Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1897-02-26
SOME BAD WEATHER.
A PIONEER RECALLS HOW TWO MILD
DEFENDERS ENDED.

Illinois Hominy Winter In 1880, When
Snow Hid the Tops of Trces-The Wealth
er That Followed Young Ben Cox's Wish
For Sudden Freeze.
IL have always noticed, said an octo.
RenGrian resident of this city, chat when
early December Is mild and fair we're sure
to have old Boroas bowling about our ears,
sharp and sudden toward the latter part
of the month. But l 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 it's name from the circumstance
of its 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
1929. There were only "a, 600 people in
the whole state of Illinois then. Neighbors
were few and far between about Kog
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 tumbed
1t came down in regular ready made snow
banks and continued without a 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 firewood as the choppers stood
on the snow during the winter were 7 feet
high that being as low down rs the chop
pers could get at the trees. In going to a
oh &c I bo - Iot
orchard trees and did not know it. 1t was
a fortunate thing that the corn crop had
been good that year, for many families
were so blockadcd 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 and wild turkeys were
more plentiful than domestic animals and
fowls in Mclean county then. Deer grew
so bold from hunger during that deep snow
that when they heard mon 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
named Cowen caught - deer pcnned them
up and fattened them on corn Wild tur-
keys hOvered about the cabins and fed
scores of them out of the window of our
house. We had drove of % hogs covered
by the deep snow, and they remained be-
meath it six weeks, in space not more
than 30 feet across. When we found them.
there were only II of the drove left, and
they were as fat as fat could be. They had
faoS ta1 I,o OF IL
crowded into 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 fer seed to plant the next season.
There wasn't a 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 1896, 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 "A drove of hogs, and he
brought Ben pair of skates There wasn't
another pair in all that part of the state
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 ont:
4" i wish to the Lord ii d get so cold that
things'd freeze before they knew itr
~ 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 Suddenlv
the wind began to blow IA 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 20 degrees below zero. and
tho faIlinr, ro In, ,rne turroJ OF ,,,,,,, . - 81