Extracts from the Journals of Thomas Mann (May 21–September 21, 1807)
“Dr. Hambleton had the Jurks five time[s] in meeting….”
Extracts from the Diary of John Early (November 18–December 21 1807)
“She…said the Jirks came from the Devil & wou’d go Back to him again. I told her to pray or [I] Did not know But the Jirks wou’d Kill her & she’d go to hell & she said she wished I might to go Hell above all people….”
Excerpt from the Journal of Daniel Boler (ca. 1807)
“[O]ne of the [Shaker] Sisters looked sternly and solemnly at him when all of a sudden he was taken with the jirks and was jirked around the house and thro’ the brush and bushes and would at times be thrown…completely heels over head, flat on his back, and the [hickory] staff which he held in his hand would be thrown 20 or 30 feet from him….”
Excerpts from Joseph Thomas’s Life of the Pilgrim (Fall 1808–Spring 1809)
“[W]hile [I was] preaching a young woman was taken with the jirks…, and the people being mostly strangers to the like were much alarmed at the operation, as she was frequently jirked from her seat and thrown involuntarily over the floor and across the benches in different directions….”
Excerpt from the Journal of Constant Moseley (June 6, 1808)
“Had meeting at Robert Houstens. A Blessed assembly of people, white, Yellow, & black…. [I]n singing our Songs, the power of God came upon them, some fell with jurks, Some leaping, some dancing. The whole multitude were in motion….”
Excerpt from The Life and Journal of the Rev’d Christian Newcomer (September 4, 1809)
“[O]ne person fell to the ground and shook in every limb in a very remarkable manner. This singular motion they called the jerks….”
