Excerpt from the Joseph Brown’s “Biographical Sketch” (ca. 1803)
“I was taken with the Jirks and the impresson was followed with power….”
Excerpt from Joseph Brown’s “Biographical Sketch” (Fall 1814)
“The peopel had the Jirks Shouting and d[a]ncing and…those that atempted to desribe there fealing while ingaged in the above exersize sayed the[y] had the most hevenly fealing that [they] ever felt in the there life….”
Excerpt from the Autobiography of James Norman Smith (January, 1850)
“When I told him about the few professors of religion [in Texas, Joseph Brown] became greatly excited and had the jerks…. I told him that if he did not stop his whooping that I would get in the other bed so he promised to be quiet but we quit the subject of religion in the new settlement….”
James J. McDaniel’s Reminiscences of Joseph Brown and the Jerks (ca. 1823)
“About 1822–3…, I attended a camp-meeting at McCain’s…. [T]here I first saw [Joseph Brown] under religious excitement…. Some years before, those peculiar, involuntary and spasmodic exercises known as ‘jerks,’ had been very common…and [they] continued to effect Col. Brown likely through life….”
