On January 12, 1888, the “Schoolhouse Blizzard”—one of the deadliest winter storms in American history—swept across the Northern Plains. Schoolteacher Minnie Mae Freeman became a national hero for leading her students through the blinding snow and bitter cold to safety near Ord, Nebraska. Freeman was among the many settlers who moved to Nebraska after it became the nation’s 37th state in 1867. Between 1870 and 1890, the state’s population surged from 122,993 to 1,058,910. More than a century later, Nebraska continues to grow. In 2024, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated that 2,005,465 people called the “Cornhusker State” home.

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On the morning of January 12, many Midwesterners awoke to unusually warm weather as morning temperatures rose to near 50°Fahrenheit. Unaware of the arctic cold front that was moving eastward, many adults and children welcomed the respite from winter and left home without their warm winter clothing. In Huron, Dakota Territory, the temperature rose into the 40s°F and many children left for school without winter coats. However, as the arctic cold front bore down on the city, the temperature plunged to 20° by noon, and minus 10° as students left school in the afternoon. After sunset, temperatures across the plains fell further still. Huron's air temperature tumbled to minus 27° and North Platte, Nebraska, saw temperatures plunge to minus 10°F. Similarly, the mercury fell to minus 10° in Des Moines, Iowa. Anyone caught outside would have been lashed by 50mph winds driving waves of ice and snow into immense drifts. 

Near Ord, Nebraska, raging winds ripped the door and the roof off Minnie Freeman's sod schoolhouse. The 19-year-old schoolteacher tethered 12 of the students together with twine and carried the youngest in her arms. They staggered through the drifting snow, eventually reaching a farmhouse about a half mile away. 

Freeman and her students survived, but many others were not so lucky. The intensity of the blizzard and biting cold was so disorienting that adults and children alike quickly became lost and unable to find shelter. Seventy-year-old farmer Ole Olesen Tisland died just 12 feet from his home after tending livestock near Brookings, Dakota Territory. Twenty-five miles west of Lincoln, Nebraska, schoolteacher Allie Etta Shattuck was lost and exhausted when she sought shelter inside a haystack. It took days for searchers to rescue her, but she died after surgery to treat her frostbitten limbs. In Plainview, Nebraska, Loie May Royce attempted to lead three students to her home located less than 90 yards from the schoolhouse. Blinded by the wind-driven snow they lost their way. When searchers found them the next morning, the children had perished and Royce's limbs were frostbitten. In Turner County, South Dakota, John Albrecht, Peter Graber, Henry Kaufman, John Kaufman, and Elias Kaufman left school together. They were soon lost and wandered through the storm for miles. Their bodies were found buried in snow four days later. In Coburg, Iowa, Georgie, John, and Bertrand Denlinger got lost in the storm as they walked home from school. Forced to spend the night outside, Georgie froze to death, but his siblings survived.

Although "just" 4 to 12 inches of snow were reported at stations in Huron and Sioux Falls, Dakota Territory; Norfolk, Nebraska; Marshall, Minnesota; and Sioux City, Iowa; the bone-chilling temperatures and high winds created extremely fine snow that suffocated humans and livestock. Rescue efforts were hampered by the towering drifts that buried roads, homes, and victims. It would take days to recover most of those lost to the storm, though several bodies in remote areas were not discovered for months. 

Grieving families wondered why the U.S. Army's Signal Service, which was responsible for national weather forecasting, had not warned them the storm was approaching. Two months later, a second unexpected blizzard—the "Great White Hurricane"—stunned the northeastern United States with 100mph winds, 2 to 4 feet of snow, and 50-foot tall snowdrifts. This second blizzard killed approximately 400 people. Again, the Signal Service faced harsh criticism as it not only failed to warn of the blizzard, but predicted "fresh brisk winds, with rain...followed by colder brisk westerly winds and fair weather throughout the Atlantic states." 

These two deadly winter storms were key factors in Congress's passage of the Weather Bureau Organic Act of 1890 on October 1, 1890. The measure transferred weather forecasting from the Signal Corps to the newly established U.S. Weather Bureau within the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Congress tasked civilian employees of the Weather Bureau with forecasting weather, issuing storm warnings, and displaying weather and flood signals for agriculture and public safety.

In the decades after its establishment, the Weather Bureau warned of numerous severe storms, including the 1900 Galveston Hurricane (though the devastating storm surge that swept across the island was unexpected). In 1940, the Weather Bureau moved to the U.S. Department of Commerce, where it accurately forecast the break in the English Channel's stormy weather during which General Dwight D. Eisenhower launched his June 6, 1944, D-Day invasion of Europe. Renamed the National Weather Service and moved to the newly created National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in 1970, the agency accurately warned New Orleans of Hurricane Katrina days before the 2005 storm made landfall and prepared millions for the January 2016 "Snowzilla" blizzard that buried parts of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States under as much as 4 feet of snow. These and many other severe weather events remind us of the value of accurate and timely weather forecasting and research.

