Anomalous Showers of Stones, Water and Other Objects
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Original newspaper and magazine reports, and other sources of anomalous showers, rains or falls of stones out of nowhere, and similar showers of other objects. For more information about their characteristics and possible origin, click on the link above. |
A Rain of Stones, from a manuscript in 1557.
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Content of this page: 3. Newspaper Reports Not Verified |
A Rain of Stones, from a manuscript in 1557.
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Singular Phenomenon – Shower of Meteoric Stones Our town was visited on Wednesday evening with a violent thunderstorm, accompanied by heavy torrents of rain, mingled with small black angular-shaped stones, somewhat resembling iron stone, but more vitrified in appearance. Some folk affirm that they are merely fragments of the Rowley Rag with which a portion of our roads are laid, but as they have been found, not only in parts of the town where this material has not been introduced, but on the house tops, this explanation of the phenomenon is the fact that amongst the numerous persons who might have been seen, after the storm passed over busily engaged in securing specimens, was one lucky customer who actually picked up a half-crown piece. If we could only be satisfied that that the silver token in question was the product of the meteoric shower, we should be inclined to welcome the acceleration of the earth's motion “even,” as wittily observed by a contributor to the daily contemporary, “to the extent of bringing Christmas twice a-year.” In some parts of the town, more especially in the neigbourhood of the market place, the stones fell in such abundance as to admit of their being taken up in shovels full. - Wolverhampton Advertiser Source: Empire (Sydney, NSW, Australia), 24 August 1860, page 2 [Wolverhampton is in England] An English paper of July 20: An extraordinary occurrence (a correspondent says) is causing much excitement in the neighborhood of Hafer road, Clapham common, where the windows and conservatory of the house of Mr. Piddock, a gentlemen of private means, have been wrecked in a most mysterious fashion. The house is situated in Hafer road, and bounded on the back and side by Limburg road and Battersea rise respectively. The attack on the premises began about eight o'clock on Monday evening, when a stone was hurled from some undiscoverable quarter, through the conservatory into the dining-room, which it adjoins. The stone, which weighed over a pound, was followed by four others in rapid succession. Mr. Piddock and his servants endeavored to discover whence the missiles were hurled, but in vain. Inquiries were made at all the houses which overlook the premises, but to no purpose. In about an hour afterwards the stone-throwing was renewed still more vigorously, the continual crashing causing great excitement in the vicinity. The police, who had been communicated with, could not detect whence the stones came. This state of affairs was continued with short intervals up to 1.30 on Tuesday morning. Mr. Piddock and his family were in great distress, as Miss Piddock was all this time lying in a dying state in a bedroom on an upper floor. All day on Tuesday the police had the matter in hand, but failed to trace the perpetrators of the outrage. About three in the afternoon the stone-throwing recommenced, and by 6 o'clock the conservatory was completely wrecked, and many of the windows were broken. Again every effort was made to discover the miscreants, but without result. The stones kept coming in, sometime! five or six in succession, and then single stones at intervals of from half an hour to an hour and a half. Source: Northern Argus (Clare, SA, Australia), 26 August 1890, page 3 ROCK SHOWERS LATEST THRILL FOR CALIFORNIA Chico, Calif., March 10. Showers of stones that fall "from the clouds" on a warehouse here have baffled the police, neighbors and various official investigators. Today J. W. Charge, owner of the warehouse, offered a reward of $200 to the person revealing the source of the rocks. While the town marshal and a committee were examining the corrugated iron roof yesterday a shower of large smooth stones fell, sending the investigators scurrying to cover. Persons nearby at the time declared the stones seemed to come straight from the clouds. Employees in the building stated that the mysterious bombardment of the roof had been occurring periodically for three weeks. Source: The Rock Island Argus and Daily Union. (Rock Island, Illinois), 10 March 1922, front page
MYSTERY STONES "Poltergeist or practical joker?" is the question that the police are trying to solve at a farm outside the village of Tourettes-Levens. near Nice. Stones varying in size from small pebbles to two-pounders have been striking the roof and walls of the Collet farmhouse. The people at the farm are old Dominique Simon and his wife (in their seventies), Marius Simon, their son, his four children, and two old retainers, Adrlen Canestrier and his sister, also both in their seventies. Adrien is already feeble-minded. A police sergeant kept watch with two constables patrolling the ground round the farm, but stones continued to strike the roof or walls, and some times the inhabitants. Finally, Captain Chandille, of the gendarmerie, with four men. spent the night watching in the farmyard, while his men were posted at good observation points. Stones fell beside the captain, struck one of his men, and one of the Simon children, but where they came from or how they were propelled remained a mystery. Captain Chandille refuses to believe in any phenomena which are not recognized by French civil and criminal law. Source: The Newcastle Sun (NSW, Australia), 12 September 1936, page 7
Mystery Fall Of Small Stones Scares Natives PERTH, Monday Stones flung into a 30-square-yard area of a native camp at Pumphrey, 92 miles from Perth, and the mystic dream of an old aborigine,, have posed a deep mystery for 64-year old farmer, Mr. Alan Donaldson, and his family. For three consecutive nights and today a hail of stones varying in size from small pebbles to three inch circumference have rained down in the area. Some of the stones were brought to Perth today and examined by the Deputy Government Mineralogist, Mr. J. N. A. Grace, and the Director of Government Chemical laboratories, Mr. J. C. Hood. This morning a one-legged 69-year-old aborigine claimed, that during the night he had been told in his dreams to get away from the camp. The mystery began to unfold about 8.30 p.m. on Friday when one of the aborigines came to Mr. Donaldson's homestead , about 200 yards, away and claimed stones were falling from the sky. Mr. Donaldson and his two sons, Brian, 26, and 20, immediately visited the camp. They were amazed to hear objects falling on the ground. They drove a truck up to the spot and shone its headlights on the scene, and saw rocks falling through the beams. The stones continued to rain down on Saturday and Sunday nights. Today was the first occasion on which the stones have fallen during the daytime. A newspaper reporter and a photographer stood in amazement as rocks, lobbed around their feet, narrowly missing their heads.. The natives admitted they were frightened and a search by them for foot prints proved fruitless. Mr. Donaldson said there was a big fire near his 2,400-acre farm on Friday night. Huge willy willys accompanied the blaze and he thought these could perhaps have lifted stones into the air. Source: The Canberra Times (Australia), 19 March 1957, Front Page
