Hazel Dulcie Miner (April 11, 1904 - March 16, 1920), a student in a one-room Great Plains rural school, died while protecting his 10-year-old brother Emmet and 8-older sister aged one, Myrdith, from the spring 1920 spring blizzard at the Center, Oliver County, North Dakota.
After his death, he became an American national hero. His actions are celebrated in public ballads and published in many newspaper and magazine articles in the next few decades.
Video Hazel Miner
Life and family
Hazel is a 15-year-old daughter of William Albert Miner, a farmer, and his wife, former Blanche Steele, both of whom are from Iowa. Hazel's sisters and brothers are Zelda, 21; Emmet, 10; Myrdith, 8; and Howard, 5. Hazel is an eighth grader in a one-room school, which is also attended by Emmet and Myrdith. The list of Oliver County acts, which his daughter once played with Hazel, recalled, "Good girl," and described it as "somewhat motherly, for the very young." His father thought he was very reliable. Obituaries describe it as "quiet and loving," with "bright, cheerful" and like children. Hazel had planned to start high school in Bismarck, the fallen North Dakota.
Maps Hazel Miner
Death in a snowstorm
Minor Kids lose direction
On March 15, 1920, the first day of the blizzard, the school fired students earlier so they could return before the storm came. Many students, such as Miner children, are accustomed to driving to and from school by horse and carriage, but school teachers have the rule that no child is allowed to go home in bad weather without the consent of the parents. William Miner, who worried about the storm conditions, drove two miles to school with a saddle horse to escort his children home.
Around one o'clock in the afternoon, at school, Miner puts up the children's horse, "Old Maude," to their light sleighs and tells Hazel to wait while he goes back to the school barn to get his horse. Hazel was not strong enough to keep the horse out to the blizzard before his father returned from the barn. William Miner searched for his children, but soon realized that they must be lost and went home to organize a search party. By telephone, the farmers' families from the surrounding villages called in men to join the search for lost miner's children.
Though he was familiar with the path, Hazel quickly became confused by the blinding and blowing white snow, which made it impossible to see more than a few feet in front of him. He was wearing a warm coat, hat, gloves, and sturdy one-buckle overshoes, but the clothes were not enough to protect against the wind and freezing temperatures, and his hands and feet became numb in the cold. When the sleigh hit the coulee, Hazel slid from the sleigh to the waist-high snow. He said, "Oh, me! I'm wet to my waist and my shoes are full of water," his brother recalled later. Its long exposure virtually guarantees severe hypothermia.
The horse's harness was slipping and Hazel had to adjust it again. He led the horse forward through the snowstorm, but found that he had lost his way. There are several landmarks in the meadow to guide children.
Last place protection
Children continue to travel and grow more tired and cool. Then the sled back hit the obstacle and upside down, hurling Hazel into the dashboard into the snow. Hazel, Emmet, and Myrdith tried to push up the sled, but not strong enough to lift it, even with all three pushes at once. Using the reversed sleigh as a shelter, Hazel spread two blankets, instructed Emmet and Myrdith to lie down, and placed a third blanket on it. Children try to keep moving to stay warm. Hazel curled up beside her sister and sister and used her body warm to warm them. He told them stories to keep them awake. The children sang the fourth verse "America the Beautiful," a song they had sung during the opening exercises at the state school that morning, and repeat the Our Father's Prayer. Hazel advised his brothers, "Remember, you can not sleep - even if I do it, Promise me, you will not, no matter how drowsy you are, keep awake each other! Her younger brother and sister promised.
All night, the children could hear a dog barking somewhere nearby, but no one came to help them. As the night dragged on, Hazel spoke less and less, until he finally fell silent.
Her sister Emmett then remembers the blizzard for an article in the March 15, 1963 edition of The Bismarck (N.D.) Tribune :
The cloak was constantly blowing and Hazel kept pulling her until she was so she could not put it up anymore. Then he covered us with a cloak and lay on it. I told Hazel to get under the covers too, but he said he had to keep our kids warm, and he would not do it... I tried out to put a cover over Hazel, but I could not move because he was lying on the cover. Snow will come in around our feet, we can not move it, then Hazel will break the crust for us. After a while he can not crack the crust anymore, he just lies down and moans. I thought he must be dead, then I kept talking to Myrdith so he would not sleep.
