South-eastern Independent. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1871-1871, 1871-09-15
The "Deep Snow :" in Illinois Forty
Years Ago.

The following graphic account of the
"deep snow" ar event so often referred
to by the old residents of Illinois, is from
a recent address delivered by President
Sturtevant, Of Illinois College, before a re-
union of the old settlers of Morgan, Cass
and Scott counties, at Jacksonville:
The constitution Of your society defines
an old settler. He is one who resided here
before the deep snow. The thought has
occurred to me that it might be interesting
to many in this audience TO be informed Of
what we mean by the deep rnow. We
shall have no difficulty in making ourselves
understood on that subject. In the inter
val between Christmas, 1880, and New
Year, 1881, of course, forty years ago last
New Years, snow fell all over Central L.
inois to a depth of nearly three feet on a
level. Then came a rain, with weather so
cold that it froze as it fell, forming a crust
of ice over this three feet of snow, nearly,
if not quite, strong enough to bear a man,
and, finally, over this crust of ice, there
were a few inches o livery light snow. The
clouds passed away and the wind came
down upon u from the northeast with
extraordinary ferocity. For weeks, GER
tainly not less than two weeks, the mer-
curry In the thermometer tube was not, on
any n morning, higher than 10 degrees
below zero. The wind was a steady, fierce
gale from the northwest, day and night.
The air was filed with flying snow, which
blinded the eyes and almost stopped the
breath of any n who attempted to face
it. No man could, for any considerable
length of time, make his way on foot
against it.
The story Of such a winter as this may
be pleasant enough to hear to one who
hopes to experience It; but the sit
uation of the inhabitants of this country
was certainly rather alarming. The peo-
pie were almost wholly from regions more
southern than this, and knew nothing by
experience of dealing with such q depth
of snow and such cold. Indeed, l had
then some exDerieRce of New England
winter, and have had some since, but ! have
to this day never seen any other which
bore any comparison to this. Jacksonville
had then about 400 people. We were de-
pendent chiefly for keeping warm on hav-
ing plenty of wood, for our houses were
certainly far enough from being warmly
built; and yet our supply of fuel for the
winter was not as is more commonly the
case now, piled at our doors before the be-
ginning of winter. 1t is in the forest, and
must be brought US, through the snow,
and by people who were quite unaccus-
toned to it. Could it be done? 1t was at
first not quite apparent that it could. Our
corn was in the fields, over which this
covering of snow was spread, and to a
great extent the wheat for our bread was
in sacks in like condition. Snow paths
could not be broken after the New Eng
land fashion. There a few hours of wind
blows all the snow from exposed places,
a,1 1o-o-,N, - - -oT1o-z IN
where the wind cannot reach it. A little
energy with OK teams and sleds
will break out q road and there
next snow-storm. There is no truer
picture than that given by Whittier in his
"Snow-B Bound" of the frolic of breaking
the roads after a great nov storm. But
nothing of that sort would have been of
much use in u case. In this level coun-
Try there is no end to the drifting as long
as the snow lasts and the wind blows.
There are no covered places in which the
snow can be driven, consequently the
path would fill behind q team, or any
number of teams In a few minutes, so that
Its track could not be seen. The only
way in which snow paths were finally
made was by going as nearly as we could
in the same place, till the snow was trod-
den hard, aPd rounded up like a turnpike.
The snowfall produced constant sleighing
for nine weeks, and when at last warm
ram and sunshine prevailed, about the
first of March, in melting the snow from
fields and untrodden places, the roads re-
manned as lines of ice, which disappeared
but gradually. The New Englander has
scarcely any such experience of winter as
this-certainly not unless it be quite in
Northern New England. We had no
railroads then, nor indeed any dream Of
them. But our nail communication with
the rest ofthe world was quite interrupted
for several weeks continuously. We in
those days had one mail a week, and that
on horseback from Springfield, and to
bring that through that snow required
more energy than NAL boys in those days
were master of.