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Magnificent snow storm

A report on the Blizzard of 1888: “Huge drifts blocked streets and halted all normal activity”

EDITOR’S NOTE: Nowhere, we bet, do people talk more about the weather than right here in the Monadnock Region, and for good reason. One of the reasons is right here on this page — the Blizzard of 1888.

The oldest inhabitant can recollect no such storm as the present.

It probably never snowed faster in this part of the country than it did from Monday morning until Tuesday morning, almost without interruption.

In addition to this the wind blew a gale continuously, and the snow was packed into deep solid drifts on all sides.

A freshly fallen snow usually lays loosely upon the ground, but this snow is very hard even where it does not appear to be much drifted. At times the snow was quite moist as it fell, and this made it pack more solidly as the wind forced it into huge drifts or swept over it as it lay upon the levels.

It is difficult to estimate the actual depth of the snow fall but it must be from two to three feet, as snows ordinarily lay and are measured.

After two o’clock Monday afternoon, the streets became practically impassable for the ladies, and by dark it was about all a man wanted to do to walk a mile in any direction. Those who were out at the time of the fire alarm, or later, got a good chance to judge what a Western blizzard must be, with the thermometer from twenty to thirty below zero. The temperature here was not down to zero by a good many degrees but those who were obliged to face the storm found difficulty in keeping the frost from nipping their ears and faces.

Several of the firemen complained of frost bites. The drivers of a funeral procession that came up from South Keene in the afternoon suffered severely from the blinding storm which filled their faces with snow and ice so that at times it was almost impossible for them to see or breathe.

After five o’clock Tuesday afternoon we doubt if a team could possibly have been driven two miles out of Keene in any direction.

The city milkmen attempted to go their rounds about dark, but we doubt if half their customers were supplied. One milk sleigh was reported abandoned on Center street and another had to seek shelter before they had been out a great while.

By nine o’clock Monday night the drifts in the streets throughout the city were almost continuous, being from three to six feet in depth.

On many of the streets there were drifts eight to ten feet deep, and persons on foot had to go in to the open lots to get past them.

The stages which leave Keene about one o’clock in the afternoon left as usual. The Chesterfield stage had to stop this side of the factory; the Marlow stage is at Surry.

Telegraphic communication with Boston was cut off during the afternoon. All wires between Washington and New York were down.

Soon after this the Boston lines via Fitchburg had to be cut near Lincoln, Mass., where a half dozen poles had to be cut down to clear the Fitchburg railroad tracks. About three o’clock a large pole in Lowell broke down, cutting off all Boston wires running to this city via Nashua.

The lines between Fitchburg and Rutland were still working Tuesday morning. The telephone line to Bellows Falls, Greenfield and Winchendon were not broken.

On the railroads, trains were kept moving, after a fashion, until late in the evening.

A freight which left Keene for the north during the afternoon got stalled between here and the summit, but managed to return to Keene.

Before six o’clock all freights on the Cheshire road were sidetracked at stations. The passenger train due here at 3 p.m. got to Ashburnham.

A snow plow and two engines left here for Ashburnham late in the afternoon. They got to Strait Line in about an hour-and-a-half. At nine o’clock the plow and locomotives were stalled about a mile from Ashburnham, and Train Dispatcher Howard, who was at Ashburnham, telegraphed that fifty men could not dig them out until the storm abated.

The Manchester and Keene passenger train was reported to be at Marlboro Monday night. The freight engine and one car left Keene about seven and were reported still laying in the snowbank near Winchester Tuesday morning.

Tuesday morning the streets of Keene presented an appearance such as no person now living ever remembers to have seen.

The sidewalks in all directions were simply impassable, the drifts being piled up almost continuously against the fences all the way from three to six feet deep.

In many places the roads were drifted as badly as the sidewalks.

Foot passengers managed to tread a narrow path in the middle of the principal streets by nine o’clock, but no teams could get about the city during the day.

One of the city teams, with four horses attached, plowed out a narrow roadway through Vernon street and thence down Court and Main streets in the morning, and several other streets were broken out in the same manner during the day.

Hardly a sleigh or hack was seen in the Square during the day, however. No butcher’s teams or delivery teams of any sort attempted to make trips to any part of the city.

But little business could be done at the different manufacturers in town, as many of the workmen could not get into their work. We believe most of the shops were running in the afternoon, however.

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