December 19, 2025 • 7 mins
It’s the winter solstice this weekend. We have a few months of frosty weather to deal with. But it’s amazing to consider how folks dealt with mountains of snow when there were no plows, nobody whose job it was to clear the streets and sidewalks . . and no central heat. Imagine giant cylinders being pulled through the streets to compact the snow!
Feel free to DM me if you have a story you’d like me to cover . . on Facebook it’s Patty Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hate to say it, but winter is only just getting underway,
in fact this weekend, and we've already had some pretty
vicious snowstorms and freezing tempts. But winters in the past
have not only been colder and snowier than we've seen recently,
Folks a century or two ago had way fewer resources
to deal with it all. I'm Patty Steele surviving forty
(00:20):
five degrees below zero and twenty five foot snow drifts
with no snowplows or central heat. That's next on the backstory.
We're back with the backstory. Everybody talks about the weather,
but nobody does anything about it. That's a quote usually
(00:41):
attributed to Mark Twain, but was probably from another writer,
Charles Warner, who worked with Twain and was a pal
either way. We all complain when it's too hot or
this time of year too cold, but imagine a time
when it was way colder and there was no central heat,
no snowplows, and really no stores to run to last
(01:02):
minute to stock up on all the stuff we weirdly
think we need during a snowstorm, like milk, bread, eggs,
ice cream, and plenty of junk food. All right, let's
go back to the winter of eighteen oh four and
eighteen oh five. It was unbearably cold across the country.
It started out with the Great Snow Hurricane. It was
an unusual tropical storm that dumped tons of snow and
(01:26):
broad devastation to New England in October of eighteen oh four,
leading up to the deep winter. Then there was an
early brutal cold snap in mid December in Washington, d c.
The Potomac River froze solid. There was a massive snowfall
in New York City sixty inches, with snow drifts fifteen
(01:46):
to twenty feet high. Temperatures across the Mid Atlantic were
constantly every day below zero. In the West, the cold
was a killer. In North Dakota, it got down to
forty five degrees below zero this very week in eighteen
oh four during the Lewis and Clark expedition. And again,
stop and think about how people had to deal with that.
(02:09):
No way to get through giant snow drifts, to get
to work, school markets, look in on friends and family.
Clearing the streets was a backbreaking job. There was some
horse drawn plows, but mostly they used guys with shovels
who would put it all in carts that had to
be pulled, as well as huge wooden rollers or cylinders
(02:29):
pulled by horses to compact the snow on the streets.
Getting around involved sleighs, again pulled by horses, as long
as the snow had been compacted. But here's the thing.
The idea that the city was responsible for snow removal
is actually a late nineteenth century to early twentieth century notion.
Even in big cities, it was the job of the
(02:51):
people that lived on each street to make sure their
road was passable otherwise sorry. Later on it became the
job of the police department to some what cleared the streets,
but mostly around city hall and in major shopping and
business areas. Residential areas again had to mostly fend for themselves.
Of course, all that cold and snow halted work, disrupted business,
(03:14):
and left a lot of folks with no income, no
ability to get to work, no pay. In essence, eighteen
oh four eighteen oh five was a landmark winter, one
of the coldest recorded in early American history. Then we
head to January twelfth, eighteen eighty eight. That day, a
powerful blizzard swept across Nebraska, with temperatures a wopping forty
(03:38):
degrees below zero. Here's the weird part. The temperature fell
about one hundred degrees in just twenty four hours as
the storm came with no warning. There actually wasn't a
ton of snow, but blinding wind speeds created whiteouts. Folks
talked about their tiering eyelids being frozen open. Two hundred
(03:58):
and thirty people died in what's been ranked as Nebraska's
most severe storm now. That blizzard is sometimes called the
school Children's Blizzard. One amazing woman named Minnie Freeman in Ord, Nebraska,
led her students through the storm, holding on to twine.
She took them to a shelter after the wind tore
the roof off the schoolhouse. Miss Freeman saved sixteen lives
(04:22):
that day, which was a lot considering many died right
at the doorstep as soon as they took a step
out into the below zero attempts and the wild winds.
