Newspaper Clipping of the Day

Via Newspapers.com

Mysterious showers of stones are one of those Fortean classics which never get old.  The “Richmond Dispatch,” September 8, 1886:

Mr. Cuthbert telegraphs from Charleston (upon date of September 5th) the following about the shower of stones.

One of the sensations of Saturday in Charleston was the fall of three showers of stones in the neighborhood of the News and Courier building. The first was observed about 2:30 A.M., mainly in the vacant lot across Elliott street, directly south of the News and Courier job-office. The second, about 7:30 A.M., fell on the roof of the pressroom, the third, about 1:30 P.M., was in the alley alongside, scattered over the places mentioned, and all the space between them, including the roof of the job-office, and for the short space up and down the alley and Elliott street.

The first shower was heard in the darkness by an employee, who was in the vacant lot, but who naturally attributed it at the time to a fall of loose material from the neighboring roofs and broken walls, though there was no shock at the time. When the second shower was observed, five hours later, some of the falling pebbles bounced into the pressroom through the open windows, and it was thought by the pressman and his assistants that some mischievous boy was pelting them. On a close examination, however, no one was found in the neighborhood, and the pebbles themselves were found to be warm. The third fall was witnessed by a number of persons, who noticed it throughout and who are unable to account for it in any way. The line of descent was almost perpendicular, there being sufficient incline from south to north to cause one or more stones to strike the window-sill and rebound into the job-office, where they were picked up from the floor and again found to be warm.

A number of the pebbles were gathered up at once, some of them being taken from the top of the ruins of brick walls and houses that had fallen on Tuesday night. The stones range from the size of a grape to that of an egg. All were worn and polished by the action of nature, and some show clear fractures. The material in most of the cases is flint or of a flinty character, and an expert who examined the collection said that they looked as if they were a part of a cabinet of mineralogical specimens.

Another suggestion by the same person was that the largest stone of the lot was part of the head or neck of an Indian axe, the character of which he was familiar.

However this may be, the stones fell in the way that has been described, and there is no reasonable explanation or suggestion as to the source whence they came. The houses in the neighborhood are covered with tin or tile roofs. The showers fell, as has been stated, almost perpendicular, and the force of the fall, as shown by the breaking of several pebbles, was evidently very great. It should be added that the shower was slight.

The brief account of this which was sent on Saturday night has, it appears, been exaggerated into volcanic eruption, but the above is a correct statement of the occurrence.

Newspaper Clipping of the Day

Here's a fine example of that beloved Fortean category, mysterious showers of stones!  From the "Washington Star," August 24, 1891:

A Hinton, W. Va., special to the New York Tribune today says: The people living on New River mountain in this (Summers) county are much wrought up by a phenomenon which has been witnessed there at intervals for several months, but only recently assumed startling proportions. 

In May reports were circulated of a mysterious rain of tiny stones, which apparently came out of the ether. At first these attracted little attention, but as time passed the reports became general. In May several stones fell in a clearing near the cabin of "Cy" Henly, who lives half way up the north slope of the mountain. These were jagged pieces of sandstone the size of a walnut.  There is an old trail and a quarry, occasionally used by the mountaineers, high above him on the mountain, all the notice Henly took of the matter was to curse the persons supposed to have thrown the stones. 

One night in June. however, he was wakened by sounds on the roof like the falling of hail. As he had a little garden patch he was uneasy as to the effect of the hail. Examination in the morning developed that the hail was composed of tiny stones. Henly spoke of this to other mountaineers and it was learned that stones had fallen at other points on the mountain. In July a clearing almost on top of the mountain was visited by a desultory rain of tones, many of them striking buildings with loud noise and bounding off. 

A peculiarity of this shower was the presence of several pebbles which are as rare on that mountain as icicles in August. The superstition of the mountaineers was aroused, and some strange theories wore advanced. The reports grew as they went. A newspaper in a neighboring county recently printed a story that showers of stones were constant on the mountains, and that business was suspended on account of the excited condition of the populace. The fact is that the populace consists of not more than a dozen families scattered over the mountains, and there never was any business to suspend. 

The most peculiar manifestations occurred on the farm of Ellison Fosman, a justice of the peace living on the south slope. Several stones had fallen here at intervals of a day or so, and "Ed" Meekers, a school teacher of the vicinity, went to Fosman's to investigate. A stone was heard to fall in the yard, and after some search seekers found it. It was almost sunk beneath the hard surface of the ground, and was smooth, black and of a perfectly oval shape, and about the size of a robin's egg. Meeker said it was warm when he touched it. Just as he stooped another stone struck him a sharp blow in the small of the back. This stone was scarcely larger than a lima bean and about the same shape, although not so regular. 

A stone about a large as a man's fist and resembling brown hematite iron ore fell on the roof of Addison Butt's house, two miles from Fosman's, and, bounding off, fell into a barrel of water standing at the corner of the house. It sizzled like hot iron and sent up a little cloud of steam. This stone is undoubtedly of meteoric origin, as some of the others may be, but the average falling stone is an irregular, jagged bit of sandstone, and small clouds of coarse sand accompany some of the stones. Twigs are broken off trees, shingles split and corn broken down. Probably a bushel of these stones have fallen, all in all, in the clearings. If, as seems probable, the phenomenon has been general over the mountain, several tons must have fallen. In the valley of New River mountain the wildest reports receive credence, and the Rev. John Justin, a local Baptist exhorter, is using them with startling effect at nightly revival meetings at the little log school house.