Excerpt from the Autobiography of Mary Morris Smith (ca. 1811)
“There were skeptics who thought they could keep from jerking if they wished, but if any one made sport of it, they were sure to have it the next time they were in a crowd. “
Excerpts from Joseph Thomas’s Life of the Pilgrim (November 10, 1810–May 5, 1811)
“[T]he subjects of this work receive no damage or injury whatever, and the most of them are exceedingly happy when they are thus exercised…. One may ask…, can they not be happy in religion and have the jirks?”
Excerpt from a Letter from Thomas Cleland to Ashbel Green (August 23, 1812)
“One young woman had what I would call the whirling exercise…. It far exceeded anything of the kind I ever saw. I was told that she had had the jirks nearly 3 years…. Afterwards I remonstrated with some of them and cautioned them.”
Thomas Cleland’s Published Letter on “Bodily Affections” (ca. 1812–1824)
“The phenomenon of…suddenly falling or sinking down, under religious exercises, has not been uncommon in times of great excitement…. But the bodily agitation called the jerks is a very different affection….”
Excerpts from the Diary of Isaac Conger (June 15–September 10, 1813)
“I seen a woman have a fit in the morning & the man at knight the first that I ever saw have Convulsion fits. To see the Goodness & the mercy of God in preserving his people how thankful ought I to be….”
Excerpt from A History of the Pioneer Families of Missouri (ca. 1814)
“It was about the year 1814, as near as we can ascertain—for there was no record kept of the matter—that the singular religious phenomenon called the “jerks” began to make its appearance at the camp-meetings….”
