USA > Vermont > Washington County > Montpelier > The History of Washington County in the Vermont historical gazetteer : including a county chapter and the local histories of the towns of Montpelier. > Part 96
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18 1) 2 Aug 20 64
Mustered out June 19, 65.
Jangraw, Francis
21
3 Bat do 17 64
do
do 15, 65. do
Morris, Joseph
20
do
do
do
Morris, Francis
19
clo
do
do
do
Dana, Alpheus T.
20 K 7 Feb 1 65
do
Jan. 31, 66.
Lewis, William H. Potter, Robert
21 Ft Cav Jan
3 65
do
June 27, 65.
Rowe, Joseph
2.4
3 Bat Aug 18 64
do do 25, 65.
Skiddy, Lawrence
33
1) 7
Feb 13 65
do Feb. 13, 66.
Stevens, Henry A. C.
19 Ft Cav Jan
3 65
do June 27, 65.
Hoyt, Enoch S.
V. R. C.
Feb 17 65
Died Oct. 1, 65.
VOLUNTEERS RE-ENLISTED FOR THREE YEARS.
Holmes, Ira
24 E 8
First en. a credit to town of Woodbury. Deserted May 28, 64.
Wounded at Cedar Creek, Oct. 19, 64; must. out July 17, 65.
DRAFTED MEN WHO ENTERED THE SERVICE.
Aldrich, Levi H.
24 K 3 July 13 63
Wounded at Cold Harbor, June 3, 64 ; des. ()ct. 1, 64.
Gray, George S. Ripley, William C.
22 C 2
do
20 D 2 do
Killed at Wilderness, May 5, 64. Wd. May 5, 64, and Sept. 19, 64 ; pro. corp. Oct. 31, 64; serg't. Feb. 7, 65; must.' out July 15, 65.
SUBSTITUTES FURNISHED BY DRAFTED MEN.
48 B C July 24 63
do
1
DRAFTED MEN WHO PAID COMMUTATION.
Foster, Edwin H. Gould, Henry M. Gould, John M. Hollister, Martin V. B.
Seabury, Edward T.
Smith, Willard G.
Stevens, Thomas B.
Holmes, Henry C. Templeton, Austin
Ordway, Edward, Parmenter, Marcus
Templeton, H. H.
Wasson, David H.
Died at Ft. Slocum, D. C., Feb. 27, 64. Wd. at Cedar Creek, Oct. 19. 64; pro. corp ; must. out July 17, 65. Corp; killed at Wilderness, May 6, 64. Died June 6, 64, of wounds received at Cold Harbor.
Mustered out July 14, 65. do June 29, 65. do June 15, 65.
Deserted from hospital in 65. Corporal. Died May 10, 64, of wounds received May 6, 64. Mustered out Aug. 25, 65. do May 13, 65. Discharged Apr. 15, 64. do [65.
Trans. to V. R. C. Apr. 64 ; dis. June 15, Killed in action March 1, 64. [22, 64. Corp ; died at Andersonville prison, Sept. Mustered out June 15, 65.
Washburn, Ira A.
IS
Dec 28 63
19 E 8 Feb 20 65
do do 28, 65.
Maxham, George
41 do June 5 64
Bigelow, John B. Giovanni, Don
Substitute for John H. Peck; must. out June 26, 65. Substitute for Darwin A. Stewart ; des. before assignment to Co. or Reg't.
Benjamin, David Bliss, George E. Buzzell, George W. Cummins, Luther Davis, George Davis, Nathaniel Jr., Davis, Oscar L. Edwards, Samuel Jr.,
Pierce, Aaron
Pro. corp ; mustered out June 15, 65.
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VERMONT HISTORICAL MAGAZINE.
RECAPITULATION.
Volunteers for 3 years
86
Volunteers for 1 year.
12
Volunteers for 9 months 24
Drafted men who entered service
3
Furnished substitute .:
2
Paid commutation
22
Mustered out at expiration of time of service, or the close of the war 64
Discharged for disability. 30 Killed in battle .. 8 6
Died of wounds received in action ..
