Hall County, Nebraska - Chapter 11: The Flora, Fauna, And, Natural History of Hall County, 1920

Chapter 11: The Flora, Fauna, And, Natural History of Hall County

A more complete treatment of the topography of the county will be found in the abstract of the government soil survey which has been incorporated in the next chapter.

It is very common to include in the history of a subdivision of a state, or the history of a state, a very detailed account of the geological formation of the territory of that subdivison. For this has been substituted what the compilers consider the more practical phases of the very detailed soil survey, of which the farmers and soil students of the county might make some practical usage.

the fauna of hall county The animal life of this part of Nebraska has been somewhat pertinently touched upon many times throughout the sketches of early life contributed by the pioneers. The first settlers mention many phases of the animal life which they encountered; in the narratives of Fred Stolley, Norman Reese, and William E. Martin, and others, found in the earlier chapters of this work, mention is made of the various animals, their habits, and the methods of the humans in hunting them to secure meat for their sustenance in those trying days.

It might be said in one general summarizing statement, that when the pioneers took possession of Hall County and for a decade or more thereafter nearly every form of wild life common to this latitude whether of earth, air, or water, inhabited Hall County.

In vast herds, aggregating countless numbers, roamed the shaggy buffalo, while the shy and lordly elk in great bands fed upon the natural meadows. Many species of American deer were here, and the baribou, the moose, and mountain sheep no doubt claimed this great region at times. The wild fox was present, and the shrill coyote even yet roams not far from the Hall County border at times. Gray wolf, lynx, and panther were no doubt here formerly.

The rodents of the forest all lived here: the mole, the wood mouse, the badger, the ground gopher or ground squirrel, the pocket gopher, the unwelcome skunk or pole-cat ; and no one ever attempted a census of the prairie dogs in Hall County. Strictly fur- bearing animals, such as the mink, the muskrat, the raccoon, and for that purpose, the skunk, were sought. Frogs, toads, and other batricians could find plenty of channels of the Platte for thriving colonies, and varieties of snakes galore had plenty of prairies at their command, the prairie rattler, the common bull snake, the water moccasin, the puffing adder, and other forms of reptilian life abounded about the woods, the barren prairies, and the streams.

There was no shortage of bird life in the early days. Wild turkey, goose, brant, crane, duck, and turkey buzzard were all available, innumerable hawks, owls, and crows, and all of the scores of kinds of smaller birds, among which might most commonly be found the swallows, wrens, robins, yellow hammers, chickadees, pewees, blue jays, meadow larks, thrush, bluebirds, blackbirds, snowbirds, and let us not forget the sparrows. For game birds, the ducks, geese, and turkeys have been mentioned, not to overlook the quail, grouse, and prairie chickens by the thousands.

The channels of the Platte and other streams afforded no small variety of fishing. Insect life has always abounded all too numerously in all portions of Nebraska. Flies, gnats, mosquitoes, wasps, hornets, vari-colored butterflies, bees, moths, grasshoppers, cycads, beetles, miriapods, crickets, locusts, caterpillars, ants, and every other creeping and crawling thing native to this region has left its claim for residence in Hall County, even the more undesirable destructive species, the chinch bug, army wonn, cut-worms, Hessian fly, potato-bugs and - well, we will repeat it, for one insect has earned a place in Hall County history, as undesirable as its record may be - that is, the Rocky Mountain locust, or grasshopper.

"The Lord only knows which harmed the poor settlers the more, the prowling red-skins who were wont to sally forth from the hills and uplands, or the green imps of satan, the grasshoppers, which pounced upon us in bewildering hordes - both literally took the bread out of our mouths." - An Old Pioneer.

N The early history of Hall County shows destrutcive devastation from grasshoppers very early. A paragraph from Goodspeed's History^ of Hall County details' some of the early visitation's :

In August, 1862, the first swarms of grasshoppers were noticed here. On July 15, 1864, they destroyed all the buckwheat in the county to the exclusion of other crops, reappearing on August 1, 1864. Again, in July, 1866, though numerous, they did not do much injury. In 1868 they once more appeared, and in 1869 destroyed nearly all the cornfields. On May 22, 1873, they came with a southwest wind, but did not effect much damage. On July 20, 21, and 22 and on August 5 and 6, 1874, they came in swarms, which sometimes shut off the sunlight, and ate nearly all the crops. A state aid society was at once organized, and also a state grange relief society. Subsistence and clothing were sent to the sufferers. Congress appropriated $150,000, and the state $50,000, for relief purposes. On June 24 and August 8 and 10, 1875, the hoppers did considerable damage, but some parties drove them from their fields by keeping up fires around their fields and using pulverized sulphur. It was discovered that this year a worm took possession of the hoppers, killing them.

