People's Pilot, Volume 3, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 February 1894 — SETTLERS PERISH. [ARTICLE]

SETTLERS PERISH.

Death and Suffering; Result from the Blizzard in Oklahoma. At Least Thirty Live# Lost Id the New Territory People Found Frozen to Death on Kansas Prairies—Work of the Storm Elsewhere. BROUGHT DEATH TO MANY. Kansas City', Mo., Feb. 15. —Reports received here from Oklahoma and the Indian territory make it almost certain that at least thirty lives ( were lost during the great storm of Sunday. Many isolated homesteads where the families were poorly prepared for the winter cannot be heard from fqr days and possibly weeks, and there is reason to believe that thirty will not represent the total number of the dead. In western and southwestern Kansas there was great suffering and it is probable that more than in one sod house dead bodies will some day be found. Wichita, Kan., Feb. 15. —Snow comj menced falling Tuesday afternoon j throughout Kansas and the efforts to restore railroad communication with : the western part of the state i will be further impeded. Telegraphic facilities are greatly im- ; paired and distances to railroad points | are so great in many of the western counties that it will probably be some j days before the complete stor}’ of the suffering endured by settlers can be told. Succoring parties were formed in some of the western towns to scour the ; surrounding country, but little except ; rumors of their discoveries have so far ' been received. j In the northeastern part of Clark county a rescuing party came across a wagon | on the prairie with the dead body of a ' man named Lane in it. The horses | had dropped in their .tracks and were i dead. Lane had been in Ashland early , the previous morning after coal and food and had succumbed oil his way : home. Hurrying on to Lane’s farm the searchers discovered the family j consisting of the wife and six children, l in a deplorable condition. Two of the babies were dead and the others were j all senseless with cold. In Mead, the adjoining county, the sick wife of a ; man named Wells, who was taking her ; to Mead Center for medical aid, died j from exposure.

Denver, Col., Feb. 15. Railway traffic, which has been greatly de- ! layed, has resumed its normal condi- ; tion. Railway men report that in Kan- ; sas there are snowdrifts fifteen to : twenty feet high. One Rio Grande j conductor reports that his entire train i was blown from the track near Palmer | lake by a gale blowing 80 miles an j hour. Another train was blown from • the Rio Grande & Western track near j Farmington, Utah, and a number of I people injured. Nashville, Tenn., Feb. 15 —A short | time ago forty-nine convicts escaped j from the prison stockade at Coal Creek. i All had been overtaken but two Tuesj day morning both of these were found in the mountains. One of them had been frozen to death in Monday night’s blizzard and the other had his feet so badly frozen that amputation is necessary.

CincAGO,Feb. 15. —Chicago's bigretail ! stores never beiore experienced such ; a lack of customers as befell them on ! Monday. Many of the merchants have | been in business for a quarter of a cen- ! tury, but they could not recall the j time when their stores were so j deserted. Conservative estimates of i the loss to the retail dry goods | business alone, including the goods soid by the department stores, fixed it at $250,000. The thrifty seekersafter bargains, who were wont to throng the stores every Monday morning to the number of 300,000, were absent, i The snow actually piled up in front of j the doorways and the shoppers were so j few that there was not even a wellj trodden entrance to the doors. By | noon the managers of the larger stores began sending home their girls and women help. Boston, Feb. 15. —Boston has not seen such a severe storm for years. Seven inches of snow have fallen on the level. The streets are in a terrible ! condition. On every line the cars are blocked, and many telephone and telegraph wires are down. Many of the schools are closed. General trailic is simply impossible. The railroads from the south and east are terribly blocked. | All business along the water-front is |at a standstill. Many' schooners are I out and reports of them are anxiously j looked for. The observations of the weather | bureau show that the storm is severest | along the coast and in southern New | England. In northern Vermont only | 8 inches of snow have fallen, while at Eastport, Me., only a high wind has | touched. Reports are beginning to i come in of the severity of the storm in 1 other places.