Learn more about the 1888 Schoolchildren's Blizzard and winter weather events using records and data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau. For example: 

• In 1888, schoolteacher Minnie Mae Freeman became a national hero after leading 13 students to safety during an unexpected blizzard near Ord, Nebraska. Around that time, Ord’s population began to grow significantly—from 181 in 1880 to 1,208 in 1890—largely due to the arrival of the Union Pacific Railroad’s 59-mile subdivision connecting Ord and Grand Island. The railroad played a key role in supporting the area’s agricultural economy, a role it continues to serve today. Ord's population peaked in 1980 when it reached 2,658. The 2020 Census found that 2,113 people lived in Ord. More recently, the Census Bureau's American Community Survey's 5-year estimates found 2,186 people called Ord home in 2023.
• Two months after the Schoolhouse Blizzard, the Great Blizzard of 1888—also known as the "Great White Hurricane"—paralyzed the East Coast of the United States from March 11 to 14. The storm dumped nearly 5 feet of snow, and fierce winds created snowdrifts towering up to 50 feet. It claimed over 400 lives across the Northeastern United States including prominent New York politician Roscoe Conkling, who collapsed while walking home during the storm, contracted pneumonia, and died 6 weeks later. In Saratoga Springs, New York, 58 inches of snow fell; New Haven, Connecticut, recorded 45 inches; and more than 2 feet blanketed both Boston, Massachusetts, and New Brunswick, New Jersey. Roads and rails were so buried with snow that transportation and commerce ground to a halt for days.
• The Blizzard of 1899 brought snow showers to Florida and buried the northern East Coast beneath mountainous drifts. Coinciding with the arrival of an arctic air mass, the storm triggered record-setting cold across much of the United States. In Milligan, Perry County, Ohio, temperatures plunged to minus 37°, while Washington, D.C., recorded a low of 15° below zero on February 11. Just two days later, temperatures reached levels unheard of in the Deep South, with the mercury dropping to minus 2° in Tallahassee, Florida, and minus16° in Minden, Louisiana.
• Did you know the American Community Survey provides data about many American towns with snow-related names. In 2023, these included Snow, North Dakota (population 97); Snow Hill, Maryland (population 2,545); Snow Lake CDP, Indiana (population 497); Snowville, Utah (population 246); and Snowflake, Arizona (population 6,349).
• After particularly harsh winters, many Americans dream about moving to a warmer region of the United States. The highest temperature recorded on Earth (134°) was set in Furnace Creek, California, in July 10, 1913; however, just six months earlier the village registered a low temperature of 15°! Key West, Florida, is the only city in the contiguous United States that has never recorded a frost. Its lowest recorded temperature was 41° in 1875. Honolulu, Hawaii, experienced a record low of 52° in 1969; Hagatna, Guam, experienced a low of 65° in 1973; the mercury dropped to 60° in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1957; and the lowest temperature in Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands, was 51° in 1954.
• At the time of the January 1888 School Children's Blizzard and Great White Hurricane two months later, government meteorological warnings were the responsibility of the U.S. Army Signal Service. Many blamed the service for not issuing warnings about the storms that could have saved many lives. On October 1, 1890, President Benjamin Harrison signed a bill into law removing meteorological forecasting out of the War Department to the newly created, civilian U.S. Weather Bureau within the Department of Agriculture. Following passage of the Air Commerce Act of 1926, the Weather Bureau became responsible for weather services for civilian aviation. On June 30, 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt transferred the Weather Bureau to the U.S. Department of Commerce. Its name changed to the National Weather Service in July 1970, and remains an office within the Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, headquartered in Silver Spring, Maryland. 
• Many Landscaping Services (NAICS 561730) and Other Support Activities for Road Transportation (NAICS 488490) provide snow removal and plowing services to clear snow from roads, driveways, and parking lots. In 2023, the County Business Patterns series counted 117,969 Landscaping Services and 3,571 Other Support Activities for Road Transportation establishments in the United States. During the pay period that included March 12, 2023, these establishments had annual payrolls of approximately $41.2 billion and $1.6 billion, respectively.
• Memorials still remind Americans of the adults and children who died during the 1888 Schoolchildren's Blizzard. AMong them:
  • A glass mosaic depicting the blizzard was installed at the Nebraska's State Capital Building in Lincoln, Nebraska in 1967.
  • The Salem Zion Mennonite Cemetery in Turner County, South Dakota, erected a memorial plaque at the graves of John Albrecht, Peter Graber, and Henry, John, and Elias Kaufman in 1974. 
  • A historical marker in Milligan, Nebraska, commemorates the blizzard's victms including Milligan resident Mary Masek who died trying to retrieve her sons from school;.
  • The Homestead National Historical Park in Beatrice, Nebraska, features exhibits on the blizzard and meteorology. 

On January 10, 1921, a fire at the U.S. Department of Commerce building in Washington, DC, destroyed the majority of the population schedules from the 1890 Census. Their loss left an enormous gap in many families' genealogical records.

After the fire, staff moved the fire- and water-damaged volumes to temporary storage, but the paper continued to decay. Census Bureau Director William Mott Steuart instructed employees to try to save as many of the 1890 schedules as possible. 

In December 1932, the Census Bureau reported to the Librarian of Congress that the fire and water damage left the majority of schedules unsalvageable and recommended they be destroyed. Congress authorized their disposal on February 21, 1933.

An investigation never conclusively determined the cause of the 1921 fire. Potential culprits included careless disposal of a cigarette or match, faulty wiring or spontaneous combustion of sawdust in the building's workshops.