February 2, 1867
Froze to Death. Another Drunkard Gone.
Mr. Thomas Warner, a man of superior intelligence and information and once a minister of the gospel, froze to death, while in a helpless state of intoxication, near Elysian, Le Sueur county, on the night of the 16th of January. The day previous to his death and most of the night he had spent in a saloon in the village and left for his home, near morning, in a state of intoxication. When within one hundred rods of home, he commenced falling down every few rods until at last he was obliged to crawl on his hands and feet, which he did until he got within ten or twelve rods of his own door, but could get no farther, then falling forward from his crawling position died. He leaves a very interesting family.
Thus another victim to intemperance has gone − perished in a snow bank, almost at his own door, and the tears of the widow and orphan are falling and aching hearts are almost bursting in breasts that know no comfort.
We have been fearful for the past winter or two that we should have a similar case to the above to report, as having occurred in this village, but so far, thank God, all have escaped, but no one knows for how long.
Culled from the February 2, 1867 issue of the Chatfield Democrat (Minnesota),
as reprinted in Coffee Made Her Insane.
My mother’s ex-husband’s grandfather died a frozen drunk-sicle, only he did successfully make it home. His wife, tired of him dragging up in the wee hours of the morning in a wasted stupor, decided this time she was going to teach him a lesson and was not going to unlock & open the door for that drunken slob. She heard him knocking, yelled down some cuss words from the window, and went back to sleep. The next morning, she expected to find him snoring on the living-room floor, but instead she found him on the porch, propped up against the front door, key in hand, ice cold and dead as disco.
I asked my mom if the woman could ever forgive herself for letting her husband freeze to death. She said, “Pfft, she didn’t care, she had always been mean and was mean till the day she died.” lol
*He leaves a very interesting family.*
How could they just leave it like that? What made the family so interesting? Besides having a drunk member,which is hardly unusual.