The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 59, July 1955 - April, 1956 Page: 8
587 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
cross,"2 and Frederick Law Olmsted told of asking a Caldwell,
Texas, blacksmith to shoe a horse for him during a norther only
to have the blacksmith snap back that "it was too d-d cold to
work" and that he was going hunting, "refusing to make a shoe
while this d--d norther lasted, for any man.""
This was not the only instance which Olmsted found when
Texans refused to work during a norther; he mentioned that
the Bastrop weekly temporarily was not published, "the editor
mentioning, as a sufficient reason for the irregularity, the fact
that his printing office was in the north part of the house."'
Others also noted that the Texans closed up shop when the
norther arrived. Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels commented that
"When a norther is blowing, the American cannot be moved.
Since such winds continue at least two days, this time can be
counted as lost. .. If two such northers unfortunately follow
successively, then six or seven days are generally lost before one
realizes it."32 Ferdinand Roemer observed that at the first approach
of a norther Texas farmers quit their work and waited by their
firesides for the weather to change,8 and Adolphus Sterne re-
ported from Nacogdoches in February, 1841, that thanks to a
norther there was "nobody stirring, shops nearly all closed."34 The
Texans were not merely being sissies about this cold, however, as
transplanted Yankees are soon ready to admit,"' and Cabeza de Vaca
reported that even the Indians during a norther "remain [ed] in
their huts and abodes, unable to go out or assist each other."86
In part the Texans felt the effects of the norther acutely because
their houses were often inadequately built to keep out the cold
blasts. Many visitors complained about the flimsy "paper houses,"
2sSee, for example, W. B. Dewees (Clara Cardelle, ed.), Letters from an Early
Settler of Texas (Louisville, 1858), 241. Dewees' letters were somewhat spurious
but at least were accurate in describing the weather.
300lmsted, Journey through Texas, 107-10o8.
sllbid., lo8.
32Solms-Braunfels, Texas, 1844-z845, 99-
3aFerdinand Roemer (Oswald Mueller, trans.), Texas with Particular Reference
to German Immigration and the Physical Appearance of the Country (San An-
tonio, 1935), 49.
84Harriet Smither (ed.), "Diary of Adolphus Sterne," Southwestern Historical
Quarterly, XXXI, 187.
35As noted above, Meade said he was colder in Texas than in Maine. Meade,
Life and Letters, I, 37.
86Bandelier, Journey of Cabaza de Vaca, 76.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 59, July 1955 - April, 1956, periodical, 1956; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101162/m1/20/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.