The Children's Blizzard

Woodruff, in downtown St. Paul on January 12, predicted a cold wave would follow the unseasonably warm weather that day. He understood the dangers of that cold wave, and so sent off his predictions, using the specific wording of “cold wave.” That terminology meant that extra telegrams would be sent to signal stations in surrounding states, not just the newspapers. Signal flags were raised at weather stations to warn everyone within sight of the danger. Woodruff did everything he was expected to do in this circumstance, but the bureaucracy of the military rendered his predictions too tardy to matter.

Meanwhile, Sergeant Glenn predicted the same cold wave, but the stakes were significantly higher for him. Glenn, a notably dedicated officer, was not one of the conmen in charge of some weather stations and was known for his punctuality and thoroughness. Nevertheless, a terrible illness kept him in bed and made his predictions an hour later than usual. This meant that at 11 am, he was still gathering data at the weather station. He was actually on the roof of the station when the storm struck, and he was nearly blown off the roof by the force.

The residents of the Great Plain states were surprised by the suddenness of the storm: “None of them had ever seen a storm come up so quickly or burst so violently” (128). The clouds were described as a “gray wall,” and the beginning of the storm was marked by a loud roar, like an approaching train.

Walter Allen, the son of W. C. Allen, was caught at school by the blizzard. Drays, or large bobsled-mounted platforms pulled by horses, were sent to rescue the kids. Walter forgot his prize possession, a perfume bottle he used to hold water to clean his slate board. He hopped off his dray, which was moving at a snail’s pace. He assumed he could get into the schoolhouse and back before the drays moved more than 10 feet, but at that point the storm became so severe that he literally couldn’t see his hand in front of his face. This condition, known as “whiteout,” was one of the deadliest aspects of the storm. Within moments, Walter was blinded and suffocated by the dense, snow-filled wind. He fell to the ground only yards away from the safety of the schoolhouse and succumbed to the cold.

Johann Albrecht, despite the pleading of his mother, went to school at the urging of his teacher James P. Cotton, who was not part of the Albrechts’ insular Schweizer community. The Kaufmanns and the Grabers also went to school, despite the pleading of Albrecht’s mother. Cotton, the teacher, boarded with the Albrechts and had warned Johann not to miss class. Only seven children came to the Rosefield school that day. When the storm struck, the older boys advocated for staying in place, but Cotton insisted they all leave and go to the nearest farmhouse. Against their better judgment, the boys submitted to the teacher’s authority and headed outside with Cotton.

Shortly after they left, they were affected by the same “whiteout” that had blinded Walter. Johann, Heinrich, and Elias Kaufmann, Peter Graber, and Johann Albrecht inadvertently separated into one group, while Cotton and Andreas and Johann Graber formed the other group. Unable to find the farmhouse, Andreas saved his group by recognizing a “row of spindly trees” (142) his father had planted. He used the line of trees to lead the trio straight to the Graber’s farmhouse. When they arrived, it was clear the five other boys had not arrived before them, as they had assumed.

Etta Shattuck, though a schoolteacher, had not been stranded in a schoolhouse. In the process of moving back to Seward to be with her family, she had left her boarding house to collect her final wages. Etta got caught in the snow on her way back. First following the fence she knew would lead her back to the boarding house, she panicked in the snow and walked two steps away from it. After that decision, “the fence was gone as if erased” (144). She prayed as she walked blindly out into nothing. She finally found a haystack and dug herself a shallow shelter in its frozen side. Her legs still stuck out a bit, but she huddled up and kept praying.