Follow-up article in the same newspaper the next day: PERTH, Tuesday.-The mystery of the falling stones continued on the Donaldson farm at Pumphrey, near Perth, today. A newspaper reporter sent to investigate the phenomena said the stones came from all directions and landed with, a soft "plop" as if they had flown through the air instead of being thrown. The stones are said to be following 23-year-old native, Cyril Penny, of Borden, who recently had a dream warning him to get out of the area. Natives pleaded with the owner of the property, Mr. Alan Donaldson, today to take them away to Pumphrey's Bridge, 10 miles away, but the hail of stones followed them. Shortly after they arrived there the stones again started to fall. After further pleadings, they were brought back to the Donaldson farm, but stones then commenced to land on the farmhouse, roof and the surrounding area. Frightened natives then asked Mr. Donaldson to take Penny away. They said "We will pay freight to take this fella away." Penny had been on the farm only a week when the stones started to fly. Many natives, some of whom speak and write English, maintain Penny has a "jinx" on him. Three white men last night crouched inside a native tent to investigate and later swore they saw gravel pebbles falling inside the tent without holing it. The witnesses are Brian Donaldson, 26 and Ian Donaldson, and Tom Hardie from a neighbouring farm. The Donaldsons said later they had investigated every possible theory, but were unable to offer any explanation for the strange phenomena. Penny, the apparent target of the stones, said "I don't know what it is all about. It has never happened to me before." Source: The Canberra Times, March 20, 1857, page 6
Stones from Nowhere. GLEN INNES MYSTERY. From' Glen Innes comes a story of a will-o'-the-wisp stone thrower who has defied the police and many armed searchers, notwithstanding the fact that they have had electric searchlights at work and have surrounded the house which he attacks. A few nights ago the daughter of William Bower, a Shire ganger, who lives about half a mile from the town told her mother that a man chased her and pelted here with stones about a quarter of a mile away. That night the walls of the house resounded with the thuds of stones. A neighbour was communicated with, but no trace of the attacker was found. The next morning the police were informed, and two, constables took up the work. They had hardly arrived when a stone smashed a window. But there was no trace of the thrower The next night more police and four civilians took up the vigil, but although the stones continued to fall on the house, nobody could be found! The following night even more police, and ten well known citizens took up strategic positions, again without success, the stones landing as before. On Friday night— the fifth of the vigil— a great crowd turned out, armed with all kind of weapons and a big electric searchlight. They formed cordons round the house, and occupied posts at every possible hiding place. Still the stones fell, although they stopped when the light was turned on. Source: The Bombala Times (Australia), 15 April 1921 Page 2
Stones That Fell From Nowhere [By a Special Reporter.] The haunting fascination of a "spook" or spirit story drives my imagination into realms of wildest fancies. But I could not resist the invitation to listen to an uncanny mystery which happened years ago in the mallee wilderness along the River Murray. The descriptions of the weird workings of recent Gawler spirits were jingling in my brain as I sat before Mr. Henry Hayward on Tuesday. The old man — he was 78 last January — came into The Register Office to tell me a tale of the mallee, and I expected to hear how a ghostly monster had terrified the people in the lonely scrub. But when he began I knew he meant to deal in "spirits," and not in ghosts. Mr. Hayward now lives in retirement at William street, Norwood. It seems that he was driven by circumstances to settle in the Hundred of Foster, about half a mile to the east of the Murray. He first settled at Mount Mary. "I could not grow enough wheat there to keep me in flour," he said. "The first year I got 60 bags of wheat. In the following year from a crop of 120 acres I reaped five bags, and next year I got nothing at all. I then went over to the Hundred of Foster." — When the Spirits Walk.— "It must be 14 years ago now," he continued, "since I had a nice little block in the mallee scrub. My nearest neighbour was Mr. Fred. Towell, who now lives at Kent Town. One night my eldest son, Edward, who was then about 23 years old, and my youngest son, Tom, about 12 years of age, went out to feed the horses. It was a clear moonlight night. As they were walking back to the house from the stables something rolled past them. At first the boys took no notice. But when a second "something" came by they stopped to see what it was. They found a small stone. They came back to the house, thinking that the other boys were hiding in the scrub and throwing stones for a joke. But when they found their brothers in bed they told me about the affair. Of course I said some one had been playing a lark. — A Shower of Pebbles.— "Next night I went up to the stables alone. I got into the yard and was looking into the manger when a stone as big as an egg fell right against my legs. There were mallee bushes close by, and I jumped over the rails and sent a few stones into the clump. I thought that some one was behind it throwing stones at me. But there was no one about. I then began to wonder what it all could mean. Next day my wife and daughter were washing outside of the house when a large stone came over the building and fell close to them. Another missile followed a couple of seconds later. They could see no one near the place, and were sure that the stones had come from the other side of the house. Well, everybody in the district heard of the strange happenings at my place, and sometimes parties of 20 people came and watched the pebbles falling, and they all went away mystified. At one time a large piece of earth fell near my house, and one of the boys saw a piece of wood come from goodness knows where. — A Close Call.— "On the third night I went over to a neighbour named Hutchinson, and asked him to come with me to the horse yard. We were standing near the manger while the boys were pulling hay from a stack, when a large piece of wood came hurtling down and grazed the brim of Hutchinson's hat, and fell at his feet. I looked over the stable shed, but again there was no one in sight, nor could I hear anything. If any one had been moving about in the scrub, which was thick near my house, I could easily have heard him, because the night was still. As we went down to the house, stones kept descending around us, and others rolled past our feet. — An Old Man's Fright.