Mariettans Watch Moon Cross Sun - Solar Eclipse

Marietta Daily Times, Saturday evening, January 24, 1925

Solar Eclipse Not Total Here But Is Great Spectacle.

Only Sliver Of Sun Is Visible.

 Drop Of About 2 Degrees In Temperature Is Registered.

The world's most widely advertised spectacle, the most impressive display the skies can show, the much-heralded solar eclipse "played" Marietta on Saturday morning almost simultaneously with many other cities of the United States between 7:53 and 10:13 o'clock.

When the eclipse was at its zenith here the morning took on the appearance of evening with the sun's best efforts a feeble yellowish glow. All Marietta paused in the rush of the Saturday morning business to observe the phenomenon. Smoked glasses, old bits of film, bits of colored glass and patent eye shades were employed to break the strong rays of the sun, even though it was working under a handicap. The glow cast by the sun when the eclipse was at its zenith was rather enchanting. It made the blue sky stand out in peculiar contrast. The temperature here is reported to have dropped two degrees during the eclipse.

People Stand in Groups

People gathered in little crowds in various parts of the city, wherever a choice bit of smoked glass was offered for the viewing of the spectacle, and watched the moon swiftly passing between the sun and the earth. It was estimated that when the eclipse was at its zenith here, about 30 percent of the sun was hidden. The nearest totality here was at about 8:59 o'clock.

Weather conditions in Marietta were ideal for viewing the eclipse as the morning dawned clear. The Young Lady Across the Way reported that another advantageous condition was the fact that the sun was partly shaded by the moon, making it much easier to look at. But even at that many people found that even with their smoked glasses the sight was not the best for weak eyes.

Temperature Tested

John Kaiser reports his observations of the eclipse as follows: "The day dawned clear, and the east was perfectly clear of clouds, despite the promises of unsettled weather from the weather bureau, things assumed a more hopeful aspect."

"After the usual preliminary illumination the sun rose as proud and majestic as ever. And on the dot the eclipse began to put in its appearance; the upper right hand part of the sun was the first covered.

"I had climbed up on the roof of my home in order to get an unobstructed view of the entire sky. As the eclipse became more pronounced I noticed that the amount of frost on the roofs gradually increased. I hung out a thermometer at eight-thirty, just thirty-five minutes after the eclipse had begun, and at eight-forty took a reading and found it to be nineteen degrees farenheit. Ten minutes later there had been a drop of two degrees, and this was as cold as it got during the eclipse.

"It is wonderful that the human mind can figure out with such rare accuracy such occurrences. I found Professor Coar's advice about the use of old films just the thing, especially in connection with the use of field glasses.

"Fortunately the prevailing winds were from the south, so Marietta observers were not bothered by the smoke of the city."

Rain Heavy and General Streams Up

Marietta Daily Times, Saturday, March 29, 1924:

The heavy rains of Friday night have caused the Ohio River and its upper tributaries to rise, and big stages are in sight for both the Ohio and Muskingum. The Muskingum is putting out a large volume of water, the rainfall at Zanesville having been heavy - the government gauge registering 2.18 inches in 12 hours. The stage of water at Zanesville was recorded as 21-1/2 feet and rising at the rate of 9 inches an hour at 9 o'clock Saturday morning.

The rainfall at Pittsburgh was .90 of an inch, and the stage there was 15-1/2 feet and rising at 10 o'clock Saturday morning. The rainfall was general over the Ohio Valley. The Marietta gauge showed 25 feet and rising Saturday morning. The rainfall for Friday night was 1.40 inches locally.

Traffic and bus service were interfered with Saturday morning on account of the overflow of Duck Creek, which inundated the highway above Whipple and between Lower Salem and Warner. Several feet of water covered the road at these points. The Pennsylvania track was inundated at Schramm's crossing, but not sufficiently to hold up the train service. The water receded during the day.

Storm Causes Heavy Damage

Rural sections of Washington County, especially in the northern and western parts, were hard hit by the storm that swept southeastern Ohio during Friday night and early Saturday morning, and heavy damage was done, especially to the public roads.

In the vicinity of Rockland, the storm assumed almost cloudburst proportions and tore away a new fill and concrete culvert that had been put in on highway No. 7 during the fall and winter. Engineers were sent to the scene on Saturday, to determine the loss and to devise ways of making repairs.

In the vicinity of Lowell the rainfall was especially heavy and the Cat's Creek valley was swept more severely than in Many years. The creek reached the highest stage of which there is any record, and bridges and culverts in that section suffered heavily.

Marietta Daily Times, Monday, March 31, 1924:

Crest Will Be Reached On Tuesday

At 2 o'clock on Monday afternoon, the gauge in the Ohio river at the foot of Second Street showed 37.3 feet, and the rate of rise for the previous two hours had been 1-1/4 inches per hour. This would indicate that Marietta would have very close to a 38 foot stage when the crest is reached. It may possibly exceed that figure a trifle.

Between 7 and 10 a.m. on Monday, the rate of rise at Marietta had been three inches per hour. Then it began slowing up slightly and by noon the rise was not more than two inches per hour, which continued to lessen during the next two hours.

The Ohio was falling as far down as Dam No. 12 above Wheeling at noon on Monday, and a crest stage of 40.5 feet had been recorded at Wheeling, which is a few miles below Dam 12. The Muskingum was falling during almost its entire length. The crest was reached at Zanesville on Sunday afternoon at 23.1 feet. The Wills creek water, however, was expected to make the rate of fall slow for the next 12 hours at least.

Howe's Prediction

At noon on Monday, Director Howe of the Parkersburg weather station predicted a crest stage of between 39 and 40 feet for Marietta, to be reached early Tuesday. At the same hour the Marietta wharf boat was advising the public that a crest stage would be reached around 39 feet.

