The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1897-03-24
Year Without q Summer.

y
out. BILL ARP.
Year Without a Summer.
The year 1916 was known through
cut the United States and Europe as
the coldest ever experienced by any
person then living. There are per-
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 ont and
did not burn wood except for cooking.
There were a few cool days, but they
we're very few. Most of the time the
air was warm and springlike. Fcbru-
ary was not cold. Some days were
colder than any in January, but the
weather was about the same. March,
from the 1st to the 9Th, was inclined
to be windy. 1t came in like a small
lion, and went out like a very innocent
sheep.
April came in warm, but as the
days grew longer the air became cold
er, and by the first of May there was
a 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 became too late to raise
crop. By the last Of May in this
climate the trees are usually ir leaf,
and birds and flowers are pler tiful.
When the last of May arrived in
1916 everything had been killed by the
cold.
June was the coldest 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 finch
snowfall in Maine, 3-inch fall in the
interior of New York State; the same
in Massachusetts,. There were only
few moderately warm days. Every
body looked, longcd and waited for
warm weather, but warm weather did
not come. It was also dry, very little
rain fell. All summer 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 mittcns.
Planting and shivering were done to-
gcther, and the farmers who worked
out their taxes on the country roads
wore overcoats and mittens. On
June II there was heavy fall Of
snow. \ Vermont farmer sent lock
of sheep to pasture on June l6. The
morning of the 18th dawned with the
thermometer below the freezing point
At about 8 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, jokirgly:
''Better start the neighbors soon; it
is the middle of June, and I may get
lost in the snow"
An hour after he left home terri
bic snow storm came up. The snow
fell thick and fast, and as there was
so much wind, the feecy masses piled
up in great drifts along the windward
side Of the fences and outbuildings.
Night came on and the farmer had not
been heard Of. His wife became
frightened and alarmed the neighbor-
hood. All the neighbors joined the
searching party. On the third day
they found him. He was lying in
hollow on 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, cwn-
ed large field of corn. He built ircs
around the field to keep off the frost.
Nearly every night he and his men
took turns in keeping up the fires and
watching that the corn did not freeze.
The farmer was awarded for his tireless
labor by having the only crop of corn
in the region.
July came in with ice and snow.
On the Fourth of July ice as thick as
window glass formed through New
England, 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 Aug
ust proved the worst month Of all. Al
most every green thing in this coun-
tryand Europe was blasted with frost.
Snow fell at Barnett, 30 miles from
London, England: on August 30.
Newspapers received from England
stated that 1916 would be remembered
by the existing generation as the year
in which there was no summer; very
little corn ripcned in New England.
There was great priFation, and thous-
ands of persons would have perished
in this country had it not been for the
abundance Of fish and wild game.
In direct contrast with 1916 appears
the year 1928, when there was no
winter. Captain Daniel Lyon, who
died some years ago in Burlington,
VT, used to relate his experience in
1928. He was walking encyclo-
pacdia Of local events. He said: II
know but one season when winter was
almost like summer, the winter Of
1928. ] was running the steam
boat General Green, between Burling-
ton, Vt., and Port Kent and Platts-
burgh, n. Y, and during the year
there was not bit Of ice in the whole
lake, from one end to the other. The
old Lake Champ,ain Steamboat Com
pany hauled out the steamboats, Phoe-
nix and Congress, and hardly a bit Of
ice appeared in Shclburnc Bay, near
Burlington, during the winter.
"A goose with remarkable maternal
instinct has been found near Berry.