USA > Iowa > Kossuth County > History of Kossuth County, Iowa > Part 19
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cold, but the blizzard had ceased. Knowing that the crowd had staid there, Mrs. O. E. McEnroe, a neighbor, managed to get over to the cabin and cook a warm breakfast for the storm-prisoned workmen.
THE COLD WINTER OF 1856-7
When an old settler speaks about the cold winter he refers to the winter of 1856-7 and to no other. Those living elsewhere at that time, who were ten years old or over, remember that as an exceptionally cold winter throughout with con- tinued deep snows. There are but few of the settlers of that period now living, but those old enough to remember all tell the same story of how the snow came early and continued falling until the valleys were nearly full and the houses and stables covered over ; of how horses were put in the sheds or log stables and re- mained there until spring; of how it became almost impossible to get away from the house; of how hard it was to procure fuel and provisions; and of how difficult it was to keep from suffering.
The tops of the trees that had been cut off for fuel during the winter left an unusual sight to those who settled later. It was a mystery to them how any- one could have managed to cut such high stumps, and why it was necessary for them to cut them in that way. Had they known that the choppers stood on the top of snow banks and performed that work, the mystery would not only have been solved, but they would have realized something about the conditions prevailing during that winter. How bad these conditions were may be learned from some of the settlers who have written on that subject. At that time Father Taylor had his home on the lot in Algona where the A. L. Webster family are living, and as his house was the one farthest east on that street no one passed by the place for weeks. Mrs. Taylor did not see a woman to speak to her for six weeks and the only one she saw at a distance during the time was Mrs. H. F. Watson, who then lived on the present Ingham residence corner. Mrs. Joe Thompson says that on Christmas, 1856, the family started early in the morning with an ox team to come from the old Lund place, a short distance east of the town, to move in with the Watson family for the winter, and that it was night when they arrived, greatly fatigued with their vexatious journey. The day was spent in having the oxen wallow back and forth to make a track so that the sled could be taken along. This was repeated so many times that their progress was disheartening. They finally got through, but never had any desire to have their experience repeated. Many such trials were endured by settlers and some of them attended with much worse results. Mrs. Barnet Devine, who lived on their home place in the southern end of the county, said a few months before her death that she remembered when parties from the H. A. Henderson log hotel in Algona came down to their place with a hand sled and took back with them some flour which Mr. Devine had brought up from some southern point a short time before. It was in one of the blizzards of that winter that Solomon Hand was caught and had his feet so badly frozen that they had to be amputated. Old Dutch Henry (Hauzerman) came near to losing his life but escaped with the loss of one foot and a part of his leg. He was a resident of the upper country at the time and holding down his claim, now known as the old Abe Hill place, in Plum Creek. He attempted to thaw out his frozen feet with hot water and the skin bursting nearly killed him. He was so
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penurious that he would not employ a doctor until it was that or die. Finally Doctor Cogley amputated his leg below the knee, but had a hard time to make the old miser submit to the operation.
In the early part of the winter-about the middle of November, 1856-Joe Thompson, H. A. Henderson, Marion Carey and James Roan, left for Cedar Falls with ox teams to procure flour and other provisions. The snow gradually growing deeper and deeper they had a hard time reaching that place. As no flour was to be had there, Thompson and one of the others went from there to Waverly in Bremer county, and after getting what they wanted, managed to reach home on the last day of the month. Henderson's team giving out at Cedar Falls did not go to Waverly and while waiting for his team to rest so as to be able to reach home, he became completely snowbound and did not get home for several weeks. Provisions were scarce and the danger of exhausting the supply was realized. Fortunately a young man with a load of frozen pork drove into town one day and could not get out on account of the snow blockade. Every pound of his load was bought by the hungry settlers at satisfactory prices. The pork did not belong to the driver, but to Mankato parties to whom he was endeavoring to deliver the load. He found it an impossibility, and did the best he could under the circumstances. Just how he settled the matter with the owners when he reached Mankato was never known here. The weather was so bad and the snow so deep that game could not very well be hunted and killed for food. On that account the supply of meat was not what it otherwise would have been. It was a winter when there was no business activity and no way of accumulating money for ex- penses.
No better illustration can be given of how many people were compelled to live during the 1856-7 winter, or of what hardships they had to endure in obtaining provisions during that period, than to refer to some of the scenes witnessed by W. H. Ingham and William S. Campbell while over on the west branch closing their nine days' hunting expedition on snow shoes, in the latter part of February, 1857. An account of the experiences these hunters had in searching for elk, during the first part of their journey, appears farther on in this chapter. Suffice it to say that after finally reaching the timber at Mud lake in Emmet county, and while pulling their hand sleds behind them in blinding storms, they started trudging southward down the river towards West Bend.
