Monadnock Moment No. 157

Era 4: Expansion and Reform - 1800 to 1860

The Grasshopper Year

The spring of 1826 began on an ominous note. The New Hampshire Sentinel reported that on only one morning in March was the sun visible through the clouds. The weather then improved a bit until May when the temperature rose into the 90s day after day and very little rain fell. Even less rain fell during the month of June.

The fields of Cheshire County turned brown as the drought took hold. It was then that the grasshoppers arrived. Huge clouds of the insects filled the sky in and around Keene. They rose in the air by the thousands before every step of the traveler. The farmers had feared that the drought would destroy the crops, but now the grasshoppers devastated all vegetation. One man attempted to save his garden by picking the insects off his plants. He took his baskets out to the garden one morning and picked nearly six bushels of the creatures before breakfast. At dusk the fences in Swanzey were covered by the grasshoppers as they settled down for the night. It was reported that after the vegetation was gone, the insects began to eat recently produced hoe handles.

Rain finally came during the month of July. Once the rain started, however, it did not stop. The grasshoppers were washed away, along with nearly every bridge in the town of Swanzey. September was a perfect growing month and our ancestors survived the drought, floods, and insects, but for many years thereafter the residents of the region referred to 1826 as "The Grasshopper Year."