Minnie Freeman, a teenage schoolteacher, made the initial decision to shelter her students in the schoolhouse overnight. Unlike Cotton, she was familiar with the severity of snowstorms in Nebraska and knew they had a much better chance if they stayed put. However, the sheer force of the wind blew the door off its hinges and destroyed part of the roof. Minnie decided to lead the children to her boarding house a half mile away. Popular myth holds that she roped the children together to keep them from straying, though one of the students reported that that was not true. Through her quick action, all 16 of her students survived. Stella Badger, another young schoolteacher, taught Lena Woebbecke, among other students. When the storm struck, Stella puzzled over the right strategy. Sheltering in the schoolhouse for the moment, she thought about taking all the children to their homes, since they all lived south of the school. Lena, however, lived to the north. Stella knew that Lena was stubborn and would try to go home regardless of the danger. If everyone started heading home, Lena would not go to another house or stay with Stella at her boarding house. When one father arrived to bring his children home, Stella could see how all of the children, with the father’s help, could get home safely, except Lena. An older boy who lived closer to Lena’s farmhouse than the others promised to see her home, and so they left the schoolhouse—Stella, the father, and all of the children heading south, while Lena and the older boy headed north.

The older boy quickly panicked in the severity of the storm, and when Lena stubbornly refused to change her route to one he thought would be safer, he grew frustrated and abandoned her. Lena did not panic, but soon the whiteout rendered her as lost as Etta or Johann Albrecht. She tried to head back to the school but then collapsed with only 100 yards to go. She covered herself with her cloak and huddled under the snow.

Grace and Ole Rollag in Minnesota were in the middle of their chores when the storm hit. Ole and his sons Peter and Charley were outside tending the cattle. When the roaring of the wind started, Grace left her four younger children in the care of the oldest, Nels, and went out after Peter. She knew that Ole was with Charley and would take care of him, but Peter was alone. She met Peter in the barn, and together they forced his herd of frightened cows into the barn. Ole and Charley, meanwhile, in the interest of saving their precious horses, had been driven away from their farm by the wind. They took shelter at a neighboring farmhouse, and Ole left Charley there so he could go home to reassure Grace and keep her from going out to search for them.

May Hunt, another schoolteacher, was forced to leave the shelter of the schoolhouse when her fuel ran out at 4 pm. She thought she and her seven students could reach the safety of the Hinner farmhouse, about 150 yards away from the school. However, a deep gully stretched between the schoolhouse and the Hinner place, and the bridge may have been hard to find in the snow. Fred Weeks, her oldest and biggest student, volunteered to go scouting. He reported back that he found a safe route. May supervised the bundling up of the students. One of them, Addie Knieriem, was wearing very thin shoes in celebration of that morning’s warm weather. May wrapped Addie’s feet in scarves to protect them, but in that process, wasted precious time. By the time they ventured out into the storm, all holding hands, it had become much worse. The snow was so thick on the wind that they could barely breathe. Fred, in the whiteout, missed the bridge and fell into the gully, pulling everyone along with him. They made it out on the other side, but by then the students were fully exhausted and panicked. A blizzard that was more like a “frozen sandstorm” was blinding and suffocating them. When Fred, leading the way, finally ran into a haystack, he enlisted his brother Charles to dig a shelter into it. They stayed in the haystack all night, May and Fred doing everything they could to keep the younger children awake, knowing that sleep meant death.

Sergeant Glenn at the Huron weather station later estimated that 20,000 people were caught out in the storm that day. Of those people, very few were successfully rescued by others, despite the efforts of the community to find and save stragglers: “People saved themselves or they weren’t saved” (165).

One exception to that rule was Walter Allen, the young boy who tried to retrieve his perfume bottle. When the drays dropped the children off at their houses, the Allen family realized that Walter was nowhere to be found. An impromptu search party formed. They looked for him in the schoolhouse, but Walter was nowhere. Walter’s father, W. C., exhorted the other men to turn back and let him keep looking. The other men argued, telling him he had other family to provide for and couldn’t risk his life. During the argument, Will, Walter’s older brother, snuck off. He realized that visibility was a little better closer to the ground, so he moved on his hands and knees through the blizzard. He stumbled on Walter, unconscious but still breathing, and dragged him home. Will dragged Walter into his father’s law office before his strength gave out, saving his life.