FREAKS, PHENOMENA AND THE FANTASTIC

 Over the years, many mysterious wonders of nature stories about freaks of nature, inexplicable phenomena or fantastic elements of nature. have captivated and fascinated newspaper readers across the state and the nation.  Here are a few more of these stories which happened right here in Georgia, many, many years ago.

 THE SPIRIT OF THE DEAD LIVES - Mr. H.A. Wrench, a credible Brunswick newspaper man, was walking through Greenwood Cemetery in the coastal city, when he noticed a strange and interesting phenomenon. African-Americans of the city often decorated the graves of their deceased loved ones with glassware and pottery.  Wrench observed that the oldest pieces of glassware, perhaps through exposure to the sun and the soil, had turned to "a beautiful wine color."  Local experts believed that the combination of the soil and the decaying bodies contributed to the color change to the once clear vessels as if they were filled with oxygen exposed blood of a living still soul.   Kalamazoo Gazette, February 12, 1898.

 HERE COMES THE RAIN AGAIN - M.P.  Hoyle, of Dawson, Georgia, lived just beyond the city limits.  Anytime Hoyle needed a shower, all he had to do was to walk out into his yard.  It all began in September of 1886.  In a 25' by 25' section of his yard, Hoyle and hoards of mystified and stymied observers noticed a constant rainfall.  The frequency of the rain varied from mist to regular rain.  Plain Dealer, October 7, 1886.

 That same phenomenon occurred in Dublin in 1920.  Whether it was cloudy or fair, there was a spot on the sidewalk of Columbia Street between Franklin and Washington Streets in Dublin where it was always raining.  Residents reported a light shower every day which began around 11:00 a.m. and ended in the mid-afternoon.  The phenomenon had been occurring for more than two years.  Mansfield News, Mansfield, OH, October 17, 1920.

 WAY UP ON THE SUWANEE RIVER - It was in the spring of 1842 when folks in Lowndes County, Georgia and parts of northern Florida noticed that the Suwanee River rose three feet higher in a matter of five minutes.  Those present also noticed the rumbling ground typical of a light earthquake.   Southern Patriot, June 4, 1842.

 THE SKY IS FALLING -   It was calm morning on in Pitts, Georgia.  Then, all of a sudden and without any warning, a fireball came streaking out of the northeastern sky headed toward the Wilcox County town.   As it approached, the meteor, which was seen as far away as Macon, exploded into smithereens.   The reports of a dozen distinct  explosions on April 21, 1921 was heard in surrounding towns up to 15 miles away.

 Residents reported machine gun like explosions followed by crackling noises of metal burning for several minutes.  Black, smoky streaks filled an otherwise crystal blue sky.   Several  chunks of iron were embedded as much as three feet into the soil.   The red hot meteorites, weighing as much as six pounds, were scattered primarily over a concentrated region.    

 One farmer, who was nearly hit by one of the interplanetary missiles, remarked, "It was red hot as it entered the earth, and it was too hot to handle after it had been excavated from its hole, which required a period of ten minutes."

 Souvenir hunters and curiosity seekers combed the area for weeks to pick up as many of the meteorites as they could find.  Some samples were sent to Atlanta for analysis.  The largest space rock is in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution.  Macon Telegraph, May 21, 1921. 

 FIREFLY FIREWORKS - On an early summer evening in the mountains around Ringgold, Georgia, several million fireflies descended from the sky toward the Chickamauga River.  Ringgold residents in the valley observed the trunks of trees filled with the illuminating insects.  Many reported that the entire mountain was lit by a "horde of fireflies fully forty feet high."  The lightning bugs took nearly a quarter of an hour to pass down the river's course before they flew out of sight.  Biloxi Herald, June 27, 1891.

 A TRAIN WRECK AWAITS -   People living near the tracks of the Savannah, Florida & Western Railroad, noticed an unusual phenomenon.  The people there were used to seeing lime sinks where the ground appears to be swallowed up, but on this occasion, it was observed than on one sixty -foot section of the railroad the tracks were elevated by a mysterious force to a level of one foot or more during a single night.  Huntsville Gazette, May 19, 1888.