It is thought that the first actual visitation of these pests in Nebraska was in 1857, for they are then described in the Brownville Advertiser, as "mowing the prairies." Six invasions into Hall County are mentioned above, before the memorable disaster of 1874. Up until past the middle of July, 1874, crops of every description had never held better promise. Then came the devastating southwest hot wind, blasting the corn crop, and then the terrific grasshopper invasion, which did not hit Hall County or central Nebraska alone, but spread over Nebraska, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, Nevada, Colorado, Texas, and what there was then in the territories of Wyoihing, Dakotas, and Idaho.

The particular species formerly such a pest in our part of the country is the Rocky locust {Melanophts spretus), lying between latitude 43 degrees and 53 degrees north. Its permanent habitat, according to the United States Entomological Commission of 1877, covered an area of about 300,000 square miles. The most favorite breeding places in this area were the river bottoms and the uplands or the grassy regions among the mountains. Whenever the weather conditions were favorable they hatched here in astonishingly large numbers. And the favorite conditions were exceptional dryness and warmth. In the early days two such dr\' seasons were sure to bring on a locust migration. During the last twenty years, however, the character of these early breeding grounds has been greatly changed. Settlement and agriculture have, so restricted the permanent haunts in Alontana, Idaho, and Colorado, that the danger from future incursions is very slight. Indeed the locust has practically been driven beyond the borders of the United States, and now breeds freely only in portions of British Columbia.

After the insects hatch out in the spring it takes about seven weeks before they reach a mature state. They go through five moultings and after the last, acquire wings. Their appetite becomes voracious, and as they are most numerous in hot and dry seasons when vegetation is scant, it takes but a short time for this to become exhausted. It is now that they manifest their peculiar instincts. With a common impulse they take to wing, swanning in a southeasterly direction. They usually rise between 8 and 10 o'clock in the morning and continue their flight till the middle of the afternoon, when they come down to feed. A fall in temperature or a head wind suddenly precipitates them to the ground in great numbers. They move not so much in sheets as in great columns from one to five thousand feet thick, resembling great fleecy clouds propelled onward by some strong but hidden agency. Moving, as we have stated, in a southeasterly direction, those that leave their breeding grounds in southern Montana and Canada do not appear till August or September.

One more excerpt might be borrowed from Prof. Foght's work, because his description of that terrible week and the succeeding eflforts to prevent a recurrence of blasted hopes fits

The month of July (1874) was about half spent when the locusts reached the North Loup Valley (Hall County about the 24th). Corn was "laid by" and in tassel ; the small grain was heading and full of promise. Then dawned the fatal day. By noon a strange haziness overspread the clear, blue sky, and the bright sunlight took on a sickly, yellowish tint. Had anyone taken the trouble to look at the sun through the proper medium he would have discovered the cause of this gradual transformation in the day. Myriads of insects were flitting by the disk of the sun. But people were not looking for trouble and so allowed the phenomenon to go unnoticed. In a short time, however, everyone had cause to become wide enough awake. The clouds of locusts suddenly began to settle over the earth. With a strange whistling sound of wings and myriad bodies they came on, pelting the appalled earth ; hustling and tumbling they came, clinging to whatever they happened to strike, devouring every planted thing from Indian corn to garden truck.

At first some of the settlers made vain attempts to scare the pests from their fields, but this was usually rewarded by having the clothes literally eaten from of? their limbs. As time advanced the number of insects grew. In places branches of trees are said to have been bent almost to the ground under their living burden. The corn fields were speedily stripped of their leaves, and soon all but the toughest portions of the stalk were devoured. We hear of thrifty housewives attempting to save flowerbeds by spreading over them bedquilts and carpets for protection, who to their chagrin found the locusts as eager to devour the spreads as they were the flowers.