— "I'll never forget poor old Duncan O'Dea and the scare he got the night he came to see the stones," went on Mr. Hayward, and chuckled to himself as he recalled the incident. "Duncan O'Dea came with about 13 or 14 others one bright moonlight night. I took them to the horse yard, and as we were leaning against the rails a big stone fell between Duncan's feet. He swore that he saw it rise out of the ground. He stooped and felt it to see whether it was warm. But it was quite cool. Just after this two young chaps from Adelaide visited my place in great style to explain the mystery. They were staying in the district, and on hearing of the occurrence at my farm, they put on airs and told every one that they would soon tell what caused the trouble. So they came one night. The stones pelted down around them, and they went away as wise as they came about the 'cause of the trouble,' as they called it. — A Disbeliever Converted.— "Bill Roathe, who is now in Western Australia," proceeded Mr. Hayward, "was a neighbour of mine at this time. He did not believe in ghosts of any kind, and when he heard of my experience, he laughed and said, 'All rot.' Anyhow Bill was not afraid to come and have a look at what was going on. He had not been on the farm 10 minutes before he saw what he had heard so much about. A short distance from the house was a pine tree, and on this night the stones seemed to be striking the tree. Bill listened for a while. Then a stone struck the ground near to where he was standing. He looked at me and said, 'Don't you think we'd better get out of this?' I could see that Bill's idea of ghosts had changed. As we walked away from the yard he turned to me and said, 'I have never believed in ghosts. I have often heard old men tell stories about them, but I thought it was all rot. But I'm satisfied now." — A Fortnight's Mystery.— "The stones had been falling night and day for almost a fortnight. At last people were afraid to come near my farm. I, too, was beginning to fear that some one might be seriously injured by the missiles. On several nights the boys had gone out with guns and blazed away in the direction from which the stones seemed to come, but still they arrived. I was sure that the trouble was not the work of a human being. But still things were getting un safe. I said to my wife one day, 'I'll go into Mannum and tell the police trooper — his name was Gibbons, if I remember alright — and ask him to come out.' We decided that we would not tell even the children that we were going to bring the police out. I wrote to Gibbons, and on the very day that the letter was sent the stoning stopped. It happened that the police officer was absent from home for several days after the letter arrived, and he did not get it until he returned. He did not come out, but I saw him sometime later and told him all that had happened, and how the thing had ended so soon as the letter was written. Another strange thing about the affair was that during the whole of the time the stones were falling no one was hit by any of them." (Source: The Register (Adelaide, SA, Australia), 27 March 1918, Page 9
Rain Of Stones In Brunswick MELBOURNE, Sunday. - Residents of a street in the Melbourne suburb of East Brunswick were mystified by a "rain of stones" on two adjoining houses at noon yesterday and again at 10 o'clock last night. The houses were occupied by Mr. William Ariss, a furniture maker, of 155, and Miss Marjorie Nunan, secretary of the Victorian Combined Pensioners' Association of 157 Stewart Street, East Brunswick. For three or four minutes at noon on Saturday a hail of small, hard white stones about one inch in diameter fell on the roof of a work shop at the rear of Mr. Ariss' home and in the backyard of Miss Nunan's house. The geological department of the Melbourne University will examine the stones tomorrow. Several stones narrowly missed a two-year-old grand nephew of Miss Nunan as his mother was carrying him to a sleep out in the backyard. Residents gathered between 40 and 50 of the stones at the time and found more today. Earlier this year a mysterious, fall of stones was reported from W.A. Mr. Ariss said it was a "terrific shock." One minute everything was quiet and then the stones began to fall. "They made so much noise on the tin roof I could hardly hear myself speak," he said. "Miss Elaine Mayne, who lives at the rear of my place, was in the workshop talking to me at the time, and when we ran out to see what was happening we were nearly hit by stones, which were bouncing all over the place." Mr. Ariss said Mrs. Eunice Nunan, mother of the child, described the hail of stones as terrifying. "If any of those stones had hit my child they could have killed him," she said. There was a further, but smaller, fusilade of stones shortly after 10 p.m. Source: The Canberra Times (ACT, Australia), 10 June 1957, Page 3
SPOOKS THROW STONES. The people on the plantation of John W. Brooke, near Culpepper Court House have been thrown into a state of terror by phenomenal occurrences in a house on the place which was until quite recent occupied by the family of Richard Moton. Moton and his neighbors allege that hot stones have been thrown into the house through closed windows without breaking the glass, and that the furniture could not be kept in any particular place by reason of some invisible influence that caused it to move about the rooms and even to travel up and down stairs. This peculiar state of things was developed last September and has continued uninterruptedly since. The effect of sudden showers of hot stones and unexpected encounters with perambulating chairs and beds on Mrs. Moten's nervous system has been such that to save her life her husband considered it necessary to move from the neighborhood. The family came to Brandy Station and a World correspondent had an interview with the husband on the subject of the phenomena. While protraining entire disbelief in the power of disembodied spirits to return to earth and assert their presence by impish pranks, Mr. Moten is unable to account for the strange occurrences at his former home. He contends that they cannot truly be accounted for on psychological grounds, and rather inclines to a belief that they are due to mineral magnetism, but in just what manner he is at a loss to explain. Ho continued to reside in the house despite the protests of his wife in the vain hope of discovering the source of the disturbances, and his investigations were conducted in such a manner, he says, as to leave no doubt in his mind that they were brought about, not by supernatural, but by other than human sources. Here is his version of the mysterious visitations : "On returning from work one day near the end of September I was surprised to find my family huddled together outside the house, As soon as she saw me my wife cried out: 'Oh, Richard, the house is haunted! Stones have been dropping into the rooms all the afternoon." Insisting that the stones had been thrown by neighbours' children, I succeeded in quieting her fears and induced her to re-enter the house with me. "Looking around on the floor of the north room I discovered stones as large as hen's eggs lying on the floor. I picked