Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1916-06-29
PERRYSBURG LONG AGO
BY Dwight r. Garfield.
Continued from First Page.

Une mousse Wnen Sne desired to
enter the white mans cabin.
There the young urchin sat-and
never a sound would he make till
his mother returned. The In
dians and halfbreeds, of which the
country had many, were mainly
engaged in procuring furs, which
they would bring to the settle
ments and towns to barter away.
Considerable whisky was ex-
changed for these furs, as the red
men were users of the white man S
fire water.
Land around about was sold for
two or three dollars an acre in the
"Thirties, " and | guess this was
about all it was worth, for the
Black Swamp, as this region was
called, was IA dismal place. To the
south from this town one was i'm
mediately plunged into wilder
ness and swamp. Water, one, two
and three feet deep, covered the
country during part of the year.
In travelling one had to get upon
some stump Of tree to rest. Wild
hogs roamed the woods, and in the
night time it was a veritable dis
cord of strange sounds that emf
mated from the deep forests. 1t
would make the present genera
tion have " creepy feelings up the
back" had they been in old Per-
rysburg then. 1t was indeed "a
forest primeval."
In November, 1888, occurred in
the Valley the great Meteoric
Shower. 1t took place mostly dur
ing the night of the 10Th and 18th.
Early settlers We're for the most
part ignorant of the harmless ma
ture of this phenomenon, and by |
reason of this limited knowledge |
they were stricken with morbid |
fears. Many thought the lend of
the world had come" Few un-
derstood and assured the rest.
while the red men We're sure the
q Great Spirit was casting balls
of fire down on the Long
Knives" as a punishment for the
stealing away of their hunting
grounds.
1t seems every 81 years the
earth's path is within what is
called "a meteoric swarm. 4" And
it was on the above date that we
passed directly through this
swarm of meteoric dust. And it
was swarm, too. Those aerolites
were of all siZes-from line of
light to those of such dimensions
as the full moon. They began
falling along in the early part of
the evening of November 10Th and
kept it up for about nine or ten
hours. During this time it is es-
timated by astronomers that some
100000 of the shooting stars
dropped seemingly to the earth.
1t was a very rockety affair"
and made the hair stand on end.
From all parts of the horizon and
zenith came these monsters. Some
would shoot. Some fell only. Some
would explode, leaving fiery
path. And as the night crept on,
the shower became more intense.
Small ones fell like rain, or as
some have likened it to a snow
storm. And amidst these small
stars would come blowing through
one OF the larger ones, like fiery
demon. They were above you, be-
side of you, behind you, and all
over and all around. Of course,
it was night of terror, but as the
morning came their fall became
more slight and farther apart, and
all at last vanished in the morning
twilight.
Neither before nor since has this
peculiar phenomenon been seen in
such magnitude in this country.
and | speak of it as a matter of
interest and diversion as we go
along in the little but important
happenings of this city at the foot
of the Rapids of the Maumee.