Ah, those were sad days in the settlement! Gone were the hopes and day dreams of many a sturdy pathfinder! The last dollar had with many been spent in the hope of speedy returns from good crops. What would now be the future? How to span over the coming winter and eke out an existence till another crop could be gotten became serious questions. Had it not been for the abundance of game in the adjacent hills and the logging industries, .many would perforce have left their farms and returned to older settlements.

We have handled the grasshopper entomologically, scientifically, historically, etc., so we may close by letting the poet have a chance at him.

The Grasshoppers

Down by the orchard plot a man and boy, The boy's hat just above the whitened floor Of oats half hiding the young trees and swaying Under a strong breese in the biasing noon. The man looks upward, blinks with dazzled eyes, The shading face with hand peers painfully; Little winged creatures drive athwart the sun, High up, in ceaseless, countless flight to the north. His mood runs hot envisioning the past. It was three years ago this very day.

Three years ago that clinging, hopping horde Made the earth crawl. With slobbery mouths. All leafage, woody tivig, and grain, and grass. They utterly consumed, leaving the land Abominable. The wind-borne plague rained doivn On the full-leaved tree where laughter rippled light To answer odorous whispers of the flowers. Soon, naked to the blistering sun, it stared At the bones of its piteous comrades. Afterwards, A jest to strangers - -charity - cattle hungering - Women and children starving! But the power of creatures ! The daughters of the locust, numberless, numberless! Jaws bite, throats suck, the beauty of lovely fields Is in their guts, the zvorld is but a mummy!

orchard; But as they go the lad is looking, looking To see, high up, like gnats, the winged millions Moving across the sun. May God rebuke them.

Now the impending march of civiHzation had driven onward the wild animals of the prairie and the forest; the beaver, otter, and their comrades of the streams have disappeared ; even the fishing has deteriorated until to the pioneer it would be considered negligible ; only an occasional coyote reminds one of the band of wild animals, and the domestic animals have taken their places. But the guesses of Major Long and others who surmised that this part of the Great American Desert would never be anything but the home of the red-skin and the shrieking coyote and his brethren would find a most pleasant surprise in the fields, gardens, and orchards now thriving in Hall County.

The flora of any region is modified greatly by latitude, altitude, moisture, sunshine, shade, and the varying character of soils, clayey, sandy, gravelly, and rocky. The state of Nebraska, having an altitude of less than LOGO feet at the Missouri River and stretching westward to the foothills of the Rockies over 5,500 feet altitude presents an opportunity for an extremely varied flora. Our wooded steppes, moist river bottoms, innumerable creeks, ponds, and lakes with accompanying marshes, affords a shelter for almost every kind of plant that can flourish in one altitude. The catalog of 1889 contained the names of 990 plants above the lungi, lichens, and mosses. Numerous additions have been made since then to the number of several hundred. For example, the sedges ^ of the state were then enumerated as 36. In my paper on "The Sedges of Nebraska," published six years ago by the State University, I gave the localities of 106 species and good varieties. The studies in other lines of plant life have resulted in similar additions. I have no doubt that the species at present known will pass twelve hundred.

I have collected in Hall County, at Wood River, many times, especially four miles south of Grand Island and east along the railroad and in adjacent meadows, south to A. D. Searls' farm, also around Schimmer's Lake many times. I have also collectel around Doniphan on the south, and up toward St. Libory on the north. Thus I have obtained a fair conception of what Hall County has to offer to the botanist.

I find the flora quite limited by the lack of bluffs and other elevations, the whole landscape being classed as level prairie and Platte River bottoms, broken by Wood River, which is very well named. It furnishes shelter, especially at Schimmer's Lake, and some charmingly rare species are there located that could not be found without the damp woods which there prevail.

I have gone carefully over the Nebraska list with this preparation of study and observation to guide me and shall claim about five hundred and sixty-five species of plants for Hall County.

1 Seda;e, defined in Standard Dictionary as "In a lonse poplar sense, any coarse, rush-like or flaglike herb gfrowing in wet places - any part of sedge family (Cypcracax)."