them up and threw them out into the yard, thinking some practical joker had been trying to frighten the children. As I had cause to remain home the next day I thought I would just keep an eye open to detect the joker. About ten o'clock in the day a scream from my wife caused me to run into the kitchen, my wife lay in a faint on the floor and near her were four large stones. Picking up one of those I found it the least bit warm, and on examining; the rest I found them of the same temperature. I then sent for Mr. Brooks to come and make an examination. I showed him the stones which were scattered hero and there over the floor. Taking a chair, he sat clown to examine them. While doing so a stone that seemed as if it came through the window-glass struck Mr. Brooks on the foot. On examining this stone we found it to be hot. Mr. Brooks, thinking some one was playing a joke on us, got a gun and commenced firing at random into the cornfield to see if the mischievous person was hiding there. As the shooting availed nothing we re-entered the house to see if we would be disturbed again by the mysterious stones. After waiting for an hour or so, and as no more stones fell, Mr. Brooks left for home feeling at a loss to account for this strange mystery. " We lived in the house for five months, and during that time the stones fell frequently. On one occasion the children were hauling walnuts under a large tree. Coming into the house to answer a call of their mother, they left the walnuts under the tree until they could return. Not ten minutes after they entered the house the walnuts came flying through the open door and fell on the floor in a shower. People in the neighborhood became afraid to come near the house. The stones seamed to come through the window-glass and also through the door when standing open. How the stones came through the glass without breaking the panes is a mystery to me. My little girl once said she saw a hand against the window just as a stone came in the room. "While eating; one evening a stone fell from the coiling over the table into my coffee. After taking the stone out of the cup I drank the coffee as if nothing had happened. My family objected to it, but I was not the least bit afraid. The same evening my little boy's spelling book was swept from his hand as if some one had snatched it from him, At this moment several stones, which seemed to come through the window-glass, fell on the floor. My brother threw one of the stones in the fire, and it immediately leaped out of the fire back into the room. He tried this twice, with the same result each time. Flat-irons would fly across the room, and articles downstairs would come upstairs on a fly over the banisters. My wife grow ill and could stand this no longer, so I moved. The house is still vacant." Source: Montreal Herald (Montreal, Canada), Jan 14, 1890, page 2 20 July 2014. TEACHERS at Musita Primary School, Masakadza area in Gokwe North, Zimbabwe, have reportedly fled the school after their homes were mysteriously pelted with stones at night. The teachers, whose school is under Chief Nemangwe, abandoned classes last week after cottages were mysteriously pelted by stones that were reportedly falling like rain on their roofs. The asbestos roofs were destroyed by the mysterious rocks. Some of the teachers have reportedly sought sanctuary in nearby villages while some pupils have, as a result, stopped coming to school. The teachers started having the weird experience two weeks ago when they were awakened by a mysterious torrent of stones that cracked their asbestos roofs while the headmistress' property was destroyed after a huge stone fell into the house and destroyed the property. Musita Primary School headmistress, Mrs Mary Chinyati, confirmed the phenomenon saying the teachers' lives had turned into a living nightmare due to the intermittent showering stones. "I can confirm that the roof of my house was destroyed by mysterious showering stones that were falling from the sky. The stones fell into the house and destroyed part of my property. The first incident occurred on 6 July during the night when our houses were pelted by mysterious stones. Initially we suspected that it could be members of the local community who were bitter with some of the teachers. "We then had another mysterious shower of stones during the day. These stones continue to fall every day and we are now living in fear because we do not know where, when and how this is going to end. Source: Bulawayo News, Zimbabwe 20 July, 2014 and The Sunday News, Zimbabwe July 20, 2014 News paper article from Australia: "STONES FROM NOWHERE, A SOUTH AFRICAN MYSTERY. A parallel to a recent case in New South Wales comes front South Africa., The following is from the "Rand Daily Mail" :-- "In ghosts I have never believed. 1 won't, believe in them now if I tan help it ; but we've been through some experiences lately which are both terrifying and inexplicable; at any rate; neither the police nor my wife nor I can get at the bottom of them" . In these terms a young man, Mr. D. Neaves, residing at Roudepoort, and employed in Johannesburg as a chemist's assistant, referred to a number of mysterious happenings at his house. Mr. Neaves' house is situated about a mile north-west of Roodepoort in a somewhat lonely five-acre holding. It is a neat, red- roofed dwelling, with white outside walls, and a group of servants' out-houses lying some 20 yards away. The ground spreads in all directions to a barbed wire fencing, which encloses the entire five-acre property, and serves to protect the stocks of valuable poultry bred by the owner. One night recently Mr. Neaves, angered by the incessant crashing of stones on his roof, reported the matter to the police and a white con- stable and four natives were sent to bis house after dark. The boys were ordered to stand some five and twenty yards away, and to watch not only the house, but any movement. in their immediate vicinity. Hardly had they taken up position when stones again fell heavily on the roof. Mr. Neaves and the white constable searched around the house meanwhile, but could not discover the source of the annoyance. A little Hottentot girl was then ordered to the garden well with a bucket, the intention being to see if she would stimulate the attentions of the stone-thrower. She had barely got clear of the house when a shower of rock fell almost vertically about her—in fact dropped in the light thrown from the windows of the house, but so vertically that the original direction from which they had been hurled could not be, ascertained. Peremptory Knocking. Suddenly Mr. Neaves heard a peremptory knock, "like, a postman's knock." as he puts it, at the kitchen door. He tip toed into the kitchen, and stood there, waiting close to the door, and hoping for a repetition. "Who's there?" he demanded. Another heavy series of raps was the only response, where upon he jerked open the door. It was a swift movement. Hardly a second intervened between the knock and the opening of the door ! Nobody was there. The native constable watching the place asserted excitedly after, however, that he saw a pale blue flame travelling along edge of the roof and linger outside the door, this being