Most of the kids were kept there for at least
two days waiting for rescuers. Another teacher, Lois may Rochi,
wasn't so lucky. She lost most of her kids before
(04:42):
they even stepped outside the schoolhouse. She tried to take
her remaining three, ages nine, nine, and six to a
farmhouse two hundred yards away, but they lost each other.
The children died, leaving the teacher crawling blindly through the
white out storm because of her horrible frostbitten feet. She
made it to the farmhouse, her feet fully frostbitten. She
(05:05):
later had to have them amputated. Years later, she talked
to a reporter about the experience and said, for years
afterwards gatherings in Dakota or Nebraska, there would always be
people walking on wooden legs, or holding fingerless hands behind
their backs, or hiding missing ears under hats, all victims
of that blizzard. That same winter also saw the Great
(05:29):
Blizzard of eighteen eighty eight in New York City. Well
over five feet of snowfell, with winds topping forty five
miles an hour. There were drifts as high as fifty
feet that's a five story building. Out at sea, two
hundred boats were either destroyed or grounded. On land, people
were trapped in their homes for weeks, and railroads and
(05:50):
telegraph lines were shut down. That actually was the impetus
to move rail tracks, electric and telegraph lines underground. The
New York Stock Exchange was closed for two days, and
a full two day weather related closure wouldn't happen again
until Hurricane Sandy in twenty twelve. So we can complain
(06:10):
about the weather all we like from the comfort of
our homes, but weather has been a lot more of
a challenge if you look back in time, I hope
you like the Backstory with Patty Steele. Please leave a review.
I would love it if you'd subscribe or follow for
free to get new episodes delivered automatically. Also feel free
to DM me if you have a story you'd like
(06:31):
me to cover. On Facebook, It's Patty Steele and on
Instagram Real Patty Steele. I'm Patty Steele. The Backstory is
a production of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks, the Elvis Durand Group,
and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer is Doug Fraser. Our
writer Jake Kushner. We have new episodes every Tuesday and Friday.
(06:55):
Feel free to reach out to me with comments and
even story suggestions on Instagram at Real Patty Steele and
on Facebook at Patty Steele. Thanks for listening to the
Backstory with Patty Steele. The pieces of history you didn't
know you needed to know
Hate to say it, but winter is only just getting underway,
in fact this weekend, and we've already had some pretty
vicious snowstorms and freezing tempts. But winters in the past
have not only been colder and snowier than we've seen recently,
Folks a century or two ago had way fewer resources
to deal with it all. I'm Patty Steele surviving forty
(00:20):
five degrees below zero and twenty five foot snow drifts
with no snowplows or central heat. That's next on the backstory.
We're back with the backstory. Everybody talks about the weather,
but nobody does anything about it. That's a quote usually
(00:41):
attributed to Mark Twain, but was probably from another writer,
Charles Warner, who worked with Twain and was a pal
either way. We all complain when it's too hot or
this time of year too cold, but imagine a time
when it was way colder and there was no central heat,
no snowplows, and really no stores to run to last
(01:02):
minute to stock up on all the stuff we weirdly
think we need during a snowstorm, like milk, bread, eggs,
ice cream, and plenty of junk food. All right, let's
go back to the winter of eighteen oh four and
eighteen oh five. It was unbearably cold across the country.
It started out with the Great Snow Hurricane. It was
an unusual tropical storm that dumped tons of snow and
(01:26):
broad devastation to New England in October of eighteen oh four,
leading up to the deep winter. Then there was an
early brutal cold snap in mid December in Washington, d c.
The Potomac River froze solid. There was a massive snowfall
in New York City sixty inches, with snow drifts fifteen
(01:46):
to twenty feet high. Temperatures across the Mid Atlantic were
constantly every day below zero. In the West, the cold
was a killer. In North Dakota, it got down to
forty five degrees below zero this very week in eighteen
oh four during the Lewis and Clark expedition. And again,
stop and think about how people had to deal with that.
(02:09):
No way to get through giant snow drifts, to get
to work, school markets, look in on friends and family.
