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New York Ontario & Western Railway (O&W) plow, c. 1880. Image courtesy of Cornell University.
By and large, municipal snow removal was a 20th century phenomenon in Newburyport, worthy of its own study. We shall see if I can bring myself to do more research on the white stuff in the future. For now, I bring you excerpts from the harrowing, though somewhat humorous tale of the Rowley snowdrift that won against the locomotives and railroad plows of January 28, 1881.
145 years ago, the Ice King still held the Boston & Maine.
A BIG BLOCKADE.
Two Eastern Railroad Trains Ten Hours Frozen In.
The Ice King Still Holds the Boston & Maine.
TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE OF THE RAILROAD MEN.
And Not a Whit Better For Unlucky Passengers.
Friday, the twenty-eighth day of January, 1881, will be booked in diaries as one of the
most bitter cold days and nights for years, and will be remembered by railroad men and
unlucky snow bound passengers with a devout wish that it may not soon be repeated.
The Driven Snow.
All day long the wind blew in fearful gusts and the mercury hovered about the point
known as “very cold;” but it was not for the passers to and fro on the streets to
experience a tithe of the gale, which blew with such fearful fury just outside the limits
of the city, when the air was laden with flying snow as thickly as during the heaviest
snow storm, and of a quality that cut, drifted and packed in like Plum Island sand. The
fearful drifts of snow was the occasion of blockades on the two railroads running into
this city, such as has not happened since the famous snow storm of January 17, 1857.
The Eastern Railroad Blockade—How It Started.
Freight train 95, left Boston as usual, at 5 o’clock, Friday morning. It was due in this
city at 10.20 and everything went fairly well, until about 12 o’clock. At that time the
train had reached a point near Rowley’s Floyd’s Lane, to call it by its modern name,
and here found a drift of snow, which had blown in in a most solid manner. The engine
valiantly butted the drift and soon found it as unyielding as a rock.
Two of a Kind.
While thus struggling the Amesbury freight train came along and innocently tried to
push its companion through. In vain, however, and after a consultation it was decided
“to strip,” so to speak. Accordingly the engine of the Amesbury train drew both freights
back to Knight’s crossing, left them on a side track, and returned to the encounter. An
attack was then made upon the drift, and resulted no better than before.
No 3 On the Spot.
At this turn of the game the passenger train in this city at 2.05 came along, on time.
Having doubled up, with no avail, it resolved to try three of a kind, and accordingly the
pin was pulled, and engine No. 3 was hauled or shackled on to the other two. Three of
a kind is generally pretty good, but a little pile of snow successfully baffled the
combined efforts of these monsters, and it was given up, and aid sent for to this city.
Reinforcements Held In Check.
The next move was to dispatch two engines from the depot, attached to a snow plow; but
the stubborn snow drift here presented a new phase. It wouldn’t allow the reinforcements
to come up with the main body, and in spite of their efforts the engines could not push
the plow through the drift, and the five pumping and panting locomotives stood completely
baffled.
Waiting for Something to Turn Up.
Meanwhile the day waned and other trains arrived. Conductor Garland’s train due at 4.40,
came up, took in the situation and backed to Knight’s crossing, a most happy anchorage,
right under the lee of Tibbett’s bakery, from which Mr. Garland regaled passengers, with
hot coffee, tea and eatables. The passengers of the first train, all this time were in a
most miserable state of feeling, being “a mile from nowhere” and with nothing to eat.
They were a most unhappy lot, when found by a representative of the HERALD, who faced
the blinding gusts of wind in search of news, and who brought them the first provisions.
Some few of the men from these two trains, walked to town, and one or two returned with
eatables of various sorts, so that after a time they were more comfortable.
Other Trains Laid Up.
When one train gets completely blocked, of course all are in the same predicament.
Accordingly the 4.45 train out of Boston, due here at 6.15 came to a stop at Rowley;
Conductor Johnson’s train, due here at 7.30 came down to the blockade and waited; and
Pullman train, due here at 8.20 made a halt at Ipswich; the two afternoon up trains, one
due here at 3.33, arrived somewhat late, and halted in the depot; and the train due here
from the east at 6.15 remained at Salisbury. The numerous freight trains were hardly
considered.
Breaking Through.
