Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1870-06-01
4 Heartrending Story

One OF the most terrible calainitles OF It's
nature that has happened lately is narrated
by the Austin, Texas, .jourhdI 1t reads
almost like romance, as 1t seems Impossible
for small stream twenty feet below Its banks
to rise with such rapidity as Is stated. 1t
is, nevertheless, a truth that is far stranger
Il. an fiction:
1--WE published, some time since, 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 of
Brevet Colonel Merriam, Major of the
Twenty fourth Infantry, who Is now in Aus
tin. The Colonel, after four years OF mill
tary 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 I'll Paso to the Texan
coast.
They had reached the head Of the Consho
river, and camped for the night on Sunday,
the Oath of April.
The 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.
The stream is so small here that man
can step across it anywhere. The banks
were twenty feet above the bed of the water.
/ Fatigued with the long journey of sixty
| eight miles III the previous twentytour hours
without water, the party were pleasantly
resting when, early in the evening, Colonel
| Merriam was reused by the signs of an ap-
| preaching storm. The tent was fastened
and made as secure as possible, and about
| nine o clock hail storm burst upon them,
accompanied by some rain and strong
wind.
The fall of hail was unprecedented, last
ing until nearly eleven the stones being of
the size Of hens eggs, and striking the tent
and prairie with noise like near and lnces
SAINT musketry.
The Colonel, who was not ignorant of the
sudden and extreme overdows to which the
mountain streams of Texas are liable, went
out into the darkness as soon the storm
had ceased to note what effect had been
produced on this rivulet. To his amaze
ment, he found In the formerly almost dry
bed of the creek, a resistless torrent loaded
and filed with hail, rolling bank full, white as
milk, and silent as river or OIL
He at once saw the danger and ran back
to the tent, shouting to the escort and ser
wants TO turn out. He placed Mrs Mer-
riam, the child and nurse, in the carriage,
and with the aid of three men, started to
run with il to the higher ground, distance
of not sixty yards. Scarcely minute had
elapsed from the time the alarm had been
given, bat 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 on some
cavarly soldiers, who had just escaped from
the United States mail station near by, bat
they were too terror lied to heed or to 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-colc
torrent like bubble. Being an expert swim
timer, he succeeded in reaching the banl
about two hundred yards below, and raj
back to renew the effort, when he received
the terrible tidings, that the moment afteI
he was swept down, the carriage, with all 1T
precious freight, had turned over and gon(
rolling down the food, his wife saying, a
she disappeared, 'iMy darling husband
goodbye" The little rill of few hours be
fore, which child might step across, ha'
become raging river, covered with masse
of drift wood mile in width land from thirty
to forty feet deep
The bereaved husband procured a hors
from one of the cavalry and rode far dowi
thetorrent, but could see nothing in th
darkness, and hear naught but the wild sound
of the waves. So passed the long anC
, wretched night.
Before day the strange and momentar.
flood had passed by, and the small stream
shrank to its usual size, and ran in its wont
ed bed The sad search began. The drown
ed soldiers and servants, four in number
' were found, and the body of the wife takel
from the water about three -fourths of mil
, below, and prepared for journey OF fifty
three miles to the post of Concho for tenn
L +,n IL 81,
: was the body of the child found, four mile
down the stream, and long distance from
its. bed Mrs. Merriam was lady of fin
culture and attainments, vailed and beloyet
a by all who knew her. The little girl, no
. three years old, was remarkable for tn
4 maturity Of her mind and the sweetness O
5 her disposition.
G The carriage was drifted by the curren
about mile, and lodged in thicket. Th
, storm and food are represented as frightfu
-, beyond description. The Beaver pond
: from which the Concho takes its rise wer
i" so filed with the icy hail, that the catfisl
, were killed by the congalation, and wer
swept in wagon loads, together with tn
myriads of smaller animals of the plain
d such as rabbits and snakes, all over tn
: country by the sudden and rushing flood
: Three days after the storm, when tn
=, party left the Concho, the hail still Jay i
= drifts and winrows to the depth of NOR
D. than six feet A calamity more sad, strang
and tragic it has seldom been our lot to nal
rate, and our deepest sympathes go out t
g the father and husband thus snddenl
b stricken to the heart by the ghastly luss c
f all that he held most dear.
J. - 80 -----
: AN INTERNAL CRIME.-The New Yor
g Herald says: 1.-The crime charged against
man named Lange. adealer in picture frame