Mexico weekly ledger., 1895-11-07
EARTHQUAKE SHOCK OF 1871.
A Missouri Pioneers Record OF His
Experiences.
From the St. Louis Post Dispatch.

peeially the apparent object of the
seismic convulsion and its dead un-
buried for the river to carry away.
There are very few trustworthy ac-
counts of the down river cataclysm,
as the people who saw the most of it
were neither accurate observers OF
given to writing their impressions.
Firmin La Roche, who was the patron
or master of a fleet of iotboats going
down the river from st. Louis to New
Orleans at the time of the disaster,
has left an account of the earthquake
which is still in the possession of his
descendants at Ninth and Soulard
streets and which has never before
been printed. 1t is written in Grabbed
and contracted French and one of the
pages is SO mutulated as to be almost
indecipherable. Two hand writings
are evident in the MSS, the second
being possibly that of the FIR. Joseph
mentioned in the story, as it is much
more clerky than La Rochs's. The
account appears to have been pre-
pared at the request of somebody
whose name is not given, but who
seems to have put several qustions
which La Roche seriatim.
The document begins:
"NEw ORLEANS, FEB. 20, 1912.
81. I am named Firmin La Roche,
sailor, living in st. Louis, and | was
present at theearthquake which late
ly occurred aAove and below the
mouth of the River Ohio along both
shores of. the River Mississippi. There
were with me the FIR. Joseph of the
Mission to the Osages, returning home
to France; Jacques Menier, Dominic
Berges,, Leon Sarpy, Henry Lamel, 5
other men and the negro slave, Ben,
who was killed at New Madrid. / had
three boats and I was taking to New
Orleans some furs bought in st. Louis.
"2. We set out from st. Louis on
Nov. 3, 1911, but because of an acct
dent to one of the boats we were four
days delayed near the mouth of the
(probablyMeramec) land again we had
to stop for time at the Charges, SO that
on the evening of Nov. 15 we tied up
maybe eight miles north of New Mad
rid, near the house of my cousin, John
La Clerq.
SO. No, we did not notice that the
weather was bad at that time. 1t was
chilly. There was, I think, some wind.
I do not remember that there was
clouds in the sky. / think not. Neither
does FIR. Joseph remember. After we
had supper we went to sleep, and
was awakened by a crash like thunder,
and the boat. turned upon its side SO
that I.amel, who slept beside me, was
| thrown on me and both fell against
the side. 1t was very dark then. At
ter perhaps half an hour, when we got
away from the bank, we looked at the
| watch and it was 3 O'Clock. When
could see, the trees on the shore were
falling down and great masses of earth
tumbled into the river. Lamel cut
the rope that tied US to a log that wa!
there, and in a moment SO great {
wave came up the river that l havt
never seen one like it at sea. 1t car
ried rs back, north, upstream fol
more than a mile, and the water
spread out upon the banks, ever Gov
ering maybe three or four miles in
land. 1t was the current going back
ward. Then this wave stopped ant
slowly the river went right again.
Everywhere there was noise like
thunder, and the ground was shakin,
the trees down, and the air was thicl
with something like smoke. Their
was much lightning. We believed WI
must surely die. FIR. Joseph gave alb
solution. We did not see either of tn,
other two boats; one of them we new
er saw again, nor do we know wheth
er the men in it were drowned. l d.
not know how long this went on, TO
we were in great terror, expecting
DEATH"
The following is in another writing
pTOudDiy tuO pAiCoo p
81 think there were two grea
shocks about half an hour apart an
many small ones between and after
The water rose SO where we were tia
a tree on the bank whose top mus
have been thirty feet above the rive
level was covered all over. All of tn
crew were sleeping and awoke great
} ly confused and frightened, so tina
even a few hours after, when we wer
again safe, nobody could agree in hi
recollection of that awful night. ]
was dark. We saw two houses on fir
on the left bank, and when we cam
to New Madrid there we're houses ais
burning there. The people wei
crowded out upon the hillside an
were in great fear. We tied up to tn
shore about dawn, and a hickory tire
5 fell upon the boat, killing the Negro
Ben, and breaking the left arm of tn
0 patron; also the boat was damaged
We ran upon shore, thinking W
5 would be drowned, but the vessel di
not sink. Some people called to u
0 that we should go back upon tn
water, or that we would be kiile'
o We went on, fearing the land LEI
than the river. When the Poop
there, about twenty at this place, III
derstood that there was a priest pre-
emit they knelt and had absolutio
There were small shocks now al
s then and much rumbling that frigh
ened us greatly, as we looked #
nothing but our destruction, and the
Is noises, we expected, foreran our en-
The sound was in the ground, som
times muffied and groaning; som
u times it cracked and crashed, not Ill
thunder, but as though a great she
~ of ice had broken.
'o 81. We made no effort to find o
q. how many people had been killed, .