A snowstorm in 1888

Another story written by Uncle Joe in 1972 for the Sheldon Centennial:

Laura, Winnie, Eugene, James, Tressie and Molly Mulhern attended Grant Township School #1, one fourth of a mile north of the home place. It was a beautiful, sunny, warm winter day on January 12, 1888. There was a couple of feet of light fluffy snow on the ground. As they came home from school, they ran and jumped in the snow and it flew out from them like duck feathers. While Michael Mulhern carried hay in to a hay shed for the cattle, James and Eugene tried to drive the cattle into the shed for the night, but the cattle had their heads and tails up in the air and kept running by the door. Then all at once they headed for the door, pushing and bellowing to get in. The wind came rearing in from the Northwest and all of the light snow flew up in the air, making visibility zero. Mr. Mulhern thought they better spend the night in the hay shed rather than try to make it to the house, but with the strong northwest wind came a severe drop in temperature, so sleeping in the shed would be too cold. Mr. Mulhern put his one arm around the waist of James and the other around Eugene. They got down on their hands and knees and headed in the direction of the house. All went well until they got out into where the hay shed wasn’t breaking the wind. The wind was blowing the snow between their legs into their faces so they had to fight the snow away to breathe and see. There were no fence rows, no cornstalk fields, no large set of farm buildings, no large grove to slow down the wind or snow in those days. They had to stand up and fear struck them that they’d get lost out in the snowstorm. They opened their eyes and looked toward the house. They could see a light in the north window of the house. So they headed for the light and made it safely into the house. Mrs. Mulhern figured the way the wind was blowing, it must be terrible outside. She had heard somewhere if you place a lamp next to the window, it will penetrate out into a storm a lot better. So they left the light in the window all night in case someone was wandering in the snowstorm near the house. A few days later, they learned a neighbor, Calvin Hurd, didn’t make it home from school in Sheldon that evening. He perished in the storm a couple miles southeast of their home.