Buffalo County, Nebraska - Chapter 31: The April Storm of 1873 Not Possible to Describe Its Fury Experience, 1916

Of A Missionary Minister The April Storm Of 1873

The April storm of 1873 is memorable in the annals of the West. Not in the memory of the white man has a storm so furious and destructive as was this one' ever swept the plains west of the Missouri River.

It is not possible to fully describe the fury of this storm nor the terror it inspired in the hearts of many members of the colony, living as they were on claims distant from neighbors and in houses cheaply constructed and illy fitted to protect against the fury of a storm so long enduring. Let me tell the story of this storm as it afifected many of the colonists by relating what occurred to Rev. Charles Marvin and family, Mr. Marvin being a missionary of the Presbyterian Church in this locality at the time. On Sunday, April 14, 1873, Mr. Marvin was holding a religious service in a schoolhouse quite ten miles from his home. It was a warm, sunny, spring day with a southerly wind. Just at the close of the service, about 4 o'clock, in the twinkling of an eye, the wind shifted into the north, there came great clouds of dust, obscuring the sun, quickly followed by rain and hail. Mr. Marvin realized that a great and furious storm was at hand and that it was imperative that he speedily reach home to render assistance to his wife and children. That on foot and alone he finally reached home in safety was due to the fact that he traveled in a southeasterly direction; had it been otherwise he certainly would have perished. Commencing about 4 o'clock on Sunday, April 14, this storm raged in all its fury until the going down of the sun on Wednesday. Many settlers on claims perished, how many will never be known owing to the thinly settled and scattered settlements and lack of facilities at that date for gathering statistics. Live stock by the thousands perished, some in streams which they were endeavoring to cross, some in stables and corrals, their owners unable to reach and afford relief, some in cars on railroad sidings, railroad traffic being abandoned, some in depressions where they had sought shelter and perished beneatii snow drifts many feet deep. It was not the intensity of the cold which added to the terror and danger of the storm. It was the fine particles of snow driven by the furious wind which wet man and beast to the skin and chilled them to the marrow of their bones. On Thursday, friends of Mr. Marvin, greatly concerned for the safety of the family, loaded into a wagon supplies of family necessity, not forgetting coal, and drove the ten miles. They learned that having neither shelter nor hay for their cow she had been brought into the lean-to kitchen, fed the straw in the bed tick and also food needed for the family. Running out of coal, the family had spent most of the time in bed in the effort to keep warm, but there being a young babe in the family and other young children, it was necessary to keep some fire and so the one partition and most of the furniture had been burned, and yet Mr. Marvin uttered no word of complaint, and when all were gathered around the table he devoutly thanked the Loving Father for his manifold blessings. Many members of the colony suffered serious financial loss by reason of live stock which perished in the storm, much of this stock having been purchased with borrowed money.