MORE: When we left off in Friday’s column, the huge bull bison was standing in front of the door of Martin Bergstrasser’s homestead.

Here, the story takes a sad turn.

Bergstrasser “fired at the monster, wounding him and so infuriating him that he plunged through the door of the house. The other animals followed and trampled to death the pioneer’s wife and three children. The animals were driven out and the dead bodies of the mother and children found. Organizing all the farmers of the neighborhood they followed the herd and found them two days later numb in the sold and embedded in the deep snow. The entire herd was killed with guns, axes and knives.

“One of the robes made from buffalo hide from this herd was in existence in Emporium until (the early 1900s) at the Russell residence, being destroyed by fire when the house burned.”

This was a story passed on to us by Clyde Johnson, Port Allegany historian.

“These bison roamed along the (Allegheny) River valleys and the Portage Valley south, roughly from Kinzua to Clearfield,” Clyde said. “At Clearfield, they made their home, eating the grass down to the dirt. That is where Clearfield got its name.”

Clyde said he thinks the slaughter happened in 1816 or 1817, “as that was the year that summer and winter changed places. In July the whole Northeast froze, as it was zero degrees in the summer. The settlers lost most all their gardens and their crops froze. Most had to slaughter all cattle, horses and oxen because of no grain or hay.”

Clyde added, “We think global warming is affecting our winter, but this can happen anytime.”

The year 1816 was known as the “year without summer.” Scientists today say the biggest volcanic eruption in history, Mount Tambora in Indonesia in April 1815, caused the phenomenon.