The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1907-06-13
No Summer that Year.
Snow and Ice Prevailed in June,
July and August, lSl6-January
Too Warm for Fiires-Vermont-
er Was Lost In a Blizzard June
18th and Had Booth Feet Frozen
Facts from Old Diary.

lttn ana f1dQ DOOM rect frozen
Facts from Old Diary.
Danbury Comm News,
The year 1916 was known through
out 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
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 few cold days,
but they were very 'ew. Most of the
time it 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 first to the sixth,
was inclined to be windy. 1t came
in like IA small lion and went out like
Il very innocent lamb.
April came in warm, but as the
days grew longer, the air became
colder, and by the first of May there
was temperature like that OF win
ter, 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 corntields were planted again
until it became too late to raise a
crop. By the last of May in this eli
mate the trees are USUALLY in leaf and
birds and flowers plentiful. When
the last of May arrived in 1916 ev-
erything had been killed by the cold.
June was the coolest month of
roses evereXperienced in this latitude.
| Frost and ice was as common as
buttercups usually are. Almost ev-
cry green thing was killed; all fruit
was destroyed. Snow fell 10 inches
deep in Vermont. There was q 7
inch fall in the interior of New York
State, and the same in Massachu-
setts There were only a few moder
ately warm days. Everybody look
ed, longed 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 stead
lily from the north in blasts, laden
with snow and ice. Mothers knit
socks of double thickness for their
children, and made thick mittens.
Planting and shivering we're done to-
gether, 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. A Vermont farmer sent a
| flock of sheep to pasture on June 16
The morning of the II dawned with
the thermometer below the freezing
point. About 9o'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
| iokingly:
"Better start the neighbors soon;
it's the middle of June and | 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 fleecy masses
piled in great drifts along the wind
ward side of the fences and outbuild-
ings Night came and the farmer
had not been heard Of
His wife became frightened and
alarmed the neighborhood. All the
neighbors joined the searching party.
On the third day they found him.
He was lying in a hollow on the hill
side with both feet frozen, he was half
covered with snow, but alive. Most
OF the sheep were lost.
A farmer near Tewsbury, Vt, own
ed large field of corn. He built
fires. Nearly every night he and his
men took turns in keeping up the fire
and watching that the corn did not
freeze. The farmer was rewarded for
his tireless labors by having the only
crop OF corn in the region.
: July came in with snow and ice.
On the 4th of July ice as thick as
; window glass formed throughout
New England, New York and some
parts of Pennsylvania. Indian corn,
which in some parts Of the East had
struggled through May and June
gave up, frooze and died.
: TO the surprise of everybody, Au-
E gust proved the worst month OF all
Almost every green thing in this
country and Europe was blasted with
frost. Snow fell at Barnet, 80 miles
! from London, England, on August
Both. Newspapers received from
7 England stated that 1916 would be
' remembered by the existing genera
/ ton as the year in which there was
1 no summer. Very little corn ripened
t in New England. There was great
privation, and thousands of persons
would have persisted in this country
4 had it not been for the abundance oil
9 fish and wild game.