Morgan County Democrat. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1886-1943, 1935-11-21
Miss Gilbert Writes Her Aunt
Concerning Earthquake

Miss Gilbert Writes Her Aunt
Concerning Earthquake
Soon after the terrible earth
quake at Helena, Mont, Mrs. Mar
shall Hastings of this place wrote
her sister, Mrs. Emma Gilbert, Dill
Ion, Mont, concerning the earth
quake. Mrs. Gilbert's daughter,
Miss Montana Gilbert, answered the
letter, and Mrs. Hastings turned it
over to us, and we are pleased to
publish it. Mrs. Gilbert, as stated,
is sister Of Mrs. Hastings, also of
Mr.. Warner Macklem of this place.
The interesting letter follows:
At last, am going to jot off a
few lines in answer to your last
letter of several weeks ago. I am
plugging hard at my new job here
in Bannack, where | am teaching 81
pupils in eight grades. With the
exception of three week ends, /
have been going home every Fri
day evening and coming back on
the mail stage every Monday morn
ing in time to begin school. The
job keeps me quite busy, as-I am
my own janitor along with it. This
town was Montana's first capital,
and in it are still standing the first
Jail and hotel in the state.
/ know you are anxious to hear
about the effects of the terrible
earthquakes that have wrecked our
capital city terribly. We felt the
shakings here and in Dillon quite a
lot. The first one gave some of us
quite shaking, after we had gone
to bed. / was nearly thrown out on
to the floor, but l settled down and
went to sleep again for we have had
them before, and we did not know
what damage it had done until the
next morning, when the telephone
and telegraph lines were busy re-
porting the disaster in Helena, Dill
Ion was rocked quite lot, but no
serious damage was done except
cracking the plaster in one of the
dormitories at the state normal col
lege. When the second one came.
mother was at the front door, and
was sitting by the radio in rock
ing chair. Instead of rocking with
the chair the natural way, | was
nearly upset by it rocking side
ways. I Immediately jumped up,
ran to the door and told mother
about it, but as she was walking,
she did not notice it, but our old
cat was screaming with fright and
was looking for place to hide,
and mother couldn't figure out what
allied her until she noticed me run
ming outdoors. The next morning,
again, we were informed that He
lena was in state of Mysteries and
terribly shattered. No sightseers
are allowed to enter Helena and
many are leaving what homes they
have there Several have been kill
ed by falling walls and bricks, and
all the fire departments of Butte,
were summoned there. There has
been a continued shaking of the
earth there every few minutes since
the first major quake occurred, and
loose boards, stones, bricks and so
on have been dropping. We are
about 130 miles from Helena. A few
days ago, there came a quake which
finally cracked wing of the state
capitol building, and leveled to the
ground, another building nearby.
1t is very difficult to get carpen-
ters, bricklayers or stone workers
to go there to repair the buildings,
as they do not wish to stand risk
of being hurt by another shaking,
not even those on relief.
Well, so much for the quake. We
are glad to know that you are all
well, and hope that no such disas-
ters will happen to your towns or
state. How l would love to see Ber-
nice's baby I'll bet it's grandpar-
ents and great grandparents are
very proud of it especially. l hope
we can see it some day. Mother
seems fairly well. We have had lots
of snow and cold zero weather here
the last three weeks. 1 hope it
breaks up soon.
Well it is nearly time for the
stage to come, SO I'll ring off until
the next time.s Write soon and tell
me how you all are.
With love to you all, from Mon
tana.