Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1897-04-27
YEAR WITHOUT A SUMMER.
Story Of Snow and Ice in 1916 from
an Old Diary.

out the United states and Europe as
The coolest ever experienced by any
person then living. There are pei
sons in northern New York who have
been in the habit Of keeping diaries
for years, and, it is from pages of an
old diary begun in 1910 and kept un-
broken until 1910, that the following
information regarding this year with
out summer has been taken:
January was so mild that most per-
sons allowed their fires to go out and
did not burn wood except for cooking.
There were a few cold days, but they
were very few. Most of the time the air
was warm and springlike. February
was not cold. Some days were colder
than any in January, but the weather
was about the same March from the
LIST TO the 9th was inclined to be
windy. 1t came in like small lion,
and went out like a very innocent
sheep.
April came in warm, but as the days
grew longer the air became colder,
and by the first of May there was
temperature like that of winter, with
plenty of snow and ice. In May the
young buds were frozen dead, ice
formed half an inch thick on ponds
and rivers, corn was killed, and the
corn fields were planted again and
again, until it become too late to raise
a crop. BY the last of Mayin this eli
mate the trees are usually in leaf, and
the birds and flowers are plentiful.
When the last of May arrived in 1916
everything had been killed by the
cold.
June was the coolest month of roses
ever experienced in this latitude.
Frost and ice were as common as but
tercups usually are. Almost every
thing green was killed; all fruit was
destroyed. Snow fell ten inches
deep in Vermont. There was a seven
inch snowfall in Main, a three-inch
fall in the interior of New Y ork state;
the same in Massachusetts, There
were only a few moderately warm
days. Everybody looked, longed and
waited for warm weather, but warm
weather did not come. 1t was also
dry; very little rain fell. All sum-
mer long the wind blew steadily from
the north in blasts laden with snow
and ice. Mothers knit socks of double
thickness for their children and made
thick mittens. Planting and SILVER
ing were done together, and the farm
ers who worked out their taxes on the
country roads wore overcoats and
mittens On June II there was a
heavy fall of snow. A Vermont
farmer sent a flock Of sheep to pasture
on June 1G. The morning of the
eth dawned with the thermometer
below the freezing point. At about
nine o'clock in the morning the owner
of the sheep started to look up his
flock. Before leaving home he
turned to his wife and said ioliingly:
"Better start the neighbors soon;
it is the middle of June, and Imay get
lost in the snow"
An hour after he left a terrible
snowstorm came up. The snow fell
thick and fast, and as there was so
much wind, the heecy masses piled up
in great drifts along the windward
side of the fences and outbuildings. |
Night came and the farmer had not
been heard of. His wife became
frightened and alarmed the neigh
borhood. All the neighbors Joined
the searching party. On the third
day they found him. He was lying in
a hollow on a side hill, with both feet
frozen; he was half covered with
snow, but alive. Most Of the sheep
were lost.
A farmer near Tewksbury, VT,
owned a large field of corn. He built
fires around the field to keep off the
frost. Nearly every night he and his
men took turns in keeping up the fRHa
and watching that the corn did
freeze. The farmer was rewarded for
his tireless labors by having the only
crop Of corn in the region.
SJuly came in with ice and snow.
On the4th Of July ice as thick as win
dow glass formed through New Eng
land, New York, and in some parts of
the state of Pennsylvania. Indian
corn, which in some parts of the east
had struggled through May and June,
gave up, froze and died.
, TO the surprise of everybody Au-
gust proved the worst month Of all.
Almost every green thing in this
country and Europe was blasted with
frost Snow fell at Barnett, 30miles
from London, England, on August
80. Newspapers received from Eng
land stated that 1916 would be re-