Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 70, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 April 1904 — An April That Was Cold [ARTICLE]

An April That Was Cold

John O’Conner, of Kniman, and Republican candidate for county sheriff, has been over in Newton county, talked with C. L. Purkey, a well known old resident of that county, who told him of a winter or rather a late spring way back in the early days, which knocks our present late spring clear out of the running. Mr. Purkey told him that on the 24th of April 1857, he landed at the place now Morocco and drove on the ice. That he came from Henry county and that it took him 5 days to drive from Lafayette; then he was 2 miles west of Remington, at a place near Jordan’s Grove, ia crossing a pond on the prairie, the ice broke and be came near having hie horses drowned, and he said he has not seen it so cold in April since He also said it was cold enough now but nothing like it was then.

James DeWolf, another old resident, said that at that time people crossed the Kankakee, east of Momence on the ice.