Sloan Christmas Book 1923-1984

It is a Sloan tradition passed down now for almost a hundred years to record a short entry about the weather every Christmas in an old ledger book printed in 1918 (and evidently first used by Uly Sloan around 1922). As time goes on, these entries grow more detailed, including information about crop yields, about foxes, raccoons, muskrats, minks, and skunks killed and how much their furs sold for, and various random family happenings. My father still writes in the same ledger every Christmas.

Here I have transcribed every entry from 1923 to 1984, during which there was not a single Christmas missed. I have put names in bold for easy reference.

You can view the original pages in PDF form here and download a PDF of the transcription here. Note that in the original the entries start in the back of the book and when they run out of space jump earlier, which can make it confusing to follow, so I have rearranged them in chronological order.

Sloan Christmas Book

Weather Entries 1923 - 1984

Weather Record

December 25 1923

Xmas

Temp. 33° snow in the morning ground not froze

Dec 25 1924

Temp. 8° below zero 3 inches of snow on the ground ground froze

Dec 25 1925

Christmas

Temp 20° above zero.

About two inches of snow on ground and the ground froze.

(Killed fox December 23) Scared him up. 20 $10 for him

Dec 25 - 1926

Christmas day not very cold

Snowing at 2 o'clock and by 8 o'clock 6 in snow

Big dinner at Julis [Dana Julius - it is written later in the same way]

Dec 25 1927

Temp 20° above zero

No snow and no fodder shredded

or[&?] all standing corn shucked

Dec 25 1928

Temp. about 35° no snow yet this winter. Corn all in crib. [three words blacked out] xmas eve.

Dec 25, 1929

Snow on the ground. About 20 inches

Temp. about 25° The snow fell Dec 18

Snowed all day and all night. Roads blocked.

The ground is not froze very much.

[Boxed in to the side:

Killed a fox Nov. 25 1927 $8.50

About 3 or 4 inches of snow

Jan. 1, 1928. 15° F below zero

About six inches of snow

Jan 1, 1929 4° below zero.]

Dec 25 1930

Not very cold 30 above

Went to Dana Julis [Julius] for dinner

Dec 25, 1931

Warm weather all fall. Had 3 or 4 inches of snow Thanksgiving.

No snow xmas

Temp. about 32° Christmas morning

Dinner at Dana Julius

December 25 1932

Warm to day Temp about 50°

It has been rather cold all winter until this week

December 25 1933.

Warm weather all fall. No zero weather yet.

Temp about 50° today turned cold a days latter about 4° below zero. on Dec 19

Dec 25 1934

Temp - about 30° Plenty of snow no very cold weather this winter.

Dec 25, 1935

6 in snow 4° above zero

Stormed all day very windy & cold

Dec 25-1936

Not Cold About 50

Had a light snow before Christmas

Dec 25 1937

Temperature about 30° Severe winter so far. No shredding done yet. 3 snows & one bad ice. Uncle Dana died Nov. 5 1937