I continue to examine the more than 40 diaries of Dr. Swancey W. Kennedy (1844-1923), who was a physician in the Fork, the Knox County lands between the French Broad and Holston rivers. They are great springboards into some significant historical events!
On August 31, 1886, the good doctor casually mentions “a heavy earthquake shock” that happened that night at about 9 o’clock. How could I not follow that up by seeing what the local papers had to say about it? Well, it was no small incident. Although at least three shocks were each felt for about 30 seconds in Knoxville over only a 15-minute period, along with its aftershocks, it rumbled across multiple states for over an hour.
The Knoxville Journal and Tribune for the next day, September 1, was filled with detailed accounts of the quake that was reported across the nation. Reports from Alabama to Maryland recorded the effects, including experiences in Ohio, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Virginia, Georgia, South Carolina, and Washington, DC. The rumbling was felt to various degrees in different states as windows rattled, chandeliers swayed, furniture overturned, chimneys fell, and individuals were tumbled out of bed. Many people ran into the streets in a panic. In Richmond, Virginia, one hundred guards arrived at the state prison to secure the inmates. The shake was reported in Pennsylvania at 10:11, an hour after it shook up Dr. Swancey Kennedy.
In downtown Knoxville, Alf and Bob Taylor, Carter County brothers who were running against one another for governor in 1886, were interrupted in discussing their political plan and ran out of the Hattie House motel. They were joined on the streets by the Odd Fellows from their lodge over Peter Kerns place on Market Square and the guests at the MaCullum Building, Schubert’s, the Atkin House, and the Lamar House (which is now the Bijou Theater). Walls in some structures were cracked from floor to ceiling. Mr. C.M. Harris, a traveling salesman at the W.W. Woodruff & Co. building said the hardware “made such a rattling” that he was ready to head home to be with his family in Rogersville. All the newspapers sold out, except just one to keep on file…