While they were passing between Medium lake and the old town site of Emmetsburg, Campbell saw something at the edge of the timber above the snow drifts that seemed to be in motion. Having called Ingham's attention to the object they started to investigate. As they came nearer it appeared like a horse's head. They thought that it surely must be something else as they knew of no one living in that vicinity. They were much surprised, however, when they found that it was the head of a horse sticking up above the snow line and looking around to see what was going on in the outside world. His home was in a stable, en- tirely below the great snowdrift. He had come up out of the narrow passage that had been cut down to the door, and was standing nearly erect with his fore feet on a bench of snow. Upon looking around further the hunter saw another unusual sight-smoke coming up through a drift some six rods away. Then they discovered a small passage leading down to the cabin door. Down they went and on knocking at the door came the response, "Come in." The invitation being
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gladly accepted, they saw no women or children, but three men having a game of cards by the light of a dim lamp. When the two visitors asked if they could stay all night they were told that they were already so crowded that they had to hang themselves up on hooks and asked if the visitors could see room for any more. The latter assured them that each would gladly take a hook for the night if permitted to do so. The card players ceased considering the value of the queen of hearts in the game long enough to tell their visitors that at Shippey's on the Cylinder, some twelve miles away, a stopping place was assured. In the haste to reach a spot where they could remain over night, the hunters left without learning the names of those three snow dwellers. The Shippey home was reached just at dark after a tedious tramp over the drifts. Here a far greater surprise awaited them-seventeen persons huddled together in one cabin, who had nothing in the house to eat and had not had that day. These people were not all members of one family, but of several who had moved into that one cabin for the winter for safety and economy. All the able-bodied men were either away trying to find work to do or were off to Humboldt for supplies, as that was the nearest locality to which teaming could be done. From there the supplies had to be hauled on hand sleds over the drifts. Shippey and his son were at that time away on that mission, and their return was awaited with anxiety, for they were overdue two days owing to the recent blizzard. Eight o'clock came and still no one had arrived with supplies. An hour later joy gladdened the hearts of that almost famished crowd when Shippey and his son with their big dog arrived with hand sleds loaded with supplies. The numerous cooks soon had supper ready and a genuine love feast was enjoyed. The hungry boys were not the least sparing with the hard- earned bill of fare, but waded into it with evident delight. From Mr. Shippey it was learned that it usually took four days in clear weather to make the trip. A shanty at McKnight's grove served as a stopping place in going and return- ing. Storms sometimes prevented their reaching this shanty. In such cases they were obliged to bury themselves in the snow for the night, using their blankets to fold around them for a bed. What a spectacle! What a picture of pioneer life! O, frontier conditions where were thy charms? The next morning the father and son started off again on another seventy-mile journey with their sleds for more provisions, Ingham and Campbell going along with them for three or four miles on their way to the Carter home, near where West Bend is located. On reaching that well-known stopping place they were made welcome and entertained royally by Mr. and Mrs. Carter, 1855 settlers at that point. They rested before one of those broad, old fashioned, boulder fireplaces, the only one they had seen since leaving their own at the cabin on the Black Cat. There they also met Josh, the son of the murdered chief, Sidominadotah, and from him they learned that the Indians had killed all the elk on the river as far down as the forks and that it would be useless for them to go any further looking for big game. The hunters left for their own cabin the next morning with pleasant memories of their stay at the Carter home.
In the whole history of the county no hunting trip is so remarkable as this nine-days' trip taken by W. H. Ingham and W. S. Campbell. It is not so strange that they went on snow shoes, dragging behind them sleds containing their food and bedding, as it is that they were camping out amid blizzards during the winter
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noted in every history of the country as being the most treacherous and severe within the memory of the oldest inhabitants.
The snow shoes that Ingham and Campbell used had been made the winter before. The former had learned considerable about how they should be made while living in Northern New York. They were much like an ox bow with the two points brought together. Checkered across this frame were leather "whangs" on which the feet rested when securely fastened. With these a man could walk over drifts without sinking down, but it required practice to learn how to walk with them easily. After Mr. Ingham had made a few pair, Abe Hill, Lewis H. Smith and others tried their hand at making some. The latter still has in his possession the frame he made on which to bend the bows the proper shape. It is an early-day relic that is well worth preserving. It suggests a period in the history of the county in marked contrast with that of the present time.