Past Ohio River flood experience has shown that the Ohio at Marietta will continue to rise for 18 hours after it reaches a crest at Wheeling. Therefore, it is reasonable to expect that the rise here will continue until early Tuesday forenoon.

While 36 feet is generally recognized as the danger line in Marietta, the city can stand over 37 feet without serious damage. After that each mounting inch of water counts severely in the lower sections of the city, and once the 39 foot mark is reached, many houses will have to be abandoned.

Part of the City Flooded

Much of that section of Marietta east of Greene and Seventh streets was inundated early Monday. Water was in some of the houses in the low grounds, while along the higher strip close to the river, the streets were being shut off. Just before noon on Monday, the flood crept across lower Third Street below Greene. At the same time, both Second and Third streets had been shut off between Greene and Butler streets.

Along upper Front Street and above the fair grounds, the waters also were approaching some of the houses, while along Gilman Street, from Lancaster to the corporation line, and along Virginia from Franklin toward Mile Run, all traffic had been blocked.

Front Street Level

A stage of 38.5 feet will put water on Front Street in the vicinity of Union Street, and but little more will be required to bring it into the gutters at Front and Monroe streets.

Street car traffic to Norwood was to be abandoned on Monday afternoon, but bus lines were operating to that section by way of Putnam and Seventh streets.

Official readings from the weather bureau at 10 o'clock on Monday were: Franklin, 9.1, falling; Parker's, 9.5, falling; Lock 7, 31.8, falling; Pittsburgh, 25.1, falling; Beaver Dam, 37, falling; Lock 12, 38.4, rising; Lock 13, 42.4, rising; Zanesville, 22.8, falling, 3 inches; Marietta, 36.8, rising.

Marietta Daily Times, Tuesday, April 1, 1924:

Flood Reaches Crest Early Tuesday With 39.1 Feet.

Water Now Falling At This Point.

Good Portion of Marietta Inundated But Damage Is Slight.

Street and Rail Traffic Held Up.

Believed Conditions Will Be Back to Normal On Wednesday.

Having reached a stage of 39.1 feet at Marietta, the flood of 1924 is passing into history today. By early Wednesday, unless the unforeseen happens, the streets of the city should be free of water and business should be normal.

Reports at the Marietta wharf boat Tuesday afternoon were to the effect that the Ohio River had fallen 5.5 feet at Pittsburgh, Pa., and 5 feet at Wheeling, W.Va., and that the Muskingum River had fallen 1.5 feet at Zanesville. No rainfall was reported.

During all of Monday afternoon and night, the waters of the Ohio advanced with diminishing speed until just after 3 o'clock on Tuesday morning, when they became stationary. Until shortly before 6 o'clock, they stood without perceptible change, then began to fall and by 5 o'clock, two hours later, had dropped away .2 of a foot. As the day wore on the rate of fall increased.

A good portion of the city was covered by the water on Monday night and Tuesday morning, and some sections that were not flooded were marooned and traffic was blocked. Second Street from Butler to the river was flooded, and much of that section to the east as far away as the corporation line was under water. Front Street, both above and below Butler, was flooded, but none of the store floors between Butler and Greene were wet.

Water in Some Stores

Along Front from about the line of the Leader Store to a point above Union, the sidewalks were flooded and a number of the stores had water in them, some having as much as five or six inches.

Four of the city schools, dismissed on Monday, were still closed on Tuesday, but were expected to resume work on Wednesday at the regular hour. The water did not reach the floors of the buildings, but shut off the basement heating plants at Pike, Willard, Harmar and Putnam. Pike and Willard buildings were surrounded by water.

Railroads Handicapped

All railroads entering Marietta were handicapped to a greater or less extent. The B. & O. from this city to Belpre was cut off at several points, and there was water over the rails both on Butler Street and in West Marietta. The Pennsylvania lines were under water from the station at Second Street as far out as the old Fultonburg yards. Trains on this road established a temporary terminal east of Seventh Street. The interurban lines were shut off along the Muskingum division, and the city lines were cut off both on Greene, Front and Second streets.

Johnboats and other high water craft were numerous in certain portions of the city. They were out in large numbers along lower Second and Greene streets and through the east end. There was not sufficient water over Front Street to bring them into that territory. Boatmen ferried passengers to and from the Ohio River bridge.

Many Use Automobiles

Many business men in the downtown sections patronized the bus lines and the various taxi companies, and automobiles forced their way through the muddy waters. Occasionally one of them would get beyond its depth. Then the motor would stop and a towing job would be in order. In a few instances these stalled cars were abandoned where they stopped.

Mail deliveries in many sections of the city were held up by the waters but should be back to normal on Wednesday. Rural carriers out of Marietta were held up on several of the routes.

In that section of the city above Putnam Street, water was on the streets at Scammel and Third, Wooster and Second, and along upper Front Street, but few if any of the houses were inconvenienced except that their cellars and basements were flooded.

Aside from loss of business, Marietta will not suffer to any great extent from the 1924 flood.

Bridge Floor Has Blown Up

Traffic over the Marietta-Cambridge pike will be handicapped until temporary repairs can be made on the Mill Creek bridge, above the Children's Home, where the floor "blew up" on Monday afternoon. It was a wood block floor and after being under water for nearly 24 hours, the blocks apparently swelled to such an extent that they buckled and were forced out.

A considerable number of the wood blocks thus liberated, floated away in the flood, and this will necessitate the ordering of new material before the repair work can be completed. It is expected that as soon as the water leaves the road at that point, temporary planking can be put down.

State highway engineers stated on Tuesday that plans will be undertaken soon to replace this bridge with a modern concrete arch span. The old bridge is too narrow for heavy traffic and one of the piers has settled so that the structure is out of line.

As far as state and county engineers knew on Tuesday, no other highway bridge in the county had been damaged by the flood.

