St. Marys marks 170th anniversary today

December 7, 2012

Photo by Becky Polaski This grove of trees at Benzinger Park is emblematic of what the area would have looked like when the first settlers arrived 170 years ago, though on a much bigger scale. According to local historian Ray Beimel, the woods would have been dark year-round and little sunlight would have been able to get through.

As far as local historian Ray Beimel has been able to tell, December 8, 1842 was a bad weather day locally, making for a cold trip for the women and children who traveled from where they had been staying in a barn in Centerville to crude cabins that had been constructed by the male members of their small group in the area where South St. Marys Street Elementary School is located today.