THE WINTERS OF NORTH-CENTRAL IOWA 23 
December 15th, it is recorded that some were running sleighs. 
However, the snow disappeared entirely before Christmas time. * 
It was at about this same time that a terrible winter struck this 
middle Western region. I have littlé left to record that season, 
save a short sketch which had to do with another Grandfather, 
Donald George Clark. Mr. Clark had been to Dubuque on the 
jury and was returning home upon an especially cold winter night. 
He left Charles City, walking toward his farm, some six miles to the 
South-west. The thermometer stood at thirty-eight below zero, 
yet he footed it all the way. He said that he had to run from one 
grove to the next to keep from freezing. A terrible wind swept 
across the prairies. And those who awaited him at home said that 
he looked like a snowman when he arrived. 
The deep snow fall of 1877 has been recorded by Mr. Fred Strong 
of Charles City. There was a sixteen inch snow fallin Floyd County 
in November of that year. ‘The whole disappeared within a month, © 
however, and no other fell during that winter. It is not hard to 
believe that fences would easily be buried when such falls appeared. 
Many children of those days remember walking across the fields, 
over fences, on their way to school. ‘The only care needed was in 
not breaking through the crust. 
December 23rd, 1886 was stormy and roads were drifting badly 
according to the record of Mrs. Cairns. 
January 15, 1888 was very cold. The thermometer registered 
forty below. On December 25th of that year, the ground was all 
bare, and the roads were dusty. The first snow of the season came 
on December 26th. 
On December 25th, 1889 there was no snow and the recorder 
writes that it is more like April than December. 
In 1895 there was sleighing on that same date. 1898 was some- 
what similar, and Christmas day was made merry with sleighs. 
In 1904 the ground was covered with snow on January first, 
but not enough was present for sleighing, as there was much 
dust mixed with the snow. On January 3rd of the same year, it 
was thirty below. 
The years since 1904 have been rather uneven; we have had some 
which brought considerable snow, and some which brought little. 
Some were cold and some moderate, but the most moderate of all 
was that of 1918-19. The year just preceding had been an excep- 
tional one in many parts of the country for heavy snows. Blizzards, 
