The Globe-republican., 1895-11-21
famine in this line. At Speareville


many of the sidewalks were taken up
and burned for fuel. The snow was
piled up in huge drifts, as high ms
some of the one-story houses; and on
the north side of houses and fences
tee snow remained on the ground
until the warm days of spring.
There was an exaggerated account
of the number of people frozen, and
of those frozen to death; but of the
details Of suffering and losses we
have no accurate knowledge.
We have made a copy of the re-
port of the January storms, 1886, as
we find on the record of the United
States Weather Bureau, at this sta
ton. The account corroborates with
our statement.
Three inches of snow fell on the
I'd and Sd of January, 1886. The
temperature was IL degrees.
Sergeant Lanouette was in charge
of the Signal Office in January, 1886,
and through the kindness of Observ-
er Todd, we copy the report of the
storm of the 7th:
"Heavy snow began falling during
the night and ended at $40 p. m. The
wind blew a gale from the north dur
ing the entire day, averaging 40 miles
an hour, with mean temperature of
10.1 degrees below zero. It was one
of the most terrible storms that has
been experienced in this locality for
some years. The snow was binding
SO that at no time during the day
could a person see a rod before his
face. Private Miller narrowly escap
ed being lost in the storm while on
his way to the Office to take the z a.
m. observation. He rooms but q
short distance from the Office, but the
snow was so binding that he had no
idea when he reached the Dodge
House corner, and kept on until he
reached the river about half mile
During temporary lull in
the storm he saw the Dodge House
lights, and with difficulty he retraced
his steps. Sergeant Lanouette, who
lives on the hill, three-quarters of
mile from the Office, was unable to get
to the Office at all on account of the
binding snow. The Western Union
wires are down, and the trains are all
blockaded, east and west.
amount of snowfall during past
"a hours, 1.9O inches. The atmos-
phere during the entire day was high
y charged with electricity, SO much
so that the batteries were taken off
and messages sent between this Office
and Fort Supply.
A government telegraph line ran
At that time between Dodge and Ft.
Supply; and on that day the electric
1uid of the atmosphere was SO highly
charged as to produce a magnetism
with the wires, and current over the
wires was formed by induction.
''The sky being obscured no aurora
vas visible; but it had all the charac-
eristics of an auroral storm. The
operator at Supply was knocked down
" a severe shock while changing the
wires, and the operator at this Office
lad finger severely burned by acci-
lentally touching the wires. The
electric storm was very noticeable on
he Western Union wires. Sparks
lew from the &eys five or six inches
q length"
Three men in the employ of the
irrigation company, and who were
amped with their families several
niles up the river, were in the city on
he day Of the storm of the I'd OF
anuary, and were indulging in the
up that inebriates. They started to
heir camp after dark, expecting to
at supper with their families. Two
+ them perished in the storm, one of
hem being found dead standing up
gainst John Riney's wire fence; and
be other was found dead on pile of
now. The third man had retraced
lis steps and reached Mr.. Riney's
ouse almost dead. He could not for