It is quite useless to enumerate these by either their Latin or their English names in a volume of this character. The English names are so variable according to locality that they would not be recognized by many. It takes more time and leisure than any one individual among Nebraska people has- yet had in the struggle for existence to fasten a name to these new^ w^estem plants that shall gain the final approval and "stick to" the one kind or species.

We shall then speak of a few matters of general interest and importance. Nebraska is a grass state; that is, a grain growing state, for all of our cereals except buckwheat are grasses. The state is covered from one end to the other in its wild condition with about 155 species of nourishing grasses, and as I said above, 106 species of grass-like plants called sedges, and every species pastured and cut for hay without any discrimination. The growing and fattening qualities of these fodder plants are notorious in the stock centers of the nation. Hall County has her full share of these nutritious plants. I estimate the grasses as ninety species and the sedges as thirty-five. Many of them have been studied by chemical analysis especially in the agricultural school of South Dakota, and have been shown to possess the supreme qualities of nutrition that characterize the timothy, red-top, orchard grass, brome, and other highly prized grasses of the eastern states and Europe. We might enumerate three species of grama, buffalo grass, wheat grass several species, rye grass several species, but those who are getting their living from the soil and the intelligent land agent, banker, grain buyer, and many others are quite well aware of these facts without any further use of ink and paper.

The trees of Hall County are but few in variety. Cottonwood, box-elder, prairie ash, white elm, peach leaved willow are the only ones that attain much size. The diamond willow, sand-bar willow, wild plum, and wild cherry, commonly called choke cherry, but not the "choke" of the east, sometimes attain tree-like proportions, and together with dogwood [corniis asperioUa) make most of the "brush." The red cedar is native over most of the states, but I doubt if it can be found wild in Hall County today, if it ever was. It grows mostly on higher ground, such as bluffy river banks or in dry ravines and canyons. No other conifer is to be expected. The red (slippery) elm is not unlikely to be found, and possibly the burr oak, but I have not seen it.

I wish to call attention to quite a few rare plants. Botriechium Virginianmn, grape fern, at Schimmer's Lake, in the moist woods on the Wood River, is known in very few localities. Smilax hispida, greenbriar, seems to have its western limit at Red Cloud and Schimmer's Lake. Allium Cavandulare, the lavender-flowered wild onion, is a beautiful new species worthy of cultivation. It grows south and southeast of Grand Island, and at Havelock, Lincoln, and Weeping Water. I wrote it up as a new species a few years ago, finding it first at Grand Island.

Spieranthes Ronianzoffiana {strictum, of some authors), laides' tresses, is the only orchid likely to be found. The next most likely is sypripediiim candidum, which grows at Callaway, Scotia, and I think at St. Paul. I found very fine specimens east of Grand Island, at the foot of the railroad embankment. Desmodiuni panieulatum, the round leafed beggars' lice, a stick-tight, grows at Schimmer's Lake, with the smilax and grape fern. Lippia lanceolate, on the north bank of the lake gave me the first collection of this rare plant. I have since found it at St. Paul and at two or three other stations. It belongs to the verbena family, and is a near relative of the lemon verbena, raised as a house plant. These rare plants are quite distinctive enough for one level prairie county in Central Nebraska.

Climate

Hall County has a climate transitional between that of the north-central Mississippi Valley and the semi-arid cliinate of the high plains. The rainfall is moderate, and fre- quently low. The humidity is relatively low and the rate of evaporation relatively high. There is a wide range between summer and winter temperatures.

The mean annual precipitation is 29.45 inches. The greater part of the rainfall occurs during the months from May to August, inclusive, generally in the form of hard thunder showers. The annual precipitation when normally distributed is sufficient for successful farming, without irrigation or rigid adherence to dry-farming methods. In some years, however, crops have been almost complete failures on account of droughts, and they suffer some injury on certain soils nearly every year. There is rarely an excess of rainfall. The precipitation in the wettest year on record (1905) amounted to 45 85 inches, of which 24.98 inches fell during the months of May, June, and July.

The mean summer temperature is 73.6° F. The maximum recorded temperature is 110°, in September, but July and August are usually the hottest months. The mean winter temperature is 26.1° F. The temperature frequently falls below zero, and a minimum of - - 34° has been recorded in February. The region is occasionally swept by cold northwest winds in winter.

