Starting as rain on Sunday night, March 11, 1888, the storm changed to heavy snow as Doyestown slept. By morning the East Coast from the Chesapeake Bay to Maine was blanketed with several feet of snow Winds of 45 mph with gusts to 65 mph created 20-foot drifts and temperatures in the single digits. Telegraph and telephone poles and wires were blown down and inoperable for more than a week.
Located at the end of the train line, Doylestown was in a particularly isolated condition. The Reading Railroad local train headed for Doylestown was stranded near Colmar, buried in snow. Riders were stranded in their cold, stalled passenger cars out in the countryside where farmers tried to help out as much as possible.
Streetlights in the town remained unlit because the lamplighter was unable to reach them. However, as electric lights were largely confined to a few local businesses, no one at home thought about being without light but instead used oil lamps. Coal stoves shoveled by hand provided heat.
From Tuesday’s The Intelligencer:
• The Bucks County Courthouse had closed [for the first time in its history.]
• A trip anywhere in town was laborios exercise. “None but the hardiest men with something of the spirit of the Arctic explorer were to be seen.”
• Doylestown schools were closed “for want of scholars.”
• The weathervane was blown from the top of the Monument House.
• A train which left to open the railroad got less than a mile and returned 5 hours later.
• “No mails in Doylestown since Monday morning. No exchanges. No news from the world outside. Nothing but snow.”
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