Reminiscent. Editor Daily Republican. – Forty years ago this winter was the longest and coldest winter season within the last half century. The river froze up in December and did not open until March; the ice was about two feet thick and teams could drive on it anywhere with perfect safety. There was good sleighing during the entire time and business was generally suspended: Col. Samuel W. Black delivered a lecture in the Old Stone M. E. church in Elizabeth and his subject was “One Hundred days of Cold Weather.”‘ The thermometer at Dr. Shaffer’s drug store corner registered 24 degrees below zero on the 14th day of February, 1856. The venerable Major John Walker, who crossed the mountains in the same wagon that brought over the first printing press, died in the following June. The press was taken to Pittsburg and on it the first number of the Gazette was printed, about a century ago.
Read more about the winter of 1855 – 1856 here.
Lost Monongahela 
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