Died of disease contracted in service
II
Died in Rebel prisons
2
Deserted.
6
ROLL OF HONOR.
Name.
Bancroft, Charles F.
Batchelder, John D.
Bent, David J.
Carson, Charles H.
Clark, Isaac
Cornell, Thomas
Cutler, Charles F.
Cutler, Lorenzo D.
Dearborn, Roswell H.
Gray, George S.
May 5, 1864.
Hargin, Ira J.
May 5, 1864. April 14, 1862.
Hill, Amasa
Hill, Henry H. Ist lieut. Howland, William H.
May 9, 1862. May I0, 1864. Oct. 3, 1865.
Hoyt, Enoch S.
Ormsbee, Elhanan W.
May 5, 1864.
Ormsbee, Orvis
Jan. 19, 1862. Mar. I, 1864.
Pierce, David
Putnam, Isaac A. Ist lieut. May 5, 1864. Roscoe, Curtis W. Sept. 22, 1864. Oct. 14, 1861. Snow, Oscar D. Snow, Willard C. July 19, 1863. Stevens, William B. June 12, 1864. Oct. 17, 1862.
Templeton, Charles A.
Thibeault, Antoine
Dec. 24, 1862.
Wakefield, Henry Willey, Alonzo D.
Feb. 20, 1865.
April 16, 1862.
ERRATA. [OF MR. WALTON.]
Page 329, Miranda C. Storrs should be Maria Cadwell Storrs.
Page 357, William H. Upham should be William Keyes Upham. E. P. W.
Page 299, soldiers furnished by the town given as 236, quota 189, should be 336, and a quota of 289 to fill.
[OF C. DE F. BANCROFT.]
Page 331, Willie Kelly, aged II years, killed by a'sweep on Barre street, in 1869.
Page 331, a Willey child killed on Main street ; run over, age 6, 1870.
Page 331, Michael McMahon killed, should read, aged 30 years.
Page 231, William Mousier, not William Monsier.
Page 332, D. K. Bennett, Aug. 3, not Aug. 8.
On page 348 should be added the names of Edward Ordway, Edward Seabury and Willard G. Smith to the list of drafted men from Montpelier as having paid com- mutation. They are erroneously given in the Adjutant General's printed report of 1864, as credits from East Montpelier.
Page 345, '6, Frank V. Randall, Jr., enlisted Jan. 1, 1863, at the age of II years ; a credit from this town as a musician in Co. F, 13th Reg't., and mustered out of service July 21, '63 ; enlisted Jan. 5, '64, as musician in Co. E, 17th Reg't. ; mus- tered out July, '65.
Page 342, Ansel H. Howard, aged 18 years, enlisted Aug. 20, '61, in Co. H, 2d Reg't. ; promoted corporal ; re-enlisted from Montpelier, Dec. 21, '63 ; promoted sergeant ; mustered out of service July 15,'65.
Page 345, William Goodwin, enlisted Aug. 25, 1862, at the age of 24, in Co. I, 13th Regt. Mustered out with the regi- ment July 21, 1863.
Page 524, Center Cemetery should read Cutler Cemetery,
Page 530, James Conners' age should be 24, not 54.
Additional .- Mrs. Rhoda Brooks, page 476, the date of her birth should be 1788,
J. A. Wing, p. 545; birth Oct., not Dec. 26, 1810, remained in Plainfield 58.
Page 289, Drolette, should be Drolet.
Date of death. June 14, 1862. Feb. 27, 1864. May 7, 1862.
May 5, 1864. June 6, 1864. July 4, 1862. Sept. 3, 1862. July 24, 1863.
Dec. 13, 1862.
COMMEMORATION.
PORTRAITS AND DONORS.
CLARK STEVENS of East Montpelier, old town clerk and Quaker minister-first preacher in old Montpelier. Donated by Hon. S. S. Kelton, historian of East Montpelier, and Thomas B. Stevens, grandson of Clark Stevens.
