The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1875-02-18
A CANADIAN AVALANCHE.
A Family Swept Out of Existence

NESTING under the promontory of
Cape Diamond are numberless home
| steads of the hardy, industrious people
OF whom Quebec is justly proud. Many
| of these houses are of wood, protected
from the fall of gravel and shale by
wooden uprights, and, perhaps, safe
| enough in their way. Examples have
occurred to show that no dependence
whatever may be placed upon such safe
guards, and it is plain enough now that
! they afford no protection against snow.
The storm which set in the night before
last and increased in force yesterday
served to pile an additional load rpon
| the tremendous heap behind the house of
Nicholas Haberland, on Champlain
! street, near the Mariners Chapel. Like
many of his neighbors, he had never paid
much attention to the constantly accu-
mulating load, nor would he nor anyone
else in the neighborhood have bothered
about it without warning of some very
shocking character. Strange to say,
last year this house was moved by
landslide. So far as we have been en-
abled to learn, the lower portion of the
house, a twO-story wooden structure,
was occupied by the family of the owner,
Nicholas Haberland, and his family
of four souls. The upper fiat was
rented by John Gibson, whose fam
lily was composed of his wife
and five children, and in the attics was
Mrs. Haberland's mother, bed-ridden
woman of seventy-five years of age. A
sudden crash about nine o'clock was the
signal of the impending catastrophe, for
huge mass of snow had fallen in the
rear of the house. The old woman tried
to give an alarm, and John Gibson's
voice was heard calling to his wife, who
had just entered the house from a visit
to neighbor across the road. Nearly
everybody was in bed at the time but
Haberland and his wife, who were for
tunately saved with their children. Soon
there was another crash, and this was
the crack of doom for the inmates of the
house. The enormous masses of snow
poised on the almost perpendicular face
of the cliff came down with a furious
force, and for a moment there was moth
ing but a whirl of tleecy white and
storm of scattering timbers. The house
was wrecked in flash, as it were, and
its unfortunate inmates buried in liv |
ing grave. There was no time for prep
aration for their dread fate for them; in |
a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, they |
were involved in destruction. The neigh |
borhood was speedily aroused, and few |
minutes after the wreck of the house |
there were hundreds busy with spade |
and shovel trying to- extricate from the |
mass of debris spread across the |
street the bodies of the inmates of the |
house. For nearly an hour there was |
hard work with the constantly increasing |
crowd pressing around, but the police |
soon ipterfered and enabled those who |
were in earnest to work unimpeded |
The Haberland family-father, mother
and three children-were taken out alive |
and well. They were. Immediately con-
veyed into the grocery store of Mr.. |
Manning, opposite, where they were hos
pitably accommodated, and in the mean
time the search went On. John Gibson's |
body was next found, and taken into
Manning's and laid on lounge. His
face was placid, and he bore no appear
ance of pain, but, from the state of his
clothing, we should say that he made
fearful struggle with death. A little
girl was next recovered from the ruins
and laid on the floor IN the kitchen.
Then there was found sticking through
th6f19"a aftefxtihu NfrtuN eic6, m
friChtfully-mangled condition in conse-
ouence of the chimney having fallen on
her, Mrs. Gibson was next found. She
had evidently been dead about an hour
and was still warm. Her death seemed
TO have been attended with suffering. |
The children were gradually recovered,
and they looked, with the exception OF |
little Kate, Just as peaceful as when they
were put 10 bed. Finer children 1t
would be hard to find than the little
bodies living on either side of their moth
er ON the floor of Mrs Manning's kitchen.
Quebec Chronicle, Feb. A.