Nathan Gould¹ (M)
b. 16 June 1793, d. 3 November 1833
Pedigree
Family_Line=G
Res_Rqrd=Y

     Nathan Gould was born on 16 June 1793 at Deering, New Hampshire, son of John Gould.¹

Nathan married Huldah Cross, daughter of Ebenezer Cross, in 1813.¹ Eighteen Hundred and Froze To Death
Growing up in New England, I heard a number of my older relatives talk about the year, "eighteen hundred and froze to death." I thought it was a cute phrase but otherwise never paid much attention. It wasn't until I was an adult that I learned that there really was such a year: 1816. In fact, none of the relatives who had mentioned that year to me were even alive in 1816; none of them were born until years later. They obviously had heard about it from their older relatives. Being at least five generations removed from 1816, I became curious: what was so severe about this year that it left a mental imprint so strong that stories would be handed down in my family for generations?
When I later became interested in genealogy, I found a number of my ancestors had moved to new homes in 1817, 1818, or 1819. As I dug deeper into various records, I began to read about towns in the northeastern U.S. that had been growing for some years; then the population dropped in the years immediately after 1816. For instance, Richford, Vermont, was nearly a ghost town after 1816, the remaining few residents barely surviving. Waterford, Vermont, had so few residents that no town meetings were held for several years after 1816. Unable to sell their land, many just up and left it.
Many historians cite 1816 as a primary motivation for the rapid settlement of what is now the American Midwest. Many New Englanders were wiped out by the year, and tens of thousands struck out for the richer soil and better growing conditions of the Upper Midwest.
In fact, it seems that one summer of cold weather may have been the cause of a major migration of many of our ancestors. The phrase that I always heard was "eighteen hundred and froze to death." However, I have since seen the same year referred to as "the year there was no summer," or the "poverty year."
A series of devastating cold waves caused extensive damage to the crops that summer and greatly reduced the food supply. In areas of central and northern New England and eastern Canada, the summer had only two extended periods without frost or near-freezing temperatures. In June a widespread snow fell in much of eastern Canada, New England, and New York, killing crops in the fields. Many farmers did not have an adequate supply of seeds to replant, and the few who did saw those late crops killed by early autumn frosts. It's no wonder so many farms failed.
What caused this abnormal weather? The science of meteorology was in its infancy in those days; yet, some records of contemporary weather watchers did survive and offer a few clues.
The year 1816 started out as a normal year. January's temperatures were near normal, according to records from Massachusetts and New Haven, Connecticut. February was at or slightly below normal temperatures. The winter in the northern New Hampshire community of Lancaster was reported as unusually mild with less than the expected snowfall, according to the diary of Adino Brackett.
The spring turned out to be anything but normal, however. The months of March and April were reported as having temperatures below normal. At the same time, precipitation was much less than normal. The combination of cold and drought prompted Thomas Robbins of East Windsor, Connecticut, to note in his diary, "the vegetation does not seem to advance at all."
A writer in the Albany (New York) Advertiser contended that he had "no recollection of so backward a season... the length and severity of drought checked progress of vegetation, grass withered." As a result, livestock could not be fed in pastures, and hay could not be harvested. As the months progressed, corn that had been reserved for human consumption was often used to feed the livestock. That left precious little for the humans. Wise residents throughout the northeast farm communities likely rationed themselves with their limited produce, and everyone likely staked their hopes on better weather, come summer and fall.
The serious problems seem to start on May 12, when the first in a series of late spring cold waves crossed the St. Lawrence River from northeastern Canada. By the 15th, frost had penetrated into Pennsylvania and even as far south as Virginia. Quebec City reported frost from May 12 to 19, and snow fell on the 14th. The cold in New England lasted until May 18. While frosts in mid-May are not uncommon in northern New England, they are rare in New Haven, Connecticut, where the last frost of spring normally occurs around April 20.