Gen. PARLEY DAVIS of East Montpelier, first general surveyor of Washington County. Donated by his grandson, Benjamin I. Wheeler of East Montpelier. Gen. EZEKIEL P. WALTON. By Hon. E. P. Walton
Mrs. PRUSSIA PERSONS WALTON. By Mrs. Harriet N. Wing of Glens Falls, N. Y. Hon. E. P. WALTON. By Hon. E. P. Walton.
Col. JAMES H. LANGDON, Mrs. JAMES H. LANGDON, JAMES R. LANGDON. By James R. Langdon.
GEORGE LANGDON. By Mrs. Geo. Langdon.
Dr. JULIUS Y. DEWEY. By Hon. Charles and Edward Dewey.
Hon. DANIEL BALDWIN. By Mr. and Mrs. Marcus D. Gilman.
Hon. CHARLES REED. By Mrs. Charles Reed.
Hon. CHARLES W. WILLARD. By Mrs. Charles W. Willard.
Senator WILLIAM UPHAM, Mrs. WILLIAM UPHAM. By Mrs. George Langdon.
Hon. SAMUEL PRENTISS. By Joseph A. Prentiss, Esq., Winona, Minn.
Rev. WILLIAM H. LORD. By Ladies of Bethany Church.
Rev. FREDERICK W. SHELTON. By Episcopal Church Society.
Rev. CHESTER WRIGHT. By Rev. J. Edward Wright.
Capt. NATHAN JEWETT, Col. ELISHA P. JEWETT. By Col. E. P. Jewett.
JOHN WOOD, THOMAS W. WOOD. By Thos. W. Wood.
Judge TIMOTHY P. REDFIELD. By Hon. T. P. Redfield.
Hon. HOMER W. HEATON. By Hon. Homer W. Heaton.
JOSEPH A. WING, Esq. By J. A. Wing, Esq. Gen. PERLEY P. PITKIN. By Gen. P. P. Pitkin.
Hon. LUCIUS B. PECK. By his daughter, Mrs. Anna M. Mallary, Towanda, Penn. Hon. STODDARD B. COLBY. By his daughter, Mrs. Col. Carey, Washington, D. C. CHARLES G. EASTMAN. By Mrs. Charles G. Eastman.
JONATHAN SHEPARD. By George C. Shepard. Gov. ASAHEL PECK. By Nahum Peck of Hinesburgh.
Hon. RAWSEL R. KEITH. By Dodge W. Keith of Chicago.
MAHLON COTTRILL, Mrs. MAHLON COTTRILL. By Jedd P. Cottrill, Esq., Milwaukee. Col. LEVI BOUTWELL. By Mrs. Levi Boutwell and H. S. Boutwell.
Dr. NATHANIEL C. KING of East Montpelier, Dr. SUMNER PUTNAM of Montpelier. By Dr. Sumner Putnam.
CARLOS BANCROFT. By Mrs. Carlos Bancroft.
AARON BANCROFT. By Chas. De F. Bancroft and two old citizens.
ZENAS WOOD. . By his daughters at St. Johnsbury.
RICHARD W. HYDE. By Mrs. R. W. Hyde and family.
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Hon. JOHN A. PAGE. By Hon. J. A. Page.
Hon. JOSEPH POLAND. By Hon. J. Poland.
CHARLES W. BAILEY. By Mrs. Chas. W. Bailey.
J. WARREN BAILEY. By Mrs. J. W. Bailey.
Major ALFRED L. CARLETON. By Mrs. A. L. Carleton. Rev. ELISHA BROWN. By Col. A. C. Brown.
LUTHER CROSS. By Luther B. Cross.
ROBERT H. WHITTIER. By Mrs. R. H. Whittier ..
Dea. CONSTANT W. STORRS. By Mrs. C. W. Storrs.
MARCUS D. GILMAN. By M. D. Gilman.
HIRAM ATKINS. By H. Atkins.
Hon. RODERICK RICHARDSON. By Hon. R. Richardson. Dr. CHARLES CLARK. By the family.
