Prairie Times

Minnie Freeman

By Rachel Kovaciny

 

Maybe I should have saved this slice of history for the winter, but it may be more suited to the summer, when we feel a little removed from the perils of unexpected snowstorms. The Children’s Blizzard struck the Great Plains states and territories on January 12, 1888. It was the tenth deadliest winter storm we have on record, causing 230 confirmed deaths, and possibly many more. The Great Plains experienced unusually mild weather for several days before it struck, which made it even more destructive.

   

January 12 dawned sunny and warm. Children went to school. People took advantage of the warm weather to do chores farther afield than usual. Men and women went to town for supplies, or left home to visit neighbors.

But a massive cold front with snow and gale-force winds struck Idaho and Montana in the mid-morning, plowing on across the Dakota Territory and reaching Nebraska around 3 pm. Temperatures dropped rapidly, going as low as -58 in some places. The storm unleashed powdery snow and unusually high winds, a combination that created zero visibility within seconds of its arrival. It swept through Oklahoma and Minnesota as well, and caused colder-than-usual temperatures as far south as Mexico. The blizzard lasted from twelve to eighteen hours in some places and left massive snowdrifts in its wake that hampered rescue parties searching for survivors.

 

Almost anyone caught in the open when the storm struck perished. Those who were inside a building were safe as long as they stayed there, particularly if they were in a group or had plenty of fuel. But those who tried to leave shelter to reach other habitation were lost. That’s why this is called the Children’s Blizzard or the Schoolhouse Blizzard, because so many children were on their way home from school when the storm hit, or were at school and tried to leave.

The Children’s Blizzard caused many people to rise up and display courage, bravery, and resourcefulness. One such person was a nineteen-year-old schoolteacher named Minnie Freeman.

 

Minnie was born in Pennsylvania in 1868, and moved to Nebraska with her family in 1871. She was a graduate of the Methodist Episcopal College in York, Nebraska. In 1888, she was teaching at a one-room sod schoolhouse in Mira Valley, near Ord, Nebraska. When the storm struck that January morning, it trapped Minnie and thirteen pupils inside their schoolhouse. The building was not sturdy enough to withstand the raging winds; first, it blew the door off its hinges, and then the wind peeled the roof away from the sod walls. Minnie Freeman knew there was a sturdy farmhouse only a mile away because she boarded there. She was very familiar with the path between them and the schoolhouse. To reach it through blinding snow without losing her pupils must have seemed impossible, but Minnie did not panic. She had a ball of strong twine in the school-house and used that to keep her pupils together. Accounts from the children differ whether she tied the twine around them or had them hold on to it—perhaps she had the older children hold on, but secured the younger children. Minnie carried the youngest pupil, a six-year-old, and towed the rest behind her with the twine.

 

Off they set into the blizzard. People have debated for years whether Minnie Freeman was one of those people possessed with unerring directional instincts, if God guided her, or if she was simply lucky, but she led her pupils straight to that farmhouse and safety, saving the lives of all thirteen. The Omaha World Herald ran this quote from Minnie, describing how she saved the children: “I told them we would all have to stick together. If anyone was to stop to rub cold hands, all would stop. We went two by two, with strict orders to keep hold of the one just ahead.”  The Nebraska State Education Board awarded Minnie Freeman a gold medal for her bravery. People wrote poems and songs and newspaper articles about her. She received marriage proposals from dozens of men who had never even met her. A ballad about her, titled Song of the Great Blizzard: Thirteen Were Saved, Or Nebraska’s Fearless Maid became one of the big hits of the day, with the sheet music going through several printings.

  

Minnie Freeman earned a college degree and married Edgar Penney, a wealthy businessman. She took an interest in politics and civic activities and eventually became the first president of the Nebraska American Legion Auxiliary and the first woman to belong to Nebraska’s Republican Committee. She even served on the committee to design the Nebraska state seal. Artistic depictions of her heroic trip through the blizzard decorate the Nebraska state capitol building today. ♦