The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1916-02-05

the Next Year.
One hundred years ago, in 1916 to
be exact, Vermont had no summer. |
Ten inches of snow fell in June of that
year and people were frozen to death
Overcoats and mittens were worn all
through the summer months, and there
were suicides due to fear that the sun
was cooling off. The following account
| of that remarkable season was printed
some wears ago in the Concord, N.
H. Monitor as being the narrative of
| '"the nonagenarian James Winchester
of Vermont:
/ l remember the year that was winter
from one end of it until the other,
and when the weather was so severe
+, in June that a terrible snowstorm pre-
| vailed on the 18th of that month, and
people were frozen to death in the
month of roses. l don't think there
are many people who have a recollec-
ton of the year without a summer, as
] have for various reasons, one being
that there are few surviving who were
as old as ! was in that year, and an
other is because a near relative of
mine was frozen to death in Vermont
on June II of that year, which was the
year 1916.
| was IA years old then and lived
in Vermont where | have always lived,
and where that memorable season was
at its very worst, as in the other New
England States III June snow fell five
inches deep, and in New York, Penn
! svlvania and New Jersey it was no
! where deeper than three inches. In
Vermont it was 10 inches deep on the
level | mean the great snow on June
ii. Snow fell several times during
that month. In fact there was snow
, and ice in every month of 1916.
That snowstorm of June II was one
of the scverest ones ! ever saw, even
in the depth of winter in that lccali-
" of heavy snews. AN uncle of mine
had some sheep in a back pasture lot.
: To get to that lot he had to 90 through
z a piece of woods for nearly a mile.
The weather had been very cold all
through June. The big storm Of the
1 18th began along about noon, and nay
ulfcLe started after dinner to 60 to
the sheep pasture to fix mp a shelter
Of some kind for the sheep. No one
had any idea, cold and eccentric as
+. the season had been up to that time
that we would have fall of snow that
: would amount to anything at that
. time of the year.
JOKed ABOUT Ine storm.
3 l was at my uncle's when he lief
home to go to the sheep lot, and 4:
he weat out of the door he said to hi
: wife in a jocular way: ''If l am no
back in an hour, call the neighbor
and start them after me. June is
bad month to get buried in the snow
: especially when it gets so near tn
e month of July Nothing more wa
then thought of the matter.
h The snow increased IN fury, and b,
(, were almost impossible, but eve
then, and when it grew dark, none o
p us felt uneasy about uncle TIL
t weather had become bitter cold. Whe1
n night set in in earnest, and there wa
r no sign of my uncle s return, his wifi
sent me and my cousin, who was tw
years younger than /, to alarm tn
neighbors and tell them that we be
heyed uncle had been lost in the sno,
10 and had persisted
In We had a hard time getting to tn
n nearest neighbor s, less than a mil
away, and there gave the alarm bu
y, could go no further. The neighbtI
- summoned others, and in spite of tn
~ severity of the night they searehe
20 the wood until morning, but no sig
or the missing man could be fount
The search was taken up by others tn
Ia following day, and all the next nigh
y without any trace of his being di
70 covered except that he had reache
Ell the pasture and built a shelter {
+. boughs in one corner of the lot undo
1t which the sheep were huddled. On IL
16 forenoon of the third day the searche
ut found my uncle buried in the snow
) mile from the pasture, in an almo
lg, opposite direction from home. He W;
zee frozen stiff. He had evidently becOn
six bewildered in the binding storm, al
had wandered about until he succum
ed to fatigue and cold. 1t seems mo
ne improbable thing that a person ev
to fell a victim to a snowstorm in Il
n,,il-llo e L.. IL lntit,,An !,