Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1875-06-04

ton, and worked as men will work for
their lives, and by good fortune they
reached so near the land that they |
sprang to it. Just at the moment their
raft was going into the terrible vortex.
Very soon the whole hill had given
away, and the whole pond was rushing
through en- mdsse, tearing up wide
space of forest by theroots, and tumbling
a great mass of whole trees, endwise,
sidewise, and every way, before the
mighty pressure.
The men fled to the high ground on
one side, and viewed with shuddering
amazement the fearful effects of their
mornings work. In the party was
man named Solomon f. Dorr, who was
in employ of the man who owned the
grist-mill in Glover, and had charge OF
the mill. He had been notified that a
man living at a distance was coming to
mill on that day, with horse-load OF
grain, and wished him to be at home;
and when he was starting for the pond
that morning, he had left directions for
the man to grind his own grist, and felt
sure that he would be in the mill when
the flood reached it, and would be lost
unless rescued by him; as the mil
stood below high fall in narrow chan
mel, between high banks, a person In the
mill could not see in the direction OF the
danger, and the noise of the mill would
prevent his hearing it. Being thus as
sured, Mr.. Dorr started, and ran at his
utmost speed through the woods, got
ahead of the food, and being stimulated
by the noble incentive of saving the
life of his neighbor, he taxed his powers
to the utmost, and did not flag in the
race of some four miles, but gained the
mill. drove down the bank by the short
est way, and with motion and whis-
per, for he could not speak loud, started
the man, when they both scrambled up
to place of safety, just in time to see
the moving battery of trees and water
strike the mill on the roof and put it out
of sight. So complete was the destruc-
ton, that it is said that the millstones
have never been seen since. Opposite
Barton village, where the land was free
from rock, wide space of the forest
was carried away with the earth below
all the roots, leaving an extensive fielo
as perfectly smooth as a ickyard, which
l think was used as parade ground fol
one or two regemental musters. AT the
head of the falls, little north of the
village, where the hills on each sid
of the river approach near each other
the passage was clogged by great mas
of whole trees, thickened with brush
and mud, forming quite compact dam
which was estimated by those who say
it, to have been thirty feet high.
When this dam broke, the great mas
: of trees and water rushed down th
$ rocky channel with tremendous power
: large boulders were moved from thei
: resting places and tumbled down tn
i, channel many rods. Below the falls
: where the level land between the hill
S began to grow wider, and the volume o
: the food to expand, its violence began t.
4 abate and when it had passed the fall
/ of Barton Landing, it had so wide
1 space to spread over, that it lost tn
a power of tearing up trees, and rolled OF
; with a front of about six feet of rea
mud, over all the intervale land, to tn
: lake.
d There were many very narrow escape
o besides the one at the mill above mer
IS toned but no life was lost. | had si
It ter, afterwards Mrs. Proctor, mother {
n Col Redfeld Proctor of Rutland, the
V stopping at DIR. Redfeld's in Coventr,
e on a visit to Mrs. Redfeld, an elder si
d ter. She had that day ridden to Grow
IS ington alone on horseback. The roa
II she travelled passed distance of ha
d. a mile over low land bordering Barto
e river, which terminated near the doctor
Ie house in a bridge made of logs, four fe,
1t high and more than thirty rods loni
.r over marshy part of the way. Will
d passing over this peice Of road on he
( return in the afternoon, she heard lou
Il roaring, which she supposed to be IL
of wind, indicating a shower near at han'
IL and, hurrying home, made the repoi
ID that the wind blew terrible when 81
er was in the low land. The doctor sai
m there was no wind, and soon going
ID the door, saw the long bridge ahote an
in torn to pieces, and the half mile of ros
covered with deep mud.
ID Several men visited the bed of Il
Of pond on the day after its departure, al
he found in one part of the bottom, sma
10 space covered with thin mud, in whiC
a we're many large fish yet alive, but
be was very difficult TO reach them and b
a few were saved. Along the course
in the deluge, there was strong stencil t
n several weeks from the dead fish left
IL the way