Scotch-Irish-L Archives

Archiver > Scotch-Irish > 2009-02 > 1233585449


From: "KM" <>
Subject: Re: [S-I] Worst weather? early SI settlers!
Date: Mon, 2 Feb 2009 09:37:29 -0500
In-Reply-To: <498676AF.000009.03280@NANCY>


Does anyone have copies of letters sent by early settlers with description
of winter weather, as they wrote back home to loved ones? I imagine there
would be some tales of woe after the first winter here.
Up in Quebec north of Montreal where I grew up, and where my ancestors
arrived in 1823 to claim and homestead 100 acre grant in the bush, among the
swamps and lakes, there were times when my dad could drive a team of horses
off road, on top of the frozen crust atop of 6' of snow. Back then roads
were not plowed and winter roads were for sleighs only packed down and
sometimes rolled with a huge roller pulled behind a team of horses to help
build a solid frozen base. Spring time was treacherous as these winter roads
often crossed swamps or lakes to take shortcuts and avoid steep hills on the
summer road trail. keith





This thread: