Hi Michael and All. I thought you might enjoy reading this. This is a small part of an article describing the Vacaville-Winters quake of 1892. Take Care…Don in creepy town.

English Hills/Vaca Mountains

The following letter describes the effects of the April 19, 1892 earthquake at the Cantelow Ranch in the English Hills. It was written by Lawrence A. Cantelow to his parents in San Francisco on the day following this event. The Cantelow Ranch was located about 1/2 mile southeast of Putnam Peak (Figure 1). (This letter was provided by Herbert P. Cantelow, of Oakland and nephew of the two Cantelow brothers, both of whom resided at the ranch in 1892.)

Cantelow Ranch

April 19, 1892

Dear Folks,

The chimney here broke off at the top of the house, but did not break through the roof. All the back fell out and it is badly cracked around the fireplace. There was about a ton of brick and dirt. In the sitting room the tables and desk were thrown over and pictures turned wrong side to. In the little room where I sleep, the shelves were all torn down and everything generally tumbled over. In Nomia's room the bureau was turned over on its face, pitcher and wash bowl broken, and the bed wheeled across the room. The big clock is a total wreck---the frame is all peeled apart. In the dining room not much damage was done as there was nothing in there.

But in the kitchen! You should have seen the mess---milk, jelly, preserves, coal oil, sugar, flour, tea, in fact everything all in one mess and this held down by four big wheelbarrow loads of dishes and bottles broken into ten thousand pieces. It just naturally smashed everything in the room but the stove. I think at one time the east end of the house was four feet from the ground. The underframing is all knocked galley west and the two parts of the house are split apart so there is a crack in the door big enough for a cat to go through. The cap is knocked off the stovepipe.

. . . There is a big crack running across the lot and up the hill. I don't know how long, as I did not go to the end of it, but it is so big that the cows were afraid to cross it, and in two places where it crossed the fence, the posts would fall in but for the wire. There are also lots of smaller cracks and the whole side of the mountain slid in west of Pleasants [house]. I could shove my arm in the holes around the posts at the wagon house and cow barn. The cows are nearly scared to death yet. Everything in the house upstairs was turned over, even to the wardrobe which brought down a ceiling joist with it . . .

There was another quite heavy shake last night at two o'clock, but not enough to knock things down. The telephone will not work between here and Vacaville, so we have no news from there, but I think the rest of the walls must have surely fallen in. I was just talking with Mr. Peasants, 9 AM. There were two more small shocks just now. We may be swallowed up yet.

• Vacaville-Winters Earthquake