WOOD ENGRAVINGS SPECIALLY FOR THIS WORK.
LORENZO Dow and PEGGY, and BRIDGMAN. By L. J. Bridgman.
CHURCH OF ST. AUGUSTINE. From the Catholic Society. TRINITY M. E. CHURCH. By the Society-Mrs. Laura A. McDermid, solicitor.
CHURCH OF THE MESSIAH. By the Unitarian Society, through John G. Wing, Esq. BAPTIST CHURCH. By Society and friends, through John W. Smith. CENTRAL VERMONT DEPOT. From Cen. Vt. R. R. Co., St. Albans.
VERMONT MUTUAL FIRE INSURANCE BUILDING. From the Company.
RESIDENCE OF MARCUS D. GILMAN. From Mr. Gilman.
WASHINGTON COUNTY COURT HOUSE. By the Montpelier lawyers, through Hiram Carleton, Esq.
RESIDENCE OF GEORGE C. SHEPARD. From Mr. Shepard.
RIVERSIDE HOUSE. From C. J. Gleason, Esq.
Plates before engraved .- CHRIST CHURCH-By favor of Mr. Atkins of the Argus. BETHANY CHURCH, THE STATE HOUSE, PAVILION, &C. The Interior of CHRIST CHURCH, BETHANY, and TRINITY M. E., subscriptions commenced for.
NOTE TO THE PORTRAITS .- Those of Col. Langdon and wife, and Gen. Walton and wife, were painted by Tuthill, (a pupil of Benjamin West) ; those of Mahlon Cottrill and wife, by Mason, and all when the parties were so young, their portraits will be recognized by only a few persons. The same is true to some extent of the portraits of Gen. Parley Davis and Mrs. Upham. The signature of Prussia Walton was writren at the age of 82.
FINIS.
MONTPELIER, thou hast won my heart By all thy generous ways ; It is my joy, my pride, thy noble men, Thy matrons beauteous in their days- To praise.
And I would write thy happy name - On the historic page, In letters as of gold, to hand Down to the future age- MONTPELIER.
Abby Maria Hemenway
593
MORETOWN.
MORETOWN.
[Compiled from the newspaper records and papers contributed.]
"The township was chartered June 7. 1763, the grant to contain 6 square miles to be divided into 71 shares ; one-eighth to each of the 64 proprietors ; each drawing one lot out of each division, there being three divisions." The charter says, before any division of land be made to proprie- tors, a tract of land as near the center of the town as the land will admit shall be reserved and marked out for town lots, one of which shall be allotted to each pro- prietor, of the contents of I acre-they paying as rent therefor for the term of 10 years, one ear of Indian corn, on the 25th of Dec. annually, if lawfully demanded, and said rent to commence Dec. 25, 1762. Also each proprietor was to pay one shil- ling proclamation money on every 100 acres of land. After the town was organ- ized, it passed a vote to " quiet " those who had previously selected and were occupy- ing lots, in lieu of drawing by lot as speci- fied in the grant. By "quiet" it is pre- sumed was meant to let them hold the lots selected. Moretown was settled prior to 1790 ; for in 1790, Ebenezer Haseltine came to the N. W. part, and commenced to clear a farm about a mile and a half from Duxbury line. It was on Winooski or Onion river, and the place where his son, Ebenezer Haseltine, now resides. But it appears that Seth Munson was living near where Mr. Haseltine made a pitch, when Mr. H. arrived-so it is evident a few settlers had made a beginning prior to 1790. At this date, 1790, there were only a few houses in Montpelier, and these were log ; and it is said that Mr. H. helped cut the first hay ever cut in Montpelier, and on the spot where the Vermont Watchman office now stands. When the Indians were on their way to burn Royalton, they camped on the meadow owned by Mr. Haseltine. Arrow heads and stone hatchets have been found on this farm. The first school district in town was formed in this neighborhood. Mrs. Ebenezer Haseltine and Aunt Judith Haseltine used to gather sap on snow-shoes, and catch cart loads
of trout from Onion river. Aunt Judith H. died in Aug. 1876, aged more than 95 years. In those early days the settlers went to Burlington to mill. in canoes, carrying the canoe and grist around the falls in Bolton. Sometimes they would make " plumping mills," by making a hole in a large stump to hold the grain, and bending a sapling over, fasten to it a chunk of wood to pound the corn with. Of this no one need be ashamed, for one of our presidents ground corn in the same way. Bears and wolves disturbed the people to some extent, frequently coming out in the daytime. Three wolves came one night and put their paws on the yard fence of Abner Child, on Moretown Common, but went back to the mountains and howled. The next day, about 2 P. M., a deer came and jumped into the same yard, being driven in by the wolves, it was thought. The deer soon left, and wolves' tracks were afterward seen in connection with its tracks toward the river.
