Connecticut western news., 1883-02-21
VOL.>XII.

| too, but seemed half drowned. They had got out of the barn, which had partly fallen, and been washed away with all the hay and grain. Our potatoes, corn and beans, out in the field, were all washed out, or else so covered with gravel that we could not find them.
 ''Our flock of geese was missing, too; but the next day we found them sitting on the river about two miles below our farm.
 "My older sisters husband, Nicholas Futile, was the first of our neighbors who came to our farm after the storm. He felled large tree across the river and walked over on it. This was Tuesday. The next to come was man named Bar ker, who had spent Tuesday night alone at the Wiley House, farther up the Notch. He told us that there had been 'an awful slide up there, and that the road all along for three or four miles was filled hundred feet deep with earth and rocks and trees. He said he could not find any of the Wiley family, and was afraid they were all killed. But father thought that perhaps they had gone to Abel Crawford's, at the head of the Notch. Barker said that the trees and dirt were piled up thirty feet high all round the house, and that the barn was partly carried away. He heard the cat tie lowing inside, and had let out such of them as were not crushed; but he had not seen any trace of any of the folks.
 "He told us that the table stood 'all set,' with plates and food on it. When mother heard that, she cried out that they were buried and were all dead; and her prediction proved but too true.''
 The Capt. Stillings above mentioned, was but boy ten years old at the time of the disaster. That night after the man Barker had come down through the Notch and reported the slide, party of twelve settlers mustered and went up to ascertain, if possible, the fate of the Willeys.
 Young Stillings's father, Samuel. Still ings, was one of this party, and the lad, Nick. followed them-without permis- sion-for he was very anxious to see what had happened. The party found the trail very much obstructed by slides and uprooted trees.
 All the log bridges over Sawyer River and the other mountain torrents had been swept away. Their only means of crossing was to fell lofty tree across the streams as they came to them. Nick, trailing along just out of his fathers sight behind the party, had to get across on these trees as best he could, and this after it grew dark was perilous exploit for boy of that age.
 It was near midnight when the search CTS at last reached the Wiley house. Darkness and silence as of death brooded over the place. They hallooed, but there were no answers, and at length they went into the house and lay down on the beds till daybreak.
 By daylight the place presented an appalling appearance. The house, al- most by miracle. had not been buried by the avalanche of rocks and trees. A large boulder few yards above had caused the slide to divide into two streams as it rushed downward into the bed of the river below the house.
 One side of the barn had been torn down. Above, and almost overhanging the house, on the upper side, rose con- fused mass of trees, turf and rocks to the height of thirty or forty feet; and along the slope where the farm had been cleared, and filling the bed of the stream and the road, the debris was piled in truly awful confusion.
 The whole side of the lofty mountain for over 8 mile had been swept bare and along what had been the road below, the trunks and (" scurf" were heaped to the depth of hundred and even in some places hundred and fifty feet. The whole gorge presented a truly fright full spectacle.
 On the night of the catastrophe there were at the house MT. Wiley and his wife, aged thirty-eight and thirty-five respectively; their five children, Eliza, Jerry, Martha, Elbridge and Sarah, aged thirteen, eleven, nine, seven and five years David Allen, @ hired man of about MT. Willey's age, and young man named David Nickerson, now just coming of legal age, whom the Willeys had brought up: in all nine persons, not one of whom escaped.
 The search began at dawn, but it was not till near noon that any trace was found. One of the party, named Mel cher, was then attracted to spot where the ''jam'' overhung, just above the | house, by seeing a swarm of flies gather ing there and going in and out. He crept in for six or eight feet, and while looking about saw the hand of man protruding, jammed betwixt two enor- nous logs.
 The men immediately began digging away the debris, and soon came upon the body of David Allen, the hired man. Close behind him lay Mrs. Wiley; both were badly crushed. Near the mother was found the body of little Elbridge, and not far away that of the young man, David Nickerson, all were shockingly crushed.
 Next day the body of MT. Wiley was found beneath the timbers and logs, 1T the brook below the wrecked barn, anc not long after the body of Eliza was re covered further down the brook. None of the other children were found; they were probably buried deeper in the slide
 The bodies of the unfortunate victims
 were buried for the time near the house
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