The Children's Blizzard

   Today is the 129th anniversary of the Great Blizzard. It is also known as the Children's Blizzard because it hit without warning around the time many were walking home from school. Our "Family Tome," called simply, The Family of Soren and Anne Sine Jensen 1842-1974, contains the following story on page 2:

   "On January 12, 1888, the birthday of Sine Jensen, the Great Blizzard struck. The morning was crisp and clear. The older children went to March School, about 2 miles southeast of the homestead. The older boys of the family went to school only in the winter when there was no farm work to be done. A Miss Erwin was the teacher.

   Around noon the temperature started going down. The wind came up and snow started to fall. The teacher would ot allow any of the children to leave, as the storm became worse and worse. When it became evident that the parents would not come for their children, the teacher had the older pupils help dress the younger ones in all the clothes they had. She asked Jens Jensen, her oldest pupil, eighteen years of age, to lead them, each holding another child's hand. Jens held onto the barbed wire fence in the lead, and the teacher was at the end of the line. The group, moving single fiel, left the school blindly, guided only by the barbed wire fence. Approximately two hours later, they reached the Erwin place, three-quarters of a mile northwest of the school. All were safe and Mr. and Mrs. Erwin cared for them until their own parents could come for them late the following afternoon.

   When the storm finally abated the next day, Soren set out on horseback to search for his children. After an unsuccessful visit to the schoolhouse, he went to the Erwins, hoping they might have some information. Here he found all the children safe and sound. Jens Jensen was ever after known as March School's Blizzard Hero. Peter, Nels, Mary, and Andrew also were among the pupils who were well taken care of by the Erwins."

There are many, many stories of both survival and loss from this terrible day. A great book to read for more information is The Children's Blizzard by David Laskin.

 

The Largest Stone on the Highest Hill

Soren Jensen's Plot in the Blair Cemetery

  Soren Jensen was born August 3, 1842 in Vejle, Denmark. He emigrated to the United States in 1864, eventually making his way to Omaha, Nebraska, where he was employed by the Union Pacific Railroad. While there, he met Anne Sine Petersen, who had emigrated from Denmark with her parents in 1860. They stayed in Omaha until after their first child, Anna, was born. Soren decided to take up farming and so the little family moved north to Lincoln Township in Washington County, Nebraska. 

Soren and Anne Sine Jensen's Grave Marker in Blair Cemetery

   

   On January 5th, 1888, a local newspaper, The Pilot, printed the following, "Soren Jensen has just purchased another 120 acres of land. This he told The Pilot now gives him eleven 80-acre farms, one for each of his children. When Soren settled out here, he had few neighbors, and those he had regarded him as a green Scandanavian. But he has since bought them all out and now owns the land that was theirs when he went there. It took pluck and hard knocks to do it but he settled there with determination to succeed." 

A Close-Up of the Inscription

I'd love to have known this man. How did his pluck and drive to succeed translate to his personality? I think there had to be a healthy sense of humor and a well developed sense of irony in this man. I'd guess that he was quite competitive as well.  No one puts Jensen in a corner! Not only did the orphan boy from Denmark buy out his neighbors' farms, he also bought the best plot in Blair Cemetery. Soren Jensen and his wife Anne Sine are buried on a hill near a bluff, with an amazing view of the surrounding countryside. The stone marking their family plot was imported from Denmark. It is (or at least it was at its time of erection) the largest marker in the cemetery. A person will never have trouble finding Soren's last resting place!

Soren Jensen

Anne Sine Petersen Jensen

The View

   Anne Sine's parents, of whom I will write more later, were also buried in Soren's plot. I wonder what they thought of their son-in-law?