DEFIANCE CRESCENT-NEWS, Defiance, Ohio -- Saturday, November 10, 1928
Mark Center, Nov. 10 -- Although a portion of this community believes that men with flashlights and torches are responsible for the mysterious "lights" that appear every night on the farm of Arnold Schliesser, two miles west of Mark Center, Mr. Schliesser himself is convinced that they are a manifestation of Divine power.
Mr. Schliesser is a minister in the Radical U. B. church.
Besides divine power and mere man, Beelzebub also is given credit by some of those who have seen the manifestations. In fact each group has firm supporters, intense feeling has been developed and arguments and scoffings are plentiful.
Mr. Schliesser's belief in the divine origin of the lights on his farm has found strong support in other quarters.
Prayer meetings and preaching services have been held by several denominations in the barn and barn yard. Some have seen the "lights," and felt their power, while others were not so fortunate. Monday night, a crowd estimated variously from 1,000 to 3,000 kept vigil and listened to a minister from a neighboring city. Friday night's watchers numbered in excess of 100 in spite of good basketball games at Mark Center.
Scientist Camps on Trail
Indirectly the lights have caused a great deal of trouble for Mr. Schliesser through smokers and thoughtless sightseers collecting around the barn and straw stacks.
Knowledge of the lights' nightly visits was first given to the public about three weeks ago when a neighbor of Mr. Schliesser's accused him of working too late around the barn. Since then visitors by hundreds have overrun the narrow dirt road and the farms in the vicinity.
Toledo and Fort Wayne have furnished their quota of curious folk, and a scientist from Purdue University has even spent a couple of days and nights camping on their trail, but they keep the secret of their origin.
One man in this Community states definitely that six men have been doing the mystifying with flashlights and torches. In fact the guilty ones were to be brought in last night, but nothing had been seen of them at 9 p.m.
Vary in Size
This writer saw the lights last night, but they kept their distance, apparently from a quarter to a half mile away in a cultivated field in front of a woods. They never were more than a few feet off the ground. There seemed to be two sizes, the smaller ones possibly the size of a kerosene lantern, the others as large as the globe of a street light. Sometimes there were two, often three or four, never more than four. Sometimes they were stationary, then they moved about, two usually moving together and keeping the same relative positions.
No reflection and no beam could be seen, but possibly they were too far away for that.
Some who have seen them at other times maintain they frequently move so fast the eye hardly can follow, and they are said to have appeared in much larger sizes than those that were manifest last night.
Barn Favorite Hang-out
Others will tell you the lights have been seen to rise directly up into the air. While usually they seem to be from a quarter to one-half mile away, claims are also made that they travel up the lane to the barn. In fact their favorite hang-out is just back of the barn, when the crowds of people are absent.
During one prayer meeting two of unusual brilliance are said to have come up the lane, passing directly over the kneeling group and pressing them to the ground with irresistible force, then stopping at the barn. Here they were joined by a third, and after hesitating a moment, one returned down the lane, a second ascended straight up, and the third went east to the road where it disappeared. Such stories are frequently told with evident sincerity, and those relating them refuse to "hedge" on what they saw.
Report Shots Fired
One group of men are broadcasting the story that they invaded the vicinity of the woods where the lights appear, but left hurriedly when shots were fired.
Shots also were fired Monday night when the big crowd of worshippers assembled, but some advance the theory that they were the work of scoffers.
Defiance city council may have its light troubles, but compared to the "lights" puzzling the residents of Mark township, council has a sinecure.
Instead of worrying how and where to get light service, people over in Mark are wondering from whence the "lights" are coming and how long they will remain.
And if you live within 25 miles of Mark Center and haven't seen the "lights," well, you are probably several hours of good sound sleep ahead.
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