March 4, 1717 - “The Great Snow” of 1717

On February 27th through March 7th, 1717, subsequent nor’easters struck New England. The first storm produced substantial amounts of snow in interior New England and a combination of snow, sleet, and rain along the coast, with howling wind. Three more storms dumped snow up the East Coast and were more severe than the first one. The final storm struck New England on March 7th and produced the most snow of them all, along with a bitterly cold wind and incredible drifts. All in all, the storms produced around seventy inches. Roads across New York were totally buried in snow. In the history and antiquities of New England, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, the following was described, “There came on a Snow, which being added unto what had covered the ground a few days before, made a thicker mantle for our Mother than what was usual: And ye storm with it was, for the following day, so violent as to make all communication between ye Neighbors everywhere to cease. People, for some hours, could not pass from one side of a street unto another, & ye poor Women, who happened in this critical time to fall into Travail, were putt unto Hardships, which anon produced many odd stories for us . . . Another Snow came on which almost buried ye Memory of ye former, with a Storm so famous that Heaven laid an Interdict on ye Religious Assemblies throughout ye Country, on this Lord’s day, ye like whereunto had never been seen before.”

“Vast numbers of Cattel were destroyed in this Calamity. Whereof some there were, of ye Stranger sort, were found standing dead on their legs, as if they had been alive many weeks after, when ye Snow melted away. And others had their eyes glazed over with Ice at such a rate, that being not far from ye Sea, their mistake of their way drowned them there . . . One gentleman, on whose farms were now lost above 1100 sheep, which with other Cattel, were interred in the Snow, writes me word that there were two Sheep very singularly circumstanced. For no less than eight and twenty days after the Storm, the People pulling out the Ruins 100 sheep out of a Snow Bank, which lay 16 foot high, drifted over them, there was two found alive, which had been there all this time, and kept themselves alive by eating the wool of their dead companions . . .  The Poultry as unaccountably survived as these. Hens were found alive after seven days ; Turkeys were found alive after five and twenty days, buried in ye Snow, and at a distance from ye ground, and altogether destitute of anything to feed them. The number of creatures that kept a Rigid Fast, shut up in Snow for diverse weeks together, and were found alive after all, have yielded surprising stories unto us.”