Gordon Jesmer …a brave letter courier in Berens River MB, in the 1930’s
Gordon Jesmer …a brave letter courier in Berens River MB, in the 1930’s.
Saturday, February 3, 1934. The Winnipeg Tribune from Winnipeg· Page 13. Winnipeg, Canada
https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/37446968/
Gordon Jesmer, a brave letter courier, operating around Berens River Manitoba. He is the son of Hubert and Shirley Jesmer. He is my grandfather, (Harvey Jesmer)’s first cousin.
return to Hubert and Shirley Jesmer page
return to Jesmer family history page
Link to Gordon and Rose main page
FULL OF STORM PERILS
Storm perils demonstrated what Mounted Police and Hudson’s Bay traders’ have long held, namely, that dogs are still most reliable for travel under trying weather conditions. The inset, left, shows a dog team and driver, – with “forerunner” breaking trail down the Mackenzie, below Fort Norman. near the Arctic Circle. At right is a close – up of a dog driver in full travelling regalia, of which a driver is inordinately proud. The vast weight of snow on the dreary miles of lake Ice set up such a pressure that the Ice was forced down and water came up, forming from two to 16 Inches of lake slush in exposed parts. Woe to the team and the driver caught in this sub – zero weather. They were in danger of being frozen into their tracks and as certainly marked for death as if caught in a quicksand.
Frozen to Death
Being frozen to death, that is the greatest menace of northern travel. ..(areas of frozen slush ice) …They are more deadly because they are unexpected. The annuls of the north tell of many deaths in such circumstances. Only last winter an Indian of God’s Lake, use to, as he was to the treachery of northern ice, was caught. His snowshoes froze down. In an effort to free them, his hands became wet. He fell, rose again and, before he knew it, his leg was a pillar of ice, a grim warning to tell that the north often exacts the extreme penalty for any lapse in judgment.
Conditions such as these gave Gordon Jesmer, mail courier between Hodgson, on the west side of Lake Winnipeg, and Berens River on the east, a 100-mile team trip of three days, his closest bout with death. He left Hodgson on Dec. 19, and headed northeast to Berens River, expecting to be welcomed there on Dec. 22 with the Christmas mail. For two days, he travelled up to schedule. Then the threatening weather broke into a storm. The third day, while he was between Matheson Island and Rabbit Point, he ran into slush ice. The northeast wind was howling a blizzard. The thermometer dropped to 45 below in a few hours. He was making his rendezvous with Death (Continued on Pm 13. Column 7)
His Rendezvous with Death
…The slush rapidly deepened to 16 inches with deep, loose snow on top. The wet snow pushed ahead of the sleigh, and began to cut his horses’ legs from under them. He got out and shoveled it repeatedly, wetting his feet, which, with his hands, began to freeze. All day long he kept doggedly on, convinced that his chance of life was better ahead rather than in retreat, a word the north doesn’t like. Just as nightfall began to descend, after making only 12 miles in a long day, he discerned land ahead. His horses stopped, played out. He cut them loose. They made for the shore. He followed them. Soon he was in the stopping house of Ol’ Anderson, an Independent trader at Babbitt Point. His team was cared for first according to the tradition of all good horsemen. Then his own frozen feet received attention.
For seven days, he lay in that stopping house while the blizzard howled Itself out and the temperatures dropped to l3 (degrees F), below zero. Then the wind died and they looked out over a scene of desolation and Arctic waste. The sleigh could be discerned a mile from shore.
A few hours later five dog teams yelped up to the store from Berens River. They were searching for the mail. Dog and drivers, fresh from a long rest, raced over the snow to the mail bags. Before night they had completed the “Jesmer” mail delivery. He had worried more over the late Christmas mail than over his prospect of getting safely through. That Is a tradition with the mail courier In Canada.
Many Joust with Death.
Many joust with death. There are few luckier escapes from death than that of Gordon Jesmer. Yet, in severe years men and dog teams are always exposed to such dangers in large bodies of lake Ice.
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