Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1894-03-23
THAT OLD STORY OF 1921.
OF the Mother who Perished,
and the Baby that Was Saved
One Winters Night on the Green
Mountains in StrattOn.

Ohio, and 1t is Her Cousin who sends
to The Phoenix Detailed Account of
the Sad Event.
/ read with interest the article in The
Phoenix of Feb. 2, can old story recalled"
giving an account of the death of Mrs.
Blake and the saving of her child, during
a Journey across the Green Mountains in
December, 1921. The article is right in
the main, but l would like to make some
corrections. Mr.. Blake, whose wife per-
ished in the storm, was the own brother of
my father, Benoni w. Blake. His name
was Harrison Gray Blake. He was born
Nov. IA, ITS, and died in Cleveland,
Ohio, in May, 1868, and is buried in the
Cleveland West Side cemetery. l have
seen his crippled feet, and well remember
the impression the sight made on my MEM
DRY as a child, and his unwillingness to say
much about the sad affair. In 1865 l Wis
tied him in his home in Cleveland. At
the time of the incident related he was
living in Arlington, VT, and was crossing
the mountain to visit his father, who lived
on the South Branch in Marlboro, where
my father, who was then a boy, was born
and lived for many years. My father had
a brother Thomas, who was a timer by
to. The babe was daughter, Rebecca,
whose married name is De Groat, and who
still lives in Cleveland, Ohio 1t was
probably the death of her sister, which
took place not long ago, that called forth
the article in the "western periodical" re-
viving the story of the incident of 1921.
She was never the wife of Ezra Dean. l
have in my possession good photographs of
Harrison Gray Blake, senior, Rebecca De
Groat, and Harrison G.. Blake, junior, who
was a child left at home. The school
reader that have is Clowns Third Read
err" published in Portland in 1851, and
contains the story as given in d. l.. Ms
article, with the poem, | never saw the
book referred to, but knew that another
reader contained the story.
This is the correct story as | have heard
it from him, and copy it from paper as
given to reporter by Mrs. De Groat: In
December, 1921, Mr.. and Mrs. Blake start
ed from their home in a sleigh to visit
friends, their journey leading over the
Green mountains. The mother had an in
FAINT of a few months of age with her.
| The party were caught in a snowstorm,
the road became impossible for their
sleigh, and they abandoned it, unhitchng
the horse and proceeding on horseback.
| The cold was intense and their sufferings
severe. Night was coming on, and the
father, leaving his wife and child with the
horse, fastened on foot to seek assistance.
| His cries were heard at house in the
mountains, but owing to a misapprehen-
sion on the part of the family that it was
another person whom they knew to be out
and who did not need their help, they did
not respond. In the morning Mr.. and
Mrs. Blake were found. He was lying in
the snow but a few hundred yards from
his wife, his feet frozen, and so nearly un
conscious that he could only hold up his
hand to indicate that there were other suf
ferers. Mrs. Blake was found totally un
conscious and frozen in every limb, bu
the child was alive and sleeping, wrapped
in the clothing which the mother had tax
en- from her own body to preserve its life
They were carried to the nearest hous,
and restoratives applied. The mother gasp
ed after being taken into a warm room
but died without showing any other sign
that she had lived through the horrors o
the night.
The poem, if | remember correctly, wa
written by Seba Smith, but ! know moth
ing of him. 1t is as follows:
The cold winds swept the mountains height,
And painless the dreary wild
And, mid the cherries hours of night.
mother wandered with her child
As through the drifted SHOWS She pressed
The babe was sleeping on her breast,
And colder still the winds did blow
| And darker hours of night came on.
And deeper grew the drifts of snow;
Her limbs were chilled, her strength was gone.
20 God, she cried IN accents wild,
If must perish, save my child
She stripped her mantle from her breast,
And barred her bosom to the storm;
And round the child she wrapped the vest.
And smiled TO think her child warm.
With one cold kiss, one tear she shed,
And sank upon snowy bed
At dawn traveller passed by:
She lay beneath a snowy veil,
| The frost of death was in her eye,
Her cheek was cold, and hard. aud pale:
He moved the robe from off the child,
The babe looked up and sweetly smiled.
From the Medina County Gazette OF
April p, 1876, quote few of the many
things said of the life of Harrison G,
Blake, jr., who was child of nearly two
years of age at the time of his mother
death, and who was left at home with his
sister Lucy on the fatal night. Harrison
G. Blake, jr., lived in Medina, Ohio, from
1880 to the time of his death, April 16
1876. After giving his early history and
his rise in life from clerk to lawyer and
banker, the article says: "In 1916 he was
elected to the lower house of the legisla.
ture of the state (Ohio), and reelected in
1917. After that he was twice elected tc