Any credit for today’s blog post should go to Gerard Fiehler, a vital member of our Research Crew.  Gerard is not a writer and never wants any credit, but he is an important contributor to almost every post that is written on this blog.  Yesterday, Gerard pointed out to me that our museum has photographs from an ice storm that took place in the past.  I was completely unaware of this fact.  Gerard knows our museum like the back of his hand, and I am still learning.  Today, you will get to see many of those photos.

Many of you may be aware that we just went through an ice storm here this past Friday that made for some school dismissals, some hazardous driving, and also some magnificent scenery.  That is why our interest was piqued for any ice storm history.

Since one of the photos was taken of the Log Cabin College, I decided to venture out and take a present day photo of that building.  Here is a side by side comparison.  I wish I would have taken the photo a bit earlier when more ice was still visible.

EPSON MFP image

The photos contain some captions which are quite helpful.  Probably the most important fact that can be found in them is that the ice storm took place on January 9, 1930.  I decided to search for any information about that storm online.  One of our local news sources, the Southeast Missourian, published an article titled, “Major Southeast Missouri Ice Storms” after a major ice storm hit this area in 2009.  You can find that story here:

http://www.semissourian.com/story/1497358.html

However, the ice storm which occurred in East Perry County in 1930 did not make their list.

Although the ice storm portrayed in these photos was impressive, the real star of the photo show for me is the city of Altenburg as it appeared in 1930.  Gerard and I spent quite a bit of time yesterday talking about which buildings are still standing and which are not.  One of the things that was very noticeable to me (and I did not grow up here) was the number of fences that people had in front of their houses.  Nowadays, fences practically do not exist in Altenburg.  I guess you could say that Altenburg is now a “free-range” community.

Here is a gallery of the twelve photos that we have.  Click on the thumbnails to view a larger picture.

One photo that I find fascinating shows an interesting scene where an automobile is parked on the street right next to a wagon.

Before we quit our work yesterday, I decided to do one more thing.  I did a search through our German Family Tree to see if there were any events such as births, deaths, marriages, or baptisms on January 9, 1930.  I hit pay dirt.  One of our seasoned citizens and a friend of our museum, Barney Schlichting, was born on that day.  Barney was a Korean War veteran and his uniform is on display in our museum.

I wonder if Barney knows what the weather was like on his day of birth.  It is likely that he was born in Wittenberg, and it may have been very difficult for a doctor to get to the Schlichting farm on that day.  That was back in a day when births around here did not often take place in a hospital.  This past Friday, Barney once again got a dose of what it was like around here when he was born.