- Weather - Janesville Sesquicentennial - People
-
- Early resident kept diary of city weather for 50 years
- A glimpse of our daily weather conditions in Janesville may
be best described in the diary of James
- MENZIE, a pioneer in the town of Harmony.
- MENZIE maintained his diary from 1864 to near his
death in 1913. Each day he gave a comment,
- sometimes just a brief notation and other times explicit
detail, of that day's weather.
- On Jan. 1, 1864, MENZIE wrote it was the coldest day
ever known in Southern Wisconsin, a
- regular blizzard New Year's Eve with the New Year dawning
clear. "Thermometers all dropped down in to the bulb and
people kept close to their fires all day."
- April 21, 1881, MENZIE noted flooding conditions in
Janesville. High water flooded North Main
- Street from 4th Avenue to the bayou. "Residents needed
boats," he wrote. Two days later he recorded the fact that
the Monterey Dam was destroyed by flooding.
- July 8, 1987 [?]. "Over 100 in the shade," was
his crisp notation.
- Feb. 11, 1875. "-10, windy and drifting. The lane is
all full up again and one of the sheep racks
- nearly covered with snow. A very disagreeable day and hard
on stock."
- Dec. 21, 1875. "Mild day, warm enough for the last of
April, thawing fast."
- Nov. 2, 1877. "The ground is covered with soft white
snow this morning and the air is chilly and
- damp and drizzling all day. A very gloomy cheerless day.
Frank sawed some wood, John split it up. I did not do anything.
- Dec. 11, 1909. "It snowed and drifted good deal through
night. I had to dig through a snowdrift to
- get to the stable this morning. Had to shovel the snow from
doors of the buggy shed so I could open them. The snow was quite
deep in the lane."
- Saturday, Nov. 11, 1911. The day of the famous "11-11-11"
tornado, Menzies [MENZIE]
- wrote, "Dark and cloudy with strong south-southwest
wind. 62 degrees in morning, 72 degrees at noon. Violent thunder-
storm came up and it got so dark that the lamps had to be lighted.
Violent downpour of rain for half an hour and it rained moderately
the rest of the afternoon and evening."
- The following day her wrote, "Fierce cold west wind
blowing all night, 14 degrees at noon. Church
- canceled. Heard by telephone there was a very destructive
cyclone which did a great deal of damage at Orfordville and Hanover
and extended to Milton and demolished Ralph AUSTIN's house
and killed his little girl and hurt another of his children and
wife."
- MENZIE was born in Scotland in 1830 and came to this
area in 1844. He served in the state
- Legislature two terms and was town board chairman for 20
years. He also served several terms on the county board.
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