Aftermath of the devastating San Francisco earthquake of 1906. (Image by H.D. Chadwick.)

From the February 2, 1867 Brooklyn Daily Eagle:

“California is troubled occasionally with slight shocks of earthquakes, but, as yet, has sustained no serious damage therefrom.

That of October, 1865, the most severe ever known, even by the oldest inhabitant, was in San Francisco, the cause of great alarm and some slight destruction of property. However, such a shock as that of 1865, may not occur again for a thousand years.”