|
a.
|
Continued: He died after spending the night of Jan. 12, 1888 huddled in a buffalo robe with his step-grandmother, Sylvia Phillips, under an overturned sled during the great blizzard that winter.
History of Jerauld County, South Dakota (N.J. Drummond, 1910):
(p. 174) "[Mrs. Sylvia Phillips] 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 [step] 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.”
The buffalo robe mentioned above was donated to the Horner Museum at Oregon State University.
|
