Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1907-06-20
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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 north
ern 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 regarding
this year without a 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
sprinslike. February was not cold. Some
days were colder than any in January.
but the weather was about the same.
March, from the LIST to the 9th, was in
clined to be kindly. 1t came in like a
small lion and went out like very limo
cent sheep.
April came in warm. but as the days
grew longer the air became colder and
by the first of May there was temper
AZURE 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 plentiful. When the last of
May arrived in 1916 everything had been
killed by the cold.
June was the coolest month of roses
ever experienced in this latitude Frost
and ice were as common as buttercup5
usually are. Almost every green thing
was killed all fruit was destroyed; snow
fell ten inches deep in Vermont. There
was a seven-inch fall in the interior Of
New York State, and the same in Mas
sachusetts. There were only a few mod
erately warm days. Everybody looked.
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 steadily
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
were done together, and the farmers who
WOIheu out luelI ldN6S Oh the country
roads wore overcoats and mittens.
On June II there was a heavy fall OF
snow. A Vermont farmer sent flock of
sheep to pasture on June 16. The morn
ing of the 18th dawned with the Their
mometer below the freezing point. About
8 o'clock in the morning 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 | may get lost
in the snow"
An hour after he had left home ter
rife snow storm 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 outbuldings. Night came and
the farmer had not been heard of.
His wife became frightened and alarm
ed the neighborhood All the neighbors
joined the searching party. On the third
day they found him. He was lying in
hollow on the side hill with both feet
frozen; he was half covered with snow,
but alive. Most of the sheep were lost.
July came in with snow and ice. On
the Fourth of July ice as thick as win
dow glass formed throughout New Eng
land, New York, and in some parts Of
the State Of Pennsylvania, Indian corn,
which in some parts of the East had
struggled through May and June, gave
up, froze and died.
To the surprise of everybody, August
proved the worst month of all. Almost
every green thing in this country and
Europe was blasted with frost.
Snow fell at Barnet, thirty miles from
London, England, On Aug. 80. Newspa-
pers received from England stated that
1916 would be remembered by the exist
ing generation as the year in which there
was no summer.
Very little corn ripened in New Eng
| land. There was great privation, and
| thousands of persons would have persisted
| in this country had it not been for this
! abundance Of fish and wild game.-Dan-
| bury Comm News.