Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1901-07-18

pending upon agriculture for q live
iihood. Rapid transit was then
unknown, and all travel was per-
formed by stages or horseback over
roads that we're impossible the
greater portion OF the year. Freight
vas conveyed from one part Of the
country BY either sail or canal boat.
and the moving Of psrishable pro-
daos Vas an absolate impossibility.
Consequently the distress caused
be the failure Of all crops north Of
the Potomac, would obtain no re-
lief from the shipment OF food pro-
ducts from the south, where, al
though similar weather had been
felt, jet from climatic reasons it
had not been so severe.
There was no fruit, vegetables or
cereal crop; all had been included
in the common ruin.
Scarcely any corn north of the
Potomac came to perfection, with
the consequence that the next
spring seed corn sold at s5 per
bushel. Wheat sold at the rate of
s4 to s6 o bushel.
What little harvest there was to
gather, was saved in few DAYS, the
harvesters going to work in their
coats. The writer's grandfather,
who at that period resided in How.
ard county, went to work in his
harvest field with his coat and
gloves on.
AS frost and ice had made their
appearance with every month of
the year, no great hopes were en-
tertained concerning the advent of
August. The last Of the summer
months came in shlvering with cold
and numbed with repeated frosts.
1t could not raise one warm morn
ing or one cheerful day. Ice form.
ed an inch and half thick in many
localities.
The corn, which was then in the
milk. was frozen so hard that 1t
rotted on the stalk, and the farm.
ers cut it of for fodder, though
poor food it made. Harvest and
summer time were now both over,
but our ancestors of 1916 saw
neither, as there was no summer
and no crops to gather.
The remaining months of this
truly remarkable year offered moth
ing of interest.
/ The appearance of warm spell
in September served for q time 10
brighten the hopes of the people,
but on the 10th of the month the
cold weather suddenly returned.
Many believed the end of time was
approaching and a number became
insane from brooding over their
troubles. One old man in Yer.
mont by the name of James Good
ing became so despondent that he
killed all his cattle aud then hang
ed himself, after vainly trying to
persuade his wife to do the same
thing to escape the terrible and
gradual death BY freezing and star
vation, which be believed was to be
the common doom.
Distress was everywhere preva.
lent. The failure of crops prodac-
ed financial difficulties, and han-
dreds OF farmers and merchants be.
came bankrupt. It becomes Of i'm
terest at this juncture to relate q
pleasant jncident that came like q
ray of sunshine through the gener-
al gloom that pervaded our own
State, in which one Of our leading
citizens Of that period Of distress
proved his charitable disposition to
his fellow men. We snbjoin it be-
low:
"During the year 1916 Major
Ephraim King Wilson, Gather of
the late u. 8. Senator from Mary
land, Hon. K. Z. Wilson, owned
or controlled in some way or other
twenty-seven farms around Snow
Hill. consequently he had twenty
seven tenants. Those we're the
days in this section of the country
when farms were rented on What
was termed shares-so much corn,
80 much fodder, so much wheat,
etc.. and rents we're collectable once
year. OF course il was q very
disastrous year to the farmer, not
one in . hundred. perhaps. raised
enongh to keep his family, to say
nothing Of rents and the feeding of
stock. However, then az nov.
rent day like death and taxes,
was snre to make it's rounds, and