followed by the knocking. Mr. Neaves, who is sceptical of the supernatural, climbed upon the roof to ascertain if there were any traces of human handiwork then! Nothing met his scrutiny, however, other than the dozens of heavy stones—relics of prolonged bombardment. He re-entered the house, therefore, and closed the doors. Suddenly the peremptory knocking was repeated at the back door. He hurried to the spot to open it, and was confronted by an excited native constable who declared that the nocking had come from within. While discussing the point loud knocking were heard at the front door. This door, however, was also being watched. The native guard concerned had heard the nocking there, he said, but had seen nobody. The man seemed to be scared, and wanted to leave the place. Sick of the business. With regard to the knocking on the front door, Mr. Neaves pointed out that he was puzzled to know how anybody could have got away without being seen, for he would have had to make his exit through a gap in the fencing guarded by a constable, who had never left it. On several occasions since, Mr. Neaves, waiting to trap some human door rapper, stood close to door and opened it swiftly when the knocking came. For all his celerity, however, he has found nobody, though his torch has flashed swiftly afterwards into every conceivable space. "I am not a superstitious man," declared he, "and I am heartily sick of this business, not having had any sleep fur a long succession of nights.' In order to ascertain whether dongas or any points of vantage had sheltered stone-throwers, Mr. Neaves has been in the habit of leaving his house at, dusk—which is when the stone-throwing usually begins, and, accompanied by his boys, of making detours to suspected spots. During his explorations, stones have fallen on his roof, and he has invariably returned without; getting any nearer a solution of the mystery." Source: Western Argus (Kalgoorlie, WA, Australia) Tuesday 2 January 1923, page 10
Mysterious Stone Throwing Two Brothers Driven from their Corn Field by Showers of Pebbles TRENTON N.J., June 21 - George Sandford aged about 25 years lives with his mother and younger brother Albert on a farm half mile north of Trenton on the plank road between Utica and Boonvllle On Monday while they wore hoeing in a corn field lying on high ground tie brothers were suddenly assailed by a fusillade of stones several of which struck Albert with sufficient force to abrade the skin There was no fence or building near, behind which a person could conceal himself and there was no one in sight The stones were between the size of a pea and a large egg. They continued to fall so furiously that the brothers were obliged to flee The stones continued to pelt them until they reached the house about fifty rods away and one stone dropped within the dwelling This occurred at about 4 P..M. At 9 A.M. on Tuesday they started out to resume their task but again the shower of pebbles set in. Then they came to Trenton and got several men to return home with them. While these persons were at the Sandford place forty or fifty stones of various sizes were seen to fall near the brothers. While Albert was taking a drink from a cup at the well a stone knocked the cup from his hands. Several stones went into the kitchen through the open door and one through an open window Crowds of people were going to the place. J. B. Watkins and E. C. Bovins, gentlemen in whose word every one here has confidence, declared that they saw the phenomenon and were utterly at a loss to discover where the stones came from. Source: The Sun (New York, N.Y.), 22 June 1884, front page
Wrecked by "Ghosts." HOUSE BOMBARDED WITH STONES AND WINDOWS BROKEN. A number of the inhabitants of Marcinelle, a suburb of Charleroi (Belgium), are about to leave the town because they believe it is infested by malignant "ghosts." The residence of the Van Zanten family has been the principal target for "ghostly" attacks, which have resulted in the partial demolition of the building and the smashing of all the windows. M. Van Zanten endured mysterious showers of stones and other missiles for several days, without being able to discover the perpetrators. He then complained to the police. Captain Vandermersch, chief of the gendarmerie, with six men, went to the house to assist in the search for "ghosts." The gendarmes were stationed in various rooms, yet the strange attacks began immediately after luncheon, in accordance with the usual custom. Showers of stones and pebbles rained against the windows, and the crash of broken glass sounded in all the rooms. Captain Vandermersch and his men were driven from one room to another by the heavy fall of debris, apparently flung from outside. They were unable to discover any person in the vicinity, and although they even climbed on the roof, there was no satisfactory explanation of the attacks. One afternoon the shower of stones continued from noon until 3.45, at two-minute intervals. M. van Zanten and his family have left the house, which is now in a semi-ruined state, with shattered walls and gaping window frames. Source: Eastern Districts Chronicle (York, Western Australia), 18 July 1913, Page 7 ; The Gundagai Independent and Pastoral, Agricultural and Mining Advocate (NSW, Australia), 11 June 1913, page 3; The Border Morning Mail and Riverina Times (Albury, NSW, Australia, 14 May 1913, page 3
ROCKS FALL 'FROM CLOUDS' Mysterious Shower of Stones Bombards Chlco, Calif., Warehouse Chlco, Calif. March 10 - (by A. P.) Showers of rocks that fell from the clouds on a warehouse here have baffled the police, neighbours and various officials und unofficial investigators. Today J. W. Charge, owner of the warehouse, posted the offer of a reward of $200 to the person revealing the source of the rocks. While the town marshal and others were examining the corrugated iron roof yesterday a shower of large smooth rocks fell, sending the investigators scurrying for cover. Others, standing on the street at the time, declared the rocks seemed to come straight from the clouds. The mysterious bombardments have occurred periodically for three weeks. Source: Evening Public Ledger (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), 10 March 1922, page 17; Great Falls Tribune (Great Falls, Montana), 11 March 1922, front page; New-York Tribune (New York, N.Y.), 11 March 1922, page 6; Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), 10 March 1922, page 3
GHOSTS AS STONE-THROWERS. Mysterious Happenings at Rectory. Spooks or mischievous boys— local opinion isl divided— caused discomfort at Ardtea Rectory (near Cookstown, County Tyrone). once the home of the Rev. Charles Woolf, who wrote the famous poem, 'The Burial of Sir John Moore.' Showers of bricks, bottles, and the like kept the present occupier, the Rev. W. E. R. Scott, and his household in a state if some liveliness. Police and special constables garrisoned the house, and did some shooting, but without winging a single spook. The Scene of the attack was the rectory yard, to the right of a three-storied structure. The missiles were flung from the roof by unseen hands. No one cared to approach that part of the grounds, and strangers were warned to keep clear of the premises. Cookstown police and a strong force of Special constabulary were on duty at the rectory day and night, and shots were fired in order, if possible, to frighten oil the intruders. The grounds at the front of the building are covered with shrubs, and there was scarcely a bush, nook, or even a blade of grass for a considerable distance around the place that had not been searched. The rector thought the bombardment was the work of mischievous boys, but many of the people said that ghosts were to blame. Source: The Register (Adelaide, SA, Australia), 13 May 1924 , page 12; The Telegraph (Brisbane, Qld., Australia), 31 May, 1824, page 15
