Boston has gotten more than six feet of snow this winter, and it made me wonder-how did snowy northern cities (Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Detroit, etc) deal with snow removal before plows? From, say, 1700 onward. Gangs of shovelers? Horse-drawn (or powered) somethings? The residents of a street dealt with their street? Nothing, and wait for spring? How did this compare to snowy European cities, which, having been around longer, presumably had more practice at dealing with it?