{"id":247,"date":"2015-08-07T14:51:45","date_gmt":"2015-08-07T14:51:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marksrelatives.com\/wordpress\/?page_id=247"},"modified":"2017-03-07T17:29:33","modified_gmt":"2017-03-07T17:29:33","slug":"great-blizzard-of-1873","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/marksrelatives.com\/wordpress\/great-blizzard-of-1873\/","title":{"rendered":"Great Blizzard of 1873"},"content":{"rendered":"
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PHOTO ABOVE: Digging out after a three-day snowstorm in North Dakota about 1913. Hand Colored photograph. The Northern Great Plains, 1880-1920: Photographs from the Fred Hultstrand and F.A. Pazandak Photograph Collections.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Here\u2019s a link to the photo above:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0LINK<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Here\u2019s a link to the entire collection:\u00a0\u00a0LINK<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Esten Jonson Volden –\u00a01st burial in Berg Cemetery<\/span><\/h2>\n

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He was the father of Elen and Guru. He was also known as Esten Jonsson Volden Sondre Kjollhaug.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Esten Jonson Volden Family<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Great Blizzard of 1873<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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Esten died in a blizzard that also took the lives of two young children who only lived a few miles away.\u00a0 He apparently died trying to check on his livestock in the barn, but wasn\u2019t able to make it back. He was buried on his property, and the site is now the Berg Cemetery. He was the first person to be interred there. The photo above is 40 years after his death, but it clearly shows what a three day blizzard can do.
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Just how bad was the blizzard? Two children also died nearby, but it took two months, and a spring thaw to find their bodies. When they were discovered \u201cit was evident that the boy had died standing by his sister, but had fallen over as the snow melted away.\u201d
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The Blizzard in \u201cHistory of Minnehaha County\u201d
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This account is from “History of Minnehaha County, South Dakota” by Dana R. Bailey
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BLIZZARDS<\/strong>
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Although Minnehaha county is not remarkable for severe storms, still there have been some that are worthy of mention.
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Perhaps the most notable one that occurred since white people commenced to inhabit this county was the January blizzard of 1873. It extended throughout Dakota, Minnesota, a portion of Iowa and the northern half of Wisconsin. Upwards of seventy people perished in Minnesota. In Minnehaha county the storm commenced in the forenoon of the 7th, and continued with but little abatement for nearly three days; four persons lost their lives and several others met with narrow escapes.
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Robert Foster, who lived with his family in a sod-shanty in the northwest part of section 33 in Benton, lost two children. On the morning of the storm his son Robert, fourteen years old, and his daughter Sarah, twelve years old, started out to go a little over a half a mile north, where some bait had been put out for foxes, when the storm overtook them. They walked about a mile and a half south and a half a mile east, and finally stopped in a roofless sod-shanty, where they were found on the l5th day of March following, the girl still standing, and it was evident that the boy had died standing by his sister, but had fallen over as the snow melted away.
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The other persons who perished in the storm were A. M. Abbott and a Scandinavian, whose name the writer has been unable to learn.<\/em>
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(*Esten was the Scandinavian)<\/strong><\/em>
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The Blizzard in \u201cHistory of Dakota Territory\u201d\u00a0
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Here’s another account from pages 260-261 in “History of Dakota Territory” by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. IV (1915) \u00a0LINK<\/a>
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JOHN R. FOSTER
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On the 7th of January, 1873, a brother and sister of our subject, aged respectively fourteen and twelve years, went a short distance from home and soon afterward a blizzard came up suddenly. The children wandered in the storm to an old sod house which stood out on the prairie and there sought shelter from the driving snow. However, as the house was roofless it afforded but poor protection against the blizzard and the children perished, their bodies being buried in the snow. Our subject and the father were absent from home at the time. Weeks passed and in spite of continued searching the bodies of the children were not found, but in March a neighbor dreamed that the children were in the old house and on the 16th of that month their bodies were found there.<\/em>
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Where Does This Take Place?
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Bethel to Berg Cemetery<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Here\u2019s a map of the above events. \u00a0<\/span>There\u2019s an Historical Marker on the site. \u00a0<\/span>LINK<\/a><\/p>\n