The average date of the last killing frost in the spring is April 26, and that of the first in the fall October 7, giving an average growing season of 164 days, which is ample for the maturing of corn and all the other crops commonly grown. Killing frost has been recorded as late in the spring as May 19 and as early in the fall as September 12.

There is a high percentage of clear and sunshiny days. The rate of evaporation is probably a little higher than that of most of the central Mississippi Valley region, being probably a little above 40 inches. No record of the snowfalls exists, but it is probably a little less than that of Omaha, 150 miles to the east, viz, about 25 inches.

Bad Storms

During the sixty-two years that have intervened since the arrival of the first colony of pioneers in Hall County there have been many bad storms and severe weather disturbances, but only a few stand out distinctly, noted for their severe eft'ects and the loss of life and property entailed thereby.

On November 6, 1857, Lorenz Barnard and Henry Joehnk, of Grand Island, and Williain Roberts and Billy Painter, of Mendotte, went over to Prairie Creek antelope and deer hunting. When near the pond, due north of Grand Island, Lorenz Barnard and Roberts went up the creek, while the others hunted down the stream. In shooting ducks they crossed the creek several times, and when it began to rain that evening all started for the settlement. Soon not a vestige of dry clothes remained on them, the wind changed to the north,, and a heavy storm set in ; it grew colder and colder. Barnard and Roberts found their way home but Joehnk and Painter became lost in the storm, and after dark stacked their guns for the purpose of building up a shelter with the high slough grass. The wind swept away each bunch of grass, and to keep from freezing they had to walk around and around all night. Painter, becoming hungr)', ate half a duck uncooked, but Joehnk would not touch the unsavory meal. At daylight the snow proved to be eighteen inches in depth and still falling heavily. So they set out for the settlement where some men had set forth in search of them, but were driven back by the storm. Early that morning Joehnk arrived, but so worn was he that he could only signify by signs where Painter was. The men went forth in search, found the hunter, brought him in, but the hardships of the night proved too much, and November 7, 1857, occurred the first death in Hall County among the white settlers.

Easter Storm Of 1873

Spring opened early in the year of 1873. The farmers had plowed and harrowed the ground and even sowed their oats and spring wheat in February and March. By the first part of April the grass was nicely green and by the middle of April the small-grain fields were bright green with new crops. The settlers were almost careless about such a spring: the prairies were, of course, bare of hedges, fences, or trees to break the winds and catch drifting snow. The whole scene was one of total unpreparedness for a severe snow storm at that time of the year. Easter Sunday came on the thirteenth day of April, following many days of delightful mildness. On the afternoon of that Easter a rain started up, with a heavy thunderstorm by 4 o'clock. This changed to a terrific snow-storm, which raged for three days without abating.

In writing in Nebraska Pioneer Reminiscences of this storm. Judge Charles B. Letton of the Nebraska supreme court, who was then living near Fairbury, in Jefferson County, described it in part:

The fury of the tempest was indescribable. The air appeared to be a mass of moving snow, and the wind howled like a pack of furies. I managed to get to the granary for some oats, but on looking into the ravine no stable was to be seen, only an immense snow drift which almost filled it. At the point where the door to the stable should have been there appeared a hole in the drift where the snow was eddying. On crawling into this I found that during the night the snow had drifted in around the horses and cattle, which were tied to the manger. The animals had tramped it under their feet to such an extent that it had raised them so that in places their backs lifted the flimsy roof, and the wind carrying much of the covering away, had filled the stable with snow until some of them were almost and others wholly buried, except where the remains of the roof protected them.

Throughout Hall County in the groves the snow drifted to from fifteen to twenty feet in height, orchards and groves were damaged, many trees destroyed, and farmers lost nearly all of their stock, some losing from ten to fifteen head, another seventy-five, and a third 100 head of cattle. Deer were found lying dead after the storm, and dead birds were seen everywhere.

