The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1884-06-28
A YEAR WITHOUT A SUMMER.

/ tHASih 'iiD hoshepttf democrat and Chronicle /
| was child, s years of age, in 1916.
and well remember the privations en-
| dured 10y the settlers in Central New
York during that and the succeeding
year. The past winter reminded me of
the winter of 1851 6, Tor it was cold
and boisterous. My father had moved
into this state from Massachusetts, with
a large family, and rented farm in
GAINESVILLE, Onondaga County. / had to
walk mile to attend school, SO the
storms OF that long, tedious winter are
firmly impressed on my mind,
As the season advanced we had a good
yield of maple sugar from sugar bush
on the farm, SO we were supplied with
that commodity. And, by the way.
farmers III those days were more skillful
insugarlng oil than at present. Loaf sugar
Was at that time 81 pound, for prices
went up during the war of 1872, and
were still maintained. On that account
maple sugar, in the country, was used
almost entirely for the table and cook
ing. i have seen it as white and nicely
grained as graduated sugar.
| There was no fruit that season ex-
| cepting strawberries, which were shell
tered by the clover and grass iii the
| meadows, and grew very nearly the
| size of ordinary cultivated Strawberries.
We preserved gallons of those berries,
and those, with dried apples, were the
only sauce l recollect on the table that
year.
As there We're frosts every month in
the year, excepting August, the rasp-
berries, currants, gooseberries and
blackberries were all cut off.
The garden was planted again as the
frost killed the vegetables, but after the
| third planting was frost bitten, it was
too late to raise anything. No corn
was matured; 1 do not recollect whether
any set or not, but when the hogs
were shut up to fatten, there was moth
| ing on which to fatten them, and when
/ they were killed there was no lard, and
| the pork was SO lean it had to be fried
| in butter. My Father went forty miles
| to buy a wagon load of potatoes for
| winter use.
Grass, clover and wheat did well, so
| we had plenty of milk, cream, butter
and bread, but when "A cow was killed to
| salt for winter there was no tallow to
| make candles.
There were of course no apples,
peaches, plums or pears.
Severe thunder storms accompanied
| with high winds prevailed during the
summer, and l recollect my father hav-
ing to brace himself against the outside
sitting-room door, and add his strength
| to the fastenlngs to prevent it from be-
| ing blown open. Those were north or
northwest winds. There was fire on
| the hearth almost every evening during
| that summer, and when the neighbors
| dropped in to spend the evening the
weather was prolific topic of CONVEX
| sation. The cause of the unpropitious
season was believed to be the numerous
spots on the sun. l remember well
! smoking glass over candle to look at
| the sun, many times during the sum-
| mer. / do not recollect how much of
| the suns surface was obscured, but
there was sometimes large spot, which
| appeared through the smoked glass, to
| be an inch and half in diameter and at
| other times a string of small spots.
They were SO numerous that smoking
glass and looking at the sun was our
principal pastime.
Father was by trade a worker in iron,
| and had "forge" or bloomery, where
| he manufactured bar iron. One after
| noon in June the boys went after the
| COWS, and as they walked along the road
| one of them almost stepped on rattle
| snake coiled up ready to strike. My
brother was so frightened he gave a
tremendous jump which cleared the
snake and they all ran home. Father
took mink trap with him and captured
| the snake alive, and as he wanted to
| keep it he took it into the forge where
it was warm. The night was cold and
| frosty, and at midnight when the men
quit work he put the cage on the warm
anvil SO his snakeship should not get
chilled.
The doors and windows were open,
and the next morning they found their
prize killed by the cold.
The succeeding year was quite as
disastrous to the farming community
There was such an unprecedented rain
| fall that the summer received the name
| of the wet season, and frosts were quite
frequent. We raised plenty of potatoes,
beets, carrots and parsnips that year,
| two large orchards on our place, and
| father had built fires in the stumps each
frosty night until the Goth of June, 1
| think it was. On that day which was
Saturday, mother and the girls had
been very busy baking and cooking for
| the Sabbath, SO there was large fire in
the kitchen. During the day, which
was warm and pleasant, a heavy thunder
| shower had come up, accompanied with
high wind and hail, which beat the
wheat and grass fiat; and when it
cleared off, the north wind lowered the
| temperature very fast, but no one
thought of frost, until 8 in the evening,
until some one came in and said that all
| the puddles of water along the roadside
were frozen over as thick as window
| glass. Father went out and fired the
stumps again, but it was too late.
The children climbed the trees in the
orchard over and over again to see If
some fruit had not escaped the frost
| for apples were as large as good sized
plums when they were cut Off, but
without success. To our great surprise,
one day in August, one of my sisters
found large sweet harvest apple on the
| ground by the kitchen door. One OF
the boys quickly climbed the tree, and
on branch which hung under the caves
by the kitchen, he picked peck OF APP
pies. They were very large and deli
cious The foliage was injured 10y the
June frost, but had grown out again UNI
usually dense and had efectually
screened them. On the Limb of peach
tree, sheltered by the carriage house
caves, we found two large ripe peaches.
When the wheat was fit to cut it
raiued almost necessarily. What was
cut could not be dried to bind in
sheaves, and that which was uncut
lodged with the rain, and it ali sprouted
and began to grow.
The -four we used that winter was
made from grown wheat, and the bread
| uas something To be remembered.