On May 26 a storm system approached the St. Lawrence River Valley, bringing rain and easterly winds to Quebec. By the next morning, fog and a gentle rain, characteristic of a warm front, ushered mild temperatures into the area. The Quebec Gazette of 30 May 1816 noted this system "gave a new spring to vegetation. The wheat and pease [sic], just above the ground, had a most promising appearance; the meadows and the pasture ground were in a deep verdure." The wild fruit trees, too, were beginning to blossom, and the forests finally bursting into leaf. Of course, this was at the end of May, roughly six weeks later than normal. Even so, it must have flamed that spark of hope for a reasonable growing season.
That hope received a blow on May 28, when a swiftly passing cold front drew frigid arctic air southward on strong northwesterly winds. By sundown, the front had crossed over New Haven, Connecticut, and Kingston, Rhode Island. By the morning of the 29th, reports of ice and light snow came from Quebec. David Thomas in his travels through the "Western Country in the Summer of 1816," wrote from near Erie, Pennsylvania, "This morning was very frosty and ice covered the water Ľ inch thick. We had a brisk breeze from the northeast." The next morning he wrote, "A severe frost attended this morning."
While Thomas did not specifically mention crops, in a normal year the vegetables should have been quite tall by this date. One can only imagine the damage that the extreme cold wrought upon any growing in Pennsylvania that year.
On the morning of May 30th, frost was again reported in Quebec and Erie as well as other areas. In Warren, Maine, the first blossoms on fruit trees were reported to be set back substantially. Corn plants in Norway, Maine, were completely killed and subsequently replanted.
In his diary, Adino Brackett of Lancaster, New Hampshire, wrote: "The whole of the month has been so cold and wet that wheat could not be sown 'til late and then the ground could not be well prepared." Still, many areas suffered little damage with this first cold wave since few crops were far enough along to be affected.
Milder air returned to New England as June began. To the west, however, a second and stronger weather system was forming. From Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on the 5th of June, David Thomas reported a cold wave of unusual severity for June: "Each night was attended by considerable frost."
During that night, rain began to fall over Quebec City. The temperature soon plummeted toward the freezing mark so that by the morning of the 6th, the rain was mixed with snow.
Further south in New England, the 5th of June saw some seasonal relief. The passage of a low-pressure trough brought clouds and warm temperatures on southerly winds to the region. Williamstown, Massachusetts, reached 83 degrees Fahrenheit at noon, but shortly thereafter, a thunderstorm cooled the air to 69 degrees. At 2 PM, New Haven, Connecticut, recorded 79 degrees while Brunswick, Maine, reported a 76-degree reading.
As the wintry weather crept south, the North Star of Danville, Vermont, reported:
[June 5] "was perhaps as warm and sultry a day as we have had since September--At night heat lightning was observed, but on Thursday morning the change of weather was so great that a fire was not only comfortable, but actually necessary. The wind during the whole day was as piercing and cold as it usually is the first of November and April. Snow and hail [ice pellets] began to fall about ten o'clock A.M., and the storm continued till evening, accompanied with a brisk wind, which rendered the habiliments of winter necessary for the comfort of those exposed to it.... Probably no one living in the country ever witnessed such weather, especially of so long continuance."
By early morning of June 6th, the cold air mass arrived in Williamstown, Massachusetts. The 7 AM temperature stood at 45 degrees, which was to be the high for the day. The meteorological register for the day contained the entry, "A cold rainy day from N.W.--not much rain & winds & very chilly."
At Elizabethtown, New York, the cold front passed before dawn, and at 7:30 AM a three-hour snowstorm began. Throughout the day snow showers blew on icy westerly winds, freezing the ground and destroying most garden vegetables.
Benjamin Harwood, a Bennington, Vermont farmer, entered the following in his diary for the date:
It had rained much during the night and this morning the wind blew exceedingly high from NE, raining copiously, chilling and sharp gusts. About 8 A.M. began to snow--continued more or less till past 2 P.M. The heads of all the mountains on every side were crowned with snow. The most gloomy and extraordinary weather ever seen.
