On April 18, 1906, a 7.9 magnitude earthquake hit San Francisco, California. In addition to the shaking which resulted in the collapse and/or severe damage to buildings, fires broke out which lasted for several days. In the end, about 80% of the city was destroyed and more than 3000 people lost their lives.
Lykens native William Howard Finton (1863-1952) operated a business there. He took the time to write a letter to the Lykens Standard to assure his friends that he was safe. The letter was published by the Standard on May 11, 1906:
LETTER FROM W. H. FINTON
SAN FRANCISCO, April 28, 1906.
EDITORS STANDARD — You can announce through the columns of your valued paper for the benefit of our many friends in your section that myself and family have escaped uninjured and without loss, with the exception of a few pieces of bric-a-brac, and the walls of our parlor and dining room pretty well cracked and broken up. Otherwise we are not any the worse off, personally.
My office and warehouse, Corner Battery and Filbert Streets, San Francisco, are intact, and I have fully 25 car loads of wall finishes on hand undamaged. However, we have suffered a small loss of about $2,000 for goods burned up, which were stored in a warehouse in another section of the city.
It is impossible to describe to you by letter the horrors of the late disaster, and yet the loss of life is not nearly as great as you might think under the circumstances, as as your eastern papers make it. The earthquake took place on Wednesday morning, April 18th, at 5:14:48, and lasted 28 seconds. Had it lasted three minutes,. as some of the eastern papers stated, there would have been nothing left of the State of California to tell the tale.
The San Francisco people are wonders. While one end of the city was burning, they were hard at work at the other end cleaning up and starting to rebuild preparing to open offices for business. The writer does not like earthquakes by any means by any means, but at the same time has no “cold feet” yet and no desire to return east.
We are all well stocked with food and not dependent on outside assistance; that is, ourselves personally, but the many refugees from San Francisco who fled to Berkeley, Oakland and Southwest San Francisco are all well provided for through the kindness of the people at large. Order is again pretty well restored, people have opened temporary offices and many of them are doing business the same as before, only on a smaller scale. If we are not visited by another shock, you will see one of the finest cities built on the site of the old San Francisco that the world has ever seen.
The people out here are all good spirited and are pushing things fast for their betterment. All of the Banks and Insurance Companies will pay dollar for dollar. San Francisco Banks have opened up business in Oakland and Berkeley temporarily and are doing business as before. The fire covered four-fifths of the city and burned right up to our warehouse and office doors.
Respectfully,
W. H. FINTON
Residence 2139 University Avenue, Berkeley, California.
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The photograph of damage caused by the earthquake is from the National Archives. Letter from Newspapers.com.
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