And then there was the heroic 15 year old schoolmarm in Nebraska during the Blizzard of 1888, when hundreds of one-room schoolchildren and teachers were trapped and perished, who saved her entire class by tying them together as the schoolhouse blew apart and led them all to safety through the blinding storm (I have this info, but I'd have to LIU). A wonderful story which should be more widely known.

Here's a capsule look at the story. The one-room school teacher was Minnie Freeman, she was just 15 at the time, and she led all her students to safety by tying them together with a rope made from her cloak when their sod schoolhouse blew apart. To explore the story more you can Google "Minnie Freeman Nebraska 1888", all the major hits are there. I'll be back with some more good links, momentarily, to the story and the horrific intensity of the fabled storm so check back here for them. I don't know how inspiring stories like this one get lost, but. I stumbled across this story when I was researching one-room schoolhouses for my schoolmaster character/presentation.


MYRA VALLEY, NEB - A blizzard here on January 12, 1888, trapped teacher Minnie Freeman and her students in their little sod schoolhouse. When the storm blew in the school's windows and tore off the roof, Minnie decided to make a run for safety. She tied here thirteen young students to one another and led them into the howling 45-mile-an-hour wind and snow to a house about a mile away. Minnie became famous across the nation as the heroine of what became known as the "School children's Storm." Grade schoolers as far away as Boston wrote essays in her honor, and because of the newspaper stories of her exploit, she received over 80 marriage proposals. The song "Thirteen Were Saved," was inspired by Minnie' account of the ordeal.

(scroll three-quarters the way down to the paragraph which begins "The third and last great storm came January 12, 1888", and read thru the end:

http://www.ku.edu/~kansite/hvn/books/nbstory/story38.html

(scroll down to "The Blizzard of 1888" and read to the end):

http://www.rootsweb.com/~neresour/OLLibrary/pionrem/nepr0190.html

http://www.elkhornvalleymuseum.org/newsletter02-1k.htm

I finally found the link I was looking for. Here's an excellent account of the Blizzard of 1888 (it started as a mild January that day, the children wore just light jackets to school...but the storm came up so suddenly over the plains that the pressure dropped and the temperatures fell to 30-40 below zero in minutes!!) and Minnie Freeman's entrapment and rescue. Scroll down to Several years may now have passed over and we come to 1888 and the Historic Blizzard of 1888. (here's an excerpt):

While many other instances of snowbound people could be told we will not now weary the reader with them. However it seems that the story of the January blizzard is never considered complete without the story of Minnie Freeman, the Midvale heroine. We therefore reiterate it here, and add our personal views on the matter. The Ord Quiz of January 20 contains the following:

"The manner in which this modest and unaspiring school teacher saved the lives of all her pupils during the great storm of Jan. 12, 1888, has won for her wide renown. The forenoon of that day was mild and damp, with a warm breeze from the south. But just at noon, without a minute warning, a hurricane blast came from the north. In an instant the temperature fell several degrees below zero, and the flying snow made it impossible to see but a few feet away. The first blast broke in the door of Miss Freeman's school house. With the aid of her larger pupils she closed and nailed it. A moment later the door gave way again and was irreparable; and to add to the dilemma, a portion of the roof was torn away also. Something must be done at once. There was no alternative. Her sixteen pupils must be taken to the nearest house, a half-mile against the storm. At the peril of her own life, and with calm presence of mind and forethought she hastily but carefully covered the faces of her younger pupils and to prevent them from being lost-for in the terrible storm to wander away (195) a few feet was to be certainly lost--she tied them together. The older pupils she placed in the lead, and to see that none faltered, she brought up the rear. Thus was the heroic march begun and successfully accomplished."

http://www.livgenmi.com/1906loup~chapter~sixteen.htm

(and, Dub-Dub, the first two links have some local poetry about this which you might find intriguing)

[edit: I worked almost an hour on putting this post together, and when I came back to the window with the final link I got a "page has expired' message!!! [shudder, shudder] But I managed to get it back somehow with the refresh and and clicking the menu it put up. Thump goes the heart! ]