Saturday news. (Watertown, S.D.) 19??-19??, 1913-03-20

Mother Tries to Protect Her Little
Ones from Cold---Loses Wav q
in Fierce Storm.
MOTHER NURSES HER BABY
Tears OFF Part Of Her Clothing
and Wraps il About the Chill
dren Before She Suceumbs.

Rapid City, S. d., March 15, About.
10 O'clock this morning a team OF
horses, blindfolded with gnnnysacks,i
strayed into the Freazee corral. The
family of A. f. Berry had been lost
in binding blizzard. Mrs. Freazeef
knew this, SO sent the hired men to
learn If they were wandering in the
drifts that fill Box Elder divide.
Find Six Of Family Dead.
a half mile from the corral the
searchers came on wagon. On the
ground lay the body of Mr.. Perry. IT
was frozen stiff. In the wagon were
seated his wife and four children, all
dead. Mrs. Perry had her infant son.
clasped close to her breast, which was
exposed in a last attempt to appease
Its hunger, The other three children
were huddled about her. Her skirt
and underclothing had been bound
about them in an effort to protect
tuSiH IlUiu Zig COtu. "
sg Three Others are Missing.
" A short time before the tragic dis
coyery near the Freazee corral, r. d.
Gerenz OF St. Paul, while looking up
some cattle ranging on the divide,
came on Leslie Perry, the 19-year-old
son of the dead man and woman.
/ / The youth was dazed had been
searching for hours for some trace of
i his folks and his hands and feet were
/ frozen.
~ Gerenz brought him to Rapid City
where a few hours later ne learned
of his family's fate. Al brother OF
4 Leslie and two other men who had
\ enlisted in the search still are missing
& in the deep snow drifts.
Determined to Brave storm.
The Perrys We're on the way from
#i Big Bend, in the Black Hills, where
4 Mr.. Perry was postmaster, to the Fred
Holcomb ranch, sixteen miles east oi
here, which they had leased. They
4 left Big Bend at daylight last Thurs
day morning with wagons loaded with
furniture and farm implements. Three
sons on horseback drove herd d
4 twenty-five cattle, and Mr.. and Mrs
4 Perry, In a wagon with their foul
i children, brought nD the rear Of the
j caravan.
i They reached Rapid City about
4 O'Clock in the afternoon, and though
warned not to risk travelling in tht
storm, which constantly was increas
ing In severity, they started out.
Freen Horses to Get Aid.
How they met death is easy to con
lecture. Caught by the full force O
the blizzard. with the temperature 1
degrees above zero, the horses became
Salky. The men put gunny sacks on
their heads to blind them. Nigh,
came on. The wind increased to fifty
miles an hour and the cold became
4 intense.
Tired out the horses driven by the
elder Perry stopped He liberated
them in the hope they would find
shelter, and thus carry information OF
the predicament of the family.
II Is thought the Perry family pass.
ed by the ranch they were seeking
several times during the night, hut
owing to the binding snow did not
see the light in the windows.
Sacrifice Of the Mother.
Mr.. Perry must have been toe ex-
hausted TO climb back into the wagon
after unhitching the horses. The
death Of the mother and her children
took place in a short while, it is be-
lieYed. Her three little girls, the old
est years, suffering intensely. hud-
died close to her. Mrs. Perry tore
clothing from, her body to give them
comfort,