'Phantom of the hills' pelts family, friends from on high TUCSON (AP) —The Richard A. Berkbigler family says that after they drive up to their new home in the Santa Catalina foothills they must cover their heads and make a beeline for safety before the rocks begin falling. "We're prisoners out here," says Berkbigler, a 45-year-old truck driver. "We've got five acres, and we can't even go out at night." He blames a phantom bomber who hurls anything from pebbles to fist-sized stones. After nine weeks of harassment. Berkbigler says he still cannot imagine who the attacker might be or why he has been so persistent. The family's 1963 van has at least 50 dents and two broken windows. One rock skipped off the van a few weeks ago and crashed through one of the home's expensive, double-paned windows. Last weekend, a rock smashed another of the $100 windows. Family and friends have been injured by the rocks. Pima County Sheriff's Department deputies have been attacked. Searches have been conducted, but the unseen rock-thrower disappears into the hills, washes and thick underbrush nearby. When deputies were first sent to the home in early November, the rear windshield of one patrol car was smashed. So far, Berkbigler says he has seen three patrol cars pelted by the hidden marauder. The Sheriff's Department has sent deputies to the home at least six times, and even searched the area around the house with police dogs. Sheriff's officials say they twice called in a helicopter to help hunt for the rock-thrower, but the man slid away through the shadows. As soon as the chopper left, the rock-thrower, trying to taunt the family, tapped on a bedroom window to remind everyone that he was still there. Berkbigler says. Sheriff's officials staked out the house several times, but failed to even catch a glimpse of the vandal, Sgt. Jim Thomas said Saturday. The stone-throwing began about two weeks after the family moved into the house on East Snyder Road. Berkbigler said his youngest son, 15, saw someone looking through a window. When he went to investigate, he found nothing. The rocks began landing about a week later. At first, "you could set your watch by him," Berkbigler said. Between 6:15 and 6:30' every night, the rocks would drop on and near the house. Family members have seen the man on only two occasions, probably because it is easy to disappear into the underbrush 30 feet away from the house, Berkbigler says. When Berkbigler's daughter and her husband visited recently, the flying rocks did $1,100 damage to their car, he says. "In the last three weeks, he's just rocked the hell out of us daytime, night time, whatever," say Berkbigler. The closest the Berkbiglers have gotten to the vandal was last Sunday, when friends and family arrived to pitch horseshoes and have supper. The rocks quickly began falling, and when some members of the family took shelter behind a parked van, they saw the rockthrower about 15 yards away. 'One of the family members threw a rock back at a running figure and reported striking him in the back, but the man escaped. Source: The Courier (Prescott, Arizona), December 4, 1983, page 7
[if this was done by a man, he has to be pretty close to the house and the police cars in order break the windows of the house and the car. Unseen by the deputies? No scent for the dogs? Who would dare to break the window of a police car?] |
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ALLEGED PHENOMENAL OCCURRENCES ARE THE SPIRITS PLAYING UP?: The Mudgee paper gives an account of a mysterious phenomenon in the locality. A farmer named Large, residing in the vicinity of Cooyal, has reported to the police that, for several nights, himself and family have been terrified, in consequence of stones, some weighing 1 1/2 lb. continually dropping inside the house, apparently dropping through the roof. Strange to say, these occurrences were never apparent unless the man and his were in the room. The affair has caused quite a sensation, and all who have visited the place, seeing for themselves, the police included, persist in applying what they regard as appropriate term "ghostly missives" to the huge stones, which have dropped, into the house when both, doors and windows have been secured. The effect on the poor woman, Mrs. Large, who feels that she is the victim of some awful vengeance is most alarming. At times, while the missiles are falling around her; deathly chills affect her whole system and almost prostrate her. On one evening, fearful to remain indoors, the poor woman sought a quiet spot outside the house; but, strange to say, several large stones dropped close to her, whilst one, although falling on some part of her, left no mark, in fact was hardly felt. A cold deathly chill then crept over her, and she had to be taken to the fire, but this did not restore warmth to her system. It is an easy matter to convince superstitious people that alleged occurrences are facts, but when scepties go and see and sit with the woman and her husband in the same room, and have stones dropping round about them, they are very glad to be rid of such unpleasant associations. This was the case when Mr. Parker and, others went out at the solicitation of Large recently. On another occasion a large-sized stone, which fell in the ordinary way, struck a little child on, the side of the face, 'and left no mark, nor did the child appear to take any notice of the blow, if such it can be termed. This occurred at the time Mr. Parker was sitting in the house while a number of his friends who had accompanied him were stationed. outside to see that no person was on the roof. The house is without a ceiling, so that no person can be secreted inside. It is understood that Large has determined to remove his family from the place. Source: Kilmore Free Press (Australia), March 3, 1887, page 4; Goulburn Evening Penny Post (NSW, Australia), 17 February 1887, page 2; Riverine Herald (Echuca, Vic., Australia), 17 February 1887, page 2
