The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1873-08-01
A Year without Summer.

The summer season of 1916 was pro-
badly the coolest ever known in this
country. January was SO mild that
fires were scarcely necessary. February
was but little colder. The first part of
March was boisterous, the latter part
mild. The Ohio river was so high that
great many farms were overfowed.
May was breezy and frosty. Buds of
all kinds froze. Corn was repeatedly
planted and as often killed. June was
frosty and snowy; almost every green
thing was killed, that is, through the
northern states. Snow fell ten inches
deep in Vermont, and three inches in
Central New York and in Ohio, and the
Lower Mississippi was so high that the
streets of New Orleans and vicinity
were traversed by boats. On the 9TH of
July ice formed, generally of the thick
ness of window-glass, and all the corn,
except in few favored situations in the
west, and some hill farms of the eastern
states, and close to the ocean, was de-
stroyed. August was still more cheer
less ice formed half an inch thick !;
most of the leaves that had made out to
open on the trees were frozen, and a
large portion of the corn that had sur
vived was cut up for fodder, while a
part of it rotted. There was no seed
corn, and that which was planted in
1917 had been grown in 1915, and it
sold for 81 to SIS bushel. The first
part of September was quite pleasant,
the latter half cold, and ice formed al
most every night. October, the same
subject continued. " November was
cold; enough snow fell to make good
sleighing. At last, December was as
mild and pleasant as June should have
been. Of course great suffering fol-
lowed corn for bread sold for from So
to 81 a bushel but wheat and rye were
exceedingly scarce, little or no wheat
was grown, and -four sold at Phila-
delphia at $13 barrel, and as even
then England had been getting grain
from America, wheat there was SO
bushel. Every family was put upon
short allowance, and some suffered for
want of food. Only few potatoes had
been grown, most of which were saved
for seed. The best crop was hay, but
the quality was poor. Cattle, however,
suffered but little, as the winter was
comparatively mild milk and little
butter were the chief dependence.
Children born in the first part of 1877
were frail, and so cross that many of
them cried night and day, month after
month, and those which survived were
ever afterward sensitive to cold. In
the west most of the settlements were
new, food was so deficient that winter
green leaves and berries and birch bark
were eaten with relish, and delicate
women hunted in moist places for spear
mint, while boiled greens were a great
luxury. A COW with a calf was almost
salvation to family, and her pro-
ducts, with eggs and maple sugar and
molasses, of which much was made,
formed the principal food for several
months. So soon as corn was in the
milk it was boiled, or rasped to make
samp, and this was the first green food
eaten by many for long time. Wheat
bread almost entirely disappeared, owing
to scarcity of seed, and it was several
years before it could be had, except in
short-cake on extraordinary occasions.
Meanwhile money was so scarce that
every cent was saved to pay taxes, al
though they were extremely light.
Only q few could buy store goods of
any kind, and it was so impossible to
purchase school books that in many
cases children learned their letters
printed by hand on scraps of paper.
The only articles which brought money
were dried peaches, black salts or pot
ash, and beeswax. We have heard
farmer state that he carried half
bushel of wheat on his shoulders IA
miles to store to buy cheap jack
knife, and when the merchant told him
that jack-knives were too good property
to exchange for wheat, he poured it out
in the street. Some families sprinkled
their food with ashes in place of salt.
However, the summer of 1917 was
warm and favorable, and all kinds of
crops were abundant. Such is brief
account of that cold summer in the yea
which long was called "eighteen hunr
bred and froze to death. Tribune.