Excerpt from the Diary of Jacob Lanius (March 17, 1836)
“One woman took what used to be called in Tennessee the barking exercise. This was something I never witnessed before, and something that I am not prepared to account for on any principal.”
Letter from George Addison Baxter to Archibald Alexander (April 25, 1833)
“[T]he bodily exercise, and the disorders to which it gave rise were of unspeakable injury to the church in that day….”
“History of the ‘Jirks’” in the New York Telescope (February 18, 1826)
“I have frequently thought that a history of the singular exercises, called the “Jirks,” and other strange operations which affected the subjects of the great Kentucky Revival, would be interesting to my readers….”
Published Letter in the Methodist Magazine (October 15, 1820)
“The character of this revival is the least mixed with what is called irregularities or extravangancies of any that I ever saw. We have had nothing of what is called the jirks or dance among us….”
Newspaper Article from the Chicago Evening Post (March 15, 1873)
“Will wonders never cease?”
Excerpt from Home Mission Monthly (1915)
“I am sure she will never forget the ‘Holy Roller’ meetings she attended while here…. In their meetings they shout, dance, jerk, roll on the floor, jump wildly, or lie in a trance as if dead. These, they claim, are different ways of showing that the ‘power’ is on them….”
