Mecklenburg, North Carolina Earthquake
August 31, 1866
On the last night of August, in 1886, the
people of Mecklenburg were shaken up, and many
of them alarmed at the convulsions of nature.
Some few persons who had a clear conscience and
a good digestion, slept on as peacefully as an
infant. The first came about 10 o'clock,
probably one-third of the people in Mecklenburg
were asleep, and many of those who had clone a
hard day's Work, did not awake. But on the farms
the negroes were badly frightened; they called
their nearest neighbors to come to their relief
; some prayed aloud with great earnestness;
others thought some enemy was trying to pull
down their house, and they were defending their
premises with rifles, pistols, shot guns, or
anything they could get hold of. Cries of
distress and fear could be heard on all sides,
that were truly distressing. A large family who
lived in a large house, some of the members had
retired, and the father had partaken too freely
of his cups to be reasoned with, when the family
all got safely out of the house, begged the
father to get up and come out of the house, that
judgment day had come. Immediately the firm
answer came back, "Go back to your beds you
fools you, don't you know judgment day is not
coming in the night?" How many people will leave
home when great fear comes upon them; they are
hunting sympathy, or protection. In a negro
church near Huntersville, the house was crowded
when the first shock was felt, but the preacher
partially quieted the alarm, saying, "If that is
some mischievous persons doing that, they will
be afraid to do it again; but if it's the Lord,
look out." Just at the instant the house was
shaken more violently than before, when the
negroes poured out the doors and windows, and
over the heads of those who did not move fast
enough it was a panic. A religious awakening was
started among both whites and blacks; but, like
all revivals that spring from fear, it soon
passed away.
The history of Mecklenburg County from
1740 to 1900; Charlotte, N.C.: Observer Print.
House, 1902, pages 317-318.
This earthquake was part of the
Charleston Earthquake.
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