01/09/2024
Blizzard memories from my mother āļøš
Leona Tuttle of Gove County, KS writes:
"Memories of the ā57 Blizzard" (recently printed in Gove County Advocate)
Jim and I may have been the last āpioneersā in Gove County. In 1957 we lived on a rented farm. The house didnāt have electricity, running water, or a telephone. We did have a light plant (similar to a generator). For several years, the only running water available was from the windmill that was approximately a hundred yards from the house. We had to pump it by hand into buckets and haul it to the house. As for a telephone, at that time there were only 10 people allowed on one party line. We had to wait until there was available space on the line in our area. Consequently, in 1957 we didnāt have any telephone communication available to us. We had a propane refrigerator and cook stove. In the living room we heated with a stove using fuel oil and in the kitchen we used a wood stove for heat.
In March 1957, there was not a big snowstorm predicted. Jim went to Quinter to work on a water well drilling rig he and Raymond Goff were building in Jesse Longās shop. Knowing we were running low on fuel oil, he planned to get some before returning home. The blizzard developed so quickly that by mid-afternoon no one could get out of Quinter.
With use of the light plant I listened to the radio (K###) and realized the blizzard might be really bad. I decided Iād better get prepared. Jim was probably not going to make it home. I carried in two pails of water and all the cut wood we had. I thought if the fuel oil ran out I would need more wood. I remembered we had some old fence posts so I carried them in just in case I needed them. The snow continued to fall, and with the strong winds, the snow drifts were getting very deep.
As nightfall approached, I got out more blankets in case we needed them. We had three girls. Gwendolyn was three and a half, Dolores was two, and Rose had just turned one. Our bedrooms were on the second story of the house. The only way they were heated was by the heat rising up the open stairway. Under normal circumstances, this was adequate heat for the second story bedrooms. When I put the girls to bed upstairs, I bundled them up really good. I even put a snowsuit on Rose. Before the day ended, the fuel oil had run out in the living room stove. I spent the night beside the wood stove keeping the fire stoked up to heat the upstairs. When I started to burn the old hedge fence posts in the stove I had no way to cut them. As the post burned down on one end I would shove it in a little further, and after it burned down enough I could close the stove door.
As morning came, I could still see blizzard conditions outside. With no way for Jim to contact me, he felt like he needed to come home. The roads were impassable with any type of vehicle. No one could travel anywhere. Jim decided to borrow a horse from his Uncle Ralph Tuttle. He then rode home in the blizzard from Quinter which is approximately 20 miles by road. He had a rubberized suit that he wore when drilling water wells in the winter. He wore this suit to keep out the wind and moisture during the ride home. He traveled south out of Quinter and stopped at Dutch and Edith Jamisonās to warm up. He then headed west and south. The snow drifts were so deep he had to get off and lead the horse around or over them. Sometimes he couldnāt see very far. He knew the route and used the sight of fence posts and electric and telephone poles to keep on the right roads. He arrived home just as it was getting dark. When he walked in the back door he literally scared me to death. I wasnāt expecting anyone and when this person walked in with a yellow rubberized suit and a cold red face it was a big surprise. He was very thankful his family was okay and for the warm house.
It was several days before anyone from town knew if he made it or not. When the storm was over, the snow drifts were as high as the eaves of our two story house. Gwendolyn said she can remember looking out an upstairs window and couldnāt see the clothesline because the drifts had covered them. Later, we made steps in the snow drifts to get to the windmill.
