History

Rochester's settlement in 1817 cites various factors that brought pioneers to our area.  The War of 1812 created a need to pay soldiers – and cheap land in the Midwest was used. Interest in creating a National Road from the populated areas along the East Coast through the Midwest also enabled pioneers to travel and to improve their financial situation through land ownership.  However, weather factors during the summer of 1816 may have helped.  In New Hampshire, January and February were quite mild; however March was very cold with gusting winds all month.  The first week of April was mild, but then the month turned cold and then colder.  By the first of May, after the thaw, a half inch of ice formed on local ponds and all buds and flowers were killed by the cold.  Cold temperatures lasted all month, followed by a four inch snowfall the first week in June.

On July 5, ice formed on the ponds again, and while it eventually melted, there were numerous hard frosts all month long.  In August, ice formed again on local ponds and crops all along the East Coast failed – from Maine to Virginia.  Many had to sell their farms.  Many went hungry.  People took to calling the year Eighteen Hundred and Froze to Death".  Seed corn prices rose to five dollars a bushel.  The only break in the weather that year was during the first two weeks of September when temperatures rose to seasonal highs.  But ice came back in the second half of the month and stayed through October.  An early snowstorm in November dumped a foot of snow … enough to get the sleighs out.

But in December, 1816 the snow melted, and the rest of the winter was one of the mildest on record.

The following spring, 1817, the first great migration west occurred.  People all over New England pulled up stakes and headed west.  Rochester, Michigan was settled on March 17, 1817 by James Graham.  The majority of Avon Township (Rochester Hills) settlers either owned land elsewhere in Michigan first (61%), came from New York (36%) or other East Coast locations (3%).

So, what caused the year without a summer?

Scientists today think it was three great volcanic eruptions in the Far East, one in the Philippines, and two in Indonesia, that spewed volcanic dust into the atmosphere and blocked the sun.  Although the East Coast of the United States was hit hard, there was also extreme cold all over the northern hemisphere, including England and the rest of Europe.