The Children’s Blizzard by David Laskin
Adult Nonfiction - 978.02L
When I saw people walking around downtown Plymouth in shorts at 9PM in early January in Michigan, it reminded me of this amazing and true account of the school children’s blizzard of 1888. That day 120 years ago began with unseasonably balmy temperatures and ended tragically when a ferocious blizzard, gale force winds, and sub-zero temperatures exacted a terrible toll in hundreds of lives lost. The morning dawned so warm that many children were able to travel to school for the first time in weeks, in many cases without coats or shoes. The storm was dubbed “the school children’s blizzard” because so many of its victims were children on their way home from school or trapped in buildings without heat.
The storm aligned with the conditions of pioneer families struggling to survive in a harsh landscape with tragic results. Although the settlers came from northern and eastern Europe and were used to cold weather, they were unprepared for the volatile and violent shifts in weather on the prairie. Because each homestead was an isolated island on a sea of grass, anyone caught in the storm would have to walk miles to find shelter in the blinding, wind-driven snow with few landmarks to guide them across a featureless landscape.
David Laskin tells the story of this terrible storm from several perspectives. He gives the background on several families: why and how they emigrated from Europe, why they choose to become homesteaders, and what they were each doing when the blizzard hit. Laskin provides background on the state of the westward expansion, how weather patterns form, why the Army Signal Corps didn’t warn the settlers in time, and the effects of hypothermia on the human body.
The most compelling and memorable parts of the book are the accounts of the individuals trapped in the blizzard. There’s the story of Minnie Freeman, who employed ingenuity, bravery, and a long rope to get her young pupils to safety. (Her story can also be found in a children’s picture book, The Schoolchildren’s Blizzard by Marty Rhodes Figley.) Some men working in the fields huddled with their livestock through the worst of the storm. One woman unable to see her hand in front of her face literally stumbled into a frozen haystack – her shelter in the storm. Accounts of that terrible day have been passed down through the generations of families who endured it. These accounts and David Laskin’s research make for a compelling read.