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Continued: Sylvia Almira patented two parcels of land in Jerauld Co., South Dakota: 160 acres 21 April 1888, and 160 acres 5 September 1891. She lived with three step-children and her two children by Edgar Phillips in Iowa, South Dakota and Oregon following the death of her husband.
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History of Jerauld County, South Dakota (N.J. Drummond, 1910):
(p. 174) "Frank B. Phillips was the regular teacher at the Teasdale school house in the northeast corner of Dale Township. Business matters called him away for a couple days, and his [step] mother took his place for the 11th and 12th. She spent the night of the 11th with her [step] daughter, Mrs. B. B. Beadell, who resided on the Northeast quarter of Section 1 of that township. On the morning of the 12th, her little grandson, Jesse Beadell [who was 14 1/2 years old], took her with a one-horse sled to the school house. A few moments after their arrival, the storm began. They remained in the school house several hours waiting for the storm to abate. The horse still hitched to the sleigh stood at the south end of the building, but the whirling snow was fact covering it. Pity for the poor horse prompted the boy and his grandmother to attempt to go to her home, three miles southeast, on the NE ¼ of 19 in Alpena township. The road was little better than a path across the prairie and could not be followed. When about a mile from home, they encountered a corn field, where the horse fell in the deep snow. Walking was impossible, and by this time they could not tell which way to go. The boy then kicked the now away from the sled as much as possible and tipped it up so as to form a shelter from the wind and snow. He wrapped the robes [a buffalo robe] about Mrs. Phillips so as to keep her as warm as possible and then crawled down beside her to wait. Darkness came on, and still the storm raged. About daylight the next morning, Jesse was able to see his uncles house about a half mile away, and he told his grandmother to remain under the sled while he went for help. As he rose from his cramped position, he saw the horse a few rods away. His limbs were numb, and he could scarcely stand, yet he made a brave effort and staggered along toward the house some distance before he succumbed to the intense cold. And there they found him a few hours later. Mrs. Phillips was rescued, but terrible chilled and badly frozen.”
(p. 359) “… On this quarter section [NE ¼ of Sec. 13, 108, 64, owned in 1910 by George Reinhart], Jesse Beadell and his [step] grandmother, Mrs. Phillips, spent the night of Jan. 12th, 1888, under an overturned sled. The next morning the lad started for assistance, but did not go far before he succumbed to the intense cold. Relatives, a little while later, found his lifeless body, and rescued the old lady badly chilled.”
An account of the incident is also described in David Laskin's book, The Children's Blizzard. In correspondence with the compiler, Mr. Laskins cited his source as the History of Jerauld Co., South Dakota.
Jesse Beadell's limbs were so cold that when his blood started circulating, it chilled him and caused his heart to go into shock. Many children who survived a cold night died in this way. Sylvia survived.
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According to Flora (Phillips) beadell, letter to Edith (Arne) Phillips, dated 1 June 1934, Sumner, Washington: "... I think father [Edgar E. Phillips] bought it--the [buffalo] robe--in Kalamazoo, Mich., although I could not swear to that as I was only sixteen when we moved to Iowa. We had another older robe that was getting too shabby ... For a few years, the robe was taken extra care of. The old robe was left in Michigan. So you see I was married in 1869 the year I was 20, my knowledge of the robe is not very authentic. ... All I am pretty sure of is that my father [Edgar E. Phillips] bought the robe before I was sixteen [before 1865], and at that time we lived in Kalamazoo Co., Mich. ..."
The buffalo robe that sheltered them was kept by the Frank B. Phillips family when they moved to Oregon . After his death in 1931, his widow, Edith, gifted the robe to the Horner Museum at Oregon State University:
"Oregon State College Museum
Corvallis, Oregon
Accession No. 8087; Division: Relic; Gift
Row 3, Case 1, Section 3, Shelf 1
Article: Buffalo Robe
Source: Alpena, South Dakota
Donor: Mrs. Edith Phillips
Address: Corvalis, Oregon
Received: July 1934
Story: This robe saved the life of Mrs. Sylvia A. Phillips and her grandson Jesse Beadell of Alpena, So. Dak. when they were caught in a blizzard Jan. 8, 1889. They remained alive over night by wrapping themselves in this robe and buring themselves under the cutter in the snow. When morning came the grandson went to get help and his body was later found in the snow some distance from the cutter. The donor was a daughter-in-law of the Mrs. Sylvia Phillips."
(Copy shared by Bev Christensen, Tillamook, Oregon.)
The Horner Museum was mothballed in 1995, and the collection was transferred to the Benton County Historical Society in 2005.
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