The Schoolhouse Blizzard

Comments · 549

• TH

  @TheHistoryGuyChannel · 8 months ago · pinned

  Use code thehistoryguy at <a href="https://incogni.com/thehistoryguy">https://incogni.com/thehistoryguy</a> to get an exclusive 60% off.

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• PK

  @pkh4340 · 8 months ago

  My mother was a small child living near the town of Harold, South Dakota in 1928. A blizzard ensued, and the one room school was dismissed as the schools in this video. She survived by crawling inside a large haystack, and was found the next morning.

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• MS

  @mskellyrlv · 8 months ago

  I went to engineering school at Purdue University from 1976 to 1980. &nbsp;During the winter of 1977, I had an 8:00 am EE lab. &nbsp;We had a big snowfall one day, and the next morning I struggled on foot through the snow to get to my lab. &nbsp;The wind was howling, blowing harder than I had ever experienced there. &nbsp;I had to cover my face to the extent that I could only see immediately in front of me. &nbsp;When I reached the EE building, I found the door locked. &nbsp;I then looked around, and realized the campus was completely deserted. &nbsp;When I finally made it back to my apartment, I turned on the television to find out that Purdue University had, for the very first time in its 108 year history, closed due to inclement weather. &nbsp;The temperature was so low and the wind blowing so hard that any exposed flesh would instantly be frostbitten. &nbsp;I was okay, but from then on I always checked the closure status before walking to campus.

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• JH

  @JHL13579 · 8 months ago

  My grandfather was in the Children&apos;s Blizzard of 1888. &nbsp;He was 16 years old, so was done with school and helping his father on the farm in Nebraska. &nbsp;His father sent him to the local school to get his two younger brothers. &nbsp;He tied a rope around their waists and his own and followed the fence-line back to their farm. &nbsp;They were all safe, but sadly other students were not so lucky. &nbsp;<br><br>The extra dangerous part of the 1888 Blizzard was that morning started out as a January Thaw, with warmer than usual temperatures. &nbsp; Then, at noon, &nbsp;the temperatures plummeted snow started falling heavily.

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• AU

  @AuthorEllenAnthony · 8 months ago

  There was another one room school which had a room for the teacher although she usually went back to town. &nbsp;When she dismissed class one of her students pointed out the cloud bank. &nbsp;She ordered all the students back inside and had some of the boys bring in extra firewood. &nbsp;The storm hit but the building held. &nbsp;She took everything the students hadn&apos;t eaten of their lunches and used half for super. &nbsp;The next morning they finished that and she dug into the pantry for stuff she&apos;d left there. &nbsp;When the firewood ran out, they couldn&apos;t get the door open to get more so they started burning desks. &nbsp;Three days after the storm help arrived. &nbsp;They dug the building out and found all the kids still warm but hungry.

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• TO

  @TomC2100 · 8 months ago

  My Grandmother was a young teacher at a rural southeast Nebraska school during this blizzard. A farmer about 1/4 mile away came to the schoolhouse, and all were saved by following the fence back to his house. This school was within a few miles of Peru, Nebraska, which was mentioned in the video as a place where a farmer died. &nbsp;This all may sound unbelievable, but we had long generations in my family. &nbsp;My wife and I both attended that same one-room school in the 1950&apos;s and early 60&apos;s.

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• PA

  @Paladin1873 · 8 months ago

  During our first winter in Montana our truck became stuck in the snow one evening while returning home. &nbsp;We were merely a quarter-mile from our house, but it was dark and bitterly cold. &nbsp;Our children were young, aged three and seven, and they struggled to walk the short distance through ice and snow while breathing the searingly cold air. &nbsp;The trip only took about ten minutes, but once inside our home, all four of us had to warm up and thaw out. &nbsp;We had learned an important lesson about the cold that few people grasp until they experience it firsthand.

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• BA

  @badkittynomilktonight3334 · 8 months ago

  One of the primary reasons so many Scandinavian settlers ended up on the great plains (like mine in Iowa) was that they were already used to very cold winters.

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• WO

  @Woodscraps-lr5vz · 8 months ago

  Thank you for covering stories like this. These people do deserve to be remembered.

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• RO

  @rosescott9299 · 8 months ago

  So here I am 138 years later heartbroken, sobbing and unable to wrap my mind around this horrible tragedy. &nbsp;<br>So. Many. Children. &nbsp;<br>Thanks history guy, it is worth remembering that the warmest days and dearest loved ones can be taken in an instant. &nbsp;Take nothing for granted.

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• CI

  @CindyDavies · 8 months ago

  My great great-great-grandparents were homesteaders in Douglas County, Dakota Territory. &nbsp;Their older 4 or 5 children were at school when the weather came in. &nbsp;GGF headed to the school to pick up the kids. &nbsp;He became lost and turned his horses loose, and took shelter under his wagon. &nbsp;He was found alive after the storm subsided. Legs were frozen, and his feet were amputated. &nbsp;But their family had a happy ending. &nbsp;The kids took shelter with a neighbor and survived. &nbsp;Their father lived, but could no longer farm. Spent the rest of his life working as an assessor.

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• DA

  @davidanderson9976 · 8 months ago

  The eruption of the Krakatoa volcano in 1883 had an effect on weather patterns for years

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