Western North Carolina Droughts

Droughts

"From Robert Henry's diary we learn that 'in the summer of 1815 no rain fell from the 8th of July till the 8th of September. Trees died.' Also that, 'on the 28th day of Aug. 1830, Caney branch (which runs by Sulphur spring five miles west of Asheville) ceased to run. Tom Moore's creek and Ragsdale's creek had ceased to run some days before; the corn died from the drough {sic}. This has been the driest summer in sixty years to my knowledge. Our spring ceased to run for some weeks previous to the above date.' Again: 'The summer of 1836 was the wettest summer in seventy years in my remembrance.' This is the climax: 'Thursday, Friday and Saturday next before Christmas 1794, were the coldest days in seventy years,' though as he had been born in 1765 he could not then have been quite thirty years of age himself. (1914. Arthur, John Preston. Western North Carolina, A History...p.296.)