Eclipses in Bovina

    The recent eclipse in the U.S. got me curious about past eclipses in Bovina. I remember a partial one on March 7, 1970. And we had a partial in 2017, as well as the one on April 8, 2024. And there have been other partials, I'm sure. Since, we didn’t get a total eclipse in Bovina on the 8^th, I traveled to the Thousand Islands to see my first ever total eclipse. [This photo was taken by a friend of the friends I visited to see the eclipse.]

    So, did Bovina ever have a total eclipse? Yes it did - a little over 99 years ago. It took place on a bitterly cold but clear morning on January 24, 1925. There were no newspaper reports directly from Bovina about it, but here's an article from the Andes Recorder for January 30, 1925 about the event in Andes.

    Several Bovina diarists reported the phenomenon (and several for some reason left the last letter off the word eclipse).

    Isabell Russell’s mother, Elizabeth Irvine, reported in her diary: “Cold. See the eclips on Sun this morning (beautiful) total right in path of eclips.”

    Thanks to Dianne Rabeler Abele’s work to transcribe some ancestral diaries, we have two firsthand reports from her family. A. Dixon Thomson, her paternal great grandfather, lived in Bovina Center next to what is now the Brushland Eating House. He reported: “I was home the Eclips was on the sun I finished the chair it was cold in the morning 10 below zero.”

    Her maternal great grandparents, John and Ida Nichols, were living with their daughter and son-in-law, Ina and John Thomson on their Pink Street farm (still owned by Dianne’s family). John reported in his diary: “pleasent but cold 6 below zero John went over to Campbells to draw got two loads at night Frank [Schbloski] drew one load for him I done Chores Saw the Total Eclips of the Sun this morning...”

    Another diarist on Pink Street was John Storie, living at the old Jim Burns farm. After reporting on his chores, he finished with “Eclipse of the sun this morning. Total. A fine view of it here.”

    By the way, the next total eclipse in Bovina will be May 1, 2079. Since I likely will not be around for it, I do hope the younger readers of this blog will remember who it was that reminded them of it! Get it on your calendars.