Daily independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 188?-1915, 1889-10-24
HEROIC JOHN FORD.
A Kansas Pioneers Death Struggle with
Cruol blizzard.

following graphic sketch of q Kansas
pioneer was given:
remember when John Ford settled
in Grant County in 1885 and built his
dug-out on the Surprise Flats, with
little window in the end, and brought
his wife and little baby to live there,
and happy, yes, happy, were they; and
O noble man was John Ford, strong as
an OK, with q lions heart, and as true
to his wife and baby and home Us men
are made to be, and tho hardy settlers
form and athletic movements, and
envied his tireless energy and his
happy, careless air; 218 pounds he
weighed, and was about thirty years
of age, and in stature and proportion
like Absalom, u perfect physical man;
and in mind and will and courage, too,
as perfect rs he was in form. Among
the crowd OF gallanG men that have
made this world what it is, you have
never heard, aud perhaps the world
will never know, what q hero was John
Ford.
On the afternoon Of January 4, 1886,
he kissed his wife and baby goodbye,
and left for Lakin. Driving his team,
going FIR u load of lumber, earn Jug his
daily bread, and he never came back
any more. On the evening of january
6, as it was after dark, he reached lhe
prairio south Of the sunk we'll with
load Of lumber and a lump of coal for
his family. AS he pulled out onto the
level prairie away over to the south
west light 1ickered from q window,
and he knew his loved ones were safe.
and then he logged on over tho prai-
rie half an hour, steering toward that
faint. ficliering light, and his heart
throbbed with thoughts Of home. But
that homo was to be his never more,
for out of tho North came wind from
the far-off Manitoba, q wind which for
1000 miles winged its way on the mys-
terious mission Of the Creator, winged
its way to the mark, gathering forco
as 1t followed on, till at last it swoopcd
down on this giant on Surprise Fats
md drove him before it like a
little child; nnd the terrible blizzard
was on, the shrieking wind was
thick with snow, and it bullied
and clustered and burned its way
through every crevice, every hole,
chilling and burning the worn team,
driving before it man, team and all.
He passed within two hundred yards
OF his door, where, strange to say, the
wagon track turned sharply away and
rolled zig-zag down the Cimarron.
nj nh hn 1,f L.
zard on the wild prairie. and his
strong arms and legs tuggcd away ut
his impossible task to reach lis home.
Over the Cimarron and back again,
facing and fighting with his horses in
the teeth of the Storm till the frozen
ice, as he tore 1t from his mouth, car
ried parts Of his lips along and Uttered
the snow with blood; but his heart
th-obbed with thoughts of home, and
he tore fresh chunks of his lips away
to get his breath and boldly faced the
blizzard again. All night long he
wandered. all day the next day,
blinded by the snow, moving, moving
on, on, on. "Was not that the light
againP" and up, up. and he stumbled
on. His ankles froze and he had
| to lean on the lumber to follow the
wagon, his arm froze before his face,
and in such position was he found
with a mute and frozen arm raised
stiff before him as IL protesting TO
Heaven against his fate; mis- knees
froze and he staggered. no longer
could he hold to the wagon, SO no wan
dered by tho side. This. too. was late
in the second night, moro than twenty
hours after the blizzard begun. but
still he fet the fingers Of hi, baby in
his hair, and on, on he struggled, and
the mad light from the window danced
before him again, and using his yet
unfrozen arm he tore the last sem
blance Of his lips away and boldly bat