Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1881-01-27
COLD WINTERS.
The Winter OF 1779-SO-The Cold Friday Of
February :, 1907.

The Winter OF 1779-SO-The Cold Friday Of
February =, 1907.
The winter of 1779-eO began as the pres.
ent one did, and before the slight mod
Grafton in the atmosphere, many of
the elder residents, whose fathers and
mothers had told them many tales of that
terrible winter, were speculating as to
whether the present one would resemble
it in other respects. In 1779-SO the cold
weather set in about the middle Of No
.vember and continued until tine middle
of February. During that long period
there was not enough warmth in the suns
rays to melt the snow ON the ground, nor
to affect in the least the fetters of ice that
bound the creeks, ponds and rivers. One
snow storm followed another until finally
the ground was so covered that it was
difficult to go from place to place, and the
ice upon the rivers at all convenient points
was used by men and teams and animals
in place of roads. The cold winds were
SO piercing that wild turkeys were found
frozen to death in the forests, and domes
tic fowls fell frozen from their roosts. The
deer and buffalo sought shelter from the
blast around the cabins Of the settlers,
| and all kinds of wild animals perished in
the forests for want of food, which was
buried beneath the snow. The fierce wolf
and panther, which usually skulked about
the boundaries of the settlements only by
| night, now came nea: in broad daylight in
search Of the bones and oifal thrown from
the cabins of the settlers. No rain fell,
and the pioneers were compelled to obtain
water for drinking, cooking, ETC., by melt
ing ice and snow. The Northern and
| Western rivers were tightly bound by
| far cOnth
the Cumberland was frozen over with ice
thick enough for the safe passage of emi-
| grant trains. The Delaware, at Philadel-
phia, had ice three feet in thickness, and
Chesapeake Bay and Long Island Sound
were frozen over. Another similarity
between the present winter and that of
1880 was the mild autumn weather
that preceded it. When the cold began in
November, 1879, the leaves had hardly
fallen from the forest trees, and many
trees and shrubs were putting forth
new growth. The same condition of
things was witnessed last fall. The win
ters of 1883, 1884, 1856, 1857, 1902, 179G,
and 1799 are all reported as having been
very severe. 1t is stated in s. Hildreth's
Pioneer History that on the Goth of De-
cembcr, 1888, the Delaware and Ohio
rivers were both frozen over and naviga-
ton was suspended upon them until the
18th of. the following March. In 1892,
when soldiers were sent to the disastrous
battle field of Gen. St. Clair to bury the
dead, they encamped where Cincinnati
now stands, Jan. %. The snow was re-
ported two feet deep upon the ground,
and the Ohio was SO strongly frozen
that tho soldiers rode their horses
across from Kentucky on the
ice. The 7th of February, 1907:
was known for years as cold Friday,
and was the groundwork of many a
grandfather's tale. On the evening of the
9th the weather was mild and rain began
to fall as night set in. In a few hours the
rain changed to Snow, which fell to the
depth of six inches, after which hurri-
cane came to sweep over the land. 1t
grew colder and colder as the night pro.
gresscd, and the next morning the trees
in the forests were cracking like the re.
ports of guns, AID everything was bound
up in fetters of ice. There was no ther-
mometcr to register the cold, but the day
comes down in history and tradition as
Cold Friday.