Snowball Fun

Marietta Intelligencer, January 13, 1857

We witnessed a scene in front of our office this morning, which recalled most vividly our boyhood's days in the long snowy winters of New England. Invited by the mildness of the morning and the peculiar adaptedness of the snow for snowballing, an editor and a couple of merchants tried their hands at this sport and made a target of each other's heads. 

The doors and shops and sidewalks were soon filled with eager spectators of the sight. The excitement rapidly increased; one, and then another, and another entered the lists, until very soon the street was full of men turned boys again, each one fighting on his own hook.

Here was a hardware dealer disputing his ground manfully with the man of leather and prunella; there a jeweler pouring in the grape, cold, but heavy, upon the head and shoulders of his neighbor of the "fancy goods" trade. 

Yonder, Mynhear Editor, bare-headed, sustaining a shower of balls that made his raven-like hair as hoary white as if frosted with three score and ten winters, while he in turn filled every orifice of his adversary's caput with the pasty snow. 

Here again was the vendor of pills and patent medicines in close embrace with his friend of the Furnishing Depot, rolling each over and over in the snow, and each anxious to wash the other's face as he came uppermost in the tussle. 

There a Democrat and a Republican pitching into each other "like a thousand of brick," throwing heavier balls and with more effect in this mimic fight than in the real battle of November last. 

And thus the fight raged for half an hour, when, exhausted and breathless, the forces drew off to repair damages and recuperate their wasted energies. It was a rich scene, the like of which we have not witnessed for many a year, and which in all probability will not be repeated during our lifetime.

About six inches of snow fell last night. The weather is quite mild to-day, cloudy and threatening rain. 

Forty Years of Meteorological Observations for Marietta

The Marietta Register, January 14, 1869

Editor Register: I observe in the Report of the Smithsonian Institute for 1867, a statement of the results of a careful reduction of the Meteorological Observations carried on for forty years at Marietta; first, from 1817 to 1823 by Judge Wood, and afterward from 1826 to 1859 by Dr. S. P. Hildreth. Some of these results are quite interesting.

The mean annual temperature of these forty years is found to be 52°.46. That of the warmest year, 1828, was 35°.38; and that of the coldest, 1856, was 49°.71, showing that the entire range from the coldest to the warmest is but 5°.67.

The years are neither growing warmer nor colder. The mean temperature of the first twenty years does not differ from that of the last twenty years. The same result is apparent if we compare the summers by themselves, and the winters by themselves; the summers and winters of the first twenty years showing the same mean temperature with those of the last twenty.

During all the forty years, the lowest point to which the mercury fell was 23° below zero, at 7 o'clock A.M., January 20, 1852. The highest point reached was 102° at 3 P.M., July 14, 1859. This gives as the extreme range of temperature, the startling amount of 125°.

The greatest fluctuation of temperature is shown to occur in February, and the least in July and August.

Throughout these forty years, the warmest day, on an average, has been July 23d, and the coldest January 15th; while the 14th of April and the 15th of October have had the same temperature as the mean of the whole year.

The average temperature of the 40 springs has been 52°.88; summers, 71°.51; autumns, 52°.78; winters 33°.01.

The winds that most prevail are the north and southwest, while the northeast and east winds are least frequent. In summer, the south wind is most frequent; in winter, the west and northwest.

It is the southwest winds in summer and the southeast in winter that bring rain and snow; while fair weather generally attends northerly winds throughout the year. In summer the easterly winds also bring fair weather, and in winter, the westerly winds.

The average annual quantity of rain and melted snow is 42-1/2 inches; the least amount being 32.46 inches, and the greatest 61.84 inches. June is the month in which most rain falls, and January furnishes the least, whether in the form of rain or snow.

The average number of rainy days in a year is 86. The greatest fall of rain in one day was 4.25 inches on July 3rd, 1844. The largest fall of snow was 15 inches on December 4th, 1833.

R.

A Wet Season

 American Friend & Marietta Gazette, August 13, 1831

The Season has thus far been remarkably wet - more so, perhaps, than any since the settlement of the country. Much small grain has been left standing in the field, so much injured as not to be worth the reaping - grass has also suffered, and although the crops have been abundant, but little fair weather has offered the farmer opportunity to reap the fruits of his labors. Four fair days in succession during the past week has been improved to much advantage in making hay, and much will be saved in good order. 

At no time, within the present season, has the Ohio River been so low as to suspend its navigation by Steam Boats; during a part of Wednesday last and the following night, it rose about eight feet and is now half way up the banks.

The high stage of the waters has been very favorable for emigrants on their way to the West. During the past season from 500 to 1000 it is estimated, have arrived at this place by way of the Ohio Canal and the Muskingum River, where they embark on board of Steam Boats, generally, for the States below us.

Watertown, Palmer, Wesley, and Barlow

The Marietta Intelligencer, June 2, 1858

In a flying trip a few days since through the townships of Watertown, Palmer and Wesley and Barlow, we found grass and wheat everywhere to be doing finely; no complaints were made except occasionally that a field was found to be slightly affected with the fly. 

But murmurs, loud and deep, were heard constantly about the long-continued rains and their effect on the corn land. Comparatively little corn has been planted. None but high and sandy land would do to plant with any prospect of the corn's coming up. Many farmers had not planted a hill. The five days we were out fortunately proved pleasant and without rain, and almost every farmer we called on was found either planting or preparing to plant corn. There has been very little drying weather within the last week, and the heavy rains of yesterday have made planting impossible for at least another week. The present prospect is certainly not the most flattering to the farmers, with the low prices for produce on hand and so poor a show for another crop.

Of peaches and cherries there seemed to be a fair prospect of an average crop. We observed now and then an orchard of apple trees that gave earnest of a respectable yield, but most of the trees were without fruit. What few apples there are, are of the more ordinary kinds, the grafted fruit being most easily killed by the frost.