A young lady was riding on horseback from the Common toward the Hollow, and met a bear. She turned back, told her story, and some men rallied, pursued and killed the bear. It was distributed be- tween persons, many wanting a piece. The head was taken by one man, and the next day or two the jaw of the bear was put on the table whole, the teeth all in.
A few years since, as Rev. Mr. Powers was returning from Northfield to this town, he met a bear, which he treed and watched while his boy went to the village and rallied some men, who came and killed the bear. It was voted to give Mr. P. the bear. The bears have not all left town, but the most of those remaining are biped.
Mar. 9, 1792, Joseph Haseltine, Seth Munson, David Parcher and Ebenezer Haseltine petitioned Richard Holden, a justice of the peace of Waterbury, to call a town meeting of inhabitants of Moretown, to meet at Jos. Haseltine's, Mar. 22, 1792, to elect town officers.
Met agreeable to warning and chose Daniel Parcher, moderator; and chose Seth Munson, town clerk ; chose as select- men, Joseph Haseltine, Daniel Parcher and John Heaton ; chose Philip Bartlett,
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treasurer ; chose Joseph Haseltine, con- stable ; chose John Heaton and Ebenezer Haseltine, listers ; chose Joseph Haseltine, collector of town rates ; and Joseph Parcher, highway surveyor. Voted to dissolve the meeting. Attest,
SETH MUNSON, Town Clerk.
Up to 1832, the town meetings were held on Moretown Common. At that date an article in the " warning " for town meet- ing called. the voters together under great excitement. Much confusion prevailed, until it was ordered to call every voter into the house, and appoint a talisman to notice each man and record " yes " or "no" as he should pass out, voting on the article.
The article was to see if the legal voters would remove the town meeting from the Common to the Hollow. The majority voted " yes." Since that date the town meetings have been held at the Hollow. The present town house was then started by subscription .- Written in 1876.
[Among the papers of the late Henry Stevens, Antiquarian of Vermont, we copied the following heads of papers in his collections : " Surveys in Moretown," " A vendue pitch for Nathaniel Chipman," con- taining 360 acres, No. 83, signed Wm. Sawyer. In the office of Robert Temple, Rutland County Court, "Copies of Ira Allen's sales in Moretown "; complete, I think. "Copy of Smith's deed of land in Moretown "; "Copy of Sawyer's deed to Lovell"; " Ira Allen and Fiske's agreement selecting lands in Moretown"; " Agree- ment concerning land in Moretown be- tween Ira Allen, and James Mowry, of Corinth "; " Ira Allen and Thomas Mead's land in Moretown "; "Colchester, June 25, 1790, Deed to Col. Ira Allen of 500 acres of land in Moretown, by Samuel Allen."]
By searching the old records, it is found proprietor's meetings were held for some years after the town was organized.
Among the prominent men of the pres- ent century may be named Abner Child, who was one of the earlier settlers, Har- vey W. Carpenter, Alpheus C. Noble, Hon. Joseph Sawyer, Rufus Clapp and Calvin Kingsley, M. D., town clerk for 44 years, or since 1832. He is now partially
retired to enjoy a competency gained in his profession. The others have nearly, if not all, died, and some of them were of the principal men from 1830 to 1850.
