Early in 1857, the Illinois Baptist published a short account of a recent outbreak of the jerks during a series of Methodist revival meetings in Avoca Township. The article quickly made national news and was reprinted in newspapers throughout the eastern and midwestern states.
The Jerks.—The Illinois Baptist of January 14 says that this strange infatuation is again revived in our immediate vicinity. It made its appearance in a protracted meeting among the Methodists at Indian Grove. The ministers who conducted the meetings moved them from Indian Grove to Avoca, and brought with them five or six jerkers, and thus the contagion commenced at the latter place. Our informant was present at several of their meetings in Avoca, and describes the scene as very exciting. From fifty to a hundred were jerking at the same time. Their hands, shoulders, feet and head would be violently thrown into the most grotesque and painful shapes. The women’s bonnets would fly off, their hair become dishevelled, and in some cases snap like a whip. In some instances it attacked unbelievers, and unconverted men who tried to resist it by folding their arms and wrapping them tightly about their bodies, but in spite of themselves their shoulders, first one and then the other, would be jerked back, till they lost all control of themselves.
Source
“The Jerks,” [Dover] Delaware State Reporter, February 19, 1858, 1.