 A REAL MULBERRY CANDLE - Many people love the sweet, fruity scent of a mulberry candle.  One mulberry bush in Griffin, Georgia  was eager to become a candle.  It couldn't seem to light itself, but it did seem to emit smoke from all parts of it, a smoke which was described a thin, light smoke similar to cigar smoke.  Jackson Citizen Patriot, April 8, 1882.

 SURRENCY'S SPECTACLE - Some nine miles below the sandy soil of Surrency, Georgia lies a mysterious object unseen anywhere in the world.  With the use of powerful sound waves, scientists from Cornell University were scanning the 26-mile-thick crust of the Earth when they discovered a rare object.  Their instruments indicated that below the surface was a two-mile wide, contact lens shaped pool of unknown liquids, possibly carbon dioxide gas or liquid helium at an estimated temperature of 500 degrees.  Initial findings indicated that the pocket in the crust was created some 200 to 500 million years ago when North America and Northern Africa collided.  As the two continents parted, a small portion of Africa remained attached to North America running roughly from Brunswick to Americus to Alabama and below.  Augusta Chronicle, May 24, 1987.

 APPLERITION - Uncle Sam Allen, an ancient farmer living near Blythe, Georgia near what is now Fort Gordon, had seen a lot during his long life.  But Sam or no one else around had ever seen an apple tree which flowered in the autumn and bore fruit in January.  Allen's tree bore small apples about the size of a large strawberry.  The staff of the Augusta Chronicle believed they might be seeing an apparition until they tasted the fruit and confirmed for themselves that the fruits were indeed apples.  Augusta Chronicle, January 25, 1901.

BELIEVE IT OR NOT - STRANGE BUT TRUE TALES

BELIEVE IT OR NOT
Strange But True Tales

Green Pittman enlisted in the Confederate army on August 21, 1861 as a member of the “Wilkinson Guards,” which were designated as Co. I of the 3rd Georgia Volunteer Infantry.  His first major wound came at the climatic battle of the Battles of the Seven Days at Malvern Hill on July 1, 1862 when his company suffered massive casualties in brutal fighting.   Pittman survived the horrific battles of 2nd Manassas, Sharpsburg, Chancelorsville, Gettysburg, and Spotsylvania virtually unscathed.

Green Pittman suffered a terrible wound in the Battle of Hatcher’s Run on February 6, 1865.  The mini ball struck the upper part of his nose near his left eye. After the fighting subsided, Pittman was taken to a field hospital, where his wound was dressed and probed by an army surgeon.   Leaving the bullet in his head was the most acceptable option because of the risks of surgery.  He spent the rest of the war in a hospital.  Though Pittman knew that the mini ball was still in his head he rarely thought of it during his daily routines.  On a Sunday morning February 1869, Pittman was preparing to go to church when he felt something strange in his mouth.

As he was combing his hair, Pittman felt a large object which he almost swallowed.  There was no pain, no bleeding when the one-ounce two-pennyweight ball popped out four years after it entered his nose.  The grizzled veteran of many of the world’s most horrific battles cherished the iron ball as a reminder of his good fortune.  Augusta Chronicle, July 1, 1875.

A Swainsboro woman set what was thought to be a world record for going from the grave to the altar.  On Tuesday, January 30,  1906, J.J. Sewell, one of the most hardworking and honest men in that section of the state, died of tuberculosis leaving his entire estate to his widow Alice.  Mr. Sewell was buried on Wednesday. His wife was present, dressed in proper attire and showing the usual emotional distress at the death of her dear departed husband.  Also at the funeral was one Robert McDaniel, who had professed his love for the widow before Sewell’s demise. McDaniel accompanied the bereaved woman as she left the cemetery. On Thursday, the couple appeared in Ordinary Court Judge Yeoman’s office and obtained a marriage license.  The anxious couple quickly traveled to the home of Judge John Sutton, where they were instantly married and set off on their honeymoon. When questioned as to the timeliness of their marriage, Mrs. McDaniel said that she needed someone to comfort her and knew McDaniel had loved her a long time.  The editors of the Swainsboro Forest Blade took an opposite stance, when they wrote, “ Peace to the ashes of Mr. Sewell.  He is better off in his grave than hitched up with such a woman as this and hounded by a man who would marry her.” Washington Post, February 5, 1906. p. 1, Swainsboro Forest Blade, February 1, 1906.