Joshua Whitman at North Turner, Maine, wrote of cold northwest winds with snow squalls. Adino Brackett in Lancaster, New Hampshire, also reported snow, commenting, "This is beyond anything of the kind I have ever known." Snow was reported at Kingston, Ontario, Montreal, and Quebec City, Quebec, in Canada as well as Danville and Montpelier, Vermont; Warren and Bangor, Maine; Amherst, New Hampshire; Plymouth, Connecticut; Geneva and Oneida County, New York; and Waltham, Massachusetts.
Morning temperatures on the 6th of June at Salem, Massachusetts, Waltham, Massachusetts, and Brunswick, Maine, were 57, 57, and 44, respectively. Those temperatures are about normal for early June. What was abnormal that day was that the early morning temperatures were actually the high temperatures for the day. Temperatures dropped all day, the beginning of a devastating 5-day blast.
By the morning of the 7th, the rapid and extreme drops in temperature froze bodies of standing water to one-inch thickness in Danville, Vermont, and the thickness of a dollar coin in Montreal. Harwood described the morning as "stiff with frost, with tree leaves blackened and snow remaining in the mountains until past noon."
Temperatures across the region on the 7th showed the extent of the cold air invasion. Middlebury College in Vermont recorded an even 32 degrees for a low while the Waltham, Massachusetts, temperature plummeted to 35 degrees. Temperatures remained cold all day.
In his autobiography, Chauncey Jerome recalled walking to work in Plymouth, Connecticut, that day, dressed with thick woolen clothes and overcoat, his hands becoming so cold that he had to don mittens.
Late in the day of June 7th, a second cold front crossed the region, bringing significant snowfall. From the highlands of Vermont came reports of 5 to 6 inches of snow with drifts to over a foot. At Lunenberg, Vermont, Dr. Hiram Cutting measured 5 inches of snow on the ground. Amounts at other locations ranged from "a plentiful fall" at Portland, Maine, a foot at Cabot, Vermont, and 6 inches at Barnard, Vermont, to "a few flakes" at Middlebury, Connecticut, Waltham, Massachusetts, and Salem, Massachusetts. The Danville North Star reported a "kind of sleet or exceedingly cold snow."
Snow and freezing temperatures continued through the 8th. The Quebec Gazette observed that on that morning, "the whole of the surrounding country was in the same state, having ...the appearance of the middle of December." On the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, banks of snow reached the axletrees of the carriages. The Rev. Sparks in Quebec City wrote: "...bleak cold very uncommon weather for the season. It snowed a little the whole day--at 10 at night the ground was completely covered." A foot of snow was on the ground in Montpelier, Vermont, and a few miles away in Cabot, local residents recorded over eighteen inches on the ground.
Great numbers of birds were found dead in the fields, and newly-shorn sheep perished in the cold.
The cold air mass settled over New England for the next three days. Each morning was frosty. On the 9th, frost was reported as far south as Worcester, Massachusetts, and on the 10th to East Windsor, Connecticut. The coldest day of the month at Waltham was the 10th, with a temperature reading of 33 degrees at sunrise. The next five days were only slightly warmer.
The effects of the five-day frigid spell were staggering, especially to the agricultural system of the time. Gardens and wild fruit trees which had come to blossom suffered severely. Fortunately, the cold spring had prohibited many trees from coming to full leaf or blossom, thus averting more extensive frost damage. Ironically, the snow actually protected many of the young crops from the severe frosts and thereby reduced the extent of damage.
The lateness of the season made rapid planting of barley, potatoes, and turnips imperative if they were to reach maturity before the usual fall freezes began. In New England, whatever corn had emerged from the soil was killed by the June frosts, as were most garden vegetables. In Vermont, birds and lambs died from exposure. Throughout Pennsylvania and Ohio, the first growths of spring had been entirely destroyed, along with the peach and apple blossoms. The New Hampshire Sentinel of Keene reported, "Season very unpromising, we begin to despair of corn, hay will come extremely light."
Temperatures rose to seasonable values for the second half of June, and we can imagine that the farmers busied themselves replanting damaged crops when possible. About three weeks later, their fortunes took another turn for the worse.
