The Blizzard Of 1888
Railroad auction helped plot what is now the community of Cedar Bluffs
Garlyn Grosse will tell you that Cedar Bluffs is a great place to live.
For one, it's in a good location - close to Fremont and other cities.
"For hiring opportunities, if you want to work in Omaha or Lincoln, but be in a small town atmosphere, Cedar Bluffs is the place to be," said Grosse, a 125th celebration committee member.
Grosse lists other benefits such as a good school system where the teacher-student ratio is about 1 to 14, technology software and hardware and up-to-date buildings. And there's another bonus:
"We're all neighbors."
This weekend, those neighbors are inviting the public to celebrate a milestone: the town's 125th anniversary. A host of activities from children's games to a quilt show to street dances are planned to mark the founding of a town that began with an auction in 1886.
Back then, the predecessor of the Chicago Northwestern Railroad Company laid track between Fremont and Lincoln. After buying land that year, the railroad sold it at public auction to the highest bidder, stated information compiled by Earl Vanderslice in "The Cedar Bluffs Story."
In earlier accounts, Dr. A.E. Stuart would tell about the millionaire who elbowed with farmers, "each eager to gain a select spot in the new town site."
Some lots cost $150 and one was $200, but from that sale came Cedar Bluffs.
The town's name could have various origins. In the community's 75th anniversary book, Verna Bignell Spoonhour said the name may have come when someone, probably of German descent, looked across the Platte River and said: "See der bluffs." A June 1809 issue of the Cedar Bluffs Standard newspaper indicates that the town was named because of a bluff along the river that had a large quantity of cedar.
Other early day historical highlights and hard times include:
*Mail service: In the 1870s, a stage coach brought mail to the town twice weekly. The first post office was established in 1887.
*Railroad transportation: The early railroad was said to have done a thriving business in Cedar Bluffs, hauling lumber, coal and passengers to town and moving grain and livestock out, the book stated. The town's newspaper also recorded that President Teddy Roosevelt stood on the rear platform of a train and waved his hat to the crowd at Cedar Bluffs on May 1, 1903.
"Despite the high rate of speed, at which the train was going, the spectators could distinguish the President's broad grin and prominent teeth," the newspaper reported.
The Blizzard Of 1888 - News
*Weather: Many Nebraskans know about the blizzard of 1888, when a storm struck with no advance warning. The centennial book states that 17-year-old Alma Carlson, a schoolteacher near Colon, kept her students safe until help arrived.
"The Children's Blizzard." In the winter of 1888, hurricane-force winds and blowing snow created a blizzard on the Great Plains that killed at least 500. Vivid details from interviews and memoirs. Rating: 95 Until next week, remember: ¡Es mejor morir
St. Andrews in Hastings is considered the first course in America, I guess back in 1888, and we have six tremendous county courses, and we would love to play them all. We have some great courses in Westchester County, some private courses of course.
Local History: The Blizzard of 1888 - Maplewood, NJ Patch
Think this is bad? For the sake of comparison — or to remind ourselves what a difference a century makes — we're retelling the story of the Blizzard of '88. 1888, that is.
Fifty years later, the Blizzard Men and Ladies gathered to retell the story of the Blizzard of '88. They were the survivors of a storm that hit the New York metropolitan area in March 1888.
The weekend of March 10 and 11 was mild. According to The New York Herald , John J. Meisinger, buyer at Ridley's department store in Manhattan, was a local laughingstock. He had purchased a carload of unsold snow shovels for $1,200. When the shovels were delivered to his store, the temperature was 50 degrees.
Then, overnight, two storms converged and the temperature plummeted. By 6 a.m. on Monday, March 12, winds and snow descended on our area. When the anemometer on the Equitable Building's east tower broke, a former Arctic explorer who had been to the North Pole repaired it.
The New York Evening Sun described the storm poetically: "It was as if New York had been a burning candle upon which nature had clapped a snuffer," reads an unsigned editorial. Candle was right; electricity in and around Manhattan stopped at 12:07 p.m. Phone and telegraph wires froze and snapped, and train service failed altogether.
Commuters desperate to reach home here in the Oranges (of which Maplewood was a part) were stuck on westbound trains. The New York Times reported that the snowdrifts were "of tremendous proportions at some places." Engines were halted for "gangs of men with shovels," who made little headway. On March 13, only one South Orange train made it into the city. An attempt was made at noon to send a "commuter" to Newark, but abandoned cars on the rails made passage impossible, and the lack of telegraph communication between stations exacerbated the situation. The South Orange line sent out sleighs that were "kept for occasions of heavy snowfalls, and was about the only line that in the least accommodated residents..."
Many Manhattan firms reserved hotel rooms for employees, and even presidents and CEOs found themselves doubling and tripling up with strangers. Female clerks at Macy's department store spent the storm on cots in the furniture department. A New York Herald reporter wrote that saloons were doing big business, selling "car driver's drink." This, a concoction of ale and red pepper, was believed to keep drinkers warmer longer.
The Blizzard Of 1888 - Bookshelf
The Blizzard of 1888
City of snow, the Great Blizzard of 1888
A fictionalized account, told in free-verse poems, of a young girl's experience living through the 1888 "Great Blizzard" in New York City.The children's blizzard
Describes the deadly late-nineteenth-century snowstorm in the Great Plains that killed more than five hundred people including numerous schoolchildren, ...A Student Guide to Climate and Weather: Weather extremes
THE BLIZZARD OF 1888 The worst blizzard in history to hit the eastern United ... The storm quickly became known as The Blizzard of 1888 or The Great White ...Lancaster in the blizzard of 1888
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Great Blizzard of 1888 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Great Blizzard of 1888 or Great Blizzard of '88 (March 11 – March 14, 1888) was one of the most severe blizzards in United States' recorded history. ...
The Blizzard of 1888; the Impact of this Devastating Storm on ...
The Blizzard of 1888; the Impact of this Devastating Storm on New York Transit ... Many cities were hard hit by the blizzard, but New York City was hit hardest of all. ...
Great Blizzard of 1888: Information from Answers.com
Great Blizzard of '88 Mar 12, 1888. One of the most devastating blizzards to hit the northeastern US began in the early hours of Monday, Mar 12, 1888
Schoolhouse Blizzard - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Schoolhouse Blizzard, also known as the Schoolchildren's Blizzard ... [edit] The blizzard of 1888. The blizzard was preceded by a snowstorm on January 5 and 6, ...
Weather Events: The Children's Blizzard of 1888
The Children's Blizzard blasted the American Plains beginning on 12 January 1888. ... The Human Impacts of the Blizzard. In the days before high-speed weather warnings, the ...