My mother told me she knew of more than thirty proposals she had received after grandfather's death, but she said "she would rather be the widow of Ezekiel Webster, than the wife of any other man." The following is her own description.
The only house near the Crawford Notch was the Willey House, in which the family were living.

A week before a slide had come down by the side of the house and obstructed the road.

Mr.
Willey and two men came to our assistance, taking out the horse and lifting the carriage over the debris.
They described the terrors of the night of the slide.

The rain was pouring in torrents, the soil began to slide from the tops of the rocks, taking with it trees, boulders, and all in its way; the crashing and thundering were terrible.

Three weeks later the entire family, nine in number, in fleeing to a place of refuge, were overtaken by a second slide and all buried.
The notch was then as nature made it; no steam whistle or car clatter had intruded upon its solitude.