In the book, Alva, Oklahoma The First 100 Years 1886-1986, Mary Olive Cromwell wrote that the Ellers gave up ranching in Beaver, O.T., explaining that a severe blizzard killed many of their cattle herd, which prompted the move to Alva in the 1890s. Since learning this, I have been looking for the storm, which she mentions as singular.
The Kansas state census places the Eller family in Springvale, Pratt Co., KS in 1895, and the 1900 federal census locates them in Alva, O.T. in that year, so the storm must have occurred in the intervening five years. I first discovered the Children’s Blizzard, but it was too early; 1888. Today, I came across this storm in 1894, still too early but worth a transcription, nonetheless, especially since the article contains several names that might be useful to family historians. I provide the first part of the article from Guthrie, but the paper reports similar scenarios from all over the west and midwest. Follow the link for more.
Source: The Ottawa Free Trader, Feb 17, 1894 (published in Ottawa, IL), online at the Google Newspaper Archive,http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=AiUoAAAAIBAJ&sjid=SgUGAAAAIBAJ&dq=alva%20oklahoma&pg=986%2C3986330
VICTIMS ARE MANY
The Blizzard Responsible for a Number of Deaths.
GREAT SUFFERING IN OKLAHOMA.
A Settler Kills His Family to Prevent Their Freezing to Death Wide Sweep of the Storm—All Modes of Traffic interfered With.
HORRORS OF THE BLIZZARD.
Guthrie, O. T., Feb. 13—Reports come from the strip of great suffering among the homesteaders residing there. Several persons, it is reported, have perished in the storm, among them two families residing near Cross. No particulars can be obtained. Hundreds of head of stock were frozen to death.
Many people are still living in tents and as fuel is scarce the condition is awful. James Mulligan, living 4 miles south of Perry, was found Monday evening frozen to death, and his partner, Harvey Newcomb, died from exposure and cold fifteen minutes after being found. At Ponca Mrs. Jennie Cramer and two children, Lizzie and Sallie, were discovered frozen stiff in a coyote’s burrow, 10 yards from their abode.
An Awful Alternative.
Word comes from Cross that Sherman Stone and family, consisting of wife and five children, were found sitting about a stove with their throats cut from ear to ear. The following note found on a table near by Stone gives a horrible story of murder and suicide in connection with the storm.
“Wood all gone. Mollie frozen to death, the rest of us freezing. I have killed my family and now kill myself to prevent further suffering. God have mercy on us.”
Stone was a homesteader and lived in a tent. It is thought that after the snow melts hundreds of dead settlers will be found, along with the remains of thousands of cattle.
Other Fatalities.
Col. Henry Melton, a cowboy, who was with Buffalo Bill at the world’s fair, was discovered by a party of hunters early Monday morning dead under his horse. At Anadarko two Indian pupils were found Sunday evening buried under a snowbank. Upon being taken to a house one of the children immediately expired. The other, however, showed signs of recovery. A report has reached here that a family named Sears, residing on a claim near Woodward, was found frozen to death, but no particulars can be obtained.
A Missing Schoolma’am.
Miss Jennie Johnston, a young Indian teacher, who came to Alva recently from Scranton, Pa., left her school Saturday for her boarding house. She has not been seen since. No reports have been received from other west side towns, but it is certain the suffering is great, as the west side people are living mostly in tents. All trains are delayed.
Miss Johnston’s case is rather a romantic one. She recently fell heir to $20,000 at her old Pennsylvania home, and was immediately surrounded by a score of admirers. Miss Johnston, of course, thought all of her lovers were mercenary, and, feeling piqued, gathered up her effects and came west, where she secured a school.
A courier just in from Alva, another strip town, reports great suffering among the homesteaders near the river. One hundred head of horses and cattle were frozen and volunteer relief committees are now scouring the country gathering together the people and caring for them in the schoolhouses.
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