This month marks the 150th anniversary of the Jan. 7, 1873, snowstorm that struck the region. For three days, the blizzard raged. The temperature was from 18 to 40 degrees below zero. Author, Carolyn Mankell Sowinski, recently published her new book, “The Great Storm: Minnesota’s Victims in the Blizzard of January 7, 1873”. Through her research, she identified 84 victims from 31 Minnesota counties. Her book includes stories on some of the victims. One story is on the Loren Fox family from Lynd Township in Lyon County.

On Nov. 1, 1871, Loren Fox applied for a homestead of 80 acres in Section 2 of Lynd Township in Lyon County. On the same date, a relative, Marvin Chase, also applied for a homestead next to the Fox land. During the January 1873 storm, Loren Fox, his wife Mary, daughter Winona, and Marvin Chase were on their way home from Redwood Falls, when they became lost in the storm not far from the site of the original Catholic Church in Marshall. Becoming lost and not knowing where they were, they unhitched the oxen and overturned the wagon box to fix a shelter. After the storm abated, the family was found. Marvin and Winona perished. Loren was severely frozen and died the next day. Mary survived. Loren and Mary’s daughter Virginia was not with the party. Following the death of her father, Virginia lived with her paternal grandmother, Cynthia (Chase) Fox. On May 21, 1874, Mary married Ole P. Halls (aka O.P. Hall) who lived in Redwood County. The Fox’s homestead application for the land in Section 2 of Lynd Township was officially canceled on Aug. 17, 1874.

It was during this storm, that the word blizzard was supposedly coined in Marshall. The origin of the word blizzard in the sense of a severe snowstorm remains somewhat mysterious. Several towns in the upper Midwest have been mentioned over the years as the source of the word blizzard, including Marshall. According to Arthur P. Rose’s 1912 History of Lyon County, “there is evidence that the word, blizzard, was coined in Marshall during the memorable storm of January, 1873”.

The Lyon County News of March 2, 1883 reported:

“The word blizzard was first used in Marshall, Minnesota by an American settler, now residing in Iowa. It was in the storm of 1873, at Charles H. Whitney’s hotel, and the man was Deacon Seth Knowles, who was a settler of Lyon County near this village. The deacon was a fine German scholar, and while discussing the terrible storm raging without one speaker said no word could express its severity, whereupon the deacon said: ‘It’s a blitzartig!’ So the great storm of 1873 was locally known, and with recurring storms the term spread through the state. The deacon knew what he was talking about and adapted the term to the terrors of the storm. A German witnessing one of these overpowering storms would say: ‘Der Sturm kommt blitzartig,’ which, translated into English would be: ‘The storm comes lighting-like.’ The transition from blitzartig to blizzard is natural and easy, while no word could better describe the oncoming snow and wind storm, and certainly there is no English word to fill the bill. The newness of the term and its pronunciation led the deacon to step to the counter of the hotel and write the word for the benefit of his friends.”

As mentioned above, several towns in the upper Midwest have been mentioned over the years as the source of the word blizzard. One researcher credits the source of blizzard to Estherville, Iowa, where the word was first used in their newspaper in 1870, so 13 years before the Lyon County News story and 3 years before the storm of 1873. Other sources claim the word blizzard was used to describe the winter storms before 1870, with one article using the word dates back to 1829 in Virginia. The exact origin of who coined the word blizzard may never be known for sure, but the definition has not changed and it is German in origin. While the word blizzard may or may not have been coined in Marshall, the newspaper article of March 2, 1883, does describe the intensity winter storms can play. In any case, the newspaper article from 1883 is a very interesting read, and it is a part of Marshall’s history.

The photograph featured this week from the Lyon County Museum’s collection is a postcard photograph showing snow covering the railroad tracks. Marshall, Minnesota is printed on the photograph. This photograph was likely taken in 1909 when severe snowstorm struck the region in February, 1909.

The Lyon County Historical Society (LCHS) is a non-profit, member-supported organization. LCHS operates the Lyon County Museum at 301 W Lyon St in Marshall. The Lyon County Museum is open to visitors. To contact us, visit our website: www.lyoncomuseum.org, call: 507-537-6580, email: director@lyoncomuseum.org, or on our Facebook page.