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THE QUAKE
An Earthquake Shakes Up Welland County
Dishes and Stoves Rattle-Boats Rock-Dogs Bark Etc.
[Welland Tribune, 1 December 1882]
WELLAND- A shock of earthquake was felt throughout Welland County and St. Catharines about 6.35 on Monday evening last, to such an extent as to cause considerable excitement. The general impression at the time was that an explosion had occurred, and it was soon afterward reported that the propeller Bruno on the lake had blown up with a cargo of nitro glycerine on board. Those more experienced in earthquakes, however, felt sure that this was one, from the slight though quite perceptible continuity of the shock. The sensation is best described as that of a locomotive passing closely and quickly, shaking the ground; only there was not, of course, as much noise, as a locomotive would make. In most houses it made things that were loose rattle generally. In the upper stories of Griffith’s block the dishes rattled on the table. In Rose’s block, Mr. W.B. Chambers was sitting in his stove store, and it seemed to him as though a hogshead of sugar were rolled across the back end of the building; the tinware hanging up in the back of the store rattled, but not in the front. In one house a child at the table was so frightened he began to cry. The shock was particularly severe along the Welland River just below Welland. It alarmed Mr. Cumines so that he went out to his stable to see if his horse hadn’t done some damage. Mr. Jacob Griffith went to the W.R.R. depot thinking a collision had occurred. Mr. L.H. Allen and others were down below in a scow being loaded at Mr. McAlpine’s and the boat rocked so that they ran up on deck to see what was the matter. The dishes and lamps rattled in most houses. In Mr. James Griffith’s house the stove rattled; Mr. Griffith’s little boy thinks the shock was occasioned by the comet running against the other side of the earth. In some places the dogs were started barking. At Mr. Vaughn’s in Pelham, a house plant pot was shaken off the window shelf. The shock seems to have been felt in all the farm houses about here and for miles about, the quietness of the country making the shock more perceptible than in town here. No actual damage is reported here, but the shock was about as severe as it could well be and be harmless. The peculiarity of the occurrence is that it seems to have been local to the district.
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