The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1888-01-18
The Northwestern Blizzard.

The Northwest had the worst storm last |
week ever known in that region. All the |
railroads were seriously blocked on Thurs
day and Friday and most of the freight |
trains were abandoned AT Huron, Dakota,
the wind blew fifty miles an hour and the |
air was so full Of snow that IL was impossi- |
BILE to see fifty feet. Unthinking teachers
dismissed the young school children, some |
OF whom had to go four or five blocks across |
open land, and five or six children were
lost Whistles were blown and bells were
rung. The people turned out with long |
ropes and walked fifteen or twenty abreast
back and forth over the ground. All the
children were found but one The mercury
was 40 below. A Webster, Dakota, special
says: Seven mail-carriers are believed to
have been caught in the blizzard and have
perhaps perished." AT Muscatine Iowa, and
Oshkosh, Wis, the worst blizzard of the
season ragged; the snow was heavy and deep
and the roads badly blockaded Sioux City,
Iowa, suffered with the worst blizzard for
years. Friday morning the mercury in sew
eral places was $50 below zero. At Faulk-
ton, Dakota, the storm lasted forty-eight
hours. From ten o'clock until dark there
were not ten minutes that the buildings on
the opposite side of the street could be seen.
The mercury gradually dropped from 10o
above to 16o below zero The teachers and
most of the scholars in the two lower de-
partments were compelled to remain in one
OF the school-rooms all night. Provisions
were carried to them. Ropes were stretched
from the corner of Main street to the school
house, to enable those carrying the pro-
visions to go and come in safety. Several
persons are reported frozen to death in Da-
kota and Nebraska and the damage to live
stock is great. Many reports of fatality
from the cold come from Dakota. Two sons
of William Driver We're frozen to death
within few feet of their barn at Raymond.
Charles Heath is missing and j. H. Clapp
has been discovered badly frozen, he hav-
ing been out all night wandering upon the
prairie. The elevator of Archer & Howe
has gone down with 1900 bushels of grain.
James Smith and two sons, aged fifteen and
sixteen, started for load of hay six miles
from Minot, Dakota, on the 18th, and have
not since been heard from Several other
Minot persons are missing. A dispatch
from Adrian, Mimi, says that several farm
ers living twelve to fifteen miles north
started home from Adrian about three
o'clock Thursday and have not yet been
heard from. John Dorng Camper, farmer
| living mile north of there, who was at a
neighbours, a quarter of mile away, started
home and was lost Some fifty villagers
started out to find him, but so far have
not done so. The following tempera-
lures were reported Friday: At Superior,
! Wis, 27o below zero at Yankton, Dakota,
100 below; at Minot, Dakota, 3So below; at
Neche, Dakota, 53' below; at Fergus Falls,
Mimi. 30o below; at Winona, 30o below; at
St. Paul, Mimi, 20o below; at Duluth,
Mimi, 20' below at Milwaukee, 200 below;
at Pierre, Dakota, 23o below; at Omaha,
Neb., 100 below.
A dispatch from Canton, Dakota, says:
"The following deaths by the blizzard are
reported: Two men at Primghar, Iowa;
| two school children at Inwood, Iowa;
two men between Marion junction and
Bridgewater; one man near White Lake;
two boys and eighty-five head of cattle
near hardwood, Iowa; four school-children
near Lennox, Dakota. One of the last
named, a boy, was alive when found. He
had been in the snow thirty-sx hours and
soon died. Mrs. Knutson of Rushmare
Mimi, was found Friday frozen to death
within forty feet of her own door. Her
husband was absent and she had started to
look for him. Lewis Merriam, aged sixty
and son, northeast of Hitchcock Dakota,
persisted in Thursdays storm. AS a result
of the storm, nine bodies were brought
into YanktOn, Dakota and seven others
with limbs frozen, necessitating amputa-
ton. Other fatalities are reported. Search
ing parties are organizing at st. Oalff.
Miss Brady, a school-teacher, and one pupil
are dead. The body of an unknown man
was found near Sioux Falls standing erect
in the snow The bodies of four men were
taken to Sioux Falls. There were nine ia
talties near Huron and four farmers are
missing. Two scholars are dead at Carem
and a teacher is badly frozen. There We're
four fatalities at Bluremont and one at
Minot. At Parker Lizzie Dwyer and four
Oh ItIeT w leTPdlne y Cnlluren are ueau. Az
FaulktOn Emma Lamar a SchOOl-teaCher,
and Carrie Anlan, pupil, are dead. For
three days it was 20o to 40o below zero. At
Chester, Mimi, James Bakers six children
were frozen to death returning from school.
At Aroca, Mimi, Johnny Walsh lost his
way going home from neighbor's, mile
distant, and was frozen to death. Walter
Menger and three cows at Mitchell, Dakota,
were found dead. At Watertown, Dakota,
Sarah Doland a school-teacher, left her
boarding-place Thursday morning. Her
body was found in a snow-drift forty rods
from the schoo-house."
Ldtest.-The terrible storm which has
swept over the Northwest, blockading rail-
roads in five states, is now over and the
victims of its fury are being counted. The
pitiful list is growing almost every hour.
1t is not improbable that when the record
is complete it will show over a hundred
lives were sacrificed to the awful fury of the
blizzard. Next to this, the worst blizzard
that the Northwest ever experienced oc-
Cured January 7, s and 9, 1873. In that
and thousands of dollars worth of property
destroyed. Specials report the following
deaths by freezing in addition to the list
of sixty-three heretofore given: Near
Mitchell, Dakota, young man named
Munger; Mrs. Phillips and son of Alpena,
Jerauld county Dakota; an unknown man
near Aberdeen, Dakota; at Wyndmere,
near Wahpeton, Dakota, school-teacher
and two OF her pupils; near Fulda, Mimi,
the tweve-year-old son of John Walsh;
near Tracy, Mimi, Tom Anderson a
farmer, is missing; near Albert Lea, Mimi,
O. A. Egge a brother of Professor Egge OF
Northtield College. A special from Salina,
Kansas, says: 1.-THE sweep of the blizzard
through Colorado and Kansas was accom-.
panied by fearful loss of life In some
places cattle and horses were frozen to
death in their stalls. The former billiards.
left the people in an almost destitute con-
dition, and although the residents of east
ern Kansas were very emphatic in their
denials of any suffering in the state the
fact remains that there have been hundreds
of deaths in the eastern counties that were
due to the severe cold"