NIAGARA DISCOVERIES: 'A body could not feel patriotic in such weather' (2024)

Last week Niagara Discoveries looked at the unusually cold and snowy spring and early summer of 1816. This week, let’s examine the weather events of the months of July, August and September.

In the early 19th century, two holidays in the United States most celebrated by people of all faiths, ethnicities and socio-economic backgrounds were New Year’s Day and the Fourth of July. Independence Day, as it was called then, was a day of parades, picnics and patriotic speeches. But in 1816, many of the usual activities were either cancelled or moved indoors due to the weather. Early July had been unusually cold and wet. Chauncey Jerome of Plymouth, Connecticut, remarked, “A body could not feel very patriotic in such weather.”

By this time, people were becoming anxious, not only about the harvest but about the causes of the “strange weather.” Several theories were proposed ranging from the scientific — sunspot activity, deforestation of the land for agriculture, solar eclipses — to the more outrageous: the Canadians were taking revenge on America for losing the War of 1812 (this theory was really absurd since most Canadians believed they had won that war). Of course, many Americans saw the hand of God in this, believing that the end was near. Churches of all faiths held prayer services to appeal to God to end the winter-like weather. Other people wrote angry letters to the publishers of almanacs deriding them for their incorrect predictions. One of these publishers responded by saying “Although I made the almanac, the Lord Almighty made the weather.”

After the cold spell of early July, seasonable weather returned for the rest of the month and the first half of August. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, believing that an adequate harvest may be possible after all.

Things changed on August 13th when a widespread frost blanketed northeastern America. Then for several days the temperature was erratic, going from below freezing to soaring into the 90s. On August 20th, the winds shifted suddenly from the south to the north and temperatures plunged 30 degrees in a matter of hours. Another frost occurred, this time dipping as far south and west as Kentucky. The corn crop was devastated by this latest frost and many farmers cut the stalks to use them as fodder for their livestock.

As frosts continued on and off for the rest of August, the reality of a severe food shortage began to set in. It was estimated that only one-third to one-quarter of the overall harvest in the northeastern United States would be salvageable and even that would be inferior to a normal yield. What consumable food was left would be for human consumption; livestock would be sold and slaughtered and new seed purchased for next spring’s planting.

The summer of 1816 ended in September much the same way as it had begun — with cold, frost, ice and snow. What corn was left on the stalks was “frozen to the centre of the cob, and apples froze upon the trees.” The day that ended the growing season for good was September 27th when a “black frost” (when the water in the tissues of the plants freezes) killed what few crops were still alive.

The oldest residents of communities across the northeast could not remember a summer of such extreme, unpredictable weather. All people could do now was hope and pray they didn’t starve and 1817 would bring a more favorable planting season and harvest.

Although most of the information we have today about that unusual summer in the United States comes from the populated areas of New England, there were a few reports that did come out of this area from people who were visiting or living here at here that time.

On May 21st, a young man from Cayuga County, David Thomas, began walking to the Indiana territory. Approaching Buffalo on May 25th, he wrote, “it was so cold we shivered in winter dress with great coats and gloves.” There was still ice on Lake Erie in late May. As Thomas traveled through Chautauqua County, he found it to be “wrapt in the drapery of winter.”

When Robert Nicholls arrived in Niagara Falls, New York, in June 1816, it was so cold that he had to wear his great coat. He reported that icicles 18 inches long hung from the eves of the Eagle Tavern.

Daniel Pomeroy, whose farm was located on the Niagara Escarpment on Lower Mountain and Leete roads at Hickory Corners, was one of the few farmers whose crops survived the summer relatively unscathed. His harvest was plentiful enough to prevent his neighbors from starving. It was believed that the micro-climate at the base of the escarpment protected his plants from the effects of the extreme cold and frosts. Many local people also remembered eating roots and plants, not normally consumed, as a substitute for crops that had been lost to the frosts.

In many communities across the Northern Hemisphere, the cost of corn, wheat and other grains, soared due to scarcity, while the price for livestock plummeted due to a glut in the market caused by a lack of feed and the slaughtering of thousands of animals. There were no reports of deaths in the United States, but some countries didn’t fare so well.

From conditions recorded in North America, it is hard to believe other places had it worse, but Northern Europe was even more devastated that year. It is estimated that at least 1 million people either starved to death or died of disease. There were “bread riots” throughout the continent, resulting in violence, killing more people. Cholera ran rampant throughout Europe, and Asia was hit even harder, with millions of people dying from the disease.

Another consequence of that summer was an acceleration of migration in Europe and North America. People fled Europe for the United States and New Englanders left for Western New York and the Mid-West Territories, soon to become states. Both groups sought a better climate with more opportunities. The summer of 1817 had marginally improved, but the effects of the previous year were still felt all over the world. Good news came to the farmers of New York state when the Erie Canal was started in Rome on July 4th of that year.

One story that came out of Europe in summer of 1816 relates to the writing of the novel “Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus.” Mary Godwin (she wasn’t Mrs. Shelley yet) was staying with friends (including Lord Byron and future husband Percy Shelley) in a chateau on Lake Geneva. The weather was so bad they could not go out much so they wrote and told horror stories to amuse themselves. Bryon and Shelley were so impressed with Mary’s tale of a man-made creature, they encouraged her to publish it, which she did in 1818. It was revised in 1830 and became a best-seller under the name of Mary Shelly.

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