Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1870-06-24
General Sntelligentf.
A HEARTRENDING STORY.
Sudden Rise of a Texan Rivera Fam
lily swept Away ia the Flood.

Sudden
lily Swept Away in the Flood.
One of the most terrible calamities of its
nature that has happened lately is narrated
by the Austin (Texas) Journal. 1t reads
almost like romance, as it seems impossl-
BILE for small stream twenty feet below Its
banks to rise with such rapidity as is stated.
1t is, nevertheless, truth that is lar
stranger than fiction.
fsWe published, some time since, a br1ei
and necessarily imperfect account OF this
strange and most painful calamity which
we now correct, with fuller particulars, as
we receive the statement from the lips OF
Brevet Colonel Merriam, Major of the
Twenty fourth Infantry, who is now IN
Austin. The Colonel, after four years OF
military service on the frontiers of Kansas,
New Mexico and West Texas, had received
leave of absence, and was journeying with
his wife and child from Ell Paso to the
Texan coast 90
s'They had reached the head of the Con-
eho river and camped for the night on
Sunday, the Oath Of April.
'sThe river is formed by the junction OF
the rills of water from several large springs,
which have been damned into ponds by
the wild beaver, and are well filed with
large fish.
1.-THE stream is so small here that man
can step across it anywhere. The banks
were twenty feet above the bed of the wa
ter. Fatigued with the long journey of
sixty-eight miles in the previous twenty
four hours, without water, the party were
pleasantly resting, when early in the even
ing, Colonel Merriam was aroused by the
signs of an approaching storm. The tent
was fastened and made as secure as posi-
BILE, and about o'clock a hail storm burst
upon them, accompanied by some rain and
q strong wind.
''The fall of hail was unprecedented,
lasting until nearly IL; the stones being OF
the size Of hens eggs and striking the
tent and prairie with noise like that OF
incessant musketry.
sFThe Colonel, who was not ignorant of
the sudden and extreme overhows to which
the mountain streams of Texas are liable,
went out into the darkness as soon as the
storm had ceased, to note what effect had
been produced on this rivulet. To his
amazement he found in the formerly almost
dry bed of the creek q resistless torrent,
loaded and filled with hail, rolling bank
full, white as milk, and silent as a river OF
oil. He at once saw the danger, and ran
back to the tent, shouting to the escort and
servants to turn out. He placed Mrs. Mer-
and, with the aid of three men, started to
run with it to the higher ground, distance
of not sixty yards. Scarcely minute had
elapsed from the time the alarm had been
given, but already the water had surged
over the bank in waves of such volume and
force as to sweep the party from their feet
before they had traversed thirty yards.
'sThe Colonel called for assistance or
some cavalry soldiers, who had just escap.
ed from the United States mail station neal
by, but they were too terrorized to heed OF
help.
.sColonel Merriam then abandoned the
hope of saving his family in the carriage,
and tried to enter it in order to swim out
with them, but he wss swept down the ice
cold torrent like bubble Being an ex-
pert swimmer, he succeeded in reaching
the bank about two hundred yards below,
and ran back to renew the effort, when he
received the terrible tidings that, the car
rage with all its precious freight, had turn.
ed over, and gone rolling down the flood,
his wife saying, as she disappeared, My
darling husband, good bye The little rill
of a few hours before, which child might
step across, had become raving river, Gov
cred with masses of drift-wood, mile in
width, and from thirty to forty feet deep.
1.-THE bereayed husband procured q
: horse from one of the cavalry, and rode far
down the torrent, but could see nothing in
the darkness, and heard naught but the
wild sounds of the waves. So passed the
long and weary night
'Before day the strange and momentary
flood had passed by, and the small stream
shrank to its usual size, and ran in its
wonted bed. The sad search began. The
drowned soldiers and servants, four in
number, were found, and the body of the
wife taken from the water about three
fourths of a mile below, and prepared for
journey of fifty-three miles to the post of
Concho for temporary burial. Not till
three days after was the body of the child
found, four miles down the stream, long
distance from its bed. Mrs. Merriman was
a lady of culture and attainments, valued
and beloved by all who knew her. The
little girl, not three years old, was remark
able for the maturity of her mind and the
sweetness of her disposition.
''The carriage was drifted by the current
about mile, and lodged in thicket. The
storm and the flood are represented as
frightful beyond description. The Beaver
ponds, from which the Concho takes its
rise, were so filed with the icy hail that
the catfish were killed by the congelation,
and were swept in wagon loads, together
with the myriads of smaller animals of the
plain, such as rabbits, and snakes, all over
the country, by the sudden and rushing
food.
'.Three days after the storm, when the
party left the Concho, the hail lay in drifts
and winrows to the depth of more than six
feetl A calamity more sad, strange, and
tragic it has seldom been our lot to narrate,
and our deepest sympathies go out to the
father and husband thus suddenly stricken
to the heart by the CHASTITY loss of all that