Since European settlement, no loss of life had been directly attributed to an earthquake in Canada. The October 20, 1870, M 6½ Charlevoix earthquake appears to be the only Canadian earthquake with documented evidence of direct casualties. The information contained in available documents from that time period converges to two direct casualties in the Les Éboulements area, very close to the epicenter. Reports of casualties in the Quebec City newspapers, the death registry in Les Éboulements, and the intense damage suffered by houses of the residents point towards two children being killed during, or slightly after, the earthquake. The Appendices below are excerpts from written documents that examplifies the impact of this earthquake in the Charlevoix region.
Appendix 1: Quebec Daily Mercury Saturday, October 22, 1870
THE EARTHQUAKE.
At Eboulements, ten houses were completely thrown down, besides that of Mr. Clement, M.P.P., for Charlevoix, and Dr. Laterriere. Two children are reported killed in this parish, but a letter from there today does not mention the fact. It appears that all the houses within an area of a mile, in this locality, were more or less damaged and there would have been great loss of life had not the people hurriedly quitted their residences. The two-story stone building used as a hotel at the Eboulements wharf has been almost leveled to the ground.
At St. Pauls Bay, one half of the church and seventeen houses have been prostrated. At Isle aux Coudres, five houses were thrown down. In rear of St. Pauls Bay and Eboulements, small mountains have been lifted up and their shape changed.
Appendix 2: Morning Chronicle - Commercial and Shipping Gazette October 22nd, 1870 p2c2
EARTHQUAKE - The Purser of the steamer Clyde reports that the shock of earthquake was very violent along the whole of the North Shore. At Baie St. Paul seventeen houses were much damaged. At les Eboulements the church and ten houses were injured, and two children killed. At Murray Bay five houses were injured, and any amount of fallen chimneys; and near Cape Trinity, in the River Saguenay, a large mass of rock, nearly 300 feet in length, was precipitated into the river.
Appendix 3: Le Canadien -24 October 1870 p2c5 (Translation below)
Le tremblement de terre.
Le tremblement de terre de jeudi dernier, que nous avons trouvé si violent ici, sest fait encore plus sentir sur dautre (sic) points du pays. A la Baie St. Paul, on ne compte pas moins de 17 maisons qui ont été plus ou moins endommagées. LEglise a eu partie dun de ses pans dabattue et a aussi ont souffert dautres dommages. Grand nombre de cheminées se sont écroulées.
Aux Eboulements, dix maisons ont souffert des dommages plus ou moins grands entrautres celle de M. Clément M. P. P., et celle du Dr. Laterrière. M. Clément a failli se faire tuer par une pierre qui est tombée près de lui au moment ou il sortait de sa maison pour fuir. Les moulins à farine du Dr. Laterrière ont été beaucoup endommagés.
Dans cette paroisse, le tremblement de terre a tellement bouleversé la terre, sur quelques points, qu'il s'y trouve des crevasses de 3 pieds de largeur. Il y a eu deux enfants de tués en cet endroit.
On remarque que ce sont les bâtisses en pierre qui ont principalement souffert.
A la Malbaie, cinq maisons se sont écroulées.
En arrière des paroisses de la Baie St. Paul et des éboulements, de petites montagnes ont tellement été bouleversées et secouées que quelques unes se trouvèrent entièrement transformées.
Translation by Maurice Lamontagne
The earthquake.
The earthquake of last Thursday, which we found so violent here, was felt even more in other places of this country. In Baie St. Paul, not fewer than 17 houses were damaged to some extent. The church had part of its walls collapsed and suffered additional damage. A large number of chimneys were brought down.
At Eboulements, ten houses suffered various levels of damage including Mr Clement's M.P.P. and Dr Laterriere's. Mr. Clément was almost killed by a falling stone while fleeing his home. The flour mills of Dr. Laterrière have been much damaged.
In this parish, the earthquake has disturbed the earth so much that in a few places three foot wide crevasses can be found.
Two children have been killed at that place.
