Rensselaer Republican, Volume 13, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 January 1881 — Cold Weather of One Hundred Years Ago [ARTICLE]

Cold Weather of One Hundred Years Ago

The winter of 1779-69 (soys the Albany Argwt) began a« the present one did, and before the slight moderation in the atmosphere, Sunday, many of the older residents, 'Whose fathers and mothers had told them many tales of that winter, were speculating as to whether theupresent one would resemble it In other respects. In 177980 the cold set in about the middle of November, and continued until the middle of February. During that long period there was not enough warmth n the. sun’s rays to melt the snow on the ground, nor to effect in the least the fetters of ice that bound the creeks, ponds and rivers. One snow storm' followed another until finally the ground was so covered that it was difficult to get from place to place, and .the ice upon the rivers at all convenient points was used by men and teams and animals In place of roads. The cold winds were so piercing that wild turkeys were found frozen to death in the forests, and domestic fowls fell frozen from their roosts. The deer and Buffalo sought shelter from the blasts around the cabins of the settlers, and all kinds of wild animals perished in the forests for want of food, which'.was buried beneath the snow. The fierce wolf and panther, which unusually skulked about the boundaries of the settlements only by night, now came near in brood daylight in search of the bones and oftul thrown from the cabins of the settlers. No waterfell, and the pioneers were eompolled to obtain water forcooking, drinking, etc., by melting ice and snow. The northern ana western rivers were tightly bound by frost, and even as far south os Nashville the Cumberland was frozen over with ice thick enough for the safe passage of emigrant trains. The Delaware, at Philadelphia, had ice three feet in* thickness, and the Chesapeake Bay and Long Island Sound was frozen over. Another similarity between the present winter and that of 1779-80 was the mild autumn weather that K receded it. When the cold began, in lovember, 1779. the leaves had hardly fallen from the forest trees, and many of the trees and shrubs were putting forth new growth. The‘same condition of things was witnessed last foil. The winters of 1783, 1784, 1785, 1788, 1792,1796 and 1789 are all reported as having been very severe. . It is stated, in . “Hildreth’s Pioneer History,” that on Dec. 26, 1788, the Delaware and Ohio rivers \vere both frozen over, and navigation was suspended upon them until the 18th of tne following March, In 1792, when soldiers were sent to that disasr trous battle-field of Gen. St. Clair to bury the dead, they encamped -where Cincinnati now stands, January 13. The snow was reported two feet deep upon the ground, and the Ohio was so strongly frozen that soldiers rode their horses across from Kentucky on the ice. The 7th of February, 1897, was known for years as cold Friday, and was the ground-work for many a grandfather’s tale. On the evening of he 6th the weather was mild, and rain began to foil as night set in. In a few hours the rain changed to snow, which fell to a depth of six inches, after which a hurricane began to sweep over the land. It grew colder ana colder as the night progressed, and the next morning the trees in the forests were cracking like the reports of guns, and everything was bound in fetters of ice. There was no thermometer,to register the cold, but the day comes down iff tradition and history as cold Friday.