One very noticeable feature of the farms through the townships above mentioned is the uniformly good barns with which they are provided. More regard seems to be had for the comfort and welfare of the quadrupeds than for themselves, for in numerous instances we saw good framed barns for the cattle and rather inferior log houses for the family.

With few exceptions, the farms are in good order and well improved - fences strong and trim, implements ready for use and housed, the brush cut down in the fence corners and other out of the way places, gates and bars in good order, &c. 

There is only one fault, a very general one by the way, which we wish to complain of. It is that the front yard is too often enclosed with a rail fence and made into a pasture, a vegetable garden, or a pig pen, instead of being surrounded by a neat board or picket fence and adorned with shrubbery and flowers. There is very little, too little, attention paid to the surroundings of dwelling houses. We believe that every farmer's wife would thank her husband for a little spot in the front yard which she might have the control of, and that should be held sacred against the incursions of calves, pigs, or the plow, where the taste for flowers, so proverbial to the sex, might be cultivated, and where some relief might be obtained from the toil and drudgery of everyday life. That it would contribute immeasurably to the happiness of the wife there can be no doubt.

Every means for the development and cultivation of purity of taste, refinement of feeling, and nice perception of the beautiful ought to be improved, and none are so easily obtained at so cheap an expenditure as in the arrangement and care of shrubbery and flowers.

  

Sliding

Marietta Olio, February 8, 1873

Among the students of Marietta College, sliding seems to be the order of the day; not sliding off from recitation, for that, it is too early in the term, nor into someone's affections, for they are already there, nor yet off without paying a wash bill, but down Mills' Hill to the detriment of passersby, and in fact all over town.

There has been more sleighing this year than any we remember for some time past. Jingle, jingle from one end of the town to the other, some on chairs elevated upon upon runners, others upon inverted goods boxes, while still others in real sleighs. 

The active individuals of '76, partly to evince their class spirit, and partly to show what verdancy could be gotten together, took a grand sleighing under the guidance of Parson Cooke, Jr. This group meeting one of the Professors, of course, cheered him, he waving his hat in return, but the same efforts in reference to a higher official failed, as he accidentally stepped into a store just about that time.

Christmas is Coldest on Record

Marietta Daily Times, December 26, 1924

Temperature lower here than on holiday in 35 years.

Six above zero in Marietta.

Chilling winds that came blustering out of the North brought the answer to many little prayers that it might be a white Christmas. They also Santa Claused this section of the Ohio Valley with the coldest weather of the season and the coldest Christmas Day since away back when winters were cold and skating was a popular pastime during that season.

With low temperatures of 6 degrees above zero for Wednesday night and 7 for Christmas night, previous records for the low this season were shattered and December 25, 1924, went down in the records of the U.S. Weather Bureau office in Parkersburg as the coldest Christmas since the records have been kept there, a period of 35 years.

The Parkersburg weather-man, H. C. Howe, reported a low of 4 above zero for Wednesday night. On Christmas night his instrument recorded 7, the same as the reading of Professor Thomas Dwight Biscoe of Front Street, who recorded 6 on Wednesday night. The two coldest Christmas days in the 35 years the records of the bureau show were in 1891 and 1896, when the mercury went down to 10 above.

Thermometers in various parts of the city varied greatly and some real low temperatures were reported by some observing citizens. One man reported his thermometer to be at zero on both Thursday and Friday mornings, and the instrument at Gray Brothers grocery registered 3 above at 7:15 o'clock.

Christmas Day the sun came out warm and the temperature rose to 29. But in the shade it was much colder, and according to one weather observer at 5:15 in the afternoon it was only 13 above.

Not a few Marietta families celebrated Christmas by thawing out water pipes, while in many homes the big dinner was held up while the biscuits refused to do much better than "sun bake" in the ovens, a little shy of gas because so much of it was used in other parts of the house.

 

A Glimpse into the Summers of Yesteryears

Sunday Morning Observer, July 28, 1918

My, oh my! How times do change!

There has come to be much of a change, and usually for the better, in summer habits and customs in Marietta. The season of heat here is sometimes harder to bear than the climate of the tropics is, especially at nighttime. But in the past 30 or 40 years we have partly relieved ourselves of some of its vexations and discomforts. 

If we turn our thoughts backward for a generation or more and think of Marietta as it was in the summer of, say, the Centennial year, 1888, we may see not a little of an improvement in our ideas of accommodating ourselves to the season. Most of that improvement has come about so gradually that the older part of the population have hardly been conscious of it, while the younger part, of course, can see hardly any of it in retrospect. Yet it is a fact that Marietta is more habitable, more comfortable, than it used to be in the June-July-August period, at least a consideration of some of the instances of the differences between a summer of the 1870s and the summer of 1918, warm as it is now becoming, will go far to confirm that judgment as to the fact.

Thus it used to be that the garb which men wore when the temperature was at its height was not conducive to physical ease or to serenity of temper. Lawyers, physicians and other professional men, as well as numerous business men, were often more interested in conventional dignity than in bodily comfort. They wore frock coats; they would not dispense with vests, and if such a man wore a seersucker coat, or even an ordinary sack coat, he was likely to feel that he was somewhat "lowering" himself or his standing in the community. Black silk hats were by no means uncommon, and the tall white hat was long a favorite.

Straw hats were numerous, but they did not make their general appearance so early as they do now. On the whole, they were not so well made, and among elderly gentlemen there were not half so many of them worn as there are today.

Thousands of men wore boots the year round. Most shoes were of black leather, and only young men, and comparatively few of them, put on tan or russet shoes. It was pretty much the same with shirts. They were almost invariably white, and usually they were starched and buttoned up the back. Anybody who was seen in a colored one was regarded as somewhat "sporty" and was likely to be viewed with disfavor by people of conservative taste who prided themselves on their "correct" habits. 

