The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-09-16
SOME BAD WEATHER.
A PIONEER RECALLS HOW TWO MILD
DEFENDERS ENDED.
Illinois Hominy Winter In 1880, When
Snow Hid the Tops of Trees-The Wealth
For a Sudden Freeze.

SNOW hiu the Tops Oh Irees-Ine wealth.
err That Followed Young ben Cox's Wish
For a Sudden Freeze.
Il have always noticed, said an octo.
| genarian resident OF this city, THAT when
| early December is mild and fair we're sure
to have old Boreas bowling about our ears,
sharp and sudden, toward the latter part
| OF the month. But 1 never knew him to
come down and show his teeth quite so
terribly at the far end of mild December
as he used to on the Illinois prairies In the
pioneer days. L was an Illinois PIONEER.
My folks settled in piece Of timber In
Mclean county known as Keg grove. The
| grove got its name from the circumstance
| OF It's having been traded to a white man
| by its Indian owners for keg of whisky.
The city of Bloomington occupies the site
| OF keg grove now. We settled there in
| 1899 There were only 40, 900 people in
| the whole state of Illinois then Neighbors
were few and far between about Keg
grove
"The fall and early winter of 1880 were
| very dry and mild. Late in December,
and with very little warning, snow began
falling 1t didn't fall either. 1t tumbled.
1t came down in regular ready made snow
banks and continued without moments
| let up for two days and nights You may
have some idea of how deep the snow fell
when | tell you that when it went away
| In the spring the stumps of trees that had
been cut for flrewood as the choppers stood
| ON the snow during the winter were feet
| high, that being as low down as the chop
pers could get at the trees In going to
neighbours l drove over the tops of their
| orchard trees and did not know It, 1t was
fortunate thing that the corn crop had
been good that year, for many families
were so blockaded by the snow that they
could not get out of their houses. They
would have starved To death, but they
lived on corn, which they pounded into
coarse meal or hominy, and that was so
| generally the case that the winter was ever
afterward known TO the pioneers as the
hominy winter
"Deer, wolves ard wild turkeys were
| more plentiful than domestic animals and
| fowls in Mclean county then. Deer grew
50 bold from hunger during that deep snow
> that when they heard men chopping down
trees they would come up and eat the
| branches as the trees fell Hundreds of
! deer were caught in this way, and the
| wolves killed hundreds more One settler
] up and fattened them on corn. Wild tur-
keys lowered about the cabins, and l fed
scores of them out Of the window of our
| house We had drove of 20 hogs covered
| by the deep snow, and they remained be-
meath it six weeks, in n space not more
| than 30 feet across. When we found them,
| there were only IL of the drove left, and
they were rs fat as fat could be. They had
Toasted on the other g. So many deer were
crowded into q piece of timber known as
| Buckles grove that they killed every tree
in the grove by girdling to get the bark to
eat. Cattle died by the score during the
| six weeks that snow lay on the ground,
| because no one could get TO them to dig
them out and care for them.
There was heavy frost every month in
| the year after that deep snow. Corn
couldn't ripen, and there wasn't enough
| gathered for seed TO plant the next season.
! There wasn't bushel of seed corn to be
! had nearer than Ohio in 1892 1t cost So
bushel. John Duffy came in that year
| with few bushels of small, yellow corn
/ from Pennsylvania. That was planted. 1t
matured early, ard some people out there
raise Duffy corn yet.
! "But in December, 1886, the prairie
! pioneers got some weather that made them
! quit dating things from the winter of the
| deep snow. The month had been warm and
moist Everything was slush and slop and
| mud. Young Ben Cox's father had been
| TO Chicago with drove of hogs, and he
| brought Ben pair of skates. There WASH {
! another pair in all that part OF the state.
J But there was no ice, and young Ben got
desperate because he couldn't use his new
skates. One day he was so mad that he
| yelled out:
=" Il wish to the Lord it'd get so cold that
( things'd freeze before they know itp
~ don't suppose that what followed was
owing to Ben's wish, but when he made
it rain was falling and the thermometer
stood at 40 degrees above zero. Suddenly
the wind began to blow a gale. 1t came
out of the northwest, and no wind that
ever swept over those prairies before or
since came so near being a blast from the
north pole as that one was. Almost in
stantly the mercury dropped from 40 de-
| grees above to 90 degrees below zero, and
| the falling rain was turned at once TO pei
lets and barbs of ice. The camp air froze
| so quickly that 1t became one great cloud
of flying frost.
"This polar blast swept down upon us
at O'Clock in the afternoon. John Daw-
son was on his way from Williams mill,
six miles down Salt creek. He had gone
half a mile from the mill when he heard a
roar like thunder. The noise was behind
him. Looking around he saw the storm
| coming and the rain freezing before it.
When it struck him, he turned to go back
to the mill Before his horse was headed
about Dawson was frozen fast in the sad
| die. The slush had been more than fet-
lock deep. BY the time Dawson had urged
his horse around a hundred yards the slush
was frozen so it bore the horses weight,
ond it was with great difficulty that Daw-
son got back to the MILL the water in the
road having become such glare of ice
that his horse could scarcely make his way
over 1t.
Fowls that were out on the soft ground
when this unheard of change of weather
came were frozen fast where they stood.
| Cows froze In their tracks Our folks had
three hogs frozen to death while they were
hurrying from their feeding places TO their
pen, less than 300 yards away.
John Lapham had forded the Mack
inaw and his horse slipped off rim of ice
| at the edge of the stream and got in the