Just curious, all those wool blankets undoubtedly caused some visible discharges in the night, surely some folk felt that little zap when they went to grab their tools... What were some of the explanations given before we truly understood what was happening?
This might be a question for /r/askscience
Let me instead answer your question with another question, before we understood the concept of gravity, how did people explain that things fall down?
People might have understood the very basics of it, if you let go of something in midair, it fell down, however they did not know why it was, they just accepted it as it was just the way it worked.