TIMES ARE CHANGING

The winter of 1875, was very severe in central Iowa, and area homesteaders suffered and endured many hardships. It was especially bad in the open countryside that had been claimed from the prairie a scant 20 years earlier.

Cold stormy weather took a grip for many weeks and made travel almost impossible. For many sheer survival
become the only goal for the seemingly endless winter.

In February of that winter a Mr. Oltmann living on the county line Northeast of Steamboat Rock, made a much needed trip into town to the Lathrop Mill by team and sled to have some wheat ground for flour. Their supply was all but exhausted.

While at the mill the weather grew worse and worse until a full fledged blizzard was raging. Being advised to
remain in town, Mr. Oltmann’s concern for his family’s serious food shortage prompted him to turn his team for home in the face of the adverse weather conditions.

On the way home the sled must have upset in the deep snow. The horses arrived at home after dark with only the sled tongue hitched to the harnesses between them. It was all Mrs. Oltmann could do to get the horses in the barn, out of the weather. Though deeply concerned she was unable to leave to find help because the weather was so unbearable, and she had 3 small children at home, one still a baby.

The following morning the weather gave her an opportunity to reach the home of the Geerdes’s who were nearby neighbors. As the weather moderated a search party set out to try to fined Mr. Oltmann, hoping that he had somehow found shelter from the storm. They took a westerly route through fields toward Steamboat Rock looking for signs the horses might have made on their return to the farm, but the gale force winds of the
storm had obliterated all tracks.

About half way to Steamboat they found some scattered wreckage of the sled, and a bit further on they found Mr. Oltmann’s dog.

The dog was alive but acting strange and would let no one get near, as if he were guarding something. It became necessary to shoot the dog, and on doing so found Mr. Oltmann’s frozen body beneath the snow
where the dog had maintained his faithful vigil at his masters side.

Mr. Oltmann, the unfortunate victim of the unforgiving elements had died of exposure, but not alone.

The same blizzard also claimed the life of a young girl named Fluth living several miles to the northeast. She also died of exposure when she became disoriented by the force of the storm while helping with the farm chores and wondered off in the wrong direction.