Eighteen-Hundred-and-Froze-to-Death: The Summer Cheshire Couldn’t Find Warmth

Richard Reggie Smith Research/Editor Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0

There are winters in Cheshire that longtime residents still talk about years later. But imagine telling your neighbors you saw snow falling in June — and not just a flurry or two, but enough to cover the fields where corn should have been growing.

As strange as it sounds, that is exactly what happened here in 1816.

Old-timers across New England later gave it a grim nickname: “Eighteen-Hundred-and-Froze-to-Death.” And for the farming families who called Cheshire home, it was one of the hardest years the town had ever faced.

Back then, Cheshire was not the suburban community we know today. There were no grocery stores to fall back on and no trucks bringing food in from other states. Nearly every family depended on the success of their own crops and livestock. If the weather failed, so did your food supply.

And in 1816, the weather failed spectacularly.

(The clockmaker Chauncey Jerome, then living in Plymouth, wrote years later, “I well remember the 7th of June. While on my way to work, about a mile from home, dressed throughout with thick woolen clothes and an overcoat on, my hands got so cold that I was obliged to lay down my tools and put on a pair of mittens which I had in my pocket.”)

The Problem Started Halfway Around the World

Oddly enough, the disaster that hit Cheshire began nearly 10,000 miles away.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In April of 1815, a massive volcano called Mount Tambora erupted in what is now Indonesia. It was one of the most powerful volcanic eruptions in recorded history. Ash and gases blasted high into the atmosphere and slowly spread around the globe, dimming sunlight and disrupting weather patterns everywhere.

By the following year, Connecticut was feeling the effects.

Farmers woke to freezing mornings in months that should have been warm. Crops struggled to grow under dark skies and unusually cold temperatures. Then came the storms.

A June Snowstorm in Connecticut

The Old Farmer’s Almanac

On June 6, 1816, snow reportedly swept across parts of Connecticut. Imagine standing near today’s South Main Street or Route 10 and seeing snowflakes drift down when gardens should have been thriving.

Even more shocking, temperatures around New Haven reportedly dropped to 35 degrees the next morning.

Then things somehow got worse.

Another brutal freeze struck in July, wiping out much of the corn, beans, and squash that had barely survived the earlier cold snaps. Families replanted when they could, hoping for a turnaround, but many fields never recovered.

By harvest season, farmers across the region realized they were in real trouble.

One Connecticut minister wrote in his diary that no living person could remember such a poor corn crop.

For Cheshire’s farming families, that wasn’t simply disappointing news. It was terrifying.

When the Food Ran Out
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Without healthy corn and hay, livestock could not be properly fed through the winter. Farmers were
forced to sell cattle and pigs quickly before starvation set in. Prices crashed as too many desperate families tried selling animals at the same time.

Meanwhile, the price of basic food exploded.

Grain, flour, and oats became painfully expensive almost overnight. Families stretched meals however they could. Hardy vegetables and root crops became increasingly important because they stood a better chance of surviving the unpredictable conditions.

For many residents, survival became the only priority.

The Beginning of “Ohio Fever”

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The hardship also changed Cheshire in another major way: people began leaving.

Many Connecticut farming families had already been hearing stories about rich farmland farther west in
places like Ohio. After the disaster of 1816, those stories became impossible to ignore. The weather was bleak and gloomy during that whole summer and the group, stuck indoors and wanting to pass the time, had a competition to see who could write the most frightening horror story. As a result, Mary Godwin created a classic of Gothic literature, a story she called Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. e.

Entire families packed up wagons and headed west looking for more reliable farmland and a fresh start. The migration became so common that it earned its own nickname: “Ohio Fever.”

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Some local newspapers tried to discourage people from leaving New England, warning about frontier dangers and disease. But after watching crops freeze in the middle of summer, many families were willing to take their chances.

Cheshire survived the crisis, but the town that emerged afterward was different. Some farms were abandoned, some families never returned, and the memory of that impossible summer lingered for generations.

It is strange to think about now while driving past modern neighborhoods, schools, and shopping centers, but two centuries ago Cheshire residents were battling snowstorms in June and frozen fields in July — all because of a volcano on the other side of the planet.

Local history has a funny way of reminding us just how connected the world really is.

(Editors Note: In April 2016, the Cheshire Historical Society hosted a presentation detailing the local impact of the 1815 Mount Tambora eruption, which caused severe weather disruptions across Connecticut in 1816. The event explored how unprecedented summer frosts and agricultural failure resulted in a regional crisis, prompting a significant migration westward. Learn more through the Cheshire Historical Society Spring Newsletter.)