COLUMN: 23 below and over 20 in of snow

Everyone complains about the weather, but nobody does anything about it! And we don't have weather like we used to!

In January 1918 snow fell, and temperatures dropped the worst in years. Here is how it was.

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The worst blizzard in many years hit Owen County Friday night (January 11) howling its way out of the northwest forcing the snow into every crack and crevice and lashing traffic to a standstill. Snow fell all day Friday at times in blinding clouds. The thermometer hung around the 28-30 above mark until snow piled up to seven inches by 6 p.m. At 7 p.m. it was zero.

At 11 p.m., Brown's drugstore registered 13 below – this thermometer was used in recording temperatures in the previous blizzard, and we read from it in this instance to compare with the former cold snap. At 7 a.m. Saturday, the mercury showed 23 below at Brown's. Some registered as high as 13 below.

Added to the extreme cold was the vicious wind that came with such suddenness, it knocked G. W. McBride, one off his feet. High drifts were piled in the streets and on the sidewalks. The openings in recess doors in the business section proved good spots for the snow to gather, and it was knee deep in these places.

Coal and wood scarcity made suffering inevitable, and travel over the country roads was out of the question by Saturday morning. None of the rural route carriers could make their trips, and Earl Jarvis, carrier on route 5, and Ray Ault, number 2, reported that they were so badly drifted, they could not get their horses out of the barn.

Gray Vandeventer, number 3, started out Saturday and turned back.

Snow forced into houses through door and window cracks and cold penetrated homes until it was necessary to sit grouped about the stoves to find any warmth. Water pipes were frozen and many burst. Train service was delayed despite all night work by section men to keep the tracks clear of drifts. Telephone service was crippled in the rural district, and telephone service crippled to some extent.

Intense cold held throughout the day Saturday, the mercury hardly getting up to zero. At noon, it was 8 below and at 6 p.m., 10 below. Wind continued all day with unabated force, lashing dry snow into blinding clouds and piling it in monster drifts.

Snow was three feet deep in the middle of Main Street. Town folks did their buying by phone putting extra work on the delivery boys. Horses were protected by wrapping their legs knee-high in burlap and covering their shivering bodies with blankets. Not over a dozen farmers got to town over the obstructed roads and the vicious wind being too much for horseflesh to stand.

"Train schedules were shot to pieces." Vandalia trains through Spencer were from four to six hours late.

The eastbound passenger due here at 8:34 a.m. got here at 2 p.m. and at 6 p.m. was stuck in a drift at Sandborn enroute to Vincennes. The Monon through Gosport got one train through to the south Saturday, and it had a four hour fight with a 12-foot drift near Cloverdale.

The Spencer basketball team was at Cloverdale Saturday morning where it was 35 below zero at 5 a.m. One Spencer man reported 31 below here.

The force of the wind seemed to threaten some less substantial buildings and almost blistered the faces of brave outdoors.

By Sunday, the mercury rose to zero, and the sun came out, the wind died and folks congratulated themselves that the worst was past. Coal wagons were busy on Sunday, and then came an additional five inches of snow. Monday afternoon, more snow fell and by Tuesday morning 10 inches was piled on top of the other. Something over 20 inches of snow fell in the four days.

The Monday snow was recorded as the 22nd snowfall of that winter, and the older residents reported they did not recall that much snow in their lifetimes.