Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1881-01-29
The Winter of I779-sO-The Cold
Friday Of February I, 1907.
Afe,r York TELEGRAM

Friday Oh February 4, 1907.
A New York Telegram.
The winter of I779-SO began as the
present one did, and before the
slight moderation in the atmOs-
phere, Sunday, many of the older
residents, whose fathers and moth
ers had told them many tales of that
terrible winter, were specializing as
to whether the present one would
resemble it in other respects. In
1880 the cold weather set in
about the middle of November, and
! continued until the middle Of
February. During that period there
was not enough warmth in the suns
rays to melt thesnow on the ground,
nor to affect in the least the letters
of ice that bound the creeks, ponds
and rivers. One snoW-storm fol-
/ lowed 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
I AOuilu AIOLCH ~ uCtlu III NiAC AOICStS9
and domestic fowls fell frozen from
their rOosts. The deer and buffalo
sought shelter from the blasts
around the cabins of the settlers,
and all kinds of wild animals per-
( ished in the forests for want of food,
| which was buried beneath the snow.
The fierce wolf and panther, which
usually skulkel about the bound
aries of the settlements only by
night, now came near in broad day
light in search of the bones and
Ofial thrown from the cabins of the
settlers. No rain fell, and the
pioneers were compelled TO obtain
water for drinking, cooking, &C.,
by melting ice and snow. The
northern and western rivers were
tightly bound by frost, and even as
far south as Nashville the Cumber-
land was frozen over with ice thick
enough for the safe passage of emil
grant trains. The Delaware, at
Philadelphia, 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 1879
80 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 of the trees and
shrubs were putting forth new
growth. The same condition of
things was witnessed last fall. The
winters of 1913, 1884, 1855, 1888,
1892, 1896 ana 1899 are all reported
as having been very severe. 1t is
stated in ssHildreth's Pioneer His
tory" that on the 26th of December,
1888, the Delaware and Ohio rivers
were both frozen over, and naviga-
ton was suspended upon them until
the 18th of the fOllowingMarch In
1892, when soldiers were sent to the
disastrous battlefield of General st.
Clair 20 bury the dead, they en-
camped where Cincinnati now
stands January %. The snow was
reported two feet deep upon the
ground, and the Ohio was so strong
ly frozen that the soldiers rode their
horses across from Kentucky on the
ice. The 9TH 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 a hurricane
came to sweep over the land. 1t
grew colder and colder as the night
progressed, and the next morning
the trees in the forests were crack
ing like the reports of guns and
everything was bound in letters of
ice. There was no thermometer to
register the cold, but the day comes
down in history and tradition as
cold Friday.