The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1870-05-29
An Avalanche OF Death.

On! bruised he1rt, trust God alone.
->so
An Avalanche OF Death.
Brevet- Colonel Merriam, Major of the
Twenty-fourth Infantry, who is now in
Austin, after four years Of military SER
vice on the frontiers of Kansas, New
Mexico and West Texas, had received
leave of absence, and was journeyipg
with his wife and child from Ell Paso to
the Texan coast. They had reached the
head of the Concho River, and camped
for the night on Sunday, the Oath of
April. The stream at this point is so
small that o man can step across it any
where. 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,
without water, tho party were pleasantly
resting, when, early in the evening,
Colonel Merriam was reused by the signs
Of an approaching storm. TIE tent was
fastened and made secure as possible,
and about 8 o'clock hail-storm burst
upon them, accompanied by some rain
and strong wind. The fall of hail was
unprecedented, lasting until nearly II,
the stones being of the size of hens
eggs, and striking the tent and prairie
with noise like near and incessant mus
kerry. The Colonel, who was not igno-
rant of the sudden and extreme over
flows to which the mountain streams of
Texas are liable, went out into the dark
ness as soon rs the storm had ceased, to
note what effect had been produced on
this rivulet. To his amazement, he
found in the formerly almst dry bed of
the creek n resistless torrent, loaded and
filled with hail, rolling nearly bank full,
white as milk, and silent as 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 car
riage, and with the aid of three men,
started to run with it to the higher
ground, n distance of not moro than
sixty yards. Scarcely minute had
elapsed from the time the alarm had been
given, but already the water had surged
over tho bank in waves of such volume
and force as to sweep the party from
their feet before they had traversed
thirty yards. Merriam then abandoned
the hope of saving his family in the car
riage, and tried to enter it in order to
swim out with them, but he was swept
down the ice cold torrent like bubble.
Being ON expert swimmer, he succeeded
in reaching the bank about 200 yards
below, and ran back to renew the effort,
when he received the terrible tidines,
that the moment after he was swept
down, the carriage. with all its precious
freight, had turned over and gone roll
ing down the flood, his wife saying, as
she disappeared, "Ny darling husband,
good-by." The little rill of few hours
before, which child might step across,
mad become raging river, covered with
masses of drift-wood mile in width,
and from thirty to forty feet deep.
Before day, the strange and momen-
tary Hood had passed by, and the small
stream shrank to it's usual size, and ran
IN Its wonted bed. The sad search be-
gan. The drowned soldiers and SER
wants, four IN number, were found, and
the body OF the wife taken from the
water about three-fourths of mile be-
low, and prepared for journey of fifty
three miles to tho post of Concho for
temporary barial. Not till three davs
after, was the body of the child found.
four miles down the stream, and q lone
distance from its bed. The beaver
ponds, from which the Concho takes its
rise, wero SO filed with the 10y hail, that
the catfish were killed by the congcla-
ton, and wero swept in wagon loads,
together with myriads of smaller ami
mails of the plain, such as rabbits and
snakes, all over the country by the snd-
den and rushing flood. Three days after
the storm, when the party left the
Concho, the hail still lay in drifts and
winrows to the depth of more than six
feet.-Austim (1c1as) Journal.
A Mr.. Pikklcton was recently married
at the Walnut Street Church in phiIo-