Caldwell County MO Archives History .....SNOW STORM OF FEBRUARY 1881 IN HAMILTON 
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Karen Walker khw4@yahoo.com September 4, 2008, 1:04 pm

THE SNOW STORM OF FEBRUARY 1881 IN HAMILTON
	Narrators:  Frank Steward, Ida Hargrove, Eva Glasener, etc.

     When the snow storm of Thanksgiving 1934 held up many travelers so that 
they could not get home that night, it recalled to old timers the terrible 
snow storm of February 1881.
     Some say that the snow as 6 feet deep in spots.  Mrs. Hargrove then of 
Nettleton, where a train was blocked, remembered that one hundred lunches were 
ordered from the Caldwell Hotel in Breckenridge, and about that number from 
Chillicothe to feed the passengers on the train snow bound there for a day or 
two.
     Mrs. Elizabeth Dawson said that it was in this storm that Lewis Clampitt 
lost his way home and froze to death.  The snow prevented his using his buggy 
after a certain point.  Mrs. Helen L. Booth recalled that in this February 
storm, her husband, the late Dan Booth moved the family and goods from the 
Lovely Ridge district to Hamilton to live, and the snow was so deep and packed 
that the moving sleds drove straight through fields, over fences there by 
gaining about a mile.
     Bill Hemry recalled that the citizens of Kingston raised a "purse" and 
employed a dozen men to shovel out snow on a road leading from Kingston to 
Hamilton.  Billy Dodge positively could not get his mail hack through to 
Kingston for 3 or 4 days.  The county seat went without mail.
     Train service through Hamilton was gone for two days and when on Sunday 
afternoon the train finally pulled in from the east, there was a big crowd to 
meet it at the depot.  Eva Glasener was there and recalls the first train with 
the four engines, all covered with the snow of the drifts.  Three hours later, 
came a second train with three engines.  
     On the farms, much live stock perished.  Men could not get out to feed or 
help.  The snow began Friday morning and did not stop till Saturday night and 
was a wonder for people to talk about for many years.
     Irvin Harper remembers that a dance was scheduled the Friday night at 
Anderson's Hall in Hamilton.  The boys hired two big sleds and went around 
after the girls.  On the return, the snow was so deep that each fellow carried 
his girl to her front porch.
     Frank Stewart recalls a party too.  He was then a young unmarried 
fellow.  A Valentine party was to be held on the Friday night at Abe Kendig's 
home north of town.  All the young men got out with shovels and shovelled snow 
for a mile where the drifts were bad so the wagons and sleds could get to the 
party.
     Eva Glasener recalled that her sister Martha was then teaching at the 
Foley school near Nettleton and usually made the trip afoot.  That night, the 
people begged her to stay all night, but she was invited to the dance at 
Hamilton and walked back, thru the drifts.  A neighbor heard of it and 
followed her to rescue if needed, but she got in all O.K.
     Interviews  1934.


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