Historical Reminiscing with Robert B. Hitchings
The Meteor Shower of November 13, 1833
The Sky is Falling
In the early morning hours of November 13, 1833, residents of the Borough of Norfolk, Norfolk County, Princess Anne County and much of the eastern United States, woke up in the wee hours of the morning to a spectacular meteor shower. This shower was so intense with an estimated 50,000 to 150,000 meteors per hour at its peak. Residents had never seen anything like it. The sky was falling! Many thought the world was coming to an end, especially the African Americans who were living in our area. Many residents, both black and white, fell to their knees praying to God the Almighty. This storm was widely reported in the local newspapers, especially our Norfolk & Portsmouth Herald.
This was indeed an extraordinary astronomical event across our states. Abraham Lincoln also witnessed this event. Many thought Jesus Christ was returning to earth, for in the Bible in Matthew 24-29 and Revelation 6-13 it mentions signs of falling stars from the heavens preceding His imminent return.
I had read of this meteor shower in looking over old family Bible records at the Library of Virginia in Richmond, Virginia. In one old Virginia Bible, and unfortunately I cannot recall the family name, the father had written down his son’s name and birth with a small note, “Meteor shower tonight", and in his own handwriting he put a few ink stars on the side. I was quite astonished and impressed when I read this.
As the Norfolk & Portsmouth Hearld newspaper described the event on 15th of November 1833, “We were experiencing an Indian summer. For an hour or two after the sun went down the whole southern and western sky, from the horizon to the zenith, was illumined with a soft ruddy light, and afterwards until we retired to rest at 11 PM, then the heavens shone forth in resplendent majesty with myriads of gems, glittering with unwonted splender.”
As far away the shower of fire was seen at the same time in Baltimore, Maryland and north of Richmond to Petersburg, Virginia, and to the west as far away as Edenton N.C. Its duration seemed to last longer here in the borough of Norfolk than anywhere else. All the showers were witnessed at about 2 AM in the morning and they lit up the skies.
A Col. Loammi Baldwin, Jr. (1780-1838), engineer of the Exchange Hotel on Church Street here in Norfolk, was the first to write Mr. Thomas G. Broughton (1786-1861), editor of the Norfolk & Portsmouth Herald, giving a full account of this shower. He described this phenomenon in the skies in great detail. He writes, “I saw from my third floor bedroom window a large spark from Mr. Kennon’s chimney on the opposite side of the street. I immediately left my bed and looked out in all windows. I discovered numerous meteorites, shooting stars all over the place. The day had just dawned when I first saw them in a clear and cloudless atmosphere. In the street was a Mr. Ballard who I yelled at." Mr. Baldwin dresses and goes downstairs to the street and gives a very detailed account of these shooting stars, what direction and how many at the time. That day he walks to the dry dock and talks to his clerk, a Col. Young, who gives him a fine detailed account of the phenomenon.
Col. Young gave a full detailed account of this observation which appeared in the Norfolk & Portsmouth Hearld. He wrote, “This morning at 4 AM, I was disturbed by a noise in my yard occasioned by my servant woman calling to another servant, Come and see the stars fall.” He too was going back and forth to his north and south windows looking at the fallen stars. Col. Young called his wife and children to the scene to see the unusual phenomenon. He also states, “I watched until daylight and as light approached the shower of stars soon disappeared. They had the appearance to light up the rooms.” He too was amazed by what he saw and wrote down a full account his observations where these meteors were landing.
The American Beacon had this to say on November 14, 1833, “About 2 o’clock and from that 5 AM, the whole surrounding atmosphere we learn was splendidly lighted with luminous particles about the size of flakes of snow when it first commenced falling, several hundred being visible to a spectator in any direction and descending perpendicularly and with considerable velocity nearly to the surface of the earth when they became extinct.”
For decades many residents would talk about seeing this fabulous phenomenon of shooting stars or the sky was falling that day.
As I was wrapping up this wee bit of Norfolk History, I just discovered that we here in Tidewater Virginia are expected to have another Leonid meteor shower. This shower will peak on the nights of November 16 & 17, 2025. The last meteor shower took place in the western part of Virginia in November 1966. Our area of Norfolk was not affected. But according to Earth Sky, it predicts another major meteor shower of falling stars in our area is coming. Like my ancestors in this area, I too will be waiting for this huge meteor shower, a beautiful shower of fallen stars that will grace our city.
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Robert B. Hitchings is a seventh generation Norfolk resident, graduating with an Associate's Degree in Biology from Old Dominion University and BA in history from Virginia Wesleyan University. During his studies he was awarded a scholarship at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, England, and he was an exchange student at Brooks-Westminster College, Oxford, England. From 1999-2014 he worked as head of the Sargeant Memorial History Room at Norfolk Public Library, and since then has headed the Wallace History Room at Chesapeake Public Library. He is also the President of the Norfolk County Historical Society, and for six years was a columnist for The Virginian-Pilot. Robert may be reached at nchs.wallaceroom@gmail.com
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