The following newspaper ran a very short story of the above stone shower, but also mentioned some other odd happenings in the vicinity: the movement of household items, a characteristic we also find with stone showers: More Ghostly Visitors. — Mudgee and its vicinity seem likely, if rumour is to be credited, to become a chosen playground for disembodied spirits. The appearance of the unrecognisable and inarticulate Cooyal ghost has been followed by that of a young female who became — so the story says— disembodied some twelve years ago under peculiarly distressing circumstances This interesting person is said to exhibit her self at uncertain times, among the branches of an old half-dead tree not far from the inter section of Lawson and Gladstone streets. There are said to have also been some curious phenomena witnessed in some adjacent cottages, pots and pans, earthenware and glass have been displaced, but so far as we can learn this is a careful, orderly, and decorous ghost, and never breaks anything, as it is on record that some ill-conditioned ghosts have been known to do. No one seems to quite know why this interesting female should have allowed her remains to rest quietly under the fowl house, where they are supposed to lie, for twelve years, and should have now became so violently anxious to do something startling in order to wake up the survivors to a consciousness of their duty towards her. There are, however, said to be two distinguished experts in ghosts now in Mudgee, and we may soon have the great good fortune to got their opinions on this knotty question. We hope, at least they will take the Lawson-street ghost in hand, and at least induce the young female to discontinue her present present practice of taking the air in a tree — most indecorous even for a disembodied female. Source: Bathurst Free Press and Mining Journal (NSW, Australia), 15 March 1887, page 3
On March 18, stone were still falling: The mysterious stone falling at Largo's farm near Cooyal is still going on. Yesterday a report came into town that no less than twenty-four stones dropped on the premises. The parents wore away from home, and the children made off to the house of a neighbour, named M'Cann, and informed him of the occurrence. He at once proceeded to Large's farm. He reports the above having taken place. Hundreds of people have visited this place, and affirm that the stones have come, but the mystery as to where they come from remains unsolved .—Evening News. Source: The Richmond River Herald and Northern Districts Advertiser (NSW, Australia), 18 March 1887, page 4
On June 11, we get some more detailed information from an investigator: [the first part is the same as has been appearing in the newspapers for the last month, so i left it out] ...We understand that Largo has determined to remove his family from the place. Concerning these very singular manifestations, the " Harbinger of Light," Melbourne, says:- Just as we were going to press, we received from Mr. Gollatley, of Mudgee, a report from personal investigation of the manifestations at Mr. Large's house, Cooyal, the writer says: 'On receipt of your letter, I made up my mind to pay to visit to Cooyal and see for myself. I found on my arrival at Large's house I had travelled 24 miles over a portion of the worst roads. I got bogged twice and with much difficulty succeeded in extricating self and wife, horse and buggy, to have the same misfortune repeated in half an hour after, and were it not for the kind help of a Miss Blackman, who volunteered her services, I must confess I, at the request of Mrs. G., would have returned home, I had to leave the buggy and horse at the foot of a very steep range, up which there is no road or bridle track; the only mode of ascent is up the worn watercourses for about one mile. When we arrived at the top of the range, I could see that the Large's were located about a quarter of a mile down in a glen like locality, This clearing is surrounded by very romantic looking hills, all sand stone piled one on the other for hundreds of foot in height, On arriving at the house, I found Mrs. Large and all the young Largos at home, I at once entered upon the object of my business, Mrs., L, did not seem in any way disconcerted, but commenced at once to give a full description of the manifestations from beginning to end, The stones ceased falling for the last five days, She is the mother of fifteen children She is rather under middle size. She has a beautifully formed head, classical in shape, and a well shaped body; her intellect to all appearance clear, her descriptive powers very good and quite natural, She is totally without education-so is her husband. I was told by the young lady that pilloted me there, that this person down to her youngest child can curse and swear to perfection. I was not in any way edified in that way, In my opinion, those people live very close to nature; I judged so by the appearance of home home surroundings, and I thought or hoped that our system of public instruction may in time work some change for their welfare, and also for the benefit of the locality at large., When the stone throwing commenced about 5 pm. on the Saturday evening, she thought it was her sons that were having a joke with her; she went out to remonstrate with them, but both sons denied throwing the stones, She saw at the time her husband coming towards tie house with a pack horse. She said he had flour packed to make broad for the family. The horse was not inclined to go near the house, so one of the sons undid the pack of flour when he horse swerved round and bolted with the bridle still on. The husband remarked to her he never knew thet horse to cut such a caper before. The sons could not got the horse to approach after. She said the stones did not have the appearance of stones thrown by men or boys. They seemed to float sometimes obliquely, other times horizontally, and when they fall vertically they fall with a thud, the same as if some soft thing, such as wet clay, would do. All who saw the stones floating verified her statement that the stones looked white, but when they fell on the floor they turned black. On examination the stones presented the usual appearance of those in the gully. She also said that one evening she was under the impression that the house was about being crushed in from some ponderous weight that was resting on its roof. The walls swayed from side to side, there was a rumbling noise overhead; she saw some black object come through one angle of the house and go right through the opposite angle; this was verified by the young lady, Miss B., who accompanied us, and was present at the recital. The children left the house one day and called on a neighbouring farmer. They told him their mother was away all the morning at their uncle's, about two miles distant. The farmer told me this part about the children - he went to the house with them and found that the floor was literally covered with stones, and they were then falling right through the bark roof and a temporary ceiling of flooring boards laid on the rafters. There must be mediumship amongst the children, as well as the mother. I have been assured that all the lying yarns circulated in the Cooyal and Mudgee district are voluntary statements of people that would not go near "Large's" house. Source: Maryborough Chronicle, Wide Bay and Burnett Advertiser (Qld., Australia), 25 March 1887, page 3 ....................... The above event happened in the vicinity of Cooyal, which is in the Mudgee-Gulgong district of New South Wales, at the east coast of Australia. About 34 years later there was another stone shower event 265 miles to the northeast, at Guyra, a town situated midway between Armidale and Glen Innes. The Guyra stone showers were well publicized. The phenomenon started on Monday the 4th of April 1921.
