| Show YEAR WITHOUT A SUMMER Snow and Ice Prevailed In June JUly and August In 1816 Danbury ry Conn News The year 1816 was known throughout the United States and Europe as the th coldest ever experIenced by any person then living There are persons In northern New York who have been In Inthe inthe the habit of keeping diaries for years yearn and nd It is from the P pages ot of an old diary begun in 1810 and kept up unbroken until 1840 that tHe following tion regarding this year without ja a summer has been taken I January was so mild that most pr r sons allowed their fires to go out did not burn bum wood except for fol cooing g There were a few cool days were very few Most of the the theair theair air was warm and February February ary was not cold Some days dav were colder than any in January b bt the weather was about the same from the 1st to the was inclined to be windy It came In like a 3 small lion and went out like a very ery sheep April came in warm but as Ithe days grew longer the air became c lder and by the first ot of May there w ws s a tern tem temperature like that of winter with plenty of snow and Ice II May the tho young buds were frozen dead Ice formed half an Inch thick on ponds and rivers corn was killed d and the cornfields were planted again and again until it became too late to raise a crop By the last of May In this climate the trees treel are usually Hy In leaf leat and birds and flowers are plentiful When the last of May arriver in 1816 everything had b n killed by the cold June was the coldest month of roses every experienced In this latitude Frost and ice were as common as buttercups usually are Almost every green thing was killed all fruit was destroyed Snow fell ten Inches deep In Vermont There was a fall In the In Interior tenor of New York state and the same few lew moderately warm days Everybody few war Everybody looked longed and waited for warm wann weather but warm weather did not come It was also dry very lIlU rain fell feU All summer long the wind blew steadily ly from the north in blasts laden with snow and Ice Mothers knit socks of double thickness for their children and made thick mittens Planting and shiv shivering shivering ering were done together arid and the farmers who worked out their taxes on the country roads w wOre re overcoats and mittens On June 17 there was a heavy fall of A V Vermont farmer fanner sent a flock fiock of at sheep to pasture on Tune June 16 The morning of the lith dawned with the thermometer below the freezing point About 9 in the morning the tho owner of the sheep started to look for his flock Before leaving home he turned to his wife and said jokingly Better start the neighbors soon Its the middle o of June and I may get lost lostin lostIn in the snow An hour after he had left home a ter terrible terrible snowstorm came up The snow fell feil thick and fast and amI as there was so much wind the fleecy masses plied piled in great drifts along the windward side of the fences and outbuildings Night came and the farmer had not been heard of His wife became frightened and alarmed the n AU All the neighbors joined the searching party On the third lay ay th they y found Him He was lying In a hollow on the with both feet frozen he was half haIt covered with snow b but t alive aUve Most of the sheep were lost lostA lostA A farmer fanner near Tewksbury Vt owned a large field of corn com He built fires Nearly every night he and his men took turns in keeping up the fires and watching that the tho corn did not freeze rite fhe farmer fanner was rewarded for his tire tireless tireless less labors by having the only crop ot of corn in the region July came in with snow and Ice On the Fourth of July ice as thick as win window window dow glass formed New England New York and In some parts of the state ot of Pennsylvania Indian Indiancorn Indiancorn corn which In some scale parts of the east h had d struggled through May and JUne gave up froze and died To th the surprise of every everybody bod August proved the worst month of all Almost every green thing in this country and Europe was blasted with frost Snow fell feU at Barnet thirty miles from Lon Len London Lendon don England on Aug 30 Newspapers received from England stated that 1816 would be remembered by br the existing generation as the year in which there was no summer Very little corn ripened In New England There was great privation and tho thousands sands of per persons persons sons would have perished In this coun country country try had it not bc n for the abundance ot of fish and wild game |
