By Jessica Gorman
The Great Blizzard, or the Great Arctic Outbreak, of 1899 was repeatedly described as the “coldest ever known” with extreme winter weather conditions reported across the country. Every state experienced temperatures below zero.
Much of what we know about the experience locally is learned from Shreveport newspapers. The Shreveport Times reported a temperature of ten degrees on the morning of February 8th being “three degrees colder than ever known here before.” Two days later, they reported that five inches of snow had fallen and the next day snow was falling again.
According to the Guardian-Journal of Homer, “the oldest inhabitant cannot remember such a spell of weather as that through which we are just passing. It has been cold for two weeks and Thursday at noon it commenced snowing and since that time we have had regular north Dakota weather.”
On 12 Feb 1899, the Shreveport Journal “stated yesterday the present severe cold spell is the worst known in years, and this latitude has been visited with heavy snow falls in all directions at various depths. For a week now this wintry condition has existed unbroken.”
Snow, sleet, cold rain, and freezing temperatures continued. Everything slowed to crawl. Businesses, churches, and schools closed. Trains stopped, harbors froze, crops were destroyed, people and animals froze to death. Even the Mississippi River froze above Cairo, Illinois.
The known, existing Minden newspapers from the month of February 1899 are limited to only a few pages. A contributor from Springhill reported, “nothing has been done here for the past week except get wood and make fires and feed and shelter stock to keep them from freezing.
The heaviest snow fell here last week that has fallen here in many years. The ground was frozen when the snow began to fall, and it continued turning cold until it about reached the ‘cold Friday.’ It is said the ice was five inches thick in the mill pond.”
At Sikes Ferry, “…weather still prevails. The farmers are badly behind with their farm work; some are not yet done picking cotton. The weather has been so bad for several weeks that the farmers could not work.” This news was echoed in the Martin community.
The coldest temperature on record in the state of Louisiana, -16 degrees, was recorded at Minden on February 13th. The day before, despite the bitter cold, family and friends of Mrs. Elizabeth Monzingo made the trek to the Minden Cemetery where she was buried. “The mantle of snow being typical of the life the deceased had just surrended to Him who called her into being over 78 years ago.” On Valentine’s Day, the scene repeated as Mrs. Mary A. Chaffe, wife of J.C.T. Chaffe, was laid to rest.
That Valentine’s Day was also Mardi Gras. Several residents of Minden had gone to New Orleans for the festivities, among them were Judge John T. Watkins, J.N. Sandlin, L. Wren, Brown Reagan, and W.A. Sugg. Even with several inches of snow on the ground, the Rex Parade still rolled through the streets. Ice flowed down the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico.
Much to everyone’s relief, the cold temperatures soon began to rise. Within a week, a contributor to the Webster Signal reported, “the cold wave has passed off and everybody is in high spirits.”
(Jessica Gorman is Executive Director of the Dorcheat Historical Association Museum, Webster Parish Historian, President of the Minden Cemetery Association, and an avid genealogist.)