It was a hot muggy late summer afternoon on September 15, 1881 in Dublin when a terrific thunderstorm struck around two o’clock.  James Hester saw the oncoming tumult and pulled his team of oxen under a large china berry tree about half way between Maas’s store and J.E.  Perry’s house.  Hester took the beasts of burden loose from the cart and was preparing to lead them around to tie them to a wheel when a stream of mysterious luminous fluid seemed to cascade down through the tree.  To those who were present, it appeared that the eery liquid coated a light sheet over the oxen and their driver.    The animals instantly fell dead to the ground, the one closest to the tree never moved.   Hester, stunned and dazed as if dead, was carried to Maas’s store and revived.   He soon became able to relate his experiences to the concerned and curious crowd which had gathered around him.

The thunderbolt was felt all over town.  A Dublin Post writer was standing in the office between T.A. Howard and William Linder, the paper’s printer.  While the writer felt nothing, Howard instantly complained that his right leg was broken, while Linder felt his composing stick being wrenched from his hand.  He complained of a pain in his wrist for half an hour.   In another part of the newspaper office, G.W. Stephenson complained of a pain in his right wrist.

Joel Perry, who was sitting on his porch when he saw Hester’s animals killed by the mysterious glow, did not hear the clap of thunder but did suffer a severe headache and ringing in his ears for a while.  Other citizens reported similar ailments.  Though the striking of china berry trees, Dublin’s primary shade trees, was not unusual, the calamity did cause quite a stir among local residents.  Dublin Post, September 21, 1881.

Jeannie Couey and Rachel Alligood were as close as sisters can be.  Despite the fact that they were nearly twenty years apart in age, the pair was inseparable. They had the same father, Nathaniel Franklin Gay, but Jeannie’s mother was Sarah Burch and Rachel’s mother was Martha Burch, both daughters of Alfred Littleberry Burch, making them cousins as well as sisters.  Confused?   Both women were members of Baker Baptist Church and did nearly everything together.  Jeannie died at 8:30 on the evening of January 4, 1928 at the ripe old age of sixty-four.  Less than twelve hours later, Rachel made her way to her beloved sister’s home.    When she walked in the room to view Jeannie’s lifeless body, she fell dead on the floor in grief. Both Laurens County sisters were buried in Gay Cemetery the following day, side by side, united in life as in death.  Augusta Chronicle, January 5, 1928.

     As a child has a 1 in 365.25 chance of being born on Christmas Day.  For most kids that isn’t such a great thing when it comes to presents and birthday parties. Christmas was a landmark day in the life James Erwin Loyd of Laurens County. Loyd was born on Christmas Day in 1866.  He died on his 82nd birthday on Christmas Day in 1948.  The odds of being born and dying on Christmas Day are 1:133,225.  His wife Leonia Wood Loyd was born on March 15, 1876, still known to some as “The Ides of March,” a day on which Julius Caesar suffered his mortal fate.  She died in 1944.  The date of course was March 15th, her 68th birthday.  The Loyds are buried in the Union Baptist Church cemetery on the Soperton Highway just north of Minter.

Dr. G.F. Green is authority for the statement that a number of snow flakes fell in this city yesterday.  At his home, Dr. Green states, it hailed for a minute or two and then snowed.  The falling of snow flakes was witnessed by several reputable people and there is no doubt but that the statement is true, strange as it may seem. Dublin Courier Dispatch, July 24, 1902.