"The End of the World!"

Naturalist writer John Burroughs of Catskill had an intriguing passage in his book, "Time and Change" (published in 1912) ... Burroughs wrote: "When I was a small boy at school in the in the early forties [1840s], during the Millerite excitement about the approaching end of all mundane things, I remember, on the day when the momentous event was expected to take place, how the larger school-girls were thrown into a great state of alarm and agitation by a thundercloud that let down a curtain of rain, blotting out the mountain on the opposite side of the valley. "There it comes!' they said, and tears flowed copiously. I remember I did not share their fears, but watched the cloud, curious as to what the end of the world would be like."

The "Millerite excitement" Burroughs referred to was a large following of believers (some estimate hundreds of thousands) of a Baptist preacher named William Miller who predicted the Second Coming of Christ and the end of the world in a narrow period of time beginning around March 1843 and continuing into the next year. Miller made his calculations based on his studies of the Bible (most notably the Book of Daniel) and spread his doomsday prediction through popular camp meetings, lectures and pamphlets throughout the Northeast. His prophecy seemed to gain heavenly credence with the appearance of a brilliant comet in the winter of 1843. The comet was like no other in memory, with a 200-mile long tail lighting up the sky even in daytime. Millerites settled their affairs, said their goodbyes, and waited to ride the "judgment car" of the comet into heaven. Alas, the Second Coming (later pushed ahead to October 22, 1844) failed to materialize and morphed into the Great Disappointment of the believers.