The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-09-18
A HEROIC LITTLE BOY.
Pluck and Nerve of Lad in the
Mountains of Tennessee.
Chattanooga Times.

Chattanooga Times.
There recently appeared in the columns of
the Times a brief account of a waterspout
or landslide which occurred in the noun
tains of Hawkins county few days ago.
The public, in hurriedly reading the account
of this calamity, no doubt gave the matter
but a passing thought, as an event of fire.
quent occurrence, and did not realize in any
sense, unless by actual experience, the dev-
astation wrought, the sorrow brought, or the
heroism frequently displayed in a calamity
of this kind.
A gentleman who resides in the neighbor-
hood visited by this death-dealing tornado
related to me a few days past the destruc-
ton that was wrought, the lives that were
swept into eternity, and particularly the
matchess bravery displayed by an eleven
year-old boy during the scene of devastation
and DEATH
But short distance from Bays noun
TAIN Tenn, where the counties of Sullivan,
Washington, Hawkins, and Greene corner,
and upon the side of mountain known as
Sandstone ridge. nestled the humble home
of the Comptons. The house was two
story log structure, and the family consist
ed Of Roe Compton, his aged mother, Char
ity Compton. his wife Frances and nine
children, the two eldest of whom were
daughters, aged about eighteen and twenty
years.
A short distance below the house in front
was a branch, which during the dry seasons
went perfectly dry, but during excessive
rainy spells became raging cataract.
In the rear of the house the land sloped
gently upward for short distance, when
it began TO rise abruptly, and almost as far
as the eye could see this ridge or mountain
rose grandly to the summit, where it tow
cred above the home of this sturdy noun
taineer. Many times had he watched the
storm king beat fercey against its craggy
sides, as for the mastery, while he sat in
his humble house, surrounded by his loved
ones in fancied security.
On the night of this fearful storm the
Compton family retired with no thought of
the impending calamity. The husband, his
mother, and the two eldest daughters occu-
pied one end of the home while the wife
and seven other children slept in the apart
ments of the other end.
During the night members OF the family
were awakened by the fury of the tempest.
The thunder roared necessarily, and the
vivid flashes of lightning shot in at the
partly screened windows of the house and
lighted up the interior almost as light as
day.
Down in the ravine in front of the house
the waters began TO rise LdplOly. lHey
seemed to come down from the mountain
sides and the valley in perfect waves, and
seethed and surged in their fury The
water was up within a few feet of the
house, when far up on the mountain side,
in the rear of the dwelling, huge bowlder,
which possibly had been anchored there for
centuries, left it's moorings and came crash
ing down the mountain side. Here it
would strike a tree and uproot it: there ii
would strike another rock and start ii roll
ing, and together they swept down the in
cline gathering strength, velocity, and adj
ditional destructive elements In the onward
sweep of death and devastation.
This death-dealing mass of debris struck
that end of the building occupied by the
daughters Together with the huge logs
that went into the erection Of the building
Of water in front Of the house, and were