1826 — Aug 18, Landslide, Willey family, Crawford Notch, White Mountains, NH     —       9

Compiled by Wayne Blanchard; last edit 7-24-2024 for upload to: http://www.usdeadlyevents.com/

–9  Colonial Sense. “New England Weather. 1826 Avalanche…” [Transcription from Perley.]

–9  Perley, Sidney. Historic Storms of New England. Salem, MA: Salem Press, 1891, p. 240.

–9  Purchase, Eric.  Out of Nowhere:  Disaster and Tourism in the White Mountains, 1999, 1.

Narrative Information

Perley: “All visitors to the White mountains know of the Notch, a famous pass, thirty miles in length, in which are Crawford’s, Bemis and the Glen. East of Crawford’s for two miles it is only a very narrow defile, running between two huge cliffs, that were apparently rent asunder by some almost inconceivable convulsion of nature. The high walls of Mount Willey on one side and of Mount Webster on the other, are almost perpendicular, and rise in the highest place three thousand feet. The eastern entrance to this cut is between two rocks, one about twenty feet high, and the other twelve, being only twenty-to feet apart.

“The Saco river rises in the mountains, and flows down through this remarkable gap in a southeasterly direction. In the upper part of the Notch, the channel of the stream is only twenty feet wide, about the entire width of the pass, which widens as it approaches North Conway, where it becomes a fertile valley four or five miles in width. There are several streams in the mountains which empty into the river as it flows through the Notch, and on one of them is the Silver cascade, which is one of the most beautiful falls of water in the world….

“This natural pass was taken advantage of by the early settlers of the section of New Hampshire which lies northwest of the mountains, it affording the only direct means of reaching the seaport that was nearest to them. This was Portland, where they exchanged their produce for foreign commodities, and other supplies that they could not procure in their region. Through the Notch, as it was called in very early times, a turnpike had been built, and in 1826, it had become a great thoroughfare for the farmers of the upper counties of Vermont and northwestern New Hampshire for transporting their produce to market at Augusta as well as Portland. Mr. Crawford conducted a public house in the Notch in those days, and he frequently supplied feed and keeping for eighty horses in a single night during the period of good sleighing. A short distance east of Mr. Crawford’s was another tavern kept by Capt. Samuel Willey. The history of these old time hostelries would furnish one of the most interesting chapters of New England history if it could be fully written.

“In some places the river runs so near the side of the pass that the mountains overhang it, and again there is scarcely room for the road between the stream and rocks. Thus side by side, the road sometimes crossing the river, they run through the pass.

“The sides of the mountain are so steep at many places along the Notch that, after the road was constructed, heavy rains frequently caused the earth and rocks to dislodge and slide down, carrying all the trees, shrubbery and everything else from the rocky foundation of the mountains. These slides usually began near the highest limits of vegetation, and widened and deepened as they descended, sometimes covering a space of several hundred acres and cutting into the side of the mountain to the depth of thirty feet. During the first week in July, 1826, a great rain had dislodged a large mass of stone and gravel from one of the mountains, and came down, filling up the road for a long distance.

“The month of August that summer was as wet a month in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut as was ever experienced there. At Salem, Mass., fourteen inches of rain fell during the month, and from the tenth to the fifteenth, eight and seven-tenths inches, the greatest quantity falling in one day, being two and one-half inches, fell on the fourteenth. Lowlands were inundated and mill-dams injured. The air was remarkably humid nearly the whole of the month, and profuse showers constantly wet the earth.

“In the White mountains, however, no rain fell until nearly the close of the month. The roads were like beds of ashes, two or three inches deep, and the country around showed the usual effects of a long drought. On the morning of Monday, the twenty- eighth, the mountains were enveloped in clouds, and a cold heavy rain began to fall moderately all through New Hampshire, increasing in the afternoon and falling in torrents most of the night. The next morning was clear and serene.

“In different parts of the state, great quantities of hay and grain were injured, roads washed so badly that travel over them was suspended, and many bridges were carried away. All five of the bridges over the Ammonoosuc river were swept away. The Contoocook river rose higher at Henniker than it was ever known to rise before or since that time. The Souhegan and Merrimac rivers were as high as they usually are in spring freshets, and several bridges and mills located on them were carried away. In the mountain region it caused the most remarkable flood ever known there. At daybreak on the next morning the water of the Saco river in the Notch was sixteen feet above its usual height, and had spread to three times its width. The next day it flowed rapidly between steep banks covered with hemlocks and pines, and over beds of rocks, which broke its surface into raging billows. Down through the Notch were carried sand and driftwood, to an extent never known before, and they were deposited with the water on the fields below. Fences and bridges were carried away, and logs thrown into the roads, blockading them. In some places the turnpike was excavated to the depth of fifteen or twenty feet, and in others was covered with earth, rocks and trees to a greater depth. For a mile and a half along the Notch, from Crawford’s to Willey’s, the road was not visible, except in one place for a distance of two or three rods. Large patches of the surface of the mountains, first on one side of the road, then on the other, and in some places on both sides had slipped down into this narrow pass, along its whole length. Thirty slides were counted on the mountains, many bare spots appearing that were never seen before. A large area on one side of Mount Pleasant slid down and covered a considerable portion of Elhan Crawford’s pasture, which contained .between thirty and forty acres. The water rose two feet in his house, and many of his cattle and sheep were lost, eight hundred bushels of oats being also destroyed. On the Saco river below Conway, the damage was considerable. At Bartlett and Conway the loss was severe in the destruction of crops, mills and bridges, and at Fryeburg great quantities of corn, potatoes, meadow hay and fences were destroyed and some cattle drowned.