For hours a gang of men worked with picks and shovels, and at 10 o’clock in the evening
the first point was gained, when one of the engines succeeded in getting to the depot.
Taking in a fresh supply of water and fuel she returned to the drift, and at 11 o’clock
all five of the engines came through and stopped at the round house for food and drink.
This done, the work of hauling in the trains began.
The Track Clear.
At just five minutes past twelve o’clock the first passenger train ten hours late arrived
at the depot. This was drawn by two engines, and had a snow plow attached; after a stop
of a few minutes it started east, bound for Portland. Close behind came Conductor Johnson’s
train, and never were pilgrims more pleased when their journey over than were the
Newburyport passengers. Next the train for Boston which should have left at 3.55 started,
drawn by two engines, and never was the “lurid glare of the locomotive” more fully
illustrated. Everything seemed frozen stiff, frozen to the rails it were, and as the huge
drivers of the two engines went round and round, the sand which was laid down under the
wheels was turned to sparks by the friction, and the drivers looked like immense pinwheels
whirling swiftly around. At the same time the puffs lighted up the cold sky with a glaring
flame from the smokestack, and the great machine looked more like subterranean and infernal
monsters than the mere tools of man. After this train the others passed through, though
somewhat varied from their usual order.
On the Boston & Maine—Another Ill Omened Freight.
On the Boston & Maine road the blockade was also caused by a freight train left this city,
about noon, with coal for Lawrence. At the first cut, just beyond the River and about a mile
from here, it encountered a snow drift and there it stopped. The passenger train 2.22 came
along on time, until it struck the lumbering freight, when it also stopped. Conductor
Skinner’s train, due [illegible], also found itself in a similar condition.
The telegraph wire on this road was down; the station agent thought that Coombs’ and
Conductor Hoyt’s train were between the blockade and Georgetown, forward at Byfield.
If the passengers of the Eastern road were blockaded in a close wilderness those on the
Boston & Maine were in worse wilderness; but some hardy ones had the courage and kindly
spirit to face it and come to town for provisions; hoped they passed a night as comfortable
as possible under the circumstances. The freight had to have its fires watched; seemed no
chance of their getting out before this forenoon...
Items and Incidents.
-A number of persons who were out in the wind were badly frost bitten in the face, and
frozen ears can be numbered by the dozen.
-The snow was so solid that in places axes had to be used. Stephen Gardner led a horse out
to bring home the entire party, including the driver, over the tops of drifts several feet,
without breaking through.
-As the engineers came into the office at the Eastern railroad to get orders, after the road
was cleared, [someone] delivered the encouraging admonition to go out for a big drift at
Hampton Falls.
-We are indebted to D. C. Worcester, J. B. Brown, and others for copies of Boston evening
papers. The news-boys did not receive their bundles.
-Postmaster Noyes drove out mid-way and walked the rest, and our mail due here at 2.30. This
was about six o’clock and was the last received last night.
-Roadmaster Stevens, of the Eastern, was at the scene of the difficulty and managed affairs.
-One of Lucy’s coaches was drifted at Turnpike crossing, upset, and was buried in the snow
that it had plowed here and the horses rode loose.
-All the laborers that could be were hired by the two roads to dig out the trains, at
twenty-five cents per hour. Laborers were pretty scarce, however.
-The restaurants of the city, those near the Eastern depot, fared well. Conductors Johnson
and Garland are entitled to credit for feeding their trains.
-Little’s Haverhill stage encountered a drift, near Charlie Gardner’s, West Newbury yesterday
afternoon, and was abandoned.
-The late Amesbury horse cars did not run last evening. It was bad enough in getting the
6 o’clock Amesbury down.
-Dispatches received at 3 o’clock this morning announced that the up and down trains had
arrived all right at Salem and Portsmouth.
-Several stop-over passengers, who said that they would take no farther risks over in the
woods, when the mid-day train left, undertook to find a hotel. They did not succeeded in rousing
any one, but lay the rest of the night very comfortably at the police station.
-E. S. Moseley made two attempts home from the train. The second fell in a snow bank and was
found by Northend and John Moore, who with difficulty assisted him back to the train.
Moseley was badly frost-bitten.
-A supply engine, with food, was dispatched by passenger agent Richardson, about 9 o’clock, and it was welcome to the passengers.
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