There was widespread panic and bewilderment when the earth rumbled and shook on March 8. 1889. At  about 6:40 pm the quake lasted   for ten seconds according to an account in one York paper. Residents ran screaming from their homes into the streets as buildings shook, windows rattlled.

              "There was no warning of the approach of the vibrations, for there seems to have been two or three and they left as mysteriously as they came," and " Pedestrians who were on the iron bridges spanning the Codorus at the time, state that the bars and rods fiercely rattled and the structures  seemed in imminent danger of falling,"  The Age said.

              At one home the piano chords emitted a low rumbling sound. An east end store had a large ceiling crack. Shelves at other shop were emptied  and bricks fell from chimneys. Reports from throughout the county told of similar woes. Reports of the duration of the quake ranged from several seconds to a minute.

               People trembled as downtown buildings "vibrated visibly" and "A young man passing the Farmer's Market House avowed the etire structure was shaking," said The York Gazette.

                  It was felt in many counties in the state and also in Delaware and Maryland.The quake of 1889 was deemed stronger than a quake that shook York in 1884.