shallowest, where
we staid till day; but in the intermediate
time we experienced about fifty partial
shocks, which shook our boats with great
agitation. At twelve minutes past seven
we heard tremendous distant noise, and
in few seconds the boats, island and
mainland became perfectly convulsed, the
trees twisted and lashed together, the earth
in all quarters was sinking, and the water
issued from the center of the Twenty
fifth isle, just On our left, and
came rushing down its side in
torrents, and on our right there fell at
once thirty or forty acres of land
some say three hundred acres; but as l
was till then perfectly collected, and,
although then much alarmed, was less
SO than any other person in our company.
The shocks at this time became frequent
at about every fifteen minutes; the water
rose, from the first shock till about eight
o'clock that day, seven or eight feet per-
pendicular, and the current ran seven or
eight miles per hour, as we ran from
Twenty-ffth island and landed on Flow
er island, distance of thirty-tive miles,
in five hours and twenty-five minutes,
and lost half an hour endeavoring to
make landing at the lower end of Nine
Mile reach, which place and the Ten
Mile reach were in perfect commotion.
The logs, which had sprung up from the
bottom of the river, were so thick that
it appeared almost impossible for boat
to find passage. There were three
boats sunk, two of which belonged to
Mr.. James Atwell, and laden from Ken
lucky, in value about three thousand
dollars; the other family boat. The
people were all saved except one man,
who belonged to the family boat. Anoth-
er had liked to have been lost from one
of the boats that was stove. He jumped
on the sawyer that STAYED the boat, and
continued there about four hours, and
was fortunately taken into another boat.
The logs and roots we passed had the
sand and mud on them, which probably
for many years lay in the bottom of the
river, and which gave the appearance of
timbered fields from Nine to Ten Mile
reach, SO that it appeared as if the order
of nature had been reversed. We expe-
rienced frequent shocks of earthquakes
for eight days, and I have heard of no
place more convulsed than where I
was."-C CIncinndt; Commercial