The Fremont weekly journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1867-1877, 1870-06-03
AN AVALANCHE OF DEATH.

We published some time since a brief 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 os BreYet Colonel
Merriam, Major of the Twenty-fourth Infant
", who is now in Austin. The Colonel, after
four years of military service or the frontiers
of Kansas, New Mexico and West Texas, had
received leave of absence, and was journcying
with his wife and child from Ell Paso to the
Texan coast.
They had reacne the head of the Concho
river, and camped for the night on Sunday,
the oath of April.
The river is formed by the junction of the
rils Of water from several large springs, which
have been damned into ponds by the wild
beaver, and ara well filed with large fish.
The stream at this point IS so small that
man can step across 1t anywhere. The banks
were twenty feet above the bed of the water.
Fatigued with the long journey of sixty-eight
miles in the previous twenty-four hours with
out water, the party were pleasantly resting
when, early in the evening, Col. Merriam was
reused by the signs of an approaching storm.
The tent was fastened and made secure as
possible, and about nine o'clock hail storm
burst upon them, accompanied by some rain
and a strong wind
The fall Of hail was unprecedented, lasting
uedIll bltNClAf llt bboiloo DDAAAS D4 bAAC
size of hens eggs, and striking the tent and
prairie with a noise like near and incessant
musketry.
The Colonel, who was not ignorant of the
sudden and extreme overfows 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 a
restless torrent loaded and filed with hal, l,roll-
ing nearly 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. Merriam, the
| child and nurse in the carriage, and with the
aid Of three men, started to run with it to the
higher ground, distance OF not more than
| sixty wards. Scarcely a minute had elapsed
| from the time the alarm had been given, but
already the water he'd 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 on some
cavalry soldiers, who had Just escaped from
| the United States mail station near by but
| they were too terrorized to heed or help.
| Colonel 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-oold torrent
| like bubble. Being an expert swimmer, he
| succeeded in reaching the bank about two
hundred yards below, and ran back TO renew
| the effort, when he received the terrible It'd
| ings that the moment after he was swept
down, the carriage with all its precious freight
had turned over and gone rolling down the
| food, his wife saying, as she disappeared
| sAIv darling husband, gOod-by." The little
rill of few hours before, which little child
might step across, had become raging river
/ covered with masses of drift wood n mile II
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 dark
ness, and hear naUght but the wild sound oi
the waves. So passed the long and wretched
night.
| Before day the strange and momentary
food had passed by, and the small stream sank
/ to its usual size, and ran IN Its wOnted bed
| The sad search began. The drowned servant:
and soldiers, four in number, were found, and
| the body of the wife taken from the watel
about thTee-Quarters Of a mile below, and pre-
pared for Journey of fifty-three miles to the
post of Concho for temporary burial. Not til
three days after was the body of the child
found, four miles down the stream, and q Ions
distance from its bed. Mrs, Merriam was
/ lauN OF INC CIlLuI6 anu dIIhlluleulss FdluBt
and beloved by all who knew her. The little
girl, not three years old, was remarkable fol
the maturity Of her mind and the sweetness O
her disposition.
The carriage was drifted by the curren
about a mile, and lodged in a thicket. The
storm and food are represented as frightfu
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, and were swept in wagoI
loads, together with myriads of smaller ami
mails of the plain, such as rabbits andsnakes
all over the country by the sudden and rush
ing food
Three days after the storm, when the party
left the Concho, the hail still lay in drifts ant
winrows to the depth of six feet.
A calamity more sad, strange and tTagiea
it has seldom been our lot to narrate, and oul
deepest sympathios go to the father and hus
band thus stricken to the heart by the ghastly
loss Of all that he held most dear.