The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1907-06-12
WITHOUT A SUMMER.
Snow and Ice Prevailed in June.
July and August
OF the Year Eighteen Hundred and
Sixteen Throughout The North

The year 1916 was known through
out the United States and Europe as
the coolest 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 the
pages of an old diary begun in 1910
and kept up unbroken until 1910
that the following information re-
garding this year without summer
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 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 1st, was
inclined to be windy. 1t came in like
a small lion and went out like 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
cornfelds were planted again and
again, until it became too late to
raise a crop. BY the last of May in
this climate the trees are usually in
leaf and birds and flowers are plenti-
full. 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 lati-
tude. Frost and ice were as common
as buttercups usually are. Almost
every green thing was killed; all fruit
was destroyed. Snow fell ten inches
deep in Vermont There was a
finch fall in the interior Of New
York State, and the same in Massa-
chusettes. There was a seven-inch
fall in the interior of New York
State and the same in Massachusetts,.
There were only few moderately
warm days. Everybody looked, long
ed, and waited for warm weather,
but warm weather did not come.
1t was also dry; very little rain
fell. All summer long the wind blew
from the north in blasts,
laden with snow and ice. Mothers
knit socks of double thickness for
their children, and made thick nit
tens. Planting and shivering were
done together, and the farmers who
worked out their taxes on the coun-
try roads wore overcoats and nit
tens.
On June II there was heavy fall
of snow. A Vermont farmer sent
flock of sheep to pasture on June 16.
The morning ofthe17th dawned with
the thermometer below the freezing
point. About 9 o'clock in the morn
ing the owner of the sheep started
to look for his flock. Before leaving
home he turned to his wife and said
jokingly:
Better start the neighbors soon;
it's the middle of June and l may
get lost in the snow"
An hour after he had left home a
terrible snowstorm came up. The
snow fell thick and fast and, as
there was so much wind, the feecy
masses piled in great drifts along the
windward side of the fences and out
buildings. Night came and the 1ar-
mer had not been heard Of.
His wife became frightened ano
alarmed the neighborhood. All the
ueighbors joined the searching party.
On the third day they found him. ne
was lying in hollow on the side hll!
with both feet frozen; he was hall
covered with snow, but alive. Most OF
the sheep were lost.
A farmer near Tewksbury, W.,
owned large field Of corn. He punt
fires. Nearly every night he and MS
men took turns in keeping up the nre
and watching that the corn did not
freeze. The farmer was rewarded
for his tireless labors by having eGe
only crop of corn in the region.
Iulv came in with ice and snow
On the 4th of July ice as tnleA as
window glass formed throughoue
New England, New York and IN some
narts of the State Of Pennsylvania:
indian corn, which in some parts Oh
the East had struggled throush Aa'
and and June. gave up, froze and died.
To the surprise of everybody. Az Al,
,s+ nroyed the worst month of all.
almost Inn St every green thing in THIS
oonntrv ani Europe was blasted with
frost. Snow fell at Barnet, thlety
miles from London. on August 80;
Newspapers received from Englano
stated that 1916 would be rememoer-
T "a hv the existing generation as the
co. in which there was no summer.
Very little corn ripened in ,.!s,s+io1, New En-
Gland. There was great prlvatlon,
and thousands of persons would nave
s,a,;ehad in this country had it not