The People's vindicator. [volume] (Natchitoches, La.) 1874-1883, 1881-01-29
starting even if there had been fuel. In

starting even if there had been fuel. In
the course of the day fifty or seventy
five Of the passengers made their way
on foot fifteen miles through the snow
to Pontiac, where they organized re-
lief band the next morning, which,
however, was able to make but little
Roadway. The train was moved some
distance in the course of that day by the
aid of engines from Joliet, but two of
them ran off the track in another snow
drift, and there the whole train. with
tae old men, women and children, and
with one invalid, who had been severely
frozen while attempting the relief, re-
manned for two whole weeks, being pro-
visioned chiefly by food sent across the
country from Morris. Governor Matte
son sent sledS from. Springfield, over 100
miles, which tool. the legislators from
their prison on wheels back to their
work in the State-hol,se.
The winter of 1859 was also one to
be remembered in Chicago. A great
snow-storm came in January, and from
that time on, with steady cold weather,
which prevented any thaw to speak of,
the snow kept pil;ng up by one storm
after another until April, when warm
rain produced flood which, causing
the waters of Aux PLANES to overflow
and pour into the South Branch, swept
bridges, canalboats and shipping of all
sorts out into the lake, and pretty much
inundated the southern part of the city,
and the vast expanse Of low lands lying
to the south and west of it.
The winter of 1870 deserves to be
marked in the annals of cold weather.
On the 18th of January the exceedingly
uncomfortable temperature of 40 de-
grees below zero was reached at Mont
pelier, VT, at Bath and Bangor in
Maine, and at Eranconia, in New Hamp-
shire; and on the 9Th of February fol-
lowing the same figure was reached at
New Lebanon, N. Y. At that time near
ly all the surface of the United States,
as then observed, or all east of the great
plains, was below zero. No such gen
eral and excessive depression occurred
again for more than twenty years.
Near the end of the same year,
however, Dec. Is, 1885, the temperature
in some parts of New England went
down to 40 degrees again. A very Sc.
we're winter 1S3j-3G) followed, of which
the American Almanac for 1887 said F.:
''lt has, in the Eastern and Middle
States, been one Of the longest and Sc.
verest of which we have any knowledge
There was a considerable fall of snow
On the 23d of November, and from that
time the sleighing continued in the Vi
entity of Boston without being at any
time entirely interrupted till about the
last of March. Nor did the
snow in and about Boston entirely dis
appear till the 1st of May"
Of earlier cold winters, the most re.
markable in this country was that of
1880, when. as Jefferson says in his
"Notes," the Chesapeake was covered
with solid ice from its head to the mouth
Of the Potomac; and at Annapolis,
where the bay is more than five miles
wide, the ice was from five to seven
inches in thickness, and loaded wagons
passed over. 1t was at this time that
troops crossed on the ice from New .Jer-
sey to Staten Island, Washington sup
posing, as Ramsey says, "that an attack
on about 1920 British troops posted on
Staten Island might be advantageously
made, especially in its present state Of
union with the continent by an ,,nbroker
body of solid ice." The Delaware Rive,
was closed from the LIST OF December tC
the l4th of March, the ice being two o.
three feet thick. Long Island Sound
and the Chesapeake were so completely
ice bound as to be passable only with
horses and sleighs. The lowest temper
AZURE, according to DR.. Webster's OBJ
seryations at Hartford, was twenty de
grees on the Goth of January. Back 0
that time the winter of l74O-4L wa
reckoned the coolest that had bee,
known. My father" said DR.. Noal
; Webster, "who was witness of tn
winters Of l74l and 1850, considered tn
cold Of the former quite equal to that o
the latter.'' The storm which la
passed into New England history as tn
"great snow'' came in I'LL, and wa
followed by very cold weather. Abou
six feet of snow fell in Boston between
the 18th and 22d Of February. and 9Th
extremity of the weather hindered al
the three posts from coming in'' for
good many days. As late as the 9Th O
March the Boston NeWS Letter had thi
, item from Worcester:
1--WE hear from STAFFORD, in ConneC
l ticut, that the Sound is frozen over s
that people ride every day from theme
to Long Island, which is three league
T across. which was never known before.