The following description and conclusions by Judge Letton though written concerning our neighboring county of Jeflferson fitted the conditions of Hall County as closely as if written by a Hall County survivor of the storm :

Many settlers took their cattle and horses into their houses or dugouts in order to save them. Every ravine and hollow that ran in an easterly or westerly direction was filled with snow from rim to rim. In other localities cattle were driven many miles by this storm. Houses, or rather shacks, were unroofed and people in them frozen to death. Travelers caught in the blizzard, who attempted to take refuge in ravines, perished and their stiffened bodies were found when the drifts melted weeks afterward. Stories were told of people who had undertaken to go from their houses to their outbuildings and who, being blinded by the snow, became lost and either perished or nearly lost their lives, and of others where the settler in order to reach his well or his outbuildings in safety fastened a rope to the door and went into the stonn holding to the rope in order to insure his safe return. Deer, antelope, and other wild animals perished in the more sparsely settled districts. The storm lasted for three days, not always of the same in- tensity, and freezing weather followed for a day or two thereafter. In a few days the sun shone, the snow melted, and spring reappeared; the melting drifts, that lay for weeks in some places, being the only reminder of the severity of the storm.

To old settlers in Nebraska and northern Kansas this has ever since been known as "The Easter Storm." In the forty-six years that I have lived in Nebraska there has only been one other winter storm that measurably approached it in intensity. This was the blizzard of 1888 when several people lost their lives. At that time however, people were living in comfort, trees, hedges, groves, stubble, and cornfields held the snow so that the drifts were insignificant in comparison. The cold was more severe but the duration of the storm was less and no such widespread suffering took place.

Another Decade And A Half Of Storms

In May, 1878, three houses near Wood River were damaged by lightning. Rupert Schvvaiger and EHas E. Boodry were killed by lightning while enroute to town.

On July 8, 1878, a hail storm originated in Sherman County and came over into Hall County, causing such loss that forty-two Hall County farmers who were insured reported $20,000 loss, while the uninsured lost around $30,000. The frame of the Lutheran church, just raised in the southeast part of Grand Island, and the old building on Front street (P. Dunphy's) were levelled; several small buildings were blown down and the gardens generally wrecked. Though the hail-stones were not large, owing to their velocity their destructive power was terrible, and the quantity of water which fell in a few minutes was beyond the experiences of every one ; and the torrent which swept the main street of the town was two feet in depth.

A hail storm in July, 1884, destroyed numerous buildings and severely damaged crops through Hall County. The eastern wall of the Union Pacific car shop was blown in, destroying property valued at $10,000; a new building near the Burlington depot was moved three feet, and from a point north of Grand

Island to southeast of Doniphan, and even beyond that village, growing crops, trees, and small buildings were pounded into the ground, broken, or removed.

A storm in June, 1885, destroyed $1,500 worth of window panes - the window glass in the court-house, Koenig's block, and Schaupp's mills being almost all broken. The new agricultural hall was twisted so as to require rebuilding, the front of Hake's harness shop was blown in, and a strip about two miles in width, from the northwest to the southwest corner of the county, devastated.

There was a severe blizzard in January 7, 1886, but the worst storm between 1873 and the big storm of 1888 was in November, 1886. Men returning to their homes against that wind became dazed and almost breathless. David Alexander became lost and was nearly frozen before he found shelter. Judge Wilson also lost his way; a herd of cattle drifted before the storm, the telegraph wires were torn from the poles, and several unfinished buildings were damaged by the terrific icy wind.

The Blizzard Of 1888

No other winter storm in the history of the plains, it may be safely said, was ever more destructive than this one. The states of Nebraska and South Dakota were visited by the blizzard in all its ferocity, but for that matter the storm may be said to have been general throughout the whole country, and its chilling blast was felt from the Rockies to New England. Yet the wind swept plains of Dakota and Nebraska undoubtedly fared worse than sections east. Loss to human life and property on the plains, in places, wa§ simply appalling, and the surviving residents of those sections cannot speak of it even now without an involuntary shudder.