On July 6, a cold front spread over the northeast. Though not as severe as its predecessors, it did bring extreme cold to Waltham, Massachusetts, and as far south as Richmond, Virginia. Temperatures in the 40-degree range were reported in Connecticut at both Hartford and New Haven.
In Franconia, New Hampshire, an area high in the mountains and usually colder than the rest of New England, the frost was severe enough on July 8 to completely kill the local bean crop. Reports from Kennebunk, Maine, stated that the July frost killed beans, cucumbers, and squash. Estimates of the hay crop were one-third to one-half of that expected, which had a huge impact on the ability to feed livestock in the coming winter.
Temperatures started to moderate on July 9, and the remainder of July saw cooler than normal weather but nothing extreme.
Frost returned to the interior of New York and northern New England on the 13th and 14th of August. Corn was again laid low, but southern New England seemed to suffer little damage. Around noon on August 20, a violent thunderstorm with strong winds passed over Amherst, New Hampshire. In the wake of this storm, the temperature plummeted nearly 30 degrees. Frosty temperatures were reported east to Portland, Maine, and south to East Windsor. From Warren, New Hampshire, came word of snow on Mount Moosilauke, something never seen in August before or since. Lake and river ice were observed as far south as Pennsylvania. The cold destroyed the corn in low-lying areas between Albany and Boston, where crops were already suffering severely from the drought.
What corn survived these first two cold periods was destroyed when the next cold wave broke out in the waning days of August. The severe frost of the 28th put an end to all hopes. On the morning of the 29th, Williamstown, Massachusetts, registered a temperature of 37 degrees at 7:00 in the morning.
By September, most of Vermont had been a full three months without rain. Forest fires broke out, and there was no means to stop them. The air was filled with acrid smoke, and a general darkness prevailed.
Another killing frost arrived in mid-September, but that is not much earlier than normal. During this long, cold summer, the region had also seen little rain. What crops that had grown were stunted and bore little to eat.
At New Haven, Connecticut, daily temperature records have now been kept for 200 years. The mean summer temperature of 66.2 degrees in 1816 is the coldest summer ever recorded in those two centuries. In Philadelphia, 1816 was the second coldest year on record. Cambridge, New Bedford, Williamstown, and Salem, Massachusetts, and New Haven, Connecticut, all ranged from 2.5 degrees to 7 degrees below normal.
Surprisingly, the autumn and early winter of that year saw temperatures above normal.
Another note in the 1816 diary of Adino Brackett tells the story succinctly: "This past summer and fall have been so cold and miserable that I have from despair kept no account of the weather."
The agrarian lifestyles of 1816 depended heavily upon crops and livestock. Corn was perhaps the single most important crop. Frost killed most of the corn in New England, and of that harvested, not half was fit to roast. In some areas, the gathering amounted to less than 10% of the usual crop. Corn is used to feed both humans and farm animals. The other crop used for feeding livestock is hay, which also had a harvest that was only a fraction of normal. The following winter, cattle starved for lack of hay.
Former Revolutionary War General David Humphreys was, in 1816, President of the Connecticut Society of Agriculture. He summed up the situation thusly:
The principal injury done by the early and late frosts, fell on our most important crop, Indian corn. Of this, there is not more than half the usual quantity; and, in many places in this neighborhood, not more than a quarter part sufficiently hard and ripe for being manufactured into meal. That which is unripe, moldy or soft, when given as feed to hogs and cattle, has little tending to fatten them.
Famine arrived at about the same time as the winter snow. The Halifax (Nova Scotia) Weekly Chronicle noted, "Great distress prevails in many parishes throughout [Quebec] Province from a scarcity of food.... many of them have no bread." In December 1816, the paper lamented, "It has been given us from the most authentic sources, that several parishes in the interior part of [Quebec] are already so far in want of provisions, as to create the most serious alarms among the inhabitants."
The Reverend William Fogg of Kittery, Maine, summed it up with the complaint, "No prospect of crops. Crops cut short and a heavy load of taxes."
