Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-05-29
SUDDEN RISE OF A STREAM
70 Becomes a Raging Rtver-weRry
& SAX Travellers swept Away. a


travellers swept Away a
One of the most terrible calamities of
its nature that has happened lately is mar
rated by the Austin. Texas Journal. 1t
reads almost like romance, as it seems
impossible for small stream twenty feet
below its banks to rise with SUCH rapid
ity rs is stated. 1t Is, nevertheless, q
truth that is far stranger than fiction:
We published some time since a brief
and necessarily imperfect account of this
strange and most painful calamity,
which We now correct, with fuller par
tiesilsrs, as we receive the statement from
the lips of Brevet Colonel Merriam, Major
of the Path Infantry, who is now in Aus
tin The Colonel, after four years of mil
itsry service on the frontiers of Kansas,
New Mexico and West Texas, had re-
ceived leave of absence, and was journey
ing with his wife and child from FL Paso
10 the Texan coast.
They had reached the head of the Con-
cho river, and csmped 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 st this point is so small that
man can step across it anywhere. The
banks were twenty feet aboM the bed of
the water. Pangued with the long jour
ney of sixty-eight miles In the previous
twenty-four hours, without water, the
party were pleasantly resting, when,
early in the evening, Col Merriam was
reused by the SIGNS of an approaching
stofm. The tent was fastened and made
secure as possible, and about nine O'Clock
hsiistorm burst upon them, accompan-
led by some rain and strong wind.
The fall of hail was unprecedented,
lasting until nearly IL o'clock the stones
being of the size of hens eggs, and strik-
ing the tent and prairie with noise like
near and incessant musketry.
The Colonel, who was not ignorant of
the sudden and extreme OYerhoWs 10
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 bis amszement, he found in the form
erly almost dry bed of the creek a resist
less torrent, loaded and filled with hail
rolling nearly bank-full, white as milk,
and silent as river of oil
He az 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 ibe aid of three men,
started 10 run with it to the higher
ground, distance of not more than sixty
yards. Scarcely minute had elapsed
from the time the alarm hal been given,
but already the water had surged over
the bank in waves of such volume and
force as 10 sweep the party from their
feet before they had traversed thirty
yards.
Tie Colonel called for assistance on
some cavalry soldiers, who had just es-
capped from the United States mail station
near by, but they were too terrorized to
heed or to help.
Col. 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 be was swept down the
ice-coId torrent like bubble. Being an
expert swimmer, he succeeded in reaching
die bank about eco yards below, and ran
back TO renew the effort, when he re-
ceived the terrible tidings that the moment
after he was swept down, the carriage,
with all its precious freight, had turned
over and gone rolling down the flood, his
wife saying, as she disappeared, "My
darling husband, goOd-by." The little
rill of q few hOnrs before, which a child
might step across, had become raging
river, covered with masses of drift wood
a mile in width, and from thirty to forty
deep.
The bereaved husband procured horse
from one Of thu cavalry and rode far down
the torrent, but could see nothing in the
darkness, and hear nsught but the wild
sounds Of the waves. So passed the long
and wretched night
Before day the strange and momentsry
food had passed by, and the small stream
shrank to its usual size, and ran in its
vonted bed. The sad search began. The
drowned soldier and servants, four in num-
her were found, and the body of the wife
taken from the water about three-fourths
of mile below, and prepared for a journey
of ffty-three miles to the post of Concho
for tar1norary burial. Not till three days
after was. the body of the child found, four
miles down tho stream, ant a long distance
from its bed. Ars. Merriam was lady OF
fine culture and attaipments, valued s11d
beloved by all who knew her. The little
Girl. not three years old, was remarkable
Tor She maturity Of her mind and the sweet
ness of her disposition.
The carriage was drifted by the current
about mile, and lodged in a thicket. The
storm and flood arc represented as fright
full beyond description. The beaver ponds
from which the Concho takes its rise were
so filed With 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 Concho, the hail still lay IN drifts
and vinrows 10 the depth Of more than SIX
feet calamity more sad, strange and
tragic il has seldom been our lot to narrate,
and cur deepest sympathies 60 out to the
father and husband thus suddenly stricken
to the heart by the CHASTITY loss of all that
be held most dear.
MOsBY is said TO have Joined the Fyn'ans
and TO be now on the Canadian Aordor
arranging TO institute guerrilla systen of
warfare If anY war occurs IN this COL