Search and save
A search group of over thirty people searches for children throughout the day and night. They had to give up when it was getting dark, but set off again the next morning. When they finally found the children, it was two o'clock on the afternoon of March 16, twenty-five hours from the time the children first departed from the school house. The sled upside down, with a horse still hanging on it, was resting on a coulee, two miles south of the school. "With haste panting we flock to the rig and will never forget the sight that meets our eyes," one of the men reported. The seekers found a rigid Hazel lying on top of his brothers, covering them with his body. His coat, which he did not shrink, spread over the bodies of the two younger children and arms outstretched above them. Beneath it, still alive, there is Emmet and Myrdith. "Maude," the old horse, standing beside an upside-down sled, is still alive. If the horse moves, the three children will fall into the snow.
They took the three children to William Starck's house, a neighbor, for immediate care. Starck's daughter, Anna Starck Benjamin, who was 4 1/2 years old at the time, recalled "the sound of Hazel's outstretched arm as they scrub the furniture as they bring it into the house, and bring it into my parents' room, the crackling sound like frozen laundry brought from the clothing line in winter, then I remember crying, crying so much. "They worked in Hazel for hours, trying to revive, but to no avail. Hazel's mother, Blanche, was taken to Starck's house after the searchers found the children and sat in chairs, rocking back and forth, while they took care of the three children. Throughout the night when the children are gone, she is accompanied by a neighbor. At one point, he fell asleep, and then said that his daughter came to him in a dream. In the dream, Hazel said, "I'm cold, Mama, but I'm not anymore."
At the funeral of Hazel, the pastor delivered a sermon on the Christian Bible verse John 15:13: "The greater love does not have humanity so he gives up his life for his best friend," and says, "Here and there sometimes those who by act they live and try to imitate Him. "
Hazel is one of 34 people who died during a snow storm, which lasted for three days.
Legacy
Hazel became a heroine after her story is known. On January 15, 1921, an article in North Dakota Children's Home Finder appeared about how "this guardian grass guardian, covered with a thick sheet of ice, gave up his own life to save brothers and sisters. "The North Dakota Children's Home Society wants to use publicity about Hazel's story to raise money to build an orphanage for children in the state. A commemorative committee was established at the Center and spoke of naming a new hospital in honor of Hazel, but a few months later his parents said they wanted an established memorial statue instead. Children all over the country raise money to pay for warnings.
Emmet and Myrdith were interviewed by North Dakota newspapers many times in the years after the blizzard and many news articles written about Hazel. The story has finally attracted national attention. In 1952, Ford Motor Company commissioned two paintings of scenes from the story by North Dakota artist Elmer Halvorson. Hazel Miner's paintings and articles are published in the February 1953 edition of the Ford Times .
In recent years, a ballad entitled The Story of Hazel Miner was written by folk artist Chuck Suchy from Mandan, North Dakota. The song was recorded on Suchy Much to Share cassette (1986) and his Dancing Dakota cassette (1989). In the song, given Hazel's outstretched arm, Suchy sings "wings on the snow, destiny chooses, the morning finds a pigeon so frozen." But "in the warmth below, his love is safe."
On May 30, 2002, the centennial issue of Central (N.D.) Republic featured stories about "Hazel Miner, Angel of the Prairies." This story is also told in the 2002 anthology Joe Wheeler Everyday Heroes: Inspirational Stories from Different People Make the Difference .
A Gothic granite monument honoring Hazel's memory was set up in front of Oliver's Court Building in 1936, sixteen years after his death, by former North Dakota governor L B. Hanna. The stone reads, "To remember Hazel Miner, for the dead, a reverence, to live the memory, to the grandchildren, to the inspiration." Hazel's tomb can be found at the Community Funeral Center in Oliver County.
Today Hazel's story and his actions during the 1920 snowstorm were also studied by several students in North Dakota as part of North Dakota's history class.
See also
- Wohlk brothers (victim of 1920 blizzard)
- Madam. Andrew Whitehead
- 1920 North Dakota blizzard
- Blushard Schoolhouse
- Racheltjie de Beer
Note
References
- Jackson, William (2003). The Best of Dakota Mysteries and Oddities . Dickinson, North Dakota: Valley Star Books. ISBN: 0-9677349-5-9.
External links
- Hazel Miner, history and family ND 1920, discussion at Genealogy.com
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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