One of the Greatest Meteor Showers ever 
( As witnessed near Clermont County )
"It was a chilly night in the early winter of 1833. To be exact it was on the evening of 13 Nov. 1833, James Emmitt's flat boat was ungracefully slipping down the Ohio River to Madison, IN. At the particular hour in
question the boat was just passing the point where the Little Miami empties its amber flood into the Ohio.
The night was clear and frosty. Suddenly a great flood of light enveloped the earth to the uttermost bounds of the boatman's vision. The earth and sky and river were lurid. The world was ablaze with a wonderful glory. a
moment later the whole firmament was filled with a terrible display---a deluge of falling stars, that came down to earth, or traversed the flaming atmosphere from north to south, from west to east, from south to
north, and from east to west. They fell in sheets of glorious flame; in groups of hundreds in clouds of thousands. Their light was so intense and glaring that the river seemed a surging tide of blood; the boatmen like
chief ferrymen on one of the seething-hot rivers of hell. No man spoke. It was an hour of terror, and knees quaked and tongues clove to the roof of the mouth. The oldest inhabitant, seized with a terrible fear that the
hour of deserved retribution had come to him, opened not his reminiscent head, and related naught of what had occurred "when I was a boy" to the disparagement of the magnificent but terrorizing spectacle. It was a
pyrotechnic display of appalling magnitude, of blinding brilliancy and astounding characteristics. At times the air seemed absolutely crowded with gyrating and descending sky rockets. Then there would be a
magnificent and dazzling burst of light---so bright that it was impossible to look heavenward. There would come hundreds of luminous stars, chasing others that had gone before them, and streams of rolling
fire that illuminated the northern hemisphere.And during it all one of the greatest meteorological displays that ever startled the world and sent astronomers into ecstasies. Emmitt's ungainly flatboat with its alarmed crew, floated down the broad bosom of the Ohio. It reached it's destination in due time and in safety."
Credits: Life and Reminiscences of the Hon. James Emmitt by M.J. Carrigan as revised by James himself. Published 1888.
(Note & submitted by John Emmit:) James Emmitt was from Pike Co., not from Clermont
Co. but had just passed by Clermont County on the Ohio River. This event
was of course visible in Clermont Co. and probably the entire eastern US.
and Eastern Canada. I have seen it referenced in encyclopedia books and
else where on this same exact date. I also saw it referenced one time in
travel literature in Alabama. We frequently are notified of meteor
showers but I don't believe anyone living today has witnessed any thing
even close to this.
Copyright © 2004
Pike Co. Genealogy Society a Chapter of O.G.S.
P. O. Box 224, Waverly, Ohio 45690