The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1924-01-17
Renaissance OF
STORM OF 1888
Saturday Was seth Anniversary OF
Terrible Blizzard I'm Which Six
Lives Were Lost In Hand
County

Saturday, January 18th, marked the
~thirty-sixth anniversary of the great
blizzard Of 1883, which swept Hand
County. and was general over the
whole country, in which SO many lives
we're lost.
Taken from the Press files of that
date is the following resume of the
storm:
Thursday morning, January 18th,
cloudy and calm, but the barometer
! was at a very low ebb throughout all
Dakota and the Northwest. The wind,
what there was of 1t, blew from the
east. Shortly after nine o'clock the
stratus condition of the clouds became
very heavy. Suddenly the wind veer-
ed from the east to the north and
northwest. Those who were out no.
ticed all objects had vanished into q
white mist. In short old Boreas had
abdicated his throne in the north. and
gave his %perconal attention to the Ia
nipulation Of the most terrific, the
most woeful blizzard that eve visited
the northwest since It's inhabitation.
ttAlCl lut luly VI ~ olOl III Hdu Dbo~
en- loose It was simply and utterly flu
tile for n to guess at the points of
the compass. A driver could not see
his team; a street walker could not
have seen a seventeen-story building
two arms length distant, such, for a
time, was the intense fury with which
the frozen vapor wos whirled through
the air. School children became pnaic
stricken and parents frantic for their
safety.
The first death to be reported after
the fury of the storm had abated, was
that of j. w. Goslee, a weil-to-do far
mer living about three and one-half
miles northeast of st. Lawrence. In
the evening he had gone out to feed
his stock and had not returned. The
searchers found his body in the barn
yard, a short distance from shelter.
Alexander Thompson of Glendale
Township, was another victim of the
storm. Leaving Miller for his home
with a load of coal on Thursday
morning, his frozen body was found
within a few feet of. several haystacks
where he might have found shelter.
The body of one horse was found some
distance away. One of the dead mans
hands was found fun OF ice supposed
to have come from clawing snow off
his face hat he might see. He was
a brother of Chas. Thompson, and a
married.
Michael Holtz, a German settler of
1859 is the subject of another mar
rative Of death from the same storm.
He started before the storm from his
home to secure the services OF DR..
r. l.. Smith for his wife who was
quite ill. Or. Smith would not go, II
Holtz's next and final effort was to
get to Miller for DR.. Wood. The
blizzard in the meantime was raging
with utmost fury, and about two
miles west of A. Jamison's place on
| Wolf Creek the poor unfortunate fell
from his horse, frozen, where he was
afterwards found by Mr.. Fuller, his
faithful horse standing guard over
him. He lay with his arms and legs
still drawn up in the position ac-
quired while bestride his horse. His
breath had formed a chunk of ice over
his mouth, while over each eye had
formed other Jumps of ice gave
the body a CHASTITY appea
Miss Maggie Dunn W. Gaing
the Kolda school in 1856, Fairwiew
township, at the time of the storm.
Her frozen body was found by search
ers, and II Is presumed she was fro
zen while trying to 20 to or return
from the school house in the binding
blizzard. She was a sister of f. NJ.
and p. J. Dunn.
Two other deaths were reported for
which the storm was not directly re-
spopsible. The victims were jerry
Bowman and his son. The boy, Sam
uel, had been injured in a fall on the
ice. Although considerably hurt, he
recovered sufficiently to attend school
the day before he died. He complain
ed, however, of a pain in the side and
upon returning from school he be-
came worse. Friday morning another
son Of Bowman's, named Daniel, who
had remained at the school house
Thursday night with the rest of the
scholars, started home 20 gee how his
father and sick brother were getting
! along. On reaching the house, a very
poor, unpretentious structure, he
found his brother in bed with one arm
and half the face frozen. The father
was gone but was found later in a
snow bank. He was still alive, but
unable to speak. and died soon after
being found. The finding OF me coro-
ner's jury was that the boys death
resulted directly from injuries sus-
tanned by falling On the ice, and the
fathers death resulted from a paraiy-
tic stroke"