The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1907-06-14
A YEAR WITH
OUT A SUMMER
Snow and Ice Prevailed in June,
July and August
In 1916.


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 IL is from the pages
of an old diary begun in 1910 and
kept up unbroken regarding this year
without a summer has been taken:
January was so mild that most per-
, sons allowed their fires to go out and
did not burn wood except for cooking.
There were few cool days, but they
were very few Most of the time the
air was warm and springlike. Febru-
airy 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 inclined
to be windy. 1t came in like a small
lion and went out like very inno-
cent sheep.
April came in warm, but as the days
grew longer, the air became colder,
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 form
ed half an inch thick on ponds and
rivers, corn was killed and the corn
fields we're planted again and again,
until il became too late 10 raise a
crop. BY the last of May in TINS
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 buttercups
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 Massachusetts,. There were
only a few moderately warm days. EV
erybody 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, Ia
den with snow and ice. Mothers knit
socks of double thickness for their
Children and made thick mittens.
Planting and shivering were done To-
gether and the farmers who worked
out their taxes on the country roads
wore over coats and mittens.
On June II there was a heavy faii
of snow. A Vermont farmer sent
flock of sheep to pasture on June To-
The morning of the 18th dawned with
the thermometer below the freezing
point. About o'clock in the morn
in 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 he had left nome
terrible snowstorm came up. Inc
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 mad
not been heard of.
His wife became frightened ana
alarmed the neighborhood. All the
neighbors joined the searching party
On the third day they found him. lie
was lying in a hollow on the side
hill with both feet frozen; he was
half-covered with snow, but ailVe'
Most of the sheep were lost.
farmer near Tewksbury, VT, own
ed a large field of corn. He buiit
fires. Nearly every night he and MS
men took turns in keeping up the IRE
and watching that the corn ala not
freeze. The farmer ives rewarded LOT
his tireless labors by having the only
crop of corn in the region.
July came in with snow and ice. On
the Fourth of July ice as thick as win
dow glass formed throughout New
England, 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, Au-
gust was the worst month of all. AL
most every green thing in this coun-
try and Europe was blasted with frost
Snow fell at Barnet, 30 miles from
London, England, on August 30. News
papers received from England stated
that 1916 would be remembered by the
existing generation as the year III
which there was no summer. very
little corn ripened in New England.
There was great privation, and thou