The Dr. has also represented the town several times in the State Legislature.
Judge Sawyer has a widow and 2 sons residing in town. One of those sons has a "bull's eye" watch which the Judge used to carry, and which had not been cleaned and run for 40 years until recently ; it is said to be 150 years old. The same son has a clock 100 years old.
A very serious calamity occurred in 1830 -the greatest freshet ever known in Mad River Valley. It raised the river until nearly all the street was covered. Miss Harriet Taylor, of Waitsfield, (now Mrs. Hon. Roderick Richardson, of Boston, Mass.,) was teaching school in our village at the time of the freshet. She boarded with a family living where Mr. Freeman now resides. The water drove them, in the night, to the chamber of the house, and they could, in the darkness, hear the splashing of the water and the thumping of floating chairs and tables against the chamber floor-to which the water had risen. To add to their distress the cries of a sick child were constantly calling their attention. Toward morning the cellar wall under a part of the house, fell in with a splash, causing new fright which led the inmates of the chamber to pray to God, the Father of Him who once said to the winds and waves, " Be still." The next morning the family and teacher were floated away to safety on a barn door. The sick child died in a few hours after the rescue. Henry Carpenter, residing further down the river, started with his wife and boy, the boy walking between them, with hands in theirs, to go to a neighbor's. They in- tended to keep the road, wading through the water; but coming to deeper water Mrs. Carpenter let go the boy's hand and probably became strangled. Mr. C. called in the darkness but no voice replied. The boy swam back to the house. The father in sadness rallied some neighbors, and the next day the mother and wife was found on the meadow below, cold in death.
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- MORETOWN.
One family fled to the hills and stayed out all night in the rain, holding a little babe in their arms. Who the little babe was let grandmother tell.
This newspaper record sent to us, we think, by Rev. Seldon B. Currier, we will interrupt here to give.
THE BURSTING OF A CLOUD OVER JONES'S BROOK IN MORETOWN.
BY HON. D P. THOMPSON.
I have used the term, bursting of a cloud, as the caption of this article, because it is expressive of a popular notion, and not be- cause it is either philosophical or correct. It has long been a prevalent belief, that in cases of extraordinary falls of water over particular localities, clouds, like old leath- er bottles, suddenly burst and let the wa- ter they contain fall to the earth almost in a body, like rivers falling over precipices in cataracts ; whereas nothing could be more unscientific or farther from the truth. No collected body of water, not even to the amount of a quart, could remain suspended in a cloud a single second, but would in- stantly fall to the earth from the force of the universal law of gravitation. The great deluging torrents of rain that occa- sionally occur, simply proceed from unusual thickness, or upward extent of the cloud. This will be more readily understood, per- haps, when we consider, that if a cloud half a mile thick discharges from its gath- ering mists a heavy rain, one of a mile thick would produce a rain doubly heavy, and so on, in the same proportion, with every additional thickness of cloud, till that thickness, as has been known some- times to be the case, extends upwards to the distance of 5 or 6 miles, when from the whole mass the water reaches the earth less in the form of rain, indeed, than the pouring of a cataract.
The most remarkable instance of these great falls of water, which was ever known in this region, occurred about 30 years ago, round the sources of Jones's Brook, a small mill stream that rises in Moretown mountains and empties into the Winooski river 3 miles below Montpelier. The mountains round the source of this stream rise to the hight of about 2000 feet, with unusual abruptness, and, at the same time, so curve round as to leave the intermedi- ate space in the form of a deep, half-basin, down the precipitous sides of which a sud- den shower descends almost as rapidly as water strolling down the steepest roof of a house, and collecting at the bottom, pours, in a raging river, down the valley to the outlet of the stream. It was over this mountain-rimmed basin that burst the ex-
traordinary thunder-storm which I have undertaken to describe, and which passed among the inhabitants under the name of the bursting of a cloud.