The storni burst with great suddeness and fury, and many there were who did not live to tell the story of their suflfering. Stories without number could be told of narrow escapes throughout the plains.

from the south, was just cold enough to turn the moisture covering all nature, into a light hoarfrost. Before noon the frost had disappeared and every indication pointed to an early clearing of the sky. Around the hour of noon a terrific storm blast came bearing down upon the open prairies and dotted valleys. In a moment, heavy leaden clouds were blotted out. A bewildering, blinding sheet of dustlike snow was whirled through the air, and before evening the thermometer had sunk to 25 degrees below zero. The wayfarer, caught far from home, soon found his pathway obstructed by the drifts of snow and ever}' familiar guidemark obliterated. His bearings once gone would mean certain death unless he should chance in his blind gropings to stumble upon some human habitation or friendly stack of hay or straw in his path. As the early part of the day had been so mild, many people had ventured from home. Scores of farmers were caught in the towns, where they had to remain for several days, chafing under the restraint, but absolutely snow bound. Others less fortunate, caught on the road, in the valleys or out in the hills, soon found themselves in a terrible predicament.

Everybody suffered immense hardships or inconvenience in this terrible storm, but none suffered more keenly than did the occupants of the prairie schoolhouses. Innumerable stories stand out in Nebraska history from this event, but none more lasting nor worthy of our digression to mention here than those of three Nebraska country school teachers - Loie Royce of Plainfield, Etta Shattuck of Holt county, and Minnie Freeman of Mira Valley, who were the subjects of mxich newspaper writing.

Minnie Freeman Penney, in Nebraska Pioneer Reminisccnes has told these three stories in such compact form that we can well afford to record them here, in her words :

Miss Royce had nine pupils. Six went home for luncheon and remained on account of the storm. ^ The three remaining pupils with the teacher stayed in the schoolhouse tmtil three o'clock. Their fuel gave out, and as her boarding house was but fifteen rods

In the fury of the storm they wandered and were lost. Darkness came, and with it death. One little boy sank into eternal silence. The brave little teacher stretched herself out on the cold ground and cuddled the two remaining ones closer. Then the other little boy died and at daylight the spirit of the little girl, aged seven, fluttered away, leaving the young teacher frozen and numb with agony. Loie Royce "hath done what she could ; angels can do no better." Miss Royce lost both feet by amputation.

Etta Shattuck, after sending her children home (all living near) tried to go to her home. Losing her way, she took refuge in a haystack, where she remained, helpless and hungry Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, suffering intensely and not able to move. She lived but a short time after her terrible experience.

Those who knew Minnie Freeman say she was not seeking any newspaper notoriety, yet it is not amiss to quote from the Lincoln Daily Star of June 17, 1905, which remarked "That as Iowa has her Kate Shelley so Nebraska has her Minnie Freeman," we may add Minnie Freeman Penney's own account of this storm without it seeming to be any inclination on her part to claim undue glory :

Minnie Freeman was teaching in Mira Valley, Valley County. She had in charge seventeen pupils. Finding it impossible to remain in the schoolhouse, she took the children with her to her boarding place almost a mile from the schoolhouse.

Words are useless in the effort to portray that journey to the safe shelter of the farmhouse, with the touching obedience to every word of direction - rather felt than heard, in that fierce winding sheet of ice and snow. How it cut and almost blinded them ! It was terrible on their eyes, They beat their way onward, groping blindly in the darkness, with the visions of life and death ever before the young teacher responsible for the destiny of seventeen souls.

Minnie Freeman was unconscious of anything heroic or unusual. Doing it in the simple line of duty to those placed in her care, she still maintains that it was the trust placed in

Later Storms

The winter of 1909-10 was unique in that sleet visited Nebraska in the later part of November, covered the roadways and walks, and in many places remained on the ground until early spring. A similar condition had existed in the winter of 1903-1904.

In March, 1913, one of the worst storms in many years occurred. The snow piled up so that many engines were stalled in the Granu Island yards, though the situation was worse at North Platte and Sidney than here. A bad wreck occured during this storm a few miles west of Sidney, on the Union Pacific. All the railroads were tied up for several days, and for almost three days, no mail or freight was received.

In February, 1919, a bad storm blocked the Burlington railroad at the cut near Phillips, a short distance southeast of Hall County line. This line was out of commission for about four days, though the Union Pacific was kept open at all times.

Cyclone August 12, 1919

A cyclone that demolished farm buildings, killed stock and cut a pathway through big groves, telephone lines and fences, swept north of the city about 7 o'clock Tuesday evening, August 12, 1919. Though a number of people were in the path of the tornado no report was received of anyone being hurt.

