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Comparing the impact

Then as now the ice storm toppled trees and tore off branches that, in turn, ripped out wires. But Portsmouth in 1886 was on the very edge of the electrical age. Telegraph offices connected cities. A few buildings were electrified and some even had telephones, but our great energy dependence was unknown. Homes burned coal or wood and were mostly lit by gas. Modern appliances were often manually operated. Portsmouth residents got their news from newspapers, kept food in ice boxes, did not yet attend movies, knew nothing of radio or television, traveled largely by train or horsepower, and still warmed themselves in front of fireplaces.

A week without electricity was like any other week for most people in 1886. Stores were not required to shut down because they could not process credit cards. Companies did not collapse without Internet access. Carriages were stored in barns, so little damage was done by falling limbs. While hundreds of thousands of New Hampshire residents struggled without power last month, our "old fashioned" ancestors were warm, safe, well fed, and back to work the following day. The greatest inconvenience, according to reports, were the few roads still blocked by broken branches.

Nature’s awesome power

They did not blame Unitil. They mourned the loss of their stately oaks, chestnuts, willows, maples and "thrifty elms" that lined all the major streets in Portsmouth, including Islington, Daniel and State streets. South Cemetery was hit especially hard, as were the fruit trees in many gardens. Richards Avenue, a street named in memory of a vigorous tree planter named Henry Richards was devastated. An even more prolific figure, Mr. Joseph Fuller of Sagamore Road, had planted over 2,000 trees around the city from 1812 to 1865. Now many were mangled and split.

Portsmouth was especially proud of its shade trees. Earlier experiments with sycamores had failed due to an infestation of caterpillars, causing trees to be cut down, according to one historian, faster than heads were guillotined in the French Revolution. Many grand elms would soon fall to disease. But in 1886, the noble urban trees were as much a part of the city’s identity as its faded wharves and colonial mansions.

More than the cost, Victorian citizens were troubled by the loss of balance and beauty to their town. According to the Chronicle:

"Thursday must have amounted to many thousands of dollars in this city and its immediate vicinity; and worse than this, it will be many years before the shade and garden trees can recover the symmetrical beauty they possessed last summer."

And similarly, from the Portsmouth Daily: "All of this sort of beautiful shade trees fared alike, the uppermost branches breaking off and crashing through the lower limbs, making sad havoc of their naturally symmetrical beauty."

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