One notices that it is the stone buildings that suffered the most.
At La Malbaie, five houses collapsed.
Behind the parishes of Baie St. Paul and Les Eboulements, small mountains were disturbed and shaken to such an extent that some of them were completely transformed.
Appendix 4: Le Courrier du Canada 24 October 1870: Translation below
LE TREMBLEMENT DE TERRE Nous apprenons tous les jours que le tremblement de terre du 20 a causé de grands dommages en bas de Québec. Aux Eboulements, 10 maisons ont été complètement renversées. Celle de M. Clément a été fortement endommagée ainsi que celle du Dr. Laterrière. Deux enfants ont été tués.
A la Baie Saint Paul, une partie de léglise et 17 maisons ont été démolies. A llle aux Coudres, 5 maisons ont croulé
Translation by Maurice Lamontagne
THE EARTHQUAKE - Every day, we learn that the earthquake of the 20th has caused great damage below Quebec City. In Eboulements, 10 houses have been completely overturned. Mr. Clement's house was greatly damaged as was that of Dr. Laterrière. Two children have been killed.
At Baie Saint Paul, part of the church and 17 houses have been completely demolished. At Ile aux Coudres, 5 houses have collapsed.
Appendix 5 - The Quebec Gazette - October 24, 1870
The Earthquake
A correspondent, writing from Baie St. Paul, informs the readers of an evening journal that the tremblings in the bowels of the earth are, in the vicinity of the parish from which he corresponds, -- of very frequent occurrence, and it is not surprising to know that the shock of last Thursday, which shook the houses in Quebec to the very foundations, would have been seriously felt on the north shore. At Les Eboulemens, a locality deriving its name from the peculiarity of its formation, brought about, as geologists tell us, by volcanic eruption, - the shock was so intensely severe, as to completely level to the ground, two solid buildings of stone material. The Rev. Mr. Plamondon, Parish priest of Baie St. Paul, states in a letter that scarcely a building in the place escaped being damaged from the shock. The earthquake at the Bay and at Les Eboulemens, was felt in all its intensity; the wildest confusion and terror amongst the inhabitants. The Church is injured to such an extent that it is very probable the whole building must be taken down before any repairs can be made. Another correspondent from the same place, says that the earth opened in several places making a gap ten inches wide, out of which fountains of water sprung, in such large quantities that at one spot, opposite the residence of Mr. Maxime Dufour, a stranger would have said it was a lake. The shock was so violent that for a circuit of 16 miles, not a single house has escaped being damaged less or more from its effects. The damage at the Bay and in the vicinity is estimated at $20,000. In one instance, the writer asserts, a shop was completely engulfed, not leaving a vestige of it on the surface. Both correspondents are of opinion that, had the event taken place in the night, many lives would have been lost.
Appendix 6: Excerpts from the Registry of deaths of the Les Éboulements Parish: Translation below
Sépulture 29
« Le vingt quatre octobre mil huit cent soixante dix, nous prêtre soussigné, avons inhumé dans le cimetière de cette paroisse le corps de Joseph Tremblay âgé de six ans et demi, décédé lavant-veille enfant du légitime mariage de Charles Tremblay, cultivateur, et de Martine Coulombe de cette paroisse. Présent : Pascal Desgagné et Néré Desgagné. »
Sépulture 30
« Le vingt quatre octobre mil huit cent soixante dix, nous prêtre soussigné, avons suppléé les cérémonies funéraires au corps de Marie élizabeth Miville décédée depuis quatre jours et déjà inhumée âgée de quatre mois, enfant légitime du mariage de Prospère Miville et de Marie Élisabeth Tremblay de cette paroisse. Présent : Pascal Desgagné et Néré Desgagné ».
