News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1883-03-08

"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 StiIlings above mentioned,
was but a 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
WiIlsys.
Young StIlings's father, Samuel Still
iu@s. was one of this party, and the lad,
Mex, followed them-without permits
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 q
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.
1t was near midnight when the search
ers 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 a 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 a 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 filing the bed of the stream and the |
road, the debris was piled in truly awful |
confusion.
The whole side of the lofty mountain !
'or over a mile had been swept bare ; |
md along what had been the road below, |
he tree-trunks and "scurf were heaped |
20 the depth of hundred and even in
some places a hundred and fifty feet. |
The whole gorge presented truly fright
,ul spectacle.
On the night of the catastrophe there
were at the house Mr.. Wiley and his
wife, aged thirty-eight and thirty-five
their five children, Eliza,
Jerry, Martha, Elbridge and Sarah,
pged thirteen, eleven, nine, seven and
i've years; David Allen, a hired man
# about Mr.. WiIley's age, and a young
nan named David Nickerson, now just
coming of legal age, whom the Willeys
lad brought up: in all nine persons, not
me Of whom escaped.
.. -. ....... -. .....I ... ....,.. -.4.. --.-
ot till near noon that ANY trace 7cas
luri- One of tno party. manned Nl"'-
p. .r wa. .t..u -t.9.,-s.r sro, where
ID. Jam overhung, just above the
louse. by seeing a swarm Of flies gather
ng there and going in and out. He
.rept in for six or eight feet, and while
ooking about saw the hand of a man
iammed betwixt two enor-
nous logs.
The men Immediately began digging
way the debris, and soon came upon the
,ody Of David Allen, the hired man.
JIose behind him lay Mrs. Wiley; both
Y re badly crushed Near the mother
vas found the body Of little EIhridge,
nd not far away that of the young man,
David Nickerson, all We're shockin9ly
rushed.
Next day the body Of Mr. Wiley was
ound beneath the timber5 and logs, in
he brock below the wrecked barn, and
lot long after the body Of Eliza was re-
overed further down the brook. None
f the other children were found; they
we're probably buried deeper in the slide.
The bodies of the unfortunate victims
we're buried for the time near the house,
nut were, the following December, re-
moved to the burying g-ground at North
conway.
1t Is supposed that they heard the
crashing of the slide and ran
mt of the house, hoping to reach a camp |
which Mr. Wiley had built at some dis
mce below. Bat while the house from
which they were fleeing remained I'M
touched and is standing to this day, the |
uckless fugitives, and the camp for
which they were running, were buried |
leep within the avalanche.
The grown debris of the slide |
may still be seen about the old house,
which is a point Of interest to many
tourists. 1t was a number Of years sub
5equent to 1926 before the road through
the notch was again opened
Fires were kept burning for several
successive summers, to burn out the
enormous piles of trees which lay IN the |
ravine. Both the State OF New Hump- |
,hire and the State Of Maine appropriated |
arge sums to aid in rcopening the road; |
or even as early as 1896 the highway |
through the "Notch" along which the |
railway now runs was deemed an impor-
tant thoroughfare between the two
States. Yoth'S CompUnion.
The Little Corporal.