The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1856-02-20
From the Marietta Gazette1
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. OF
OHIO WINTERS.
BRIEF REMARKS ON THE WINTERS SINCE
THE FIRST SETTLEMENT OF OHIO.

BRIEF REMARKS ON THE WINTERS SINCE
THE FIRST SETTLEMENT OF OHIO.
Mr.. GATES: The intense cold wealth
er prevailing since the oath of Decem-
Der last to this time, SO days, causes the
old settlers to brighten their memories
and try to recollect what has taken
place in years gone by, since the first
settlement of the State. In valuable
article from the pen of Mr.. Mansfield,
in the Cincinnati Gazette of January
10, 1856, are found the oldest records
of cold weather, probably, in the State.
They are earlier than any have seen:
Hon. Joseph Gilman, of Marietta, was
the only man in this place who kept a
meteorological Journal in the first ses-
Element of the town, and to the time of
his death in 1906; but the manuscript
is unfortunately lost. From this period
till 1917 no record was kept; but in
that year Joseph Wood Esq, register of
the U. s. Land Office at Marietta, COM
menced journal under the direction of
the Hon. Josiah Meigs, Commissioner
of the Land Office, which was continued
until 1928, since which time myself
have kept regular diary of the wealth
er, temperature, rains, Towering of fruit
trees, &c., up to the present period, a
yearly abstract of which, giving in full
the remarkables of the season, has been
published in full in the Journal Of SCI
cnce, at New Haven. From the article
of Mr. Mansfield we learn that on the
9th of January, 1899, the temperature
was at Is degrees below zero In Jan.
uary, 1907, at IL below. 1 was then
practicing medicine at Belpre, and have
cause to remember it; for, on riding q
few miles that day, one of my ears was
badly frosted. The Ohio River from
being full of floating ice the day before,
was frozen SO firmly in one night that
loaded teams crossed the next day on its
surface. In January, 1913, it was 10
degrees below zero. Ofthe remarkable
year, 1917, when so many spots on the
sun obscured its genial warmth, I have
no date of the extremity of the cold.
On the I'd of February, 1918, there fell
one of the deepest SHOWS known in this
portion of the State. 1t came from the
northeast and east, and was twenty-six
inches in depth, lying evenly over the
face of the earth. The day preceding
was pleasant and mild On the 9th of
this month, at A. NJ, the mercury fell
to 20 degrees below zero; on the 10th
it was % degrees, with the wind from
the northwest, but calm. The intensi-
ty of the cold was ruinous to the peach
trees, killing them down to the surface
of the snow which had wasted but little.
The tender branches of sassafras, with
spice bushes, were also destroyed. en-
the 25th of January, 1921, 1t again sunk
to 20 degrees below zero, and on the
26th to 10 degrees below. The snow at
that time was twenty-one inches in
depth.
From this period up to 1881 the win
ters were milder. But on the 18th of
December of that year the mercury sunk
to 10 degrees below, and on three days
was at and below zero. The mean tenn.
perature for the whole month was 81
degrees, the coldest on my records. Ice
was running in the Ohio and Muskin--
gum Rivers the last two days of Novem-
ber-navigation closed on the 5th of
December. This severe cold was uni
versal to the west of us, and SO intense
that the Mississippi was frozen over one
hundred and thirty miles below the
mouth of the Ohio, and full of floating
ice nearly to the city of Natchez- About
the 9th and 9th of January, 1882, the