As for the stockings which are now worn with knickerbockers or short trousers by men who engage in out-of-tour pastimes or in pedestrian exercise or in lounging about rural retreats, they were known chiefly as part of the uniforms of professional baseball players. But anybody who might go about the streets in knee breeches and stockings was certain to be viewed as quite unconventional or would cause a jocular remark as to whether he might not be an escaped British dude in need of a keeper or that he might be perhaps a Lord Dundreary in his walking "duds."

There was then one garment which was much more worn than it is now, excepting by chauffeurs and motorcar owners, and that was the "duster." As a rule it seldom cost more than two or three dollars. It was of a white, yellowish-white or buff color, and the majority by far of men who traveled by rail or wagon were pretty sure to carry them on their arms as they hurried to or from the railroad stations. Much better railroad beds, much less soft coal, and much less dust have made this convenient protector of personal cleanliness far less needed than it used to be. 

What a contrast, for example, today on almost any train and a ride on the very best train, when an engine with a sprinkler would be sent ahead of it to water the tracks, although there was so much dust that despite all that was done to save passengers from discomfort and smudginess, they would usually arrive at their destination with necks and faces that looked as if a swarm of perspiring chimney sweeps were getting out of the train.

How hot our streets then were in some respects and how hard it was to keep the roadway free of dank and ill-smelling dirt, and the mud holes and chuckholes filled up! The new paving here and there, in that period was so far from being complete.

Ice was plentiful and cheap, although not more so than it has been in recent years. Palm leaf fans were much more used than they are now. Refrigerators had hardly ceased to be a luxury for only the rich and the bathrooms in which humble families might cool and refresh themselves were less than half as numerous as they have since become. 

It was then not uncommon for hundreds of boys and men to swim in front of the wharves at the foot of Front, Second and Fourth streets and at the foot of Putnam every summer evening, and they were not compelled to beware of a sudden onslaught by the police. Awnings over sidewalks for the protection of shops from the glare and heat of the sun were as numerous as they are in Havana and Naples. Sunstrokes of men and women on the streets were very much more often reported than they are now.

An auditorium such as that of a hall, a church or a theatre was often far more oppressive on a hot night than it is now. This was because gas light contributed somewhat to the warmth, and the fumes or smokiness of it increased the appearance and sense of oppressiveness.

Electric fans, such as we have today for cooling an office, a bed chamber, a dining room or any other apartment, have become the greatest means we have of making a torrid temperature bearable. But at the time we are speaking of, no such apparatus, with its countless revolutions started immediately by a touch of a button or a lever, had been invented. The nearest approach to it was the team power "fan" in a ceiling, usually of a store or spacious business room, together with the lazily moving small one which rested on counters, bars or dining room tables and which, being wound up for a certain time, like a clock, circulated the air sufficiently to keep flies away from its immediate vicinity. Ice by which the air might be cooled and then distributed from funnels or blowers, was tried time and again, but never with more than imperfect results, in attempts to make theatres comfortable for summer performances.

To housewives and servants, a kitchen with its coal fires was a Tophet-like place of dread, and the richest mistress of a mansion could not provide it with either the gas or electric stoves or the electric facilities which now enable so much of the domestic service in even plain or humble households to be performed in an atmosphere free of vapors, smells and blood-heat irritations and distress.

Most shops, industrial concerns and other places of business kept their employees on duty until six or seven o'clock. There were no Saturday half-holidays under the law, and it was only here and there in July and August that some employers would allow all hands to knock off at 3 P.M.

How much of an abatement, too, there has been in the mosquito and fly nuisance, bad enough as they still are. The swarms of insects have considerably diminished as a result of processes for destroying them and their breeding spots. Houses are better protected with nettings and screens, and it is possible to spend a whole summer in Marietta and suffer little or none of the torment which they once would inflict on everybody here.

And what a horror another kind of insect would be in our streets, especially to women and children - the dangling measuring worms, green, yellow or brown, that hung from the limbs of trees at the end of their own threads and got on the faces, necks and shoulders of those who walked through or under the maze of wrigglers!

Before the season of 1918 is at an end, Marietta may be as hot as usual. But has its summers ever been so bearable - at least relatively - as they have become in recent times?

W. S. S.

 

Great Storm of May 21st, 1860

The Marietta Intelligencer, March 27, 1861

From the published abstract of Dr. Hildreth's Meteorological Report for 1860, we copy the following account of the great storm of May 21st:

On Monday, the twenty-first day of May, the valley of Ohio was visited by one of the greatest storms or tornadoes ever experienced since the settlement of the country. Commencing west of the Mississippi river, it swept over a space not less than six or seven hundred miles in length by fifty or sixty in breadth, following generally the course of the Ohio river, or from the southwest to the northwest. I do not know the hour of its commencement, but it was at Louisville, Kentucky, by two o'clock P.M., at Cincinnati at half past tree, at Portsmouth by half past four, and at Marietta by half past five, traveling at the rate of eighty or one hundred miles an hours, farm exceeding in rapidity that of any railway train.

Its progress was marked by desolation and ruin, in the destruction of buildings, fences, trees and boats.  Of the latter, many coal boats were sunk, and the navigators drowned. Several hundred lives were lost. Steamboats suffered less, as by their motive power they were able to gain a more sheltered position in the bends of the rivers. Louisville, Cincinnati and Portsmouth suffered more than any other towns, being larger and more exposed to the fury of the storm. Marietta suffered but little, the force of the tornado being spent before it reached that place. 

In its full force it was attended with thunder and lightning, hail and torrents of rain pouring from the clouds more like a cataract than rain. The air was filled with leaves, fragments of branches and broken pieces of buildings, which with the mist produced a darkness equal to that of a cloudy night, requiring the aid of candles to go about the house. The violence of the storm at any one place did not last over half an hour.

