Oliver County - M - Obituary Index
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Miner, Hazel 1905-1920
The Hazen Star, March 25, 1920
Body of Young Girl Who Gave Life To Save Brother and Sister in Storm Laid to Rest
Center was a town filled with sorrowing people Friday, for Hazel Miner, the 16-year-old heroine of Monday’s (March 14, 1920) blizzard, who gave her life to save her brother Emmett age 11 and sister Myrdyth age 8, from freezing to death, was laid to rest in the cemetery at Center.
Farmers and their families the country round, school children and townspeople filled the little Methodist church in which the funeral was held while hundreds unable to get in stood outside in silence, broken only by a sob or a man clearing his throat to hold back his emotion.
Every human of the 400 or more who filled the church and stood outside eagerly straining to catch the words of the minister through the narrow door and open window was brought to tears time and again as Rev. C. B. Madsen wove into the funeral sermon the terrible story of the child’s death.
He pictured vividly the fear that grasped the children when the found themselves helpless before the 60-mile gale and blinded by the flying snow. The faithful old horse struggled on for six miles and then slipped into a water hole and fell, turning the sled over.
Here the death of Hazel began. She got down with the horse and succeeded in pulling him out of the water, but was not strong enough to help the animal to his feet. In her efforts she became soaked with water herself. Little Myrdyth and her brother, frightened and numb with cold, began to cry.
Hazel forced them to lie down in the shelter of the overturned sled. First she spread a piece of canvas on the ground and then wrapped the little ones in the sled blankets. The wind blew the blankets from them, so Hazel lay down—half on top and half beside the children—with her arm across their heads to keep them covered and to prevent the blankets blowing off again.
The boy, Emmett, said that Hazel lay like this for a long time, talking to them and praying. “Then after awhile Hazel didn’t talk or pray any more.”
It was in this position that the searchers found the brave girl. They found her body covered with a sheet of ice an inch thick. Soaked by her efforts to free the horse from the water, it was not long until the rapidly dropping temperature numbed her body and senses and she passed away.
There was another hero in the story, too, the old horse, who seemed to know that if he moved or struggled more he would pull the sled away from the children, the only protection they had. Through the twenty-five hours of blizzard he lay there, gradually freezing to death himself, but he did not move.
The text of the funeral sermon came from St. John and Matthew, where reference is made to sacrifice of self to save others as Christ’s greatest trait. The church choir added to the sweet sorrow of the moment singing “Rock of Ages,” “Some Day the Silver Chord Will Break,” and “Face to Face.”
The services over, twelve schoolmates and friends of the dead child picked up the casket and moved with it slowly to the waiting hearse at the church door. The cemetery is just out of town. Everyone went. Some rode, some walked but all moved in silence. Wet eyes were everywhere.
One scene some of the onlookers could scarce bear to look upon. That was the heartbroken parents. The young mother of five children came to the graveside weeping bitterly, supported by the father. Aside from the mental anguish the father was suffering terribly from his face which was frozen during his 24-hour search over the prairies for his lost children. Both parents came to the edge of the grave for one last look. Together they turned away and the expression on their faces was indescribable.
Attending the funeral in a body were the children of the school to which the three Miner children belonged and the consolidated school of Center. Center business houses and stores were closed during the afternoon.
Little Myrdyth and her brother, Emmett, who survived the exposure of the blizzard were sufficiently recovered from their experience to be present at the funeral.
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