Kansas City journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1897-1928, 1897-05-10
WAS A suMMERLEss YEAR.
Old New Workers. Diary Tells of Snow
and Ice in 1916,

and Ice in 1916.
From the New York Sun.
The year 1916 was known throughout the
United States and Europe as the coolest
ever experienced by any person then living.
There are persons in Northern New York
who have been in the habit of keeping dia-
rtes for years, and 1t Is from the pages of
an old diary, begun in 1910 and kept I'M
broken until 1910, that the following infor-
nation regarding this year without sum-
mer has been taken:
January was so mild that most persons
allowed their fires to go out and did not
burn wood except for cooking. There were
few cool days, but they were very few.
Most of the time the air was warm and
springlike. February was not cold. Some
DAYS We're colder than any in January but
the weather was about the same. March.
from the LIST to the 9Th. was inclined to be
went out like a very innocent sheep.
April came in warm, but, as the days
grew longer, the air became colder. and by
!ilao nhe nrst OF May there was a temperature
IKE that OF winter, with plenty of snow and
zee. In May the young buds were frozen
aead, @ ice formed half an inch thick on
pohuS ana rivers, corn was killed, and the
coInheidS were planted again and again.
untii 1t became too late to raise a crop.
trees are usually in leaf and birds and
flowers are plentiful. When the last of
May NAY arrived in 1Sl6 everything had been
June was the coolest month of roses
ever experienced in this latitude. Frost
;,n,,, ana ice were as common as buttercups
Killed; all fruit was destroyed. Snow fell
ten inches deep in Vermont. There was
SSeIXen-inch SeI, snowfall in Maine. a three-inch
the same in Massachusetts. There were
only few moderately warm days. Every
body looked; longed and waited for warm
har Il
u was also dry; very little rain fell. All
summer long the wind blew steadily from
ice. Mothers knit socks of double thick
mittens.
Planting and shivering were done togeth-
er, and the farmers who worked out their
taxes on the country roads wore overcoats
ana mittens. June II there was a heavy
GI,. faii Of snow. Vermont farmer sent a
nock of sheep to pasture June Is. The
morning of the 18th dawned with the ther-
mometer below the freezing point At
ABOUT o'clock in the morning the owner
1 1t the sheep started to look up his flock.
wire ana said, jokingly:
Better start the neighbors soon: it's the
snow ~
An hour after he left home n terrible
snowstorm came up. The snow fell thick
t,,n ana a, aiast, and, as there was SO much wind
the windward side of the fences and out.
buildings. Night came and the farmer had
not been heard of. His wife became
frightened h1 ,s and alarmed the neighborhood.
party. On the third day they found him.
He was lying in hollow on side hill,
with both feet frozen; he was half covered
were lost.
a farmer near Tew ksbury, VT, owned a
large .h heid OF corn. He built fires around
tne held to keep off the frost. Nearly
"a nd IL
keeping up the fires and watching that the
corn did not freeze. The farmer was re-
Marded for his tireless labors by having
tne 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 throughout New England.
OF PENNSYLVANIA Indian corn. which in
some parts of the East had staruggled
died NN' anu
To the surprise of everybody August
proved the worst month OF ali. Almost
every green thing in this country and Eu-
rope was blasted with frost. Snow fell at
land. August 80. Newspapers received from
England stated that 1916 would be remem-
bered by the existing generation as the
little corn ripened in New England There
was great privation and thousands of per-
sons would have perished in this country
had 1t not been for the abundance Of fish
and wild game.
In direct contrast with 1916 appears the
year 1S2l-S, when there was no winter
Captain Daniel Lyon. who died some years
ago In Burlington, Vt. used to relate his
in 1S2T-2S. He was a walking
encyclopaedia of local events. He said: Il
knew but one season when winter was
almost like summer, the winter of 1925.
was running the steamboat General
Green between Burlington. VT, and Port
Kent and Plattsburg. 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 Champlain Steamboat Com
pany hauled out the steamboats, Phoenix
and Congress and hardly bit Of ice ap-
peared in Shelburne bay, near Burling-
ton. during the winter.
THE Phoenix had a new engine built in
Albany, and the whole outfit had to be
carried from that city to Shelburne har-
Dor by teams through the mud. At Mid
1letury. VT, the mud was more than
foot deep. The Phoenix was rebuilt and
'eady to launch by January Is January
IS was the day fixed for the launching,
md took over a large party from Bur
irgton on the General Green. The sun
vas shining with the warmth of a July
lay The women who sat on deck raised
heir DaraSOlS."