The cyclone developed during a heavy wind, rain and hail storm that lasted about half an hour. The cyclone cloud was visible from Grand Island and was seen' by many people. First reports reaching here were of much damage. Grand Island apparently was on the outskirts of the storm. A strong wind raised much dust here, but no rain fell. St. Libory on the north also was at the edge of the storm, which traveled between the two towns.

Rain and hail accompanied the cyclone, but the path of destruction was small. The distance between the point where the cyclone first hit the earth and the point where it lifted evidently was about four miles. The width of the path of the cyclone was from 200 to 300 feet most of the way.

The tornado traveled from northwest toward the southeast. It first touched the ground in the pasture on the Henry Brabander farm a half mile west of the Martin Grotz place, which is twelve miles northwest of the city, according to Mrs. Grotz. It swept through the William Franssen farm, the Charles Robert place and the Henry Mohr place, doing much damage at each place, but wrecking its greatest fury on the Mohr place. About a half mile east of the group of buildings on the Mohr place the cyclone lifted, doing practically no damage to a large grove of trees planted there, but passing above them.

August Hamann, who lives several miles north of the city on the road that runs on the east side of the Soldiers' home, saw the cyclone from a distance. He gave a vivid description of its appearance. He said the funnel shaped cloud seemed to form northwest of his place, and he presumed it began somewhere in the vicinity of Cairo. It moved southeast and when it reached the vicinity of the St. Paul road it was sucked up. His estimate proved wholly correct so far as the finish of the cyclone, as it left the ground a quarter of a mile west of the St. Paul road. The path of the cyclone was approximately along the county line, Mohr's place being near the line. Mr. Hamann was in the field during the storm and was watching it. "First I noticed a large amount of dust being raised," he said. Then I stopped work to watch it. It was the closest I ever saw such a cloud. The bottom of the funnel-shaped cloud seemed to rest in a cloud of dust on the ground. I judged the thickness of the funnel at the ground to be about 300 feet. Clouds and dust whirling around in a circle gave the funnel-shaped appearance. The funnel widened gradually from the ground up, the difiference in width not being great. At first the top of the funnel seemed only about 200 feet from the ground. It gradually lengthened until it extended to the storm clouds. From the mass of storm clouds above, another cloud which also had a funnel shape, hung down a ways and seemed to remain just above the other funnel, and finally it seemed as if the cyclone was sucked up into this cloud.

Just after the cyclone formed it struck the William Franssen place. The big windmill was torn down. The large barn was moved from its foundation and the chicken house and summer kitchen were upset, according to the farmers who visited the Franssen home.

East of the Franssen place the cyclone hit the farm property of Charles Roberts. Three head of cattle were reported killed in the pasture and several head crippled. As many trees were blown down in that vicinity it is presumed the flying limbs caused the fatality among the cattle.

A thick grove of trees that stood just west of the house about fifty feet was entirely down. Trees two feet thick were broken ofif and uprooted. The whole fonned a mass of tangled trunks, limbs and leaves that lay with the ends touching the house. The summer kitchen, just- outside of the house to the west, but built separate from the main building, was moved four feet from its foundation and twisted around. The house itself appeared not to have been moved.

the storm ten cows and three calves had been put in the barn and preparations were being made to milk. A steer, which had been suffering from a kick, also was in the barn. When the family emerged from the house they found all the cattle standing on the ground inside the barn foundation just where they were before the storm. The barn was gone, however. Part of the barn was found in a pasture forty rods away. The main part had been moved twenty-five feet north of the foundation and lay on the ground, a twisted heap of ruins.

Almost outside the front door of the house a pet dog lay dead, killed by a blow from flying derbis. A corn crib and machine shed south of the house was blown away, part of it being found in a meadow 160 rods distant. The roof was lying near the foundation. The granary east of the house a short distance was moved a rod and a half from its foundation. Before the storm the granary faced the south and after the storm it faced the west. The chicken coop was not touched.

The cattle shed and the hog pens were torn down and lost somewhere. John Mohr said he had not found any trace of them. A steer that was in the yard had a leg broken. It was estimated that scores of chickens were killed under the trees. The windmill was down.

John Mohr stated that two acres of trees, standing not more than ten feet apart, were destroyed, being stripped of foliage and limbs and in many cases being uprooted or broken of? near the ground. These trees were just west of the house.