Of the crops that did survive, quality was a problem. In the town of De Ruyter, New York, Jonathan Bentley paid $2 for a bushel of corn which, when ground to meal, proved unfit for human consumption. His hogs even refused to eat it.
Prices soared to the point that nobody could afford to purchase the few crops that were harvested. Oats, for example, rose from 12 cents a bushel the previous year to 92 cents a bushel in the fall of 1816, an increase of 666%.
Fish became a diet staple, with people in the east operating large nets day and night on the rivers and trading fish for maple syrup. Boiled wild foods and porcupines also sustained many.
Winter was bad for everyone, but perhaps the worst occurred in the spring of 1817, before the new crops could be harvested. For example in De Rutyer, New York, one farmer was obliged to exhume his newly planted potatoes to provide his family with a meal. Other town inhabitants sent an agent to Onondaga County to canvas for wheat and corn. That agent's successful return brought "great rejoicing to the citizenry and tears to strong men's eyes" according to local history accounts.
What made 1816 so cold? The most likely cause was volcanoes. Several major volcanic eruptions preceded 1816: Soufriére and St. Vincent in 1812; Mayon and Luzon in the Phillippines during 1814; and Tambora in Indonesia on April 5 through April 15, 1815. The volcanic theory says that temperatures dropped due to volcanic dust blown and trapped high in the atmosphere. The dust reduced the amount of sunshine reaching the earth.
The Tambora eruption has been estimated to be the most violent in historical times. The explosion is believed to have lifted 150 to 180 cubic kilometers of material into the atmosphere. For a comparison, the infamous 1883 eruption of Krakatau ejected only 20 cubic kilometers of material into the air, and yet it affected sunsets for several years after.
Other causes of temperature abnormalities that have been hypothesized include abnormal temperature of ocean waters over a large area, solar variations related to sunspot activity, or changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide or ozone content, but no data exist to either uphold or refute these theories.
While the conditions in the northeastern United States and parts of eastern Canada have been discussed here, the year 1816 was also unusually cold elsewhere. Reports from northern Europe indicate similar impacts on crops and the population, just as the continent was emerging from the chaos of the Napoleonic Wars. The unusual weather lead to riots in France, shaking the new constitutional monarchy of Louis XVIII and Tallyrand. Food riots broke out in Britain and France, and grain warehouses were looted.
The violence was worst in landlocked Switzerland, where famine caused the government to declare a national emergency. Some medical historians believe the famine begun in 1816 created conducive conditions for the typhus epidemic that killed millions from 1817-1819.
If your records show people who died in the winter of 1816 or in 1817, you now have a hint as to the cause of death. Indeed, your ancestor may have died from any number of diseases but with complications caused by being malnourished. A BBC documentary using figures compiled in Switzerland estimated that fatality rates in 1816 were twice that of average years.
The lack of food inspired Karl Freiherr von Drais to research new ways of horseless transportation, which led to the invention of the velocipede, or Draisine, a predecessor of the modern bicycle.
In July 1816 "incessant rainfall" during that "wet, ungenial summer" forced Mary Shelley, John William Polidori, and their friends to stay indoors for much of their Swiss holiday, leading Shelley to write Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus, and Polidori to write The Vampyre. High levels of ash in the atmosphere led to unusually spectacular sunsets during this period, a feature celebrated in the paintings of J. M. W. Turner.
Late in the year 1816, the crops of Joseph Smith, Senior, froze, dealing the final blow to his struggling family farm in Sharon, Vermont. Smith headed west alone to find his family a new home. He soon sent word for his wife and children to join him. Their destination for a new beginning was Palmyra, New York. Joseph Smith, Junior, later became founder of the Mormon Church.
The next time that someone starts talking about global warming or an El Nino, just say to yourself, "My ancestors survived something worse. They survived the year of eighteen hundred and froze to death."
Posted by Dick Eastman on August 07, 2005. He died on 3 November 1833 at Barton, Vermont, at age 40.¹

Last Edited=8 Aug 2005