The Project Gutenberg EBook of San Francisco During the Eventful Days of
April, 1906, by James B. Stetson

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Title: San Francisco During the Eventful Days of April, 1906

Author: James B. Stetson

Posting Date: August 18, 2009 [EBook #4640]
Release Date: November, 2003
First Posted: February 20, 2002

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SAN FRANCISCO--APRIL 1906 ***

Produced by David Schwan. HTML version by Al Haines.

San Francisco During the Eventful Days of April, 1906

Personal Recollections

By

James B. Stetson

These recollections were written in June, 1906, but the first edition
being exhausted and a new one being required, I have included some
events that occurred later, without changing the original date.

Personal Recollections During the Eventful Days of April, 1906

As the earthquake and the great fire in San Francisco in the year 1906
were events of such unusual interest, and realizing how faulty is man's
memory after time passes, I have here jotted down a few incidents which
I personally observed, and shall lay them away, so that if in the future
I should desire I can refer to these notes, made while the events were
new and fresh in my mind, with some assurance of their accuracy.

On the morning of April 18, 1906, at 5:13, in my residence, 1801 Van
Ness Avenue, I was awakened by a very severe shock of earthquake. The
shaking was so violent that it nearly threw me out of bed. It threw down
a large bookcase in my chamber, broke the glass front, and smashed two
chairs; another bookcase fell across the floor; the chandelier was so
violently shaken that I thought it would be broken into pieces. The
bric-a-brac was thrown from the mantel and tables, and strewed the floor
with broken china and glass. It is said to have lasted fifty-eight
seconds, but as nearly as I can estimate the violent part was only about
twelve seconds.

As soon as it was over I got up and went to the window, and saw the air
in the street filled with a white dust, which was caused by the falling
of masonry from St. Luke's Church on the diagonal corner from my room. I
waited for