Translation by Maurice Lamontagne:
Burial 29
« On the 24th of October eighteen seventy, we, the undersigned priest, have buried in the cemetery of this parish the body of Joseph Tremblay, six and half years old, died the day before yesterday legitimate child of Charles Tremblay, farmer, and Martine Coulombe of this parish. Present : Pascal Desgagné and Néré Desgagné. »
Burial 30
« On the 24th of October eighteen seventy, we, the undersigned priest, have performed the funeral ceremonies to the body of Marie élizabeth Miville deceased four days ago, four month old, legitimate child of Prospère Miville and of Marie Élisabeth Tremblay of this parish. Present : Pascal Desgagné and Néré Desgagné ».
Appendix 7 - Buies (1873): Translation below
Un lieu qui n'a pas son pareil au monde
Me voici maintenant à six lieues de la Malbaie, aux Éboulements, dans un endroit à moitié sorti du chaos primitif. Rien de pareil au monde: on dirait un cataclysme arrêté court et qui mugit sourdement dans son immobilité. Il y a comme une menace perpétuelle dans ces énormes montagnes qui se dressent sous le regard, tantôt isolées, tantôt reliées en chaînes compactes, et se poursuivant les unes les autres jusque dans un lointain inaccessible. Une charge de montagnes arrêtées tout à coup dans leur élan, voilà l'image de l'endroit où je suis aujourd'hui.
Il y a de l'épouvante et de la colère tout à la fois dans cette nature formidable, et l'on dirait que la main puissante qui la retient frémit. C'est comme un effort gigantesque de tous les jours pour s'affranchir de l'immuable volonté du créateur, et dont l'impuissance tourne en convulsions horribles. Lorsqu'on débarque sur le rivage des Éboulements, si tant est qu'il y a un rivage au pied de ces montagnes échevelées, on éprouve une invincible crainte de les voir s'écrouler sur sa tête et l'on a besoin de se confier dans les lois éternelles de la création. J'ai vu les effets des derniers tremblements de terre dans ce pays. Pas une habitation qui ne soit à moitié reconstruite, qui n'ait eu ses cheminées jetées à terre et quelque pan de mur écroulé; quelques-unes ont été entièrement démolies. à un endroit, une vaste colline de sable de deux cents pieds de hauteur s'est effondrée; le sable a été emporté à quatre arpents plus loin, déracinant et entraînant avec lui un verger tout entier dans sa course furibonde. Sur le chemin qu'il a traversé, il y a maintenant une côte, et, plus loin, on voit les troncs d'arbres du verger qui repoussent ça et là, et des tiges, arrachées de toutes parts, qui reprennent racine dans un sol nouveau.
Buies, A. 1873. Chroniques, Humeurs et Caprices, Vol. 1, C. Darveau eds., Québec, 400 pp.
Translation by Maurice Lamontagne
A place like no one else in the world
Here I am now at six leagues from La Malbaie, in Les Éboulements, in a severe place, only half out of the primitive chaos. Nothing like it in the world, it looks like a stopped calamity that howls in its immobility. There is a permanent threat in these enormous mountains that stand in our sight, sometimes isolated, sometimes linked in a compact chain, chasing each other in an inaccessible distance. A load of mountains stopped in their motion, this is the image of the place where I am today.
There is affright and wrath in this nature and one might think that the hand that withholds it is shaking. It is like a gigantic daily effort to liberate oneself from the unstoppable will of the Creator and whose powerlessness turns into terrible convulsions. When one disembarks on the shore of Les Éboulements, if this can be called a shore at the foot of these dishevelled mountains, one fears to see them collapse on his head and one feels the need to entrust himself to the eternal laws of the creation. I saw the effects of the last earthquakes on this land. Not a dwelling that is not half rebuilt, that did not have its chimneys fall to the ground or its walls collapse, and some were completely demolished. At one place, a broad hill some two hundred feet high collapsed, with the sand carried away over some four acres, uprooting and carrying with it a whole orchard in its course. On the road that it crossed, there is now a hill, and, further away, one sees trunks of trees from the orchard that grow here and there, and stalks torn off that grow roots in new soil.
Buies, A. 1873. Chroniques, Humeurs et Caprices, Vol. 1, C. Darveau eds., Québec, 400 pp.
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