Presbyterian minister Thomas Cleland included a short description of the jerks in this excerpt from his report of a missionary tour through southside Kentucky in 1812. Although he countenanced the jerks earlier in his career (click here), Cleland described this incident in negative terms in his letter to Ashbel Green and two decades later in the Biblical Repertory and Theological Review (click here). Contextual notes appear in square brackets.
[August] 23rd. [1812.] Rode 10 miles & Preached at Liberty in the court-house to an affectionate audience in a Baptist settlement. The house was crouded. They were attentive until I had finished my discourse & had prayed. Was able to sing the last hymn but was forestalled by an enthusiastic kind of man who started a song with a lively tune. Several young women began to Jirk backward & foreward. The seats were immediately removed to afford room & prevent them from being hurt. One young woman had what I would call the whirling exercise. She went round like a top, I think at least 50 times in a minute & continued without the smallest intermission for at least an hour. It far exceeded anything of the kind I ever saw. I was told that she had had the jirks nearly 3 years. She did not appear exhausted, complained of pain if the bystanders did not continue singing. I became perfectly tired. My preaching seemed to be all gone & to have been rather in the way from what took place. Afterwards I remonstrated with some of them and cautioned them.
Source
Thomas Cleland to Ashbel Green, March 13, 1813, box 60, Simon Gratz Autograph Collection, 1517–1925, Collection 0250B, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.
