The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1915-04-01
WINTER REVEALED AS
A MERE SUPERSTITION

p The Records Of Three Centuries Show
? ing that the Pilgrims Enjoyed IN
: Same Mild Winters as Ourselves.
D Flowers bloomed in January hun
dred years ago, around Boston. Youth
went swimming in open waters i
I February and all sorts Of incongruou
things happened because of mild win
ters. All of which proves that ther
is no such thing as the "old-fashione,
winter" unless it is that the old-fash
ioned winter was much like the mod
ern brand. From the time Of the set
tlement of Plymouth by the Pilgrims
in 1920, to the present, there have
been winters mild and winters severe
winters of years ago passed without
as much snow as that which is linger-
ing along to-day. The ice dealers
were sore pressed for harvests in the
days of the "old-fashioned" winter
just as they have been in more recent
times.
Even the Pilgrims Had Mild Winters
Substantiation of these Charges" is
available through the courtesy of Mr..
l. Y. Chabbuck Of Roxbury, who can
hardly be thought prejudiced in favor
of the common belief that winters Of
the present are milder than winters Of
the past, inasmuch as he has just cell
ebrated his eightieth birthday. Mn.
Chubbuck's compilation of "Mild Win
ter Record shows the surprising re-
suit that Of the 1913 winters from
17S0-Sl to 1906-07, just Ga had a
mean temperature above the average
and Ga below it.
While it is true that the last eight
winters break the evenness Of this
record, all being on the "warm" side,
it is also true that some of the most
severe weather on record around Bos-
ton has been experienced within these
eight. January of 1912 was notable
for its frigid career with frost of ex-
ceptional depth and probably the
greatest number Of frozen water
pipes ever recorded. Decembers of
1904 and 1910 were among the cold
est of Christmas months.
Excerpts from Mr.. Chubbuck's most
and highly interesting col
ections of facts about mild winters,
up to 1892, or to within the recol-
ections of the present generation, are
is follows:
Mild Winter Record
From the settlement of Plymouth
~ the Pilgrims in 1920, until about
he year 1850, no continuous meteor
illogical records, like those of our pres
mt century, were kept. The early
ettlers of the country chronicled !
weather. conditions only as they were
and these in but a
cry general sort of way. The vari- {
us histories, memoirs diaries and
own records of the early periods give s
etailed accounts Of great rain, snow !
nd wind storms, freshets and uncom-
1only high tides, seasons of great c
from epidemic, information 8
n many subjects-but say little of 4
leasant weather. a
But that there were many mild win Y
ers-as well as the severely cold ones s
during this long range of years t
GEMS to be proved very conclusively /
y the appended passages and notes, /
ted from various records of the A
me.
Winter of 1620-1621
The Journal of the Pilgrims of t
lymouth affords US a fair record of g.
lie winter of 1620-21. This first sea- n
IN of the Pilgrims in the New Land o.
as not, as has been supposed, one of II
reat severity. Rather, it was win
r Of frequent and heavy rains, of re
yht SHOWS, and of no extended peri st
Is of extreme cold. Later winters B
ought snow in such quantities that
e houses of the settlers we're banked in
with it but during the winter of 81
20-21 the storms, for the most part, cf
rned from snow to sleet or rain. G
lere is no record Of cold sufficient to
AXE ice in the bay, nor even to freeze ce
er the ponds and streams. ou
That it was a mild winter is well gr
ought out by contrasting it with the wi
bsequent winter Of 16a1-42, when tic
e ponds and streams were sealed up We
hit, and when, according to Win M
-op in his 'History of New Eng" w
3D." "the frost was so great and an
ltinuous that all the bay was frozen su
er, so much SO and so long as the
e, by the Indians relation, had not gel
IN these forty wears. so as horses So