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Lydia Roosevelt survives the devastating destruction caused by the New Madrid Earthquake. The steamboat New Orleans reaches New Orleans.
What horror Lydia Roosevelt, clutching her two babies, must have experienced before reaching New Orleans can only be guessed at. Surely she could only hold her children close and pray as jets of gas and lumps of coals were thrown from under the bed of the river. The River Runs BackwardsIn the northwestern corner of Tennessee a large section of land sank below the level of the Mississippi. For hours afterwards, the river ran backwards until the hole was filled, creating a lake that still exists today. The pilot of the steamboat New Orleans had two choices in navigating the boat. He could either stay in deep water, which was the swiftest, and dodge the considerable floating debris, or follow the ever-changing shoreline where huge chunks of the banks were falling into the river, often toppling enormous trees. But Lydia's nightmare subsided as the New Orleans at last reached Natchez, then on January 10 of the New Year the anchor was dropped in New Orleans harbor. A Stout-Hearted WomanLydia Roosevelt, between 1809 and 1812, had endured two childbirths, two river voyages of several hundred miles each. She had watched her husband nightly fend off alligators, then pacify Indians. She alone bailed water throughout one night and came nearer to drowning than she may have realized at the time when their barge sprung a leak. She nursed a boat-full of sick people including her husband, cleaning up their mishaps while she was delicately pregnant. She stood by while their boat was nearly attack when it was mistaken for a British vessel-and survived a devastating earthquake. It can only be wondered at which was mightier, Lydia Roosevelt or the river. Previous: New Madrid Earthquake: A River Gone Mad . Recommended Reading:Earthquake in Year 1811: The New Madrid, Missouri Earthquake. Sources: Andrist, Ralph K., Narrative by. Steamboats on the Mississippi. American Heritage Publishing Co., Inc. New York, 1962. Feldman, Jay. When the Mississippi Ran Backwards: Empire, Intrigue, Murder, and the New Madrid Earthquakes. Free Press, New York, 2005. Kion, Mary Trotter. Earthquake in Year 1811. Suite 101, Canada, 2002. O'Neil, Paul. The Rivermen: The Old West. Time-Life Books, New York, 1975.
The copyright of the article Lydia in a World Gone Crazy in American History is owned by Mary Trotter Kion. Permission to republish Lydia in a World Gone Crazy in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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