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Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott
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Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott
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The Appleton Post
Thursday, February 28, 1884

 
         FROZEN TO DEATH
         
         HENRY POTTER, of Brothertown, Meets a
           Horrible Death on Lake Winnebago.
           
         His Famished Team Endures Four Days and
           Three Nights of Terrible Sufferings.
           
         Late Friday afternoon a fisherman discovered a team
       standing still on the middle of the lake, and on going
       to it found the driver lying on the ice beside the wood
       rack frozen stiff. The halter strap of one of the horses
       was down and frozen to the ice, so the team was practi-
       cally hitched and standing still, the poor horses being
       benumbed with cold and almost lifeless. The discoverer
       did not disturb the frozen man or touch the team, but
       hurried to Oshkosh and informed the authorities. The
       Chief of Police, accompanied by three others, at once
       started for the spot. The location of the frozen man
       was six miles from the Oshkosh shore, and three miles
       south of the main traveled road across the lake, and
       they would have been unable to have found it without
       the guidance of the fisherman, the light snow which
       filled the air making it impossible to see a quarter
       of a mile ahead. Being so far from the main road, the
       famishing team could not be seen from it, much less the
       prostrate form of the dead man; so that it was the
       merest chance that they were ever discovered.
         It may be stated right here that the man was frozen
       to death last Tuesday, so that the poor horses had
       been standing on the ice in the driving storm and cold
       for four days and three nights with nothing to eat or
       drink.
         On arriving at the scene the situation was readily
       taken in. There stood the poor dumb brutes attached
       to the bob-sleds. The ice and snow had accumulated
       on the runners and rack of the sled until it was but
       a mass of ice and the teams could not haul it. The
       whole mass had frozen to the surface of the ice, 
       anchoring the team solid, while the lines and halter
       straps were also frozen into the ice. A few rods from
       the team lay the body of the dead man. The explanation
       of his death was simple. Having lost his way on the
       ice in the blinding storm of Tuesday afternoon, and
       the team no longer able to pull the frozen sled, he
       had taken a sled-stake and a blanket and started on
       foot. His tracks in a circle showed how he had tramped
       round and round until he fell near where he started
       from. He lay on his back and tightly clenched in his
       elbow was a bottle of alchohol, from which not a drop
       had been taken, as it was full (illegible). But the
       poor horses formed the (illegible). Unable to break
       from their fastenings, and famished, they had gnawed
       the tongue, a hard rough-hewn pole of hickory, nearly
       in two, and the neck yoke had been nearly eaten up.
       One of the party had on a buffalo over-coat and the
       poor animals grabbed the shaggy buffalo hair in their
       teeth as ravenous as tigers, and with difficulty could
       be made to let go. The body of the dead man was placed
       in the sleigh driven out by the rescuing party, and
       the weak and starving horses were led behind. The
       horses attempted to eat up the sleigh and the cushions
       of the back seat. On arriving at Oshkosh the horses
       were taken to Holme's livery stable and no sooner did
       they enter the barn than they got down and began gnaw-
       ing the floor and grabbing everything within reach.
       They were finally unharnessed and given hot bran to
       eat in small quantities.
         The body of the dead man was identified as that of
       HENRY POTTER, a thrifty farmer of Brothertown. He
       was fifty years of age and leaves a wife and two chil-
       dren.
         POTTER left here for home on Tuesday afternoon, says
       the Northwestern, about the time the blizzard set in,
       when it changed from rain to snow, and without doubt
       perished that afternoon or evening. It is quite cer-
       tain that he was under the influence of liquor when
       he left here, but the probabilities are that even the
       soberest man would have perished on the ice that night
       had he lost his way in the blinding storm.
       
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