“By Wednesday, the water had subsided, and the weather was clear and pleasant. Nothing had been heard from the Notch House, which was conducted by Captain Willey, at the eastern terminus of the pass, several miles from any human habitation. The house stood on the westerly side of the road, only a few rods distant from the high bluff which rose with fearful abruptness to the height of two thousand feet. The buildings consisted of a house and barn, which were connected by a woodshed. Mr. Willey and his family had recently moved there from Fryeburg and were amiable and obliging people, being much respected by their neighbors, and commended for their neatness by travelers who were their guests.

“Mr. Crawford became alarmed for the safety of the Willey family, and with a guest started up the pass on foot, so much earth, and so many stones and trees having fallen that a horse cold not travel on the road which in fact was not to be seen in many places, being covered in spots thirty feet deep. After a tiresome journey they arrived at the Willeys, The road appeared to have been overflowed with water for a mile south of the place, and the beautiful little meadow opposite the house, which had been covered with crops, was a pond. The house was found to be uninjured, but the barn was crushed, and under its ruins were found two dead horses. The house was entirely deserted; the beds were tumbled, their sheets and blankets were turned down, and near them upon chairs and on the floor lay the wearing apparel of the several members of the family. On the bar were lying Mr. Willey’s money and papers. The visitors were convinced that the entire family was destroyed, and a brother of Mr. Crawford, who then appeared from his father’s place, which was six miles further east, confirmed the supposition.

“After a slide in June, the family were more ready to take the alarm than they had been, though they did not consider their situation dangerous as no fall had ever been known there. On the night of the great rain, however, probably at about eleven o’clock, the family was alarmed by the noise of rushing wind, flowing torrents, and the tumbling, crushing earth, rocks and forest trees from the extreme point of the westerly mountain above them. They all sprang from their beds, and in their night clothes ran, in the utter darkness, for their lives. But the immense mass descended with terrible velocity, toward the sleeping family. When within about five rods of the house, its .course was checked by a large block of granite, and the mass separated into two streams, one of which rushed down by the north end of the house, crushing the barn and spreading itself over the meadow. The other part passed on the south side, overtaking and destroying the unfortunate family. They probably attempted to reach a stone embankment a few rods distant, which, it is said, had been erected for a place of refuge in a similar emergency. This shelter, whatever it may have been, was deeply buried under the earth, rocks weighing from ten to fifty tons being scattered about the place, and indeed in any direction escape was utterly impossible. The house alone remained undisturbed, though large stones and trunks of trees came within six feet of its walls, and the moving mass which separated behind the building again united in its front. The house therefore was the only place of refuge from the terrible avalanche, and in their beds the family would have been preserved from their horrible fate….

“The bodies of Mr. and Mrs. Willey, their daughters Eliza and Sally, Mr. Willey’s hired man and boy named Allen and Nickerson, were found about fifty rods from the house horribly mangled, but the remains of the three other children were never discovered, probably having been deeply buried under the rocks and earth. Those that were found were all buried in a quiet nook in the field then belonging to Mr, Willey’s father, the parents and children being interred in one grave. It was the family burying-ground, Mr. Willey’s parents and other members of the family being buried there. It is in North Conway, and as one passes the Bigelow farm he cannot fail to notice a stone stile built into the wall. A path leads from it for about ten rods to the iron gate of the little country graveyard, which will swing open grumbling on its rusty hinges, as though resenting the intrusion. Within the enclosure there are about twenty graves, and one is attracted to a slate headstone by the down-trodden grass in front of it. At the top of the slab is engraved the figure of a weeping willow, which was such a popular ornament on gravestones three-quarters of a century ago, and beneath it is this inscription:

To the memory of the family which was at once

destroyed by a slide from the White Mountains on the night of 28 August, 1826.

Samuel Willey, a 38

Polly S. Willey, 35.

Eliza A. Willey, 12.

Jeremiah S. Willey, 11.

Martha G. Willey, 10.

Elbridge G. Willey, 7.

Sally Willey, 3.

“The first two named are the parents and the rest are their children….” (pp. 236-241.)

Purchase: “On Monday night, 28 August 1826, the entire Samuel Willey household – Mr. And Mrs. Willey, five young children, and two hired men – were killed by an avalanche in Crawford Notch in New Hampshire’s White Mountains.  Triggered by a fierce thunderstorm, the slide started near the top of Mount Willey (4,300 feet), carved a channel fifty feet deep, and obliterated the road at the bottom of the valley.  Incredibly the Willeys’ house was spared:  A boulder had divided the landslide directly behind the house so that it passed by on either side.  But for some reason the family had gone outside and was buried under the stream of earth, stones, and uprooted trees.”  Purchase.  Out of Nowhere:  Disaster and Tourism in the White Mountains, 1999, 1.)

“Just ten months before the landslide, on October 1825, they [the Willeys] had moved to Crawford Notch to run an inn and tavern for travelers.”  (Purchase 1999, 2)

Sources

Colonial Sense. “New England Weather. 1826 Avalanche – The Avalanche in the White Mountains, and Destruction of the Willey Family.” Accessed 7-24-2024 at: http://www.colonialsense.com/Society-Lifestyle/Signs_of_the_Times/New_England_Weather/1826_Avalanche.php

Perley, Sidney. Historic Storms of New England. Salem, MA: The Salem Press, 1891. Google Preview accessed 7-22-2024 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=twkAAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Purchase, Eric. Out of Nowhere:  Disaster and Tourism in the White Mountains.  Baltimore:  Johns Hopkins Press, 1999.