On the day and hour this storm occurred, I chanced to be on a high hill, east of Montpelier village, which afforded a plain view of the whole range of the Moretown mountains. It was a still, sultry, mid- summer day, when my attention being at- tracted by the sudden obscuration of the sun, I looked toward the west, and saw the unusual spectacle of two heavy clouds rap- idly rolling toward each other, in the line of the range just named, from diametrically opposite directions, the point where the collision must occur being evidently at the natural basin already particularized, or on the high mountain above it. These strangely moving clouds I watched with in- tense interest. On, on they rolled toward each other, with their long, streaming col- umns and menacing fronts, like two op- posing, hostile lines of cavalry rushing to- gether for deadly conflict. As anticipated, the collision occurred directly over the ba- sin and on the sides of the adjoining mountains, and there, the opposing cur- rents being of equal strength, the inter- mingling clouds came to a dead stand. Presently, however, the colliding masses began to rise upward and double over and over till they had swelled into a huge, dome-like figure, shooting up miles into the darkened heavens, and here commenced a startling display of the electric phenome- non. With the short, sharp and quickly repeating peals of thunder, the fierce streams of lightning were seen bursting in rapid succession from every part of the sur- charged cloud, like some hotly worked battery of artillery from a smoke-enveloped field of battle. But soon the expanding cloud shut out the basin and valley from sight ; and, being unable to see more, I returned home, and, with much interest, waited to hear the result of the fearful ele- mental exhibition I had been witnessing.
The news of the remarkable, and in one instance, fatal effects of that storm, in the disastrous flooding of Jones's Brook, at length reached us. The inhabitants of the basin, when the storm burst upon them so suddenly and unexpectedly, were struck with astonishment and alarm at the un- wonted quantities of water that descended upon them from the seemingly flooded heavens. A settler who lived nearest the foot of the mountain described the rain as " coming down in bucketsful." I was in a field a short distance from my house when it struck, and was so astonished at first I knew not what to do. But the rain, if it could be called rain, coming thicker and
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faster, I ran with all my might for the house, but was almost drowned before I got there, and then it was only to find the water gushing into the house on all sides till it was nearly knee-deep on the floor." And so with all the inhabitants of the ba- sin. No place afforded them any protec- tion ; rivers were in all their houses within, and rivers, rising into seas, were all around them without; and they looked on with mute consternation at that tremendous out- pouring of the clouds. But they were the first to be relieved. The rain, after the brief duration of less than half an hour, ceased as suddenly as it came ; and the in- habitants ran out of their drenched houses just in time to behold the numerous uniting streams, that had come pouring down from the encircling mountain, gathering into a mighty river that swept away shanties, fences, old trees, logs, lumber and every- thing in its path, and bearing them in wild confusion on its surface, went foam- ing, tumbling and roaring, like a cataract, with amazing force, down the valley to- ward the outlet, three or four miles below.
But the principal scene arising from the destructive and fatal progress occurred at a saw-mill, owned by Mr. Oren Clark, and situated about a mile from the mouth of the stream. When the storm was spending its force on the sides of the mountain and the basin beneath, Mr. Clark was at work in a field near the mill with his hired man, Ebenezer Eastman. And being apprised by the great volume and blackness of the clouds hanging over the mountain at the west, that an unusual shower was falling round the sources of the stream, they pro- ceeded at once to the mill and commenced such temporary repairs of the dam and flume as would, they believed, secure them against the rush of water, which, in greater or less quantities, they knew would soon be down upon them. While deeply en- grossed in hurrying forward the contem- plated repairs, they were aroused by a deafening roar that burst suddenly upon their ears from the stream but a short dis- tance above the mill; when looking up they beheld to their astonishment and alarm, a wild, tumultuous sea of comming- ling flood-wood and turbid waters, with a wall-like front ten feet high, tumbling and rolling down upon them with furious up- roar, and with the speed of the wind. Knowing that the mill could not stand before such an avalanche of water, and beginning to be specially alarmed for their personal safety, they attempted to secure a retreat over the log-way which extended from the mill to the high grounds five or six rods distant. Over this they made their way with all possible speed. But
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