Rensselaer Union, Volume 5, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 February 1873 — Four Days in a Snow Drift—--Terrible Suffering and Death. [ARTICLE]

Four Days in a Snow Drift—--Terri-ble Suffering and Death.

Ybsterday there arrived In this city by the Wllmar train, one of the poor sufferers by the late terrific storm. This man, whose name is Charles O’Neil, was taken to the Sisters’ Hospital, to undergo the operations of amputation of both feet and an arm. His story, as gathered by a Press reportmorning of the terrible Tuesday, a party of five men, Charles O’Neil and his brothers John and Stephen, and Mike and Thomas, Holden, started from Beaver Palls, Renville County, with five loads of grain for Weimar market. Wllmar is distant from Beaver Palls about thirty-five miles of open prairie, twenty of which are wittymta,settler. Quite early in the afternoott,ft snow, but the wind was light and the party pressed on, anxiouß to reach Wilmar with no delay** When within about eight miles of Wilthe wind began to increase, and blew directly In they faces. They viewed the situkttoh with considerable dismay, and about half concluded to turn about and retreat to a house about eight miles in the rear, and fortunate would It have been v , the y done ®o- But, about a mile tv head, was the house of a Mr. Meagher, ** r “ u ‘* d “ The storm continued to increase in violence, however, and, the wind huslfcd the falling and drifting particles of Ice against and about them until they were obliged to turn their faces from the atom and trust to the instincts of their animals to keep the right direction. Drifts began to meet them, and- their horses: could scarcely flounder through them. It wee now too late, and equally too hazardous to take the back track, ted they pushed on into the bitter harncane in the hope o| reaching Meagher’s. But now their horses gave out, and became stalled in a succession of deep drifts. It was found impossible to extricate the sleighs, and wea to build the best protection their circumstances would allow. One sleigh-box -was set up edgean<T brace. About this insecure and flimsy shelter sacks of grain were packed andinsidelhe five men were crowded’, after having first cut loose the horses. This Was about four o’clock Tuesday and of doursaptbey, had no food, and but a meager sdppfy or I>lai*ete. The snow, driven across the prairies like stunning darts of lightning, was forced through every eMrioe, ana packed against and

above the little shelter, and in upon the men, and with such force was It blown thatit waa packed firm as sheets of ice. Tuesday night passed, and Wednesday Mike Holden announced his intention of seeking Meagher’s honse. He tried to persuade the others to accompany him,but they considered themselves safest where they were, and declined. Mike started out and scceeded in reaching the house, having both hands frozen on the way. The storm continued so severe that no attempt could be made to rescue the others at that time. They, in the meantime, were suffering all the pangs of cold and hunger* audit is quite probable that several of them became delirious, for when found they were lying out of- and near the Shelter. About ten o’clock Friday morning a man, passing along the road with an oxtOam, heard shouts, as of some one In distress, and. upon making search, discovered the little barricade covered with packed snow, and was horrified, upon disturbing several apparent knolls in the vicinity, to find that they contained the dead bodies of men. He found the bodies of Thomas Holden, Stephen O’Neil and John O’Neil, the first two quite dead, and the latter with life almost extinct. Upon searching under the cover he found two feet protruding from the snow, and, breaking away the crust, he found Charles O’Neil, alive, but in a terrible condition. The bodies were at once lugged to his sled and conveyed to Meagher’s, and thence to Wilmar, John O’Neil dying before reaching that place. The details of the sufferings of Charles O’Neil are horrifying and almost incredible. It seems that he had laid down immediately upon entering the cover, and had, while in this position, been fastened down by the terrible weight of the snow which drifted upon him, or rather upon the upper portion of his body. It was so heavy, he said, as to cause unbearable torture. After he found he was nnable to rise, and that the snow was covering his head, he feared suffocation, and to keep that member free he constantly raised and lowered it, and in this manner, while he could not prevent the drift from forming over it, be formed an air chamber, which prevented suffocation. In his endeavor to free his head the poor fellow actually tore the hair almost entirely from the scalp. Here he lay, with his feet exposed to the air and frozen stiff and with the cruel frost slowly creeping up his limbs, and unable to move scarce a muscle of his body from Tuesday night until Friday noon. Can a more horrible situation be imagined? The poor fellow’s right arm is frozen to the elbow, the right leg to the knee and the left leg above the ankle. These members are thus far completely dead, and he has been lying at Wilmar until yesterday, when the first train succeeded in getting through. Five of the horses were frozen to death, and the others were found five miles away all right.— Bt. Paul Press.