Mexborough and Swinton Times May 26, 1906
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A Denaby Man in San Francisco
Mr Dudley Walsh, of Goldthorpe, has received the following interesting letter from Mr Henry Davis, who before leaving for San Francisco, was well known amongst the mining community of Denaby and Hickleton:
“May 6, 1906
Just a few lines, hoping to find you well and in good health, as it only leaves me fair, after the big earthquake we have had out here. It’s the first earthquake ever I was in, and I hope it’s the last.
He has killed thousands of people, and done billions of pounds worth of damages. It shook hundreds of hours, and killed very nearly all the people that were in them. In the next hotel to where I was living it killed over 200 people.
As soon as the houses fell to the ground they fired right away and burned the whole city down to the ground.
Picture from wikipedia
I will give you a bit of an idea what I went through at the time. I was in bed, when I felt myself flying up against the wall. I scrambled out of the room and plaster from the ceiling was falling on me. As I was running out of the how it was rocking worse than a cradle and cracking worse than thunder. I thought every footstep was my last, as the hours of falling was fast as it could. I just got out, when down it came. I ran across the street for safety, as I thought, but that’s I was also falling down as fast as it can, so I ran up the street, and houses were falling in front of me. You could not see anything for fire and dose for three days.
I am living up in the mountains at present. I hope it will not last long, but it looks like lasting for some time yet. I must tell you that I lost everything I had in the fire. I lost $250 in gold and all my clothes. I bought a gold watch and chain I paid $57 for only three weeks before and that got burnt up. I never got a thing out, and was lucky to get out myself. I was half the day with nothing on only my shirt, and thousands of others were the same. It was an awful sight to see man, woman and children, rich and poor all running up and down the street, half naked. I tell you it was an awful sight.
Right under where I live the Earth went down and it has shaken and racked all the earth for a score miles around here. They even felt it on the sea. One sailor thought it was the ship wreaking, and jumped out and was drowned.
J Dudley I went down to the post office to see if any letters that come the other day, and I called at where I live to see if I could find anything belonging to me. All I found was a woman bird today, and I went down yesterday, and called again, and a bit away from the dead woman was another body, and God knows how many more there are under the ruins. I have need to get on my knees and pray to God for giving me the power to get out alive. I had a near do.
They are finding dead bodies, five and six every day, under the ruins.
Tell me if Dick Parkes is still at Goldthorpe, now young Korean, Mick Nicholls, Luke Flaherty, John frail, and all the boys are getting on.
Yours etc. Henry Davis, General Post Office, San Francisco.