At Marietta the day was cloudy with a brisk breeze from the southwest in the forenoon, in the afternoon it veered to the south. At 5 P.M. heavy dark clouds appeared in the west, with a good deal of commotion and some thunder. At half past five it began to rain a little. A quarter before six wind very violent from the southwest and not in gusts as in ordinary storms, lasting about twenty minutes.

As soon as the rain ceased, the sky or hazy clouds in the west and southwest put on deep orange or copper color, and after seven until dark, a brilliant red, like the rays of light in the aurora borealis. The night following was calm and clear. The mercury in the barometer in the forenoon was 29-10 and kept rising during the violence of the tempest, being at 29-15 at 5 P.M. and at 29-23 at 9 o'clock. At Wheeling, Virginia, 80 miles northeast of Marietta, it was only an ordinary gale, its force being spent before reaching there. 

No similar tornado has visited the valley of the Ohio since Sunday, the 28th day of May, 1808.  This struck Marietta about 4 P.M. with more violence than in 1860. There was little or no rain or thunder; several houses were unroofed, some blown down; with immense destruction of forest trees. It was greater in breadth and probably as extensive as that of this year. I was living in the town at the time, and witnessed its ravages. Brown's Cincinnati Almanac for the year 1810 contains the only printed account of it that I have seen; but probably the newspapers of that period noticed it, as there were nine or ten published then in Ohio.

 

Hail Storm

The Home News, March 19, 1859

A sudden and violent hail storm, accompanied with high wind and a flood of rain, broke over this city and vicinity at one o'clock yesterday afternoon. The hail, about the size of peas or buck shot, soon covered the ground, but were too small to do any damage to window glass. 

Considerable havoc was committed by the wind in various quarters. The cement roofing from the brick building on Ohio Street, occupied by Cotton & Gray as a furniture store, was partially blown off, as well as that from the Wharfboat. The parapet gable of the old brick store on Ohio Street was blown over on the roof of Hall & Snider's bakery adjoining, entirely demolishing half of the roof, from front to rear, breaking a twelve-inch joist, and falling to the lower floor, within a few inches of a boy at work. 

The roof of N. Bishop's blacksmith shop on Fourth Street was blown in and fell on a man named Robert McKittrick, considerably bruising him about the head and body. A portion of the roof was carried a distance of 25 yards. About one-eighth of one side of the roof of Brown & McCarty's tannery on Third Street was lifted up and completely folded back. The window panes in the front of W. Mervine's house on the same street were dashed out. One of the chimneys on the residence of Col. Mills was overthrown, and another on the jail shared the same fate.

"The wind it blew,

The hail it flew,

And raised particular thunder

With skirts and hoops

And chicken coops,

And all that sort of plunder."

P.S.  The rain of yesterday afternoon turned to snow about midnight and this morning is half an inch deep on boards, bricks, &c. and still slightly falling, though the mercury has sun to 33 degrees only. Unless it becomes colder, fruit cannot suffer much.

Hail Storm

The Marietta Intelligencer, March 19, 1859

Yesterday, about one o'clock, a heavy fall of hail occurred in this place and vicinity. It lasted about four minutes, and "came down as thick as hail," while it lasted. It no doubt made sad havoc among the young lambs from under shelter. The atmosphere underwent a great change in a very short space of time - getting quite cold, of course - the mercury in the thermometer falling 15 degrees in a very few minutes.

During the falling of hail, the wind prevailed to an almost alarming extent - blowing a perfect hurricane; unroofing Brown & McCarty's Tannery building on the north side; blowing off the whole top of Bishop's blacksmith shop, a boy at which place narrowly escaped with his life; the parapet wall off Hall's brick building on Ohio street, which fell on the roof of the frame building above it - Hall & Snider's bake shop - breaking it in. It also blowed a chimney off Colonel Mill's dwelling house, and a chimney off the jail building, and did much other damage to roofs and chimneys. The wind kept up "a blowing" until this morning, when it measurably abated. Snow fell during the night, and was still falling this morning.

The wind also unroofed part of Dr. Tenney's dwelling house; moved John Broughton's barn 3 feet; tore part of the roof off the Farmer's Duck Creek bridge and some of the weather-boarding, and moved the whole structure from its foundation a few inches.

Muskingum River Closed By Ice

Marietta Daily Times, December 18, 1909

Freezes Over for First Time During Present Winter.

For the first time this year, the Muskingum river is frozen over and boys are skating upon its surface. The river has been full of floating ice for several days and this morning about 6 o'clock a gorge was formed near the Putnam street bridge and unless the warm weather comes soon, a heavy blockade of the ice will be formed.

Near Washington street the surface of the shore ice is quite smooth and a number of boys were skating there this morning. The ponds and small streams are also frozen and from present appearances some good skating will be afforded local lovers of the sport.

At Oak Grove Cemetery, the fountain which occupies a prominent place in the artificial lake, has formed a most beautiful cascade, as the water freezes upon emerging from the pipe. It has now attained a height of over six feet, while at the base it is probably twelve feet across and is gradually becoming larger as the water is still flowing through a hole in the ice. Its form is unusually beautiful and is attracting much attention.

Old College Field To Serve As Ice Skating Rink Again

The Marietta Daily Times, December 10, 1930

Skaters will throng the old college field this winter provided there is sufficient cold weather to freeze a coating of ice over a large municipal pond that is being constructed this week. Hundreds of boys and girls will hail the improvement with its promise of real fun when zero temperatures swing in from the North.

Mayor F. A. Steadman and his advisors decided several days ago to build a rink at Fourth and Butler streets and the college authorities promptly gave permission. A crew of men began operations there this week under direction of T. N. Fenn, park superintendent.

Several weeks ago the mayor and service director built a rink for West Side people, locating it at the Harmar playgrounds. There is a question if it will hold water as much of the bed is underlain with cinders, but continued cold weather will take care of that defect, it is believed, and if it works it will be a popular place.