THE OLD-TIME BLIZZARD
No feature of frontier conditions is better remembered than the blizzards which raged at times during the winter months. Some winters they came with great frequency and others only occasionally; but when they did come the set- tlers knew that no ordinary storms were at hand. Because of the fact that every little present-day storm which hurls the snow in the air is called a bliz- zard, the significance of the winter storms, coming during the first fifteen or twenty years after the first settlers arrived, is not realized by those who have not learned by dear experience what those long-ago storms meant. The dif- ference between the severity and vastness of the worst storms of the carly period and those of later years is so great that they hardly can be compared. It is the custom nowadays for the press all over the country to designate al- most any whirling snowstorm as "an old-time blizzard," in the headlines of their articles on the subject. If the word blizzard, by any stretch of imagination, can be made to apply to winter storms of recent years, then some new word will have to be coined to designate the storms of old. To illustrate how badly the term is sometimes used by the press, reference is made to the reports of a snow storm that came in the winter of 1909-10. The reports all over the north- west portion of the state were quite similar, and had in the headlines "old-time blizzard." Some of the Des Moines papers, following the custom, did like- wise. Now let us recall what the conditions were during the storm and after it had ceased. The afternoon was quite warm, but it began snowing hard and kept it up until about eight inches of snow had fallen. It whirled in the air at times so that it was disagreeable to be out in the storm. Many people with their teams were in from the country doing business or shopping in Algona at the time, and all went home during the storm without any hardships. This was no doubt the case with the country shoppers at the other towns in the county that day. The next morning the snow was smooth and level, not a drift being seen anywhere. During the storm there was an opening at the bottom of the north door to the writer's barn through which about a peck of snow drifted. This opening was about three inches wide at the bottom and tapered to a point about three feet above. This was the storm that so many papers in the state headlined as being an "Old-Time Blizzard."
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Had an old-time blizzard in fact occurred at that time, the people would not yet have ceased talking about the extraordinary event. Had it occurred, on every turnpike leading from the town a string of wagons and carriages would have been abandoned and left sticking in the snow after the teams had become exhausted, some of these conveyances would have been found from three to ten feet under the snow and they would have remained there for days and some would have perished that night for want of shelter. Women and children would have had their faces, hands and feet frozen in reaching the nearest houses, and some would have failed to reach any place where there was a fire. Every cut would have been filled and every hollow drifted so full that to drive across would have been impossible. Many of the owners of big red barns would have found their stock buried in the hundreds of loads of snow that had sifted through the small cracks and other openings. Had the storm been equal to the worst of the old-time blizzards it would have lasted for two or three days and the farmers during at least two-thirds of that time would not have been able to reach their barns or learn anything about the condition of their stock. As the result of such a storm there would be people now walk- ing with crutches or wooden legs, and perhaps going around with stubs of arms or fingers in consequence of the amputation.
As the old-time blizzard consisted of six distinct factors, all these elements must be present in a storm in these days if it is entitled to be ranked as such First, there must be snow on the ground covering every portion of it in this region; second, the snow must be settled and covered with a crust; third, upon this crust must fall a loose snow to the depth of from six to ten inches; fourth, the wind must blow with terrific force; fifth, the weather must get intensely cold; and sixth, there must be but little obstruction to prevent the snow from drifting. To be in a storm having all these combined conditions would endanger life. Any snow storm that does not cause great suffering to those out in it should not be likened to an old-time blizzard, if the war-time storms are to be known by that term. There have been many storms since that period called blizzards, but most of them have had one or more of the above named elements missing.
In some of these men were out all day choring and working amid hurling snow; for the weather was warm and the soft flakes harmless. Since that early period storms have come at a time when the snow was as deep or perhaps deeper and the cold as intense as in the storms of those days, but the wind did not blow. In other storms the wind blew as fiercely over banks of snow as in the early days, but the snow was not in a condition to be lifted and forced through the air. In the spring of 1874, more snow fell one afternoon than ever fell in the same length of time in the history of the county. The fly- ing snow the next day was so bad that one could hardly see a rod ahead, but men looked after their stock and were quite comfortable, for it was not cold. So much snow fell one winter that the Milwaukee trains did not arrive for weeks at a time, yet the road crew worked almost constantly pitching out the snow from over the track where they had worked the day before. Had those storms been of the nature of the old-time blizzard that crew would not have been working in them as they did during that winter.
Since the close of the war conditions have so changed as to render an old-time
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blizzard an impossibility. The extensive settlements of the great prairies, with the improvements on nearly every quarter section, prevent the old-time drifting of snow. Houses, barns, groves, hedges and fences afford a resistance sufficient to greatly modify the rigors of the worst snow storms and prevent their being justly classed with those of the early-settlement days. Winters may be just as cold, the snow may fall just as deep and the wind may blow just as furiously as ever be- fore, but the protection made incident to civilization is a satisfactory guarantee that never again can there be such a drifting of snow as filled the timber and valleys, in the winter of 1856-7, or as nearly buried the homes of the settlers dur- ing several succeeding winters.
