Western sentinel. [volume] (Winston [i.e. Winston-Salem], N.C.) 1856-1886, 1886-02-11

bf EDWARD PAYSON HALL.
For the Sentinel
1t may be interesting and instruct
i've to your readers, who have scarce
ly recovered from the shock of the
marvellous "cold spell" of the Sth to
the 11th of January, to hear me re-
herse from old records some Of the
conquests the winter king has made,
here and elsewhere in days gone by !;
and the more they hear perhaps the
less they may wonder at or be inclined
to overate the fridgidity of the recent
lnclement season.
Just about fifty years ago, viz, the
10Th day of December, 1885, was the
coldest day on record from sunrise to
sunset. The thermometer ranged
from 120 to 160 below zero all day in
the vicinity of Boston. The winter
was remarkable for the lowness of its
mean temperature, the number of ex-
tremely cold days and the great guam
tity and long duration of snow The
writer was mere "kitten" at that
eventful time of shivering, (only one
year. four months and twelve days old
by the watch), and consequently can
not communicate to this mention of it
any flavor OF a "reminiscence," only
IN so far as it was reported to him af-
terward by his seniors as the widest
wonder Of wintery weather. This
much he can vouch for at least, that
he must have been in warm corner,
some where, as the CONCEALED chickens
tumbled down dead from their roosts,
and many persons in North and South
Carolina even, were actually frozen to
death.
Yet there is some dispute between
authorities as to whether the above
mentioned day or the 4th of January
OF the previous winter should bear the
palm oi severity. On this day the
thermometer doubtless registered 400
belew zero at Lebanon, N. Y, the
mercury becoming solid and the cold
was most extraordinary throughout
the United States. The writer, Tex
cuse the facetious egotism,) was then
ezactty five months old, by the family
register; and he thinks it may have
been the "cold Saturday" old folks
talk so much about, as he has always
had an imaginary dread of cold water
which he thinks he must have acquir-
ed from somebody sprinkling him
with it at church the next day.
Seventy years ago was the year
without summer. Frost appeared
in every month of the year 1916. Ice
formed half an inch thick in Nav
snow tell to the depth of ten inches in
Vermont, seven in Maine, three in the
interior of New York, and also in
Massachusetts, in June; ice was form
ed of the thickness of common window
glass throughout New England. New
ork, and some parts of Pennsylvania,
on the 9th of July; Indian corn was
80 frozen that the greater part was cut
down and dried for fodder in August.
The farmers supplied themselves from
the corn produced in 1915 for the
seed of the spring of 1917. Mr.. Sam
uel Luckey, at that time large slave
holder and farmer of the neighbor-
hood in which now live, cribbed all
the corn he made that wintery year
in nlolasses hogshead.
The following characteristics account
of a memorable snow storm is taken
hi'~-atina from the parish register of
the village Of Youlgrave, Derbyshire,
England:
This year 1915 Jan. Is began
the greatest snow which ever fell up
pom the earth, within mans memorye.
1t cover'd the earth five quarters
deep upon the playne. And for
heapes or drifts of snow, they were
very deep, SO that passengers, both
horses and foot. passed over yates
hedges and wales. 1t fell at ten sew
erall tymes, and the last was the great
est, to the create admiration and fear
of all the land, for it came from the
foure pts of the world, SO that all c'nt-
ryes were full, yea, the south p'te as
well as these mountaynes. 1t contin-
ued by daily INCREASING until the
18TH day of March (without the sight
of any earth, eyther uppon hilles or
Valleys upon wch daye, being the
Lordes day, it began to decrease and
30 by little and little consumed and
wasted away, till the eight and twen-
tyth day of May, for then all the
heaPes or drifts of snow were consum-
ed, except one upon Kinder Scout,
wch lay till Wilson week."
On the night of January 1th, 1910,
the mercury in three Thermometers at
Moscow froze and withdrew into the
ball. At Iraish it was observed at
AL of Fahrenheit Immediately be-
fore it froze.
January 18th, 1906, the thermom-
eter at Danbury, Connecticut, stood
at 190 below zero; being the coldest
weather known there since 1880.
January 18th, 1880 was the coolest
day for 25 years at Philadelphia.
At Leipsic, December 18th, 1850,
the cold was SO intense that ten senti-
nels were frozen to death.
From Christmas to January 10Th,
1862, the weather was severely cold
in England. The ice on the Thames
it is said was over five feet thick!
The intense frost in Holland, Janu-
ary 18th, 1895, enabled the remain
der of the French army to cross the
Waal.
About the beginning of December
1854, commenced frost at London,
which continued till the 5th of the