This is especially interesting to me since my gg grandfather was born in September of that year - in Vermont. I'm going to send this to the Delaware County IN list. Thanks for the interesting tidbit. Shirl in OH ----- Original Message ----- From: <HMWEBBER@aol.com> To: <DEKENT-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2002 10:51 AM Subject: [DEKENT] In regard to the killer years we think we have it rough! Hi list, I received the following from another mailing list & never dreamed we lost a summer -- food for thought! Just think what your ancestors went through, it sure is part of our genealogy. IT COULDN'T HAPPEN BUT IT DID IN 1816 THE KILLER YEAR When we think of survival, usually our thoughts go to facing a terrorist attack with a loaded gun or bomb, or perhaps tangling with a big truck on the interstate, or facing some other life threatening moment where there is little hope of escape. Old man weather seldom figures in our survival picture. Even in weather extremes, man would survive, wouldn't he? Usually, but wait a moment. The summer of 1816 was nonexistent. It was a killer year over much of the US. This is not legend but statistical facts. Sunshine Magazine much quoted international journal gave this account of the phenomenon: "January was so mild that people allowed their fires to go out. February was also mild, and so was March. April came in warm, but as the days lengthened, the air became colder, and by May 1, temperatures were like those of the winter. Young birds were frozen stiff in their nests, and ice formed on the ponds and the rivers of the Midwest. Corn was killed and fields were planted again, with no germination. By the end of May all vegetation had been killed by the cold. June was the coldest month ever experienced in this latitude. All of the fruit was destroyed, snow lay ten inches thick in Vermont on July 4, 1816, and all of New England was ice covered. August proved to be the worst month of all. There was great starvation among the people." That summation of the year of 1816 seems incredible, but there are other statistical facts. R A. Weinel, a Missouri historian, states facts that a repetition of the above and he makes an addition: "In Virginia, Thomas Jefferson applied for an emergency loan to tide him over his crop failures. Europe, too, was hard hit by the unseasonable cold and in 1816 was also known in England as the year without a summer. Henry & Elizabeth Stommel argue in Volcano Weather, their book about the phenomenon, that a typhus epidemic had killed 65,000 people in the British Isles in 1816 was related to this cold-induced famine." The cause of this global misery, scientists now believe, was the eruption of Mount Tambora, a Volcano in the Dutch Indies, In what was probably one of the most powerful volcanic outbursts in ten thousand years, Tambora spewed 25 cubic miles of debris into the Upper Atmosphere. The heavier particles fell in the Pacific Ocean, forming a slush of pumice two feet thick. The lighter debris remained aloft for months and blanketed the shies over much of the Northern Hemisphere. How accurate are these records? Today's meteorologists think they are quite factual, for many writers reported on the same subject, and most of them describe the summer of 1816 almost word for word. This is a moral to all and a reminder that we survive most of us, not through human strength alone. The above was written in 1950 by Grover Brinkman ==== DEKENT Mailing List ==== NOTICE: Posting of virus warnings, test messages, chain letters, political announcements, current events, items for sale, personal messages, flames, etc. (in other words - spam) is NOT ALLOWED and will be grounds for removal. Consideration for exceptions, contact Kathleen Burnett kathleenburnett@earthlink.net If your Ancestors Migrated to or through Delaware - register them on the Delaware Migration Page http://demigration.homestead.com/Delaware.html Delaware-Cemeteries page http://Delaware_Cemeteries.homestead.com/index.html To learn more about my world visit http://dwp.bigplanet.com/kburnett ============================== To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237