The collection contains an essay entitled, "The Great Blizzard of 1857" written by Dr. Ray Gaskins. The essay details the conditions faced by Southside, Virginia residents during the snow event of January 17-18, 1857. This blizzard was the largest in the history of Farmville. Gaskins provides vignettes describing the particular challenges Thomas James "T.J." Garden, a schoolteacher, surveyor, and farmer of Buckingham County, Richard Anderson Booker, Eagle Hotel owner of Farmville, and Charles T. "Bose" Edie, a student of Hampden-Sydney College, faced during the event. Edie was stabbed to death by fellow student Edward A. Langhorne, a dispute thought to be brought on by "Cabin Fever."