The Blizzard of 1918

Lea County Families and History, Then and Now, Vol I, 1979

Written by: Mettie Jordan

     Have you ever been exposed to a real blizzard, the kind that drives everything before it? The kind that freezes to death people and animals that are exposed on the open plain? The kind that drives animals before it until their paths is obstructed by a fence corner, and there they pile one upon the other and die in heaps.

     Such a blizzard hit Lea County New Mexico in the early morning hours of January 10th, 1918, a catastrophe that wiped out life savings of homesteaders who had survived the devastating drought of 1917.

&     About 4:00 o'clock that morning S.P. Jordan was in his bedroll beside the freight wagon with his teams hobbled nearby. He had hoped to rise early, drive hard, and reach Seagraves by nightfall.

     When the wind and snow hit he got up and tried to build a fire to cook breakfast. The wind blew out  match after match until the last match was gone. There was no way to get breakfast. To reach Seagraves he would have to drive fifty miles into the face of the wind. This could not be done. He hitched his team of white lead horses and and team of mules to the wagon, and with his back to the wind, headed for home, thirteen miles southwest.

     At his home about this time, his wife Linnie, was awakened in the freezing darkness by the howling gust of wind, and the bawling of the cows and calves. This was no ordinary winter storm. With kindling and mesquite roots she built a fire in the stove in the living room of the adobe house, and in the kitchen stove in the dugout.

     Her two sons and six daughters were asleep. She awakened Roy and Clarence and said: "Boys, you had better run and let the sheep out of the pen before the weather gets worse."

     She milked the cows and turned them out and fed the chickens. Then she cooked breakfast and waited anxiously for the boys to return.

     The wind had not reached its full fury, so Roy and Clarence were able to face the storm the mile and a half to the north where the sheep were penned on the Hughes place. They opened the gate and drove the sheep south and slightly east until they reached the gate north of the two-acre school ground. Home was still one half mile southeast. Driving the sheep through the gate against the wind was an almost impossible task. When they finally got  the last sheep through they closed the gate and went home hoping that the sheep would go on home. However, most of them stopped and jammed against the fence and gate - an incident that almost cost the life of S. P. Jordan. Sheep on the east edge of the flock drifted around the school ground and rushed toward home and the earthen water tank. As they went over the dam, the ones behind pushed the ones before them and pushed them into the water. There they stood frozen solid for days.

     After S. P. Jordan had hitched his teams to the freight wagon and left the Number Four Mill, he managed to follow the wagon road through the Reeves pasture over the flat prairie and over the hill  into the valley, to the Mumber One Mill and John Gaither's home. Here he left the team of mules belonging to John Gaither, and with his lead team of white horses, went toward home.

     The intensity of the storm increased. When he reached the gate one half mile north of the house he found the gate blocked by the herd of sheep piled against the gate. It seemed there was no way to force them back to let the wagon through. But with ingenuity and strength born of desperation he finally got the wagon through. But for the rest of the way home the wind was not to his back, but slightly to the left because if he went with the wind he would miss the house. How could he steer the horses enough to the left to reach the house? His hands and face and feet were freezing. Desperately, he wrapped the reins around his freezing left arm and pulled with all his strength while he whipped his faithful horses, Prince and Dock, to force them left so he could reach the house. He succeeded.

     Roy and Clarence helped him from the wagon and unhitched the horses. But the horses were so exhausted and so frozen that they did not move when they were unhitched, but simply stood in their tracks until Roy and Clarence slapped and drove them into the shelter beside the house.

     All day and into the night the blizzard raged. It was not until the following day that neighbors were ale to check and learn how each other had fared. It was many days before the full story of the stark tragedy was learned - how some herds were saved by cowboys going ahead of them on horseback and cutting the fences and letting them drift southwest into the Pecos valley.

     Stories came that sheepherders were frozen to death as they tended their sheep on the prairie.

     Then there was blind Mr. Greenwood of Eunice, and his fourteen year old son camped near the Joe Graham ranch. The Grahams thought they heard a coyote howling. But when the storm was over, Mr. Greenwoods body was found near the Graham house. The boy's body was found near the wagon bareheaded, with his cap tied over his right foot. The horses were found with bridles on, so it is assumed the boy had found the horses, was riding one and had fallen off.

     The devastation was staggering. Homesteaders were crushed by the enormity of the disaster. Many, overwhelmed by financial losses moved away. Some not knowing what else to do, struggled to make a new start, or simply held on