The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1889-12-26
THEY HAVE SHAKEN NEW ENGLAND.
Earthquakes Which Demolished Our
crandfathers' chimneys.
How the Great Shock OF i8i 4 Made
the Town OF WIndham Tremble.
John JoceIyn's Theory Of the Origin
of the White Mountains.
[HOn. William Goold.l

wrote "A storm at sea wants not Its ter
ror, but an earthquake, shaking the very
foundations Of all the world hath nothing
more Of horror" After the great convulsion
OF 1855, there had been no severe shock until
1914. Then there were few alive who could
recollect the first one. On the 2Sth Of No
vember. 1914, there came great shock. The
ground was bare and hard frozen. with the
roads very rough from the mud being sud-
denly frozen. was five years old. The
shock came, should think, about o'clock,
with clear sky and the air perfectly calm.
My father and mother had gone to pass the
evening with friends mile away. /, with
brother four years my senior, were at home
In the care OF a hired house girl. We we're
In the great kitchen OF the house where am
now writing. 1t then had middle chimney
with wide freplaces. That Of the kitchen
had fue large enough to admit a common
-four barrel. One side of the room was occr-
pied by the old-fashioned open "dressers'!
with the ranges of shelves grooved to pre-
vent the sliding Of the dishes, part OF which
were set on edge, leaning against the back.
The house girl was Of mature age, with a
fruitful Imagination. She was amusing and
frightening US by turns with stories Of
ghosts, wild animals aud witches, OF the
marvellous kind so often INDUCED In at that
day to keep children awake and quiet. While
in the midst Of an especially awful story,
rumbllng was heard as II a two-hOrse team
with an empty wagon was coming at great
speed down the hill, fifty rods southeast Of
the house. The noise grew louder until ap-
parently the team was only few rods off up
the road. Then the house began to tremble,
then to shake violently. The dishes "a large
part of which were pewter) on the open
shelves began to change places with an evil
dent disposition to sit fat instead OF on edge
in the groove in which they were placed We
all sprang to our feet with fright. Bricks
from the great chimney top, loosened by the
quaking earth, came rattllng down the Aue,
scattering blazing frebraEds in all direc-
tions, and all were so paralyzed at first that
we were unable to gather up the live Goals
and brands. The falling dishes, the flying
embers, the trembling house and shocking
noise, formed scene which would frighten
older heads than ours, and worst of all there
were no parents present to whom we could
fly for protection and explanation.
am unable to tell the length Of time be-
fore the noise and tremor passed Off as II
came. but in the opposite direetion-it SEEM
ed very long.
The first words spoken were by me.
l held firmly 10 the girls
gown, and looking imploringly in
her face, asked "Wlll it shake again." but
1t did not. Soon our parents came and tried
to look undisturbed, but in reality they were
not much calmer than the others OF their
household. In the morning we found that
more or less damage had been done to nearly
every ehimn-y in town, and many Of the less
firm had fallen altogether. In some houses the
overhead plastering. then much heavier than
that nov put on, fell, doing much damage to
mirrors, pictures, table and mantle orna-
ments and the like.
This earthquake Of 1914 was felt all over
New England, but not with equal severity,
and yet Judge Davis Of Plymouth Is the
only historical writer To my knowledge, who
mentions 1t. He says 1t was the most severe
Of any since that Of 1885, That one Is thus
described by DIR. Holyoke In his diary:
November 1S, 1856, we were awakened by
greater earthquake than has ever been known in
this country. Tops Of chlmneys and store walls
shake. | thought Of nothing less than being
buried instantly In the ruins Of The house IL was
,t,i lett from I'M Nova Nova scotia % south Carolina It's
were several less shocks afterwards"
In 1854 was visiting the house where my
maternal grandfather was reared in Kittery,
now Eliot. 1t was built by James Gowen
who was Province councillor from Maine
from ITO to 1774. His daughter, Mrs. Shap-
leigh, aged about 90, then owned and occu-
pied the house. 1t Is yet standing, un-
altered, and owned by a daughter Of Mrs.
Shapleigh. 1t Is a wide two story gambrel
rooted house. was standing with Mrs
Shapleigh, in front of the mOnstrous fire
place In the best room. l remarked that 1t
was large chimney. She answered ''yes.
but not near so large as the first one that the
earthquake shook down." at the same time
pointing to the ceiling which showed by the
Joining OF the plastering that the first
chimney which was shaken down, was more
than two feet larger all round. The Gld
lady spoke as II the earthquake was of re-
cent occurrence, well known 70 all, whereas
1t was more than q century before The
effects OF the famous earthquake Of 1855 can
now be seen in that house. IL stands about
mile east OF the Eliot depot, on the line OF
The earthquake Of 1855 was thus noted by
Parson Smith OF Falmouth, In his journal.
Nov 18th, there was in the night, at a quarter
past four; a most amazing shock OF an earth
II would shake the house TO pieces and then
threw down near one hundred bricks from our
chimney. and did the same to many other chin
neys IN town.
Professor Shaler calls New England one Of
sthe three earthquake centres Of the United
States. The first recorded severe cOnvulsiOn
was that which overwhelmed Port Royal In
Jamaica in 1892. and sunk 1t under the
water. For years mariners sailing over the
spot could see down In the clear depths this
sunken city. In 1927 there happened In New
England second earthquake OF great Sc
verify, but nothing approaching to that Of
1855 already described.
John Jocelyn, an Englishman who resided
off and on, ten years at Black Point, Scar
borough, leaving In 1911. In his published
voyages, writes of earthquakes In this eoun-
try. lie says there was one IN 1858 and one
In 1867, that earthquakes are frequent in
the country, some suppose that the White
Mountains were first raised by earthquakes
they are hollow as may be inferred by the
sounding OF the rain upon the level top. The
Indians told OF river whose course was not
only stopped by an earthquake in 166s, but
the whole river was swallowed up. And l
have heard II reported from credible persons
that whilst was there In the country, there
happened terrible earthquake, amongst
the French, rending huge rock asunder
even to the center, wherein was vast hol-
low Of lmmeasurable depth out Of which
came many Internal spirits" This reported
happening "among the French" must Of
course have been in Nova Scotia, and ac-
counts for the "infernal spirits" that de-
coyed the Acadians into their churches
in 1855, and then seized them as prisoners
inishIng their Internal work by transporting
them to distant colonies for no overt act, but
for fear they would commit one; aud then
burning their buildings and crops for fear
they would return. We should hardly credit
the story Of Jocelyn's credible persons" but
for the treatment which the innocent Aca-
dians received.
l reeOllect an amusing remark made when
| was boy about earthquakes. There was
a Capt. Shaw. who traded from Portland to
the Bay Of Honduras. where he had much
trouble with the customs officers. In Telat-
ing his experience, he said there was moth
Ing those Spaniards were afraid Of but an
earthquake; and that he bad contracted with
the Musqueto Indians TO get him tame one
to use there.
To offset the supernatural vagaries Of John
JOcelyn, / will close with what Professor
Young of Princeton, n. j., wrote OF the nat
ural causes Of earthquakes, the next morn
ing after the great earthquake at Charleston.
). o., August 10th. 1884. lie said:
No one knows exactly why the earth's surface
trembles aud quiYers at certain tines and in eeT
tain parts OF the world, and Yet the real mystery
probably Is that II does not do so more frequently.
H. as Is almost certain, iL has attained s prese1t
CONDITION by condensation and shrinka0e from