News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1883-03-08
Stories Of tl} white Hills.
The Nigh, OF the Great slide.

Mountain hotels, Is the following of the
fatal storm of the 2S5h of August, 1926.
the same that caused the tremendous
avalanche which overwhelmed the Wiley
family.
A relative of Can't StilIings-tbe vet
tran sJage-dr1ver and guide of Glen
Ellis and the NofcA-was then living at
what is now the village of Upper Bart
lett, ten miles below the old Wiley
house.
Though at that time but a girl eleven
years old, Miss Stillings, afterward Mrs
Coffin, distinctly remembers the incl
dents Of that eyentful night.
''It had been a cloudy day" she says.
''with fog and gentle showers, but not
enough rain to raise either the Sawyer
River or Stony Brook, between which
our newly-cleareI farm was situated.
"Father said there would not be much
rain but just after sunset the clouds
gathered very heavy and black over the
mountain-tops. and It suddenly grew
dark. There were several very bright
flashes of lightning. and terrific thunder
The rain poured tremendously and con-
timed; it seemed 10 rain harder and
harder as the evening passed.
"Father then had a nice flock of thirty
or forty sheep. They were IL the field
near the house, kept there So that they
might he safe from the bears. About
nine o'clock We heard them bleating and
crOwding around the door. They wanted
shelter, or else were frightened at the
storm.
''Father lighted the lantern and went
out to get them into the barn. and he
had me 90 with him to hold the light
1t rained IN sheets. The water poured
off the caves of the barn in such torrents
that he could not see the lantern
through it, and thought the light was
out.
''When we entered the house the
folks said, 'Hark hear the water run
ming into the cellarr
Before we had our wet clothes
changed for dry ones, my little brother,
Leander, who had peeped ont of the
door, exclaimed that the water was over
: the doorstepl The brook. or else the
river, had flowed up about the house,
and at just about that time we began to
hear fr.=a.u. rumbling noise. which |
continued after every few minutes. |
F"a.. ~s-57 -Ha- -.- +hc '=F1rz'-sFrch {
as We sar-5= u.- ..-.5 after. rna.v. rams.
'Taa Es.-. while the water came i'm
under tlr 7.... a'.E s,e could hear 1t .
surcf
look. ....- .. a7 .A to- 81 ,p /
stairs. H-r.r--..ed downstairs awhile,
and put the fire up in the oven so as not |
to lose i, for we had no matches in those
DAYS.
eve had been upstairs only few
minutes. whnn we began to hear heavy
thumps against the house and remem.
Der hearing frthnr tell mother that it
was driftwool coming down the river.
GA little later tlerr came a dreadful |
Jolt, and the house lurched over. AMI |
then beean to rock like a cradle up and |
down. Mother caught the candle and /.
held it, to Keep the candIe-stick from up
setting.
"The rocking and cracking of the tim |
bers OF the house continued for as much |
as two hours. and then stopped all at
once, thouGh We could still hear the |
water rushing by; and now and then a
slide would rumble like distant thun-
der and jar the earth.
'The younger children fell asleep
but [ could not sleep, and about one
-. E.
Mrs. Gray that the storm was over and
it was starlight. Not long after he went |
part way down stairs and told us that |
the water was not so deep in the room
below.
Z" But twas not till after daylight that |
the water settled so that We could go
down stairs; we then found that there
were six to eight inches of sand and
gravel on the floor. The water had risen
to the bottom of the windows; but it
had not quite reached the oven.
"Father got a shovel and scraped out
the sand, and he now told us what had
made the house rock so and why it had
stopped so suddenly. The underpinning
had washed out on one side so that the
house tipped down at one corner and
kept humping on flat rock. But a
large birch tree had washed IN and
wedged itself betwixt the rock and the
sill; that was what stopped the rocking
motion.
eve found our hog ont in the field
braced with his back against a stump,
he was alive, hut looked as if he had had
hard time of it. The sheep were alive, /
too, but seemed half drowned. They
had got ont Of the barn, which had partly
fallen, and been washed away with all
the hay and grain. Our potatoes, corn
and beans, ont in the field, were all
washed ont, or else so covered with
gravel that we could not find them.
com 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
TuttIa, WAS the first of our ncighbors
who came to our farm after the storm.
He felled a large tree across the river and
walked over on it. This was Tuesday
The next TO come was a 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 mp thera, 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 CrawsOrds, at the head Of the
Notch. Barker said that the trees and
dirt were piled mp thirty feet high Ill
round the house, and that the barn VS.
partly carried away H, herd 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.