Blizzard

"March 6, 2002:  Mary came at noon.  While she ate, I showered.  Went to Book Club in the evening.  Delorus U. came here after the meeting and we played Scrabble.  I had a good evening.
March 7, 2002:  Back in 1950 on this day we had a real blizzard!!!  Helen called this morning.  I called Myrtle in p.m.  I made cereal snacks.  Tom came after work and brought Runza food.  We played Rummikub.  He took my laundry home with him to wash it.
March 8, 2002:  Cold, cloudy and dreary today.  Had a sleet storm this evening.  Really rattled on the windows."

That must have been a really memorable blizzard.  I don't recall hearing any talk of it growing up, yet 52 years later Grandma is mentioning it.  And such a nice segue into my second installment of Winside history.

The Blizzard of 1888

Frank Perrin and I owned a corn sheller in the late eighties that was the old fashioned horse powered type, using eight or ten horses depending on the corn.  We had been shelling during December and January in Brenna precinct and had all of the work that we could handle.

January 12, 1888, we were to shell for a Mr. Delehoyde not very far from the Perrin farm.  After setting up the machine Mr. Delehoyde said that we had better go in the house and wait a little while and see what the weather man had in store for us that day as it was blowing from the south and east.  Frank and I went into the house and proceeded to play checkers, our favorite pastime in those days, with the Delehoyde boys.

After we had played a few games, Perry, my brother, came over after me as our grandmother, Mrs. Rachael Benshoof, had passed away and the family wanted me to come home.  Frank and I hitched up our teams and proceeded to his place first, and then I started from there to our house which was south and east from the Perrin farm.  We had not gone very far when the wind changed from the southeast to the north and west and blowing a regular gale.  We managed to follow the fence and got home just in time before it had drifted very much. 

My father, William Benshoof saw the storm coming and immediately ran to the school near home to tell the teacher Mate Pittenger to dismiss as he thought the children would have time to get home if they hurried.  Some of the parents also saw the storm approaching so came for their children and managed to get home safely except the Splittgerbers, so Mr. Benshoof took them home with him.

The following morning the snow was very deep, but the wind had subsided enough that a person could get around and try and take care of the stock.  Mr. Splittgerber came early to try and find his children at the neighbors or at the school house.  Stopping at the Benshoof place he was so overcome with joy at finding his children that he dropped down on his knees, took his children in his arms, Hugo, Willie and Lizzie, and cried like a child.

After grandmother passed away on the morning of the 12th, Uncle Bob Perrin and Joseph Gray went to Wayne after a casket and got as far as the Jim White farm, seven miles east and one north Winside, when the storm compelled them to stop for the night.  The following day they tried to make it to our place and succeeded in getting home about dark.  They shoveled snow many times that day in order to get through as the roads had drifted.

My father saw that there was no sign of the storm leaving this area, so he said that we would have to put grandmother in a cold room and let her freeze as it was impossible to bury her right away.  About a week passed before the storm had subsided enough to remove the drifts in the road with the help of the neighbors.  A short service was held at the house and she was hauled to Wayne in a bob sled preceded by the neighbors with scoops to clear the road, and buried in the Green Wood Cemetery.

-- C. E. Benshoof

There is another re-telling of the blizzard that mentions a man named Frederick Haas that tried to get home from the William Hoffman place after looking for his hogs.  He was found 10 days later when his elbow was seen sticking up from the snow.  He had wandered about three miles east of his farm and had frozen, as had his hogs.  The hogs were found south of the Hoffman farm.  Without knowing where these farms were located, I can't tell how far Mr. Haas was from the hogs he was trying to save.  The same re-telling also mentioned that many rabbits were found frozen in the fields since they were unable to find shelter in time and the extremely high wind and driven them onward.  Crazy stuff indeed.

Here is a photo of "my" wild turkeys that have adopted us.  There is nothing close to blizzard-type snow on the ground, but they look a bit put out, I think.