I was present at the earthquake which lately occurred about and below the mouth of the River Ohio on both sides of the river. We set out from St. Louis November 8th. It was chilly. I do not remember that there were clouds in the sky. After supper, we went to sleep. I was awakened by a crash like thunder, and the boat turned on its side so that the man who slept by me was thrown on me and both of us fell against the side of the boat. It was very dark, about three o’clock in the morning. When I could see, the trees on the shore were falling down and great masses of earth tumbling into the river. Lamel cut the rope that tied us to a log that was there, and in a moment so great a wave came up the river that it carried us back north upstream for more than a mile and the water spread out on the banks three or four miles inland. Everywhere was a noise like thunder. The ground was shaking. The air was thick, as though it were full of smoke. There was much lightning. We thought we should die. The priest gave us absolution. One of the other boats was never seen again. There were two shocks, about half an hour apart, and many small ones between. The water rose so high that a tree on the bank, whose top must have been thirty feet above the water, was covered all over. There was much rumbling that frightened us. The sound was in the ground, muffled and groaning, and sometimes there were cracks like thunder, as though great sheets of ice had been broken. We saw dead bodies floating down the river.

-- anonymous remembrance