Caldwell County MO Archives History .....LEWIS CLAMPITT FROZE TO DEATH 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Karen Walker khw4@yahoo.com September 4, 2008, 4:42 pm

WHEN LEWIS CLAMPITT FROZE TO DEATH
	Narrators:  Adam Ream, 80, and others

     Lewis Clampitt belonged to the Clampitt family which lived east of town 
on the old stage road.  He was quit a drinker and this failing led to his 
death.  In 1879, he was lost while trying to walk home from Hamilton after 
a "night of it."  That time he had lain out all night in the cold in March.  
For days, it was feared that his legs would have to be amputated, so badly 
were they frosted.  He, however, recovered from it.
     In the middle of Feb 1881, he was found dead, frozen to death in the snow 
near the Clampitt school house.  He had lain there frozen stiff in the 
terrible snowstorm of that year, which covered him for two days.
     He left Hamilton Friday night when the storm was in full blast, with a 
friend, both somewhat intoxicated.  At his friend's house, he went on alone 
horseback.  The horse went on without him.  The storm was so severe that the 
family and neighbors could not make a thorough search for him, but they 
surmised that he was lost in the snow.  Finally on Monday, they found his 
body.  He was 40 years old.  He was as good hearted a fellow as ever lived, 
but a confirmed drinker and nothing seemed possible to save him from the habit.
     His wife Josephine, afterwards married one H.H. Brown in that 
neighborhood.  Lewis, commonly called Lew, had lost a good farm about 1879, 
probably from his habits of intemperance.
     Interview  1934.


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