“My brothers and I could not walk thru the deep snow in the road, so we took down the rows of corn stalks to keep from losing ourselves “till we reached our pasture fence. Walter was too short to wade the deep snow in the field, so Henry and I dragged him over the top. For nearly a mile we followed the fence “till we reached the corral and pens. In the howling storm, we could hear the pigs squeal as they were freezing in the mud and snow. Sister Ida had opened the gate and let the cows in from the field to the sheds, just as the cold wind struck and froze her skirts stiff around her like hoops. The barn and stables were drifted over when we reached there. The roaring wind and stiffling snow blinded us so that we had to feel thru the yard to the door of our house.“  Excerpt from American Memory Blizzard of 1888

READ MORE:

The School Children’s Blizzard

Laura Ingalls Wilder Gets it Right about Snow

Eliza Jane Wilder’s Snow

The Little Ice Age Ends with a Bang not a Whimper