There is tremendous excitement around the total eclipse of the sun that will be visible over much of the United States from Texas to Maine. The path of totality passes over much of Ohio. Unfortunately, Youngstown is just outside of the path and will witness a 99.5% eclipse. (This website includes a simulation of what those in Youngstown will see). Warren and Niles or Lordstown, just to the northwest will be inside that path. Those who know eclipses say it is worth driving a few miles to see totality.

This is not a regular event. The only other time Youngstown was ever under the path of a total eclipse in the city’s history was on June 16, 1806. During that eclipse, Youngstown was within the path of totality and in fact, so was all of sparsely populated northern Ohio as far south as Mansfield. (This website shows the path of totality of that eclipse).

Youngstown had only been settled for a few years. There were people whose names many of us would recognize: James Hillman, Daniel Sheehy, William Rayen, and George Tod. In a list of township elected officials for Youngstown township from 1802, twenty-three names are listed. In all of Trumbull County in 1810 there were only 8671 people (there was no separate Mahoning County). There were less than 1,000 people in Youngstown at that time (only 2769 people lived in the city in 1860). Most were living on city lots downtown with farms in other parts of the city or various small businesses in town. There were no newspapers (only one in the state). There were no cameras (the image above was a hand-drawn illustration).

I’ve not found any accounts from Youngstown of the event. The Columbus Dispatch includes this account from Christian Cackler, a young farmer who appears to have lived near Kent:

“The day of the great eclipse was a beautiful, warm day; we were hoeing corn the second time, with only shirts and pants on, but, after the eclipse was off, the weather was so much colder that we had to put on our vests and coats to work in,” Cackler wrote. “There were frosts every month that summer; no corn got ripe, and the next spring we had to send to the Ohio River for seed corn to plant.”

Another account from the same article describes the response of some of the Indigenous People living in Portage County:

“They left the work, got out their bows and arrows and began firing their arrows up into the heavens in the direction of the slowly darkening sun, to scare off the evil spirit.”

The other significant historical story associated with the total eclipse of 1806 also concerned Indigenous People, particularly Tecumseh, who led the Shawnee resistance, and his brother, Tenskwatawa, known as “The Prophet.” By this time, they had lost most of the Ohio lands in the Treaty of Greenville in 1795. The two brothers had been working to build a confederation of tribes to resist further land losses. Their most immediate adversary was Indiana governor (and later president) William Henry Harrison. Harrison circulated a letter he dated April 12, 1806, attempting to discredit the brothers with their followers, challenging them to stop the sun or moon or some other great sign in nature to prove they were sent by the Great Spirit. The Prophet responded that in 50 days, the Great Spirit would take the sun in hand and conceal it, a prophecy fulfilled on June 16 around 11 am. Whether the brothers were tipped off by settlers in the know from the almanacs of the time, or not, their standing was strengthened rather than undermined.

Those of us witnessing the eclipse might do well to write down our own accounts of what it was like. Your grandchildren and great-grandchildren may well be living during the next total eclipse in 2099. Just be sure to watch with good eclipse glasses that meet ISO 12312-2 requirements. One way to tell is that you shouldn’t be able to see anything indoors and only the sun outdoors, at a brightness comfortable to your eyes. The glasses also block rays of the sun beyond the visible spectrum that can harm or permanently damage your eyes. Allow adequate time to get to, and especially from, your viewing location. Traffic jams are expected in many locations.

We are fortunate to be able to view from our backyard. Now we just find ourselves hoping Ohio’s perpetual cloud cover will clear.

To read other posts in the Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown series, just click “On Youngstown.” Enjoy!