The Marshall republican., 1910-07-01
A Summarizes Year


w. A. Hill of Herndon was a Mar
shall visitor Friday and handed us
a clipping from the New York
Commercial Advertiser telling
about the "summerless year" of
1916. Mr.. Hill asked us to publish
it as it will no doubt help US 10
keep cool during these hot days.
1t follows:
The year 1916 was known
throughout the United States and
Europe as the coolest ever ex-
p~erienced by any person then liv-
ing. 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 unbroken until 1910, that the
following information regarding
this year without a summer has
been taken:
January was 50 mild that most
persons allowed their fires to go
Oul, anu III hOl puih "oOo tANNPN
for cooking. There were a few
cool 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
n 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 a very in
nocent sheep.
April came in warm, but as the
days grew longer the air became
colder, and by the LIST Of May there
was a temperature like that CT win
ter, with plenty of snow and ice.
In May the young buds were fro
zen dead, ice formed half an inch
thick on ponds and rivers, corn
was killed, and the corn fields
were planted again and again, I'M
til it became too late to raise a
crop. BY the last of May in this
climate the trees r 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 kill
ed all fruit was destroyed. Snow
fell 10 inches deep in Vermont.
There was a finch snow fall in
Maine, and 3-inch fall in the in
terror of New York State, and the
same in Massachusetts. There
were only a few moderately 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 foI
their children, and made thick
mittens. Planting and shivering
were done together, and the farm
ers who worked out their taxes
on the country roads wore over
coats and mittens. On June II
there was a heavy fall of snow. A
Vermont farmer sent a flock Of
sheep to pasture on June 16. The
morning of the 18th dawned with
the thermometer below the freez.
ing point. At about 9 o'clock il
the morning the owner of the
sheep started to look up his flock
Before leaving home he turned t.
his wife and said, jokingly:
"Better start the neighbors sooI
it's the middle of June, and I may
get lost, in the snow"
An hour after he left home {
terrible snow storm came up. Thu
snow fell thick and fast, and, al
there was so much wind, the'fleec,
masses piled in great drifts alon(
the windward side of the fences
and outbuildings. Night came ant
the farmer had not been heard OF
His wife became frightened ant
alarmed the neighborhood. AL
the neighbors joined the search.
ing party. On the third day the,