The ice rink on the college campus is not an experiment as it was originally built under leadership of C. L. Flanders and other public-spirited men a number of years ago. It is large and will accommodate a large number of skaters.

About 20 men are being employed by the city in building the rink and the work thus provided will help some in reducing demands upon the public charity fund.

 

Some Notes On Floods At Marietta

The Marietta Register, December 18, 1873

The rivers here have been high this week - higher than before since January 1862, twelve years ago next month, when the water was about a foot above what is was now.  Yet it was not one of the big floods, such as came upon this locality nine times in the last hundred years.  It came to a stand Monday evening when Front street, below Putnam, was under water, which barely came upon the floors of a few stores - was just even with the floor of the Post Office, and about six inches below the floor at the front of the stores of Bosworth, Wells & Co.

The most notable flood here since the first settlement was in February 1832 - over ten feet higher than it was this week; yet in June 1772, it was some three feet higher at Wheeling than it even was in 1832, as marked by the first settlers there at the backwater at the falls of Wheeling Creek.

In 1778, there was another flood, within two feet of the mark of that of 1832; and in 1784, the water here was just about the level of that in 1832, as appeared from marks at the cabin of Isaac Williams on his "tomahawk improvement" opposite the mouth of the Muskingum.

When the first settlers began building on the low bottoms at Marietta in 1788, Indians shook their heads and said they had seen the water up to a certain height on the sycamores, but their warnings were disregarded as exaggerations; and for twenty-five years after, there was no flood here to over flow the banks of the rivers - or twenty-nine years after the great flood of 1784.  

But in January 1813, the security of Marietta people was sadly disturbed when came upon them one of the most appalling floods known in our history, the famous "Ice Fresh," as it was called.  The river was full of very heavy running ice, causing great destruction of property.  The water came to a stand January 28, at which time it had turned severely cold, making ice thick enough so people could walk on it over all the lower part of the town, at a height of some five or six feet above that of the water this week.

April 1, 1815, the water a little higher than it was in 1813, yet but little damage was done.

The famous flood of 1832 was at its height here, February 13th.  The winter began early, and ice stopped navigation in the last of November 1831, the mercury standing at 12 degrees above zero on the mornings of the 28th and 29th.  December 18th, it was 10 degrees below zero.  From January 20th to January 30th, 1832, sixteen inches of snow fell here, and in the first part of February, snow lay upon the ground over a foot deep; and in the mountains it was three or four feet deep.  Heavy rains came on, eight inches of rain falling here from February 1st to the 12th.  The water here began rising on Thursday, February 9th, and came to a stand on Monday the 13th, when it stood about two inches deep on the floor of the building now used for the Preparatory Department in the College yard; and it was some fifteen inches deep in the front rooms of the house of Dr. Hildreth.  The river was out of its banks for nine days.  

The destruction of property all along the Ohio was immense.  At Pittsburgh, the floods was at its height on the morning of the 10th; Wheeling, afternoon of the 11th; Marietta, morning of the 13th; Cincinnati, morning of the 18th, where it was over sixty feet above low water.

The next high flood here was in December 1847 - about six feet below that of 1832; and on April 22, 1852, about four feet and a half below.  The great flood of April 13, 1860, was next to that of 1832, at this point, since the first settlement, coming up within about three feet of the highest mark in 182.

Notes might be made on these floods to the extent of columns of the Register which might be of interest, but space must limit to a mere outline.

R. M. S.

 

First White Christmas Here in Twelve Years

The Marietta Daily Times, December 24, 1929

Remember the red sled that Santa Claus brought you years and years ago? Can't you just feel the thrill of it now? And you could hardly wait until breakfast was over and you could go out on the hill and try it.

Well, your children and grandchildren are going to have that same experience tomorrow morning - thanks to a genuine white Christmas.

It has been a long time since there has been as much snow for Christmas as there is this year, and few boys and girls of 15 can recall a real white Christmas. There has been one in the last 15 years, but it was so long ago that most 15-year-olds were too young to remember it.

To make sure The Times appealed to the U.S. Weather Bureau for the record and Forecaster Howe supplied it.  Two years ago, on Christmas Day, 1927, there was a trace of snow but not enough to make a white Christmas.

Five years ago, on Christmas Day, 1924, there was more snow and the official measurement showed four-tenths of an inch of the white and beautiful. But that wasn't enough to make a real white Christmas, much less to make coasting possible.

Christmas Day, 1917, was the last real honest-to-goodness, snow-bound white one of which there is record in this section of the United States. It was cold, with a lot of snow - something of the same sort that we are promised this year.

That was 12 years ago.

Today there is more than six inches of snow. The weather man promises moderating temperatures for Wednesday. But the snow is here and a genuine, old-fashioned white Christmas is assured.

 

When the Snows Were a Pleasure

Sunday Morning Observer, December 30, 1917

The snows that came to blanket the earth a week ago and the cold weather that followed to harden the crust of Old Mother Earth and make the roads an even pathway that created a certain pleasure to traverse them, brought to mind the days of ye olden time in and about Marietta, the good old days, a time which, looking back, seems far away in the misty past when a fall of snow such as that of the other day would have completely filled the bill of winter delights.

There are a few of us still who can recall the sleighing carnivals when streets and roadways were not so encumbered with trolley tracks, and paved streets had not yet come to mar the pleasures of a real sleigh ride. The sport was fast and furious all day and well after the cold, gray shades of night had settled down, and there were many who were loathe to give it up even then.

There were trotters in those days that were snow horses and there were quite a number of horsemen and horse enthusiasts who spent many a pleasant hour behind the prancing steed. Lovers joined in the merry throng and the livery stable keepers reaped a harvest in the sleighing season. If the sleighs were not engaged in advance, there were none to be had for days.