Clearing the streets was a backbreaking job. There was some
horse drawn plows, but mostly they used guys with shovels
who would put it all in carts that had to
be pulled, as well as huge wooden rollers or cylinders
(02:29):
pulled by horses to compact the snow on the streets.
Getting around involved sleighs, again pulled by horses, as long
as the snow had been compacted. But here's the thing.
The idea that the city was responsible for snow removal
is actually a late nineteenth century to early twentieth century notion.
Even in big cities, it was the job of the
(02:51):
people that lived on each street to make sure their
road was passable otherwise sorry. Later on it became the
job of the police department to some what cleared the streets,
but mostly around city hall and in major shopping and
business areas. Residential areas again had to mostly fend for themselves.
Of course, all that cold and snow halted work, disrupted business,
(03:14):
and left a lot of folks with no income, no
ability to get to work, no pay. In essence, eighteen
oh four eighteen oh five was a landmark winter, one
of the coldest recorded in early American history. Then we
head to January twelfth, eighteen eighty eight. That day, a
powerful blizzard swept across Nebraska, with temperatures a wopping forty
(03:38):
degrees below zero. Here's the weird part. The temperature fell
about one hundred degrees in just twenty four hours as
the storm came with no warning. There actually wasn't a
ton of snow, but blinding wind speeds created whiteouts. Folks
talked about their tiering eyelids being frozen open. Two hundred
(03:58):
and thirty people died in what's been ranked as Nebraska's
most severe storm now. That blizzard is sometimes called the
school Children's Blizzard. One amazing woman named Minnie Freeman in Ord, Nebraska,
led her students through the storm, holding on to twine.
She took them to a shelter after the wind tore
the roof off the schoolhouse. Miss Freeman saved sixteen lives
(04:22):
that day, which was a lot considering many died right
at the doorstep as soon as they took a step
out into the below zero attempts and the wild winds.
Most of the kids were kept there for at least
two days waiting for rescuers. Another teacher, Lois may Rochi,
wasn't so lucky. She lost most of her kids before
(04:42):
they even stepped outside the schoolhouse. She tried to take
her remaining three, ages nine, nine, and six to a
farmhouse two hundred yards away, but they lost each other.
The children died, leaving the teacher crawling blindly through the
white out storm because of her horrible frostbitten feet. She
made it to the farmhouse, her feet fully frostbitten. She
(05:05):
later had to have them amputated. Years later, she talked
to a reporter about the experience and said, for years
afterwards gatherings in Dakota or Nebraska, there would always be
people walking on wooden legs, or holding fingerless hands behind
their backs, or hiding missing ears under hats, all victims
of that blizzard. That same winter also saw the Great
(05:29):
Blizzard of eighteen eighty eight in New York City. Well
over five feet of snowfell, with winds topping forty five
miles an hour. There were drifts as high as fifty
feet that's a five story building. Out at sea, two
hundred boats were either destroyed or grounded. On land, people
were trapped in their homes for weeks, and railroads and
(05:50):
telegraph lines were shut down. That actually was the impetus
to move rail tracks, electric and telegraph lines underground. The
New York Stock Exchange was closed for two days, and
a full two day weather related closure wouldn't happen again
until Hurricane Sandy in twenty twelve. So we can complain
(06:10):
about the weather all we like from the comfort of
our homes, but weather has been a lot more of
a challenge if you look back in time, I hope
you like the Backstory with Patty Steele. Please leave a review.
I would love it if you'd subscribe or follow for
free to get new episodes delivered automatically. Also feel free
to DM me if you have a story you'd like
(06:31):
me to cover. On Facebook, It's Patty Steele and on
Instagram Real Patty Steele. I'm Patty Steele. The Backstory is
a production of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks, the Elvis Durand Group,
and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer is Doug Fraser. Our
writer Jake Kushner. We have new episodes every Tuesday and Friday.
(06:55):
Feel free to reach out to me with comments and
even story suggestions on Instagram at Real Patty Steele and
on Facebook at Patty Steele. Thanks for listening to the
Backstory with Patty Steele. The pieces of history you didn't
know you needed to know
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