Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1907-02-12
The wiley slide.

The Wiley Slide.
A SECOND ARTICLE on THE cATAsTRo-
PIE FROM THE PEN OF ''scRUTAT0R. +"
"'Twas morning, and the glorious sun
6hone on the work which death had done
On shattered cliff and broken branch;
The ruin Of the avalanche"
I notice that In your issue Of Decem-
Der your Greenwood correspondent
mentions the fact that the Introduction
to the National Reader contains an arti-
ole BY Joseph Tinker Buckingham on
the Notch of the White Mountains and
also an article by Mr.. Buckingham on
the Wiley Slide. The Slide occurred on
the night of Monday, August %, 1925,
and this article by Mr.. Buckingham on
that catastrophe was first published In
the New England Galaxy, weekly B0s-
ton newspaper of which Mr.. Bucking-
ham was the publisher and editor, the
date of the appearance Of the article In
the Galaxy being Friday, September 8,
1925. In each Of the issues Of the Galaxy
for the preceding July 81, %, August 4,
II and Is, there had been an article by
Mr.. Buckingham descriptive Of tour
made by him which included trip
through the Notch, and Mr.. Bucking-
hams aforementioned article on the
White Mountains is an extract from that
one Of these five articles by him which
was In the Galaxy of August 4th. This
same extract from his article in the
Galaxy of August Is also to be found
In the first volume Of his work entitled
personal Memoirs and Recollections of
Editorial Life" In that part of this
Galaxy article by him which is not given
in the Introduction to the National
Reader or in his personal Memoirs and
Recollections of Editorial Life" he
states that, when he went through the
Notch, he took dinner at the house of
the Willeys (then called the Notch
House,, and he gives little pen-picture
of them and Of the wild but secluded
and lonely spot in the bosom of the
mountains where they had taken up
their abode. He says that, "rude and
uuinviting as the spot appears" Mr..
Wiley "has contrived to gather around
it the necessaries If not the conveniences
OF life. We observed a large flock of
sheep In one of his enclosures, other
domestic animals in the barnyard, and
several flocks Of ducks and geese in the
little meadow which fronted the house.
We were furnished with dinner of ham,
eggs and the usual accompaniment to
such a meal in country tavern. The
interior of the house exhibited neat
ness that might we'll become some inns
that we have seen of more frequent re-
sort, and the faces of parents and chill
dren were the pictures of content"
Two good accounts of the Wiley Slide
are to be found in volume 8 of the Col
lections of the New Hampshire His
torical Society. One of these accounts,
which is on pages 224-232, was written by
Jacob Bailey Moore, and first appeared
in the New Hampshire Journal "a week
" newspaper published at Concord, N.
3. y of Monday, September II, 1925. Mr..
Moore was the editor of that newspaper,
aud 1t was in the newspapers first issue
that this article on the Slide appeared.
This Slide was so tragical In its effects as
to become Of absorbing popular interest,
aud Mr.. Moore's vivid description of it
at once arrested wide attention, and, ap-
pearing, as I have said, in his newspapers
initial issue, started the newspaper on
it's career under favorable auspices. At
the time of the Slide, Mr.. Moore hap
pened to be travelling In the White
and he and some companions
of his had an exceedingly narrow escape
from like tragic fate to that which be-
fel the Wiley family. On the side of
Mount Washington, there was at that
time, six and three-fourths miles north.
east of Ethan Allen Crawford's house
(which stood near where the Fabyan
House now stands), two and one-fourth
miles from the summit of the mountain,
and about $500 feet above the sea, q
which Mr.. Crawford had con-
for the accommodation of those
who, In order to be able to avail them.
selves Of the fine views to be had from
that point at sunrise, wished to pass the
night there when on their way to the
summit of Mount Washington; and in
the evening of Sunday, August 81 (the
night before that in which the Wiley
Slide occurred), Mr.. Moore and his COM
panions, under the guidance Of Mr..
Crawford, went from Mr.. Crawford's
house to this camp, reaching it q little
after 10 O'Clock. At half-past four
O'Clock In the afternoon of the following
day, the party, obliged, by the dreadful
rain-storm which had set In, to abandon
their purpose to 20 to the summit of
Mount Washington, left the camp and
set out to return to Mr.. CrawfOrd's house,
which, after great exertion seeking out
and following new paths to avoid the
waters collected In many places before
them, in fording rapid streams, and in
crossing the swollen and roaring branch
o. of the Ammonoosuc, they succeeded
in reaching q little before nine o'clock in
the evening. That night, as already
stated, the Wiley slide occurred, and
one of the many other slides which oc-
Cured that same night in the White
Mountains swept away the camp which
Mr.. Moore and his companions had
abandoned so shortly before and in which
IL they had remained they probably
would have been engulfed and destroy
cd. After the storm had subsidized, Mr..
Moore and his companions, disappointed
in not being able as they had intended,
to climb to the summit of Mount Wash
ington, proceeded to Lancaster, but,
learning at that place of the catastrophe
in the Notch, they retraced their steps
to Mr.. Crawford's and thence proceeded
to Mr.. Willey's house, where they spent
the Friday night following the catastro-
phe in which the Wiley family and the
two hired men met their death.
The other of the two accounts of the
Wiley Slide which have mentioned as
being In the third volume of the Col
lections of the New Hampshire Histori-
cal society is on pages 286-2s0. This &C
count, which Is In the form of letter to
John Farmer, q member of the Society's
publishing committee, Is dated Bruins
wick, Me-, September, 1928, and was
written by Thomas Cogswell Upham, at
that time a professor In Bowdoin Col
lege. Prof. Upham was somewhat &C.
quainted with the Wiley family, as he
made brief stay with them at their
home In Bartlett shortly before their re-
moval, in the autumn of 1925, to the
place where they lost their lives. This
account of the Slide by Prof. Upham in
cludes an extract from q letter which
Mr.. Willey's brother, Benjamin GLACIER
Wiley, wrote to q friend about the Slide,
and It speaks of the terrible landslip
which 10 the afternoon of September 2,
1905, overwhelmed the Swiss villages of
Goldau, -Busingen aud Roethlen and q
part OF the village of Lowerz, and an &C.
count of which Is, as your Greenwood