Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1870-06-15
A HEARTRENDING STORY,
Sudden Rise of a Texan Rivera Fam.
lily Swept Away i'm the Flood.

sudden Rfse of a Texan Rivera Fam
lily Swept Away i'm the Flood.
One of the most terrible calamities of il
nature that has happened lately is narrate
by the Austin (Texas) Journal. It read
almost like romance, as it seems imposs
bic for small stream twenty feet below il
banks to rise with such rapidity as is statee
1t is, nevertheless, a truth that is fa
stranger than fiction.
"We published, some time since, brit
and necessarily imperfect account of thi
strange and most painful calamity, whic
we now correct, with fuller particulars, a
we receive the statement from the lips {
Brevet Colonel Merriam, Major of tn
Twenty.fourth Infantry, who is now i
Austin. The Colonel, after four years
military service on the frontiers of Kansas
New Mexico and West Texas, had receive
leave of absence, and was journeying wit
his wife and child from Ell Paso to tn
Texan coast.
''They had reached the head of the Con
eho river, and camped for the night o.
Sunday, the oath of April.
"The river is formed by the junction @
the rills of water from several large springs
which have been damned into ponds b,
the wild beaver and are well filed witt
large fish.
''The stream is so small here that mai
can step across it anywhere. The bank
were twenty feet above the bed of the wa
ter. Fatigued with the long Journey 0
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 tn,
signs of an approaching storm. The ten
was fastened and made as secure as posi-
OH 'alo oa1- l. cko,
upon them, accompanied by some rain an(
q strong wind.
''The fall of hail was unprecedented
lasting until nearly IL; the stones being O.
the size of hens eggs, and striking thu
tent and prairie with noise like that o
incessant musketry.
''The Colonel, who was not ignorant O
the sudden and extreme overdows 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 haC
been produced on this rivulet. To his
amazement he found in the formerly almos
dry bed of the creek resistless torrent
loaded and filled with hail, rolling banl
full white as milk, and silent as river O.
oil. He at once saw the danger, and raj
back to the tent, shouting to the escort anc
servants to turn out He placed Mrs. Mer
riam, the child and nurse in the carriage
and, with the aid of three men, started tc
run with it to the higher ground, distance
OF not sixty yards. Scarcely minute ha6
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.
"The Colonel called for assistance op
| o1ryv colI
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 was 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
riage with all its precious freight, had turn
ed over, and gone rolling down the food,
his wife saying, as she disappeared, My
darling husband good bye The little riil
of few hours before, which a 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
"The bereaved husband procured a
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
food had passed by, and the small stream
shrank to its usual size, and ran in It's
roaatod bod. Tho 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 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, a long
distance from its bed Mrs. Merriman was
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 thieket. The
| storm and the flood are represented as
frightful beyond description. The Beaver
ponds, from which the Concho takes its
rise, were SO filled with the icy hail that
the catfish were killed by the congelation,
anu were swept III 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
feet 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
he hel pmost dear"
How Noted Men Became Rich by Chance.
New York Cor. of the Troy Times.