Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1881-01-22
BURIED SNOW
A Terrible Calamity BefaiIs Vir-
gimia Village.

A dispatch from Berryville
Clarke county, Va, says:
Roger l.. Cooper, a resident of tn,
little village of Paris, situated OIL
the side of Blue Ridge mountain
near the boundary line between
LOudon and Clarke counties, ar
rived yesterday, bringing news of I
terrible calamity which had befaller
his native village. He states thai
T when he lett Paris the entire com
munity of five hundred men, wo
men and children were suffering
terribly from intense cold, while ne
less than five persons had been liter
ally frozen to death. The SHOW
commenced falling December 20,
and continued with unanated fury
till Christmas, while the thermOme-
ter registered Is deg. below zero
Nearly every house in the village,
owing to its peculiar situation on
the mOuntainside, was buried to the
roofs in mammoth snow drifts, COM
! pelling residents to cut tunnels, in
many instances fifteen or twenty
] feet long, to make exits. So com
! pletely was the country over
Whelmed with snow that it was
impossible to make any headway in
it with the most powerful horses.
! All communication being thus in
terdicted, it became apparent that
/ the residents would soon be in i'm
minent danger for want of food and
4 fuel. During Christmas day the
able-bOdied men who had succeed
ed in cutting their way out of their
houses were busily engaged in as
| sisting many of their neighbors to
cut tunnels through the snow,
which completely enveloped many
of the smaller cottages. The safety
of fifty or seventy-five of the vii
layers could not be placed beyond
doubt until late i'm the afternoon,
when they emerged from the snow
bound dwellings, many suffering
terribly from frosted hands and feet,
brought on by want of fuel with
which TO keep their fires going. One
cottage, occupied by Il widow, Mrs.
Kate Whitman, and her two chill
dren, was the last for which the
kindly offices of a rescue party were
this house was effected, after several
hours labor, the unfortunate wO-
man and one of her children were
found dead upon a bed, frozen stiff.
One child afterward revived, and,
although terribly frost bitten, it will
recover. The next day Sunday a
meeting of villagers was held in the
school-hOuse, when it was resolved
to appoint committee of 10 to take
charge of all the wood and prOvis-
ions in town. This was accordingly
done, not without some opposition,
and, by Monday, a radical change
in affairs had been effected. The
committee ruled the inhabitants
with strong hand, compelling
them to crowd in about 20 houses,
where fires were kept going night
aud day. This was in order to
economic fuel. Each man, woman
and child was given a supply of
provisions twice day, while every
morning a party of men was sent
out to battle the terrible snow and
and search for fuel and birds, the
latter being frozen to death by thou
sands. Owing to the depth of snow
and the terrible cold, however, the
parties often returned empty-hand-
ed. On Tuesday three of the men
to the cold while a mile
from the village, and the exhausted
and dispirited party was compelled
to abandon them to their fate. The
number of sick and frozen became
so great on Tuesday that the COM
mittee converted a dwelling into a
hospital, whittier all the invalids /
were removed ant, placed in charge
of a body of physicians. By Tues /
day evening the number of patients /
in various stages of sickness had |
reached 10, while others were COM
ing in hourly. The committee then
to Feduce rations and |
send a message to BerryVille to ask |
that assistance be sent as soon as
possible. Mr.. Cooper volunteered /
for the Journey, and left the hamlet |
early Wednesday morning mount |
ed on a powerful plow horse. He |
in travelling until noon |
next day without halt, when the |
noble animal lay down to die.
Cooper bravely continued the jour |
ney on foot and reached here yes
terday in half idiotic state, being
almost frozen stiff. He dropped on
the road outside of the village about /
dusk and was found by a farmer,
who was attracted to the scene by |
his wild singing. Asleigh contain
ing a quantity of medicine, a ply |
sician, a clergyman and two men
left here yesterday for the village, /
in order to give temporary relief to .
the unhappy residents, and their re-
turn is hourly expected. As soon as I
snow ceases falling and the roads 4
become passable, relief party will 4
be dispatched to the scene.
A TERRIBLE STORY OF SUFFERING.
Little Rock ARK Special to the St. Louis
GlObe-Democrat.
A brief telegram from Dallas,
Texas, this morning, gave meager
of a sad case of suffer
ing which terminated in horrible
and which occurred last
week midway between Fort Worth,
Texas, and Fort Smith, Ark. Inter
views with DartieS cOnVerSant with (