A big bus-sleigh was owned by Reckard's livery, and this was used to carry parties to and from dances that were held at places throughout the country. The wheels were taken from wagons and "bobs" put under and in these a hay wagon picnic was put to shame.

Everywhere it was jingle, jingle, jingle; there was a steady stream of sleighs leaving the city; business men took a half holiday, for sleighing did not come so frequently that it could be neglected when it did come. Nearly every man who drove a sleigh had one of the fairer half of humanity, either his wife or sweetheart, by his side. In almost all cases the females were models of gentle grace and loveliness. The solitary jingle of bells could be heard in the most out of the way parts of the town, like the rippling of small brooks in lonely fields, and hastening to join the jingling river of bells, rushing on through all the avenues and out upon the highways. 

Sleighs could be counted by the hundreds, and from parents to infants there was the rejoicing and merriment that sleighing always brings in its train. The roadways furnished pompous equipage indeed, whips fluttering with rainbow-hued ribbons, gorgeous lap-robes, streaming and glossy manes, switching tails, huge overcoats, fur caps, sealskin sacques, blushing cheeks and sparkling eyes, little clinging gloved hands, the whole bright procession stretched on and out of the city, and the air danced again with wild sweet music of the bells.

The man with the best horse was the best man on the road in those days. The hard-working artists behind the roadhouse bar put unusual care into the mixing of the cocktails; the ladies sipping lemonade behind the portieres. There was bliss in the snow in the olden days.

 

State of the Thermometer at Marietta

American Friend, February 13, 1818

Monday, February 9th, at 6 A.M. Farenheit's Thermometer was down to 20 degrees below Zero.

Tuesday the 10th at 6 o'clock A.M. it was 22 degrees below Zero, or 54 degrees below the freezing point; a degree of cold never before experienced in the State of Ohio, at least since any records of the state of the weather have been kept.

On these extremely cold mornings the atmosphere was filled with a very thick fog, which continued till eight or nine o'clock.

Snow Storm

American Friend, February 6, 1818

Our paper, this week, we are obliged make out of any-thing; from the frequent failures in the Eastern Mail we cannot depend upon it.  For the failure on Wednesday last, however, there is a reasonable excuse, from the great depth of snow, which covers the ground and renders travelling almost impossible.

The latest papers from Washington are of the 22 and 24 ult.  congress at that time was employed as usual doing very little business of importance.

Snow Storm

On Monday night last, and the day and night following, we experienced a greater fall of snow than can be recollected by our inhabitants since the first settlement of this country.  It continued snowing, without intermission, about thirty hours, and when it stopped, it measured two feet deep on a level.

Winter of 1856

The Marietta Register, January 4, 1877

Editor Register:

The present cold "Snap" - ice and snow - reminds me of 1856.  I give you a few extracts from my diary of "linked sweetness" long drawn out for many years:

Jan. 1, 1856.  Thermometer at zero.  Gusts of snow.

Jan. 9, 1856.  16 degrees below zero.

Jan. 12, 1856.  Heaviest snow storm occurred to-day, known within the memory of the 'oldest inhabitant.'  Snow on the ground to the depth of 16 inches.  Deacon Adams pronounces it the heaviest here for the last 40 years; side walks blocked with snow and heavy gorges to be seen.  Thermometer ranged from zero to 18 degrees below during the week.  Sleighing fine.

Jan. 15, 1856.  The snow heaviest since 1818, which at that time occurred Feb. 2, and the depth of snow was 24 inches; followed by excessive cold weather.  The thermometer standing on the 10th of that month at 22 degrees below zero, followed by a great flood.  Snow now reported at Wheeling and Pittsburgh three feet.

Jan. 30, 1856.  Thermometer ranged to-day from 10 to 15 degrees below zero.  Snow has been on since Dec. 24th.

Feb. 4, 1856.  Thermometer 10 degrees below zero.

Feb. 5, 1856.  This morning, by G. M. Woodbridge's thermometer, 20 degrees below zero.  We have had six weeks' nice sleighing.

Feb. 13, 1856.  Thermometer 12 degrees below zero.

Feb. 22, 1856.  The 'Washington Guards' celebrated Washington's birth day on the ice on the Ohio river, in front of Woodbridge's corner, foot of Front street, in full dress parade.  Gen. Hildebrand proud as a 'Briton.'  Eleven steamers destroyed at Cincinnati to-day. Snow on ground for nine consecutive weeks - river crossable for teams eight weeks.

Feb. 28, 1856.  Ohio river commenced breaking up below the island at 9 o'clock.  Crowds of people flocked to the banks.  Steamboat bells rang out in joyful peals in anticipation of speedy liberation.  Bonfires on the banks.

March 8, 1856.  Seven steamers lying in the mouth of the Muskingum.

March 10, 1856.  Snowed to the depth of 4 inches.  Thermometer at 12 degrees below zero at 6 o'clock.  10 steamers in mooring, Iowa, Arctic, Messenger, Caledonia, Fremont, Argyle and others.  Lamartine's sail ice boat made a trial trip, with success, on the Muskingum river.

March 14, 1856.  Eleven steamers in port.  Ice - ice - snow - cold weather.

March 17, 1856.  17 steamers in port.  Ice again commenced running; 8 steamers left.  Caledonia pushed out, and when opposite Front street, a monster cake of ice cut her down when under full head of steam.  In five minutes she was on the bottom of the river; water over her boiler deck, aft half way to cabin.  Freighted with sugar &c., a mule, hot and cow swam out in the ice.  Insured for $12,000.

March 22, 1856.  The "Monongahela Bell" came down the river from McConnelsville - first steamer for 10 weeks.  The frost King has done immense damage from the Atlantic to the Pacific - as far south as Memphis.  The M. & C. R.R. completed to within 13 miles of Athens.  Beman Gates, one of its ruling spirits, returned to day, after an absence of 4 months.

J. S. S.