The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1917-02-08
HAD THEM Then
MUCH SNOW, MORE COLD. LOSS
OF LIFE AND SOME PRl-
VATIONS.

several plOuetIS Wuo Wchl lhiOuSh
the great storms of 1880 and 1888
told The Daily Leader of some of
their experiences in those days as
well as making comparison OF the
recent storms with the former worst
evers."
THE storm OF 1880 began on Oc-
tober Is and continued through un-
til the 18th. and the average temper
ature for the three days was Is be-
low. That winter it showed almost
every other day. and by spring the
snow was twenty-five inches deep on
the level" said F. l.. Soper.
Compared with this winter the
weather was much colder all the way
through and we had much more
snow AS to the fierceness of the
80 storm compared with the recent
billiards, | do not believe the former
was any worse than the latter.
J THE spring of 1881, however,
showed the results of long winter.
Both the Sioux and the Missouri
rivers overflowed their banks, the
| floods being the worst in the history
of those streams, and they caused an
enormous loss of life to people and
stock. The railroad between Egan
and Sioux Falls was partially washed
out.
THE winter was the first Madison
went through after the site was shift
ed from Lake Madison to the pres
ent. We did not suffer any from the
lack of food, although there was a
scarcity of of ground flour and many
men, among them Patrick O'Brien
and w. NJ. Beardsley, ground wheat
in coffee mills to meet their needs.
But on the whole we were well sup
piled and no one was really in want.
There might have been an acute
shortage of firewood had 1t not been
for the railway company's generosity
i in permitting the men TO pick up
scattered timber at the company g
piles-the engines on the road were
all wood burners then-and for a
i farmer, w III. Luce, living at Lake
Herman, who cut ten acres of green
timber and sold it here for s6 and 81
i cord.
i You could not burn il without
first curing the stuff in the oven.
At the place where | boarded we had
a lot of the timber and to get fire
started was real work. We had to
keep the ovens filled all the time TO
insure some seasoned wood with
which to start the next days fires.
There was a considerable loss of
stock the same winter. The cattle
would huddle together for protection
and warmth and would move in the
same direction with the storm as the
blasts were so fierce they dared not
face them When they came to gull
leys and low places those In front
were pushed over by the weight of
the mass in the rear and the whole
bunch would pile up at the bottom
and smother to death.
I'm the spring the gulleys and ra-
vines were filled with the bones oil
thees animals as were the prairies
which were dotted with them for
miles. The number of animals that
perished ran well into the thousands,
I'VE had mail only two or three
times, for the railroads and the wag-
on trails were blocked and none
could get through. Finally We sent
man to Arlington who dragged a
handsled behind him and on account
of the cold and the distance We did
not send him more than three times
the entire winter. For months we
were practically cut off from the out
side world. We did not suffer, how.
ever, and none of us are the worse
for the experience.
"The fall of snow was SO heavy
that once we were forced to dig a
tunnel into a butcher shop entrance
on Egan avenue, now occupied by the
newsstand. 1t was impossible to gel
|, in any other way. 1t required some
little time to shovel way through
You can easily imagine that we had
considerably more snow then thar
the recent storms have given us.
; 'In the storm of '88 the snow be-
gan coming at 8 o'clock in the after.
noon and the storms suddenness
caught many people unprepared and
many perished in the binding snow
that was accompanied by piercing
cold, much colder than either Of the
cold days we had last week. 1t end
ed early the next morning, but the
fall was unusually heavy for such q
storm of short duration"
|