A good illustration of how the old-time blizzards used to prevent the return of teamsters with their loads of provisions to settlements, that were badly in need of them, may be found in the story of the experience Calvin Tuttle had in trying to reach his home at the lake which bears his name, and which is some forty miles northwest of Algona. He and his son George had been down in the central part of the state and were returning with two loads of provisions. They reached and passed over the Black Cat on the evening of the last day of November, 1856. Then leaving their wagons in the creek bottoms they took their teams back to the Horace Schenck and Robert Moore homes which they had passed a few hours before. Two more days' travel, according to their calculation that night, would bring them to their home. That winter was noted for its many furious storms, but the one that was raging the next morning was the most severe of all. It was the blizzard of the blizzards, and in its rage for about three days filled all the depressions so that travel was completely obstructed. Snow fell upon snow, and storm chased storm with short intervals for weeks. As the result the Tuttle wagons were buried beneath fifteen feet of ice and snow and their position could not be located. December passed and the middle of January came, but still no trace of the provision wagons had been found. The father and son and their teams were being cared for by the generous settlers as best they could. The search for the wagons continued by running long poles down through the snowdrifts. At last on the 18th of January, they were finally located and Tuttle had reason for feeling happy.
The Black Cat settlers of that period used to frequently tell the story of how Tuttle dug a well down to one of the loads, and then went down himself with a tin cup and quenched his thirst from the contents of a certain barrel he had on board. It must have tasted good, for he began going down several times each day, and when new snows fell and the well grew deeper, he made a ladder and descended to the fire water with ease. Some have even declared that the ladder had to be lengthened a time or two.
How unjust it is to talk about having old-time blizzards in these latter days! These two wagons stood on that spot from the last day of November until the latter part of the following April before they could be moved. Tuttle finally expressed a desire to go home to see his wife, whom he had not seen since the fore part of November. Thinking he could walk over the drifts if he had a pair of snow shoes, he asked for the loan of a pair at the cabin where W. H. Ingham, Charles E. Putnam, A. L. Seeley, and Thomas C. Covel were staying. Having none to spare and believing it to be unsafe for him to undertake the journey alone across the trackless prairie, Mr. Ingham volunteered to escort him
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home. Having met at the John James cabin they left early in the morning, each on a pair of snow shoes, for Tuttle lake, thirty-five miles away. Facing a cold, stiff northwest wind they only succeeded in reaching Armstrong Grove by the time that night came on. They built up a big fire for the mercury was down between 20° and 30° below zero. They were there with no blankets or extra cloth- ing and had no utensils with which to cook, although Tuttle had along with him a little fresh pork, unground coffee and tea. These articles he was taking home with him for his family. As a blinding storm was on hand the next morning, they remained by the fire during the day and put in another tedious night. Early in the morning of the second day they proceeded on their wearisome journey, facing another cold breeze from the northwest. Night came on and surprised them while they were still four miles from the Tuttle cabin. Mr. Tuttle, then an old man and being unused to wearing snow shoes, was so fatigued that he almost gave up in despair. When a little light was seen in the distance his ambition was re- newed. O, joy! Those rays were shining through the window of his own cabin. Mrs. Tuttle was almost overcome with happiness after the tired travelers had entered the cabin and she realized that her husband was at home again and that her son, George, was alive and being kindly cared for by the Black Cat settlers in Kossuth county.
Mr. Ingham remained over one day to rest, and in the meantime was made a welcome guest and feasted on the best meals that were possible under the circum- stances to be prepared by Mrs. Tuttle, whose heart was overflowing with gratitude. He journeyed back to his cabin home where the four horses and two mules were in the stable, which was buried deep under the snow as the result of the many drifting storms of the 1856-7 winter.
THE NOTABLE WET YEAR-1858
When an old settler refers to the wet year he means the year 1858 and no other. The condition of the country from the time the first settlement began to form in July, 1854, until 1858, made it hard to travel over, for there were no bridges across the sloughs and marshes and none across the river. As compared with 1858 the few preceding years were dry, yet it was hard for the reasons stated to pass with a team or on horseback over the bottom lands. The continued rains in 1858 made the higher lands almost as impassable as those that were lower. It began to rain early in the spring and kept at it until late in the fall. The earth was so water-soaked that it seemed to refuse to absorb any more. It was so soft that the wheels of an empty wagon cut through the sod on the hills. It was seldom that one saw a driver going anywhere with his unloaded wagon with a single yoke of oxen attached, two being almost always used, and then they had all they wanted to do to pull the wagon through the mud. The river overflowed its banks in April and spread across the bottom from bluff to bluff. It remained in this condition until late in the fall. Never but once since has the water been so high, and then it only remained so for a few days. No settler ever saw the river bottom a deep sheet of water throughout the spring, summer and fall except in the year 1858. The crops were exceedingly poor and scanty not only in this county but all over the state that year. This affliction coming on just after the financial depression made times extremely hard for those endeavoring to open up
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