History of Northampton, Massachusetts, from its settlement in 1654;

76 HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTON. [ITS?.
wholly ceased, and the attendance on church services was
unusually large. Between one hundred fifty and two hundred
persons^ were in the gallery and immediately under
it, but no one was killed or seriously injured.
Fall of the Gallery. Mr. Edwards was preacliiug from the text
" Behold ye despisers and wonder and perish."
He had just "laid down his doctrines," when "with
a noise like a clap of thunder," the whole front gallery
fell. No lives were lost, nor above "ten persons were so
wounded as to make any great matter of it ; * * and
though many were greatly bruised and their flesh torn, yet
not one bone was broken or so much as put out of joint
among them all." This house, erected in 1G61, had been in
use seventy-six years, and was falling into decay. The
building had begun to spread at the bottom, the sills and
walls giving way. Severe frosts during the winter had
affected the foundation much more than usual, the underpinning
had been considerably disordered, and the "ends
of the joists, which bore up the front gallery, were drawn
off from the girts on which they rested." The gallery
seemed to sink in the middle, and people were thrown in a
heap before the front door. "The falling gallery seemed
to be broken all to pieces before it got down, so that some
who fell with it, as well as those who were under it, were
buried in the ruins and were found pressed under heavy
loads of timber, and could do nothing to help themselves."
" The house was filled with dolorous shrieking ; and nothing
else was expected than to find many people dead, or
dashed to pieces." The congregation was sitting, and the
tops of the pews prevented the timbers from coming upon
those who were under the gallery. In his letter describing
the catastrophe. Mr. Edwards remarks : — " It seems unreasonable
to ascribe it [the preservation of the lives and
limbs of the people] to any thing else but the care of Prov-
idence, in disposing the motions of every piece of timber,
and the precise place of safety where every one should sit
and fall, when none were in any capacity to care for their
own preservation." The following Wednesday was set
1 Hunt's Journal states that "about 70 persons fell with the gallery and there
were nearly as many more under it," while the Boston News Letter reports that
there were about "200 in and underneath it."