GUYRA MYSTERY GLEN INNES, Saturday.— The Guyra community has been
greatly perplexed by strange happenings at the residence of William
Bower, a ganger in the employ of the Guyra Shire. The house referred to
is a four-roomed weatherboard cottage, in a rather isolated locality
about half a mile east of the railway station. The family includes the
father, mother and three children, one a girl about 12. On the 13th newspapers published some more information: MYSTERIOUS NOISES STONE THROWING AND RAPPINGS EXCIREMENT IN NSW TOWNSHIP The following is from our Sidney correspondent:.— The following is from our Sydney correspondent. A message from Glen Innes states that the township of Guyra remains in a state of ferment of excitement over extremely mystifying occurrences of the past ten days. All efforts to solve an affair of stone throwing have proved unhvailing. As many as 80 people surrounded the house at night and closed on it when stone throwing and knocking began and yet they have neither found nor seen anything strange. The occurrences are beginning to get on the residents' nerves. On Thursday night a girl was removed from the house and over 70 people surrounded it. It was a wet night. A section of the people were noisy. No stones were thrown and no sounds were heard. During the morning, however, a queer incident caused those concerned considerable worry. A party motorists had visited the locality out of curiosity. As they neared the house a large stone suddenly struck a tree nearby. On examination it was found to be marked with with a red cross. This was the first daylight attack that bad been made. A search resulted in nothing. On Friday the girl was brought back, and soon after a stone passed through a bedroom window landed on the bed. Other customary happenings occurred on the same night, but Saturday night proved an absolute blank. On Monday evening a crowd of people formed a human fence round the house. No stone throwing was heard, but rappings on the wall lasted for a considerable time. It is understood that new tactics are to be adopted during the present week, when the people hope that the whole business will be cleaned op. The theory advanced is that many stones lying about the house have in some way developed, an explosive character. It is strange, however, that the explosions should largely occur at night. Three men stationed outside the girl's bedroom declare they heard blows on the wall. Daily Herald (Adelaide, SA, Australia), 13 April 1921, page 4; The Newcastle Sun (NSW, Australia), 12 April 1921, page 5 and other newspapers The a spiritualist came in who declared that the phenomenon was caused by the spirit of the girls' dead sister. "tell mother that I am in heaven, and I am quite happy." [why does she need to throw stones for then?] The Armidale Express and New England General Advertiser (NSW, Australia), 15 April 1921, page 4 A couple of days later a new story went around the newspapers, in which it was mentioned that the house to a neighboring house also was the subject of stone throwing. Also, "Two of the shutters on the front windows had been roughly wrenched off." This is reminiscent of the Lithobolia case where a fence was wrung of the hinges. The boot tracks, in my opinion, don't mean anything, as the house was the center of curious visitors. MYSTERY ON MYSTERY Guyra-Ghost Continues. MORE STONE THROWING. SYDNEY POLICE TO RESCUE. The "House of Mystery" as many people now term it, at Guyra, has been the scene of further strange happenings. It will be remembered that on Wednesday last week the whole mysterious business developed a very extraordinary phase, when a spiritualist named Ben Davies, from Uralla, is said to have successfully used the little girl who has played such a prominent part throughout, as a medium. As a result, a spirit message from her dead sister, May, was conveyed to her mother. This remarkable development made a great and pathetic impression on other members of the family, especially as all the events connected with the reception of the message seemed so natural, and free from any suspicion of fraud. The little girl has stoutly resisted all attempts to shake her testimony. She was in one in stance virtually, subjected to the third degree. In fact, the examination was so severe as to leave, her almost nervously prostrated, and yet she would not deny that she heard a voice from another world, arid the voice she heard was her dead sister's. She says that the message came practically in a whisper, but she is absolutely certain that she did hear it, and the voice was unquestionably that of her sister. AN ORDINARY GIRL. The girl is anything but intellectually advanced, or precocious for her years. In fact, she is just an ordinary little bush child, without any sign of a perfervid imagination, and there seems no reason to believe she was prompted, beyond the suggestion that she should answer the knocking. Then it was only with difficulty that her acquiescence was secured. She is rather a timid retiring girl, with wonderfully luminous and unfathomable eyes. That this story of spiritualism was the final solution of a complex problem has however been rudely dispelled by what has occurred since. Now that the uneasy spirit of the dead girl has been satisfied, so ran the theory there would be no more uncanny noises unless there was a further message to be sent. If there has been a further message there has been a very material way of drawing attention to it! The Thursday night was a complete blank. Friday morning witnessed what was most certainly a mystifying, though, at the same time anything but a ghostly, manifestation. NEW SCENE OF ACTION. About 10 a.m. all members of the Bowen and Hodder households, which now jointly occupy the former's cottage for mutual self-preservation, left to visit Hodder's house, some distance away. It was in consequence of the windows being all smashed in this house that the family took up its abode with the Bowens. At about one o'clock the two families returned, and found that in their absence the house, which had been left securely locked up, and, with all windows shuttered, had been tampered with. Two of the shutters on the front windows had been roughly wrenched off, and more panes of glass broken, Stones in each room, among the wreckage, showed the, means used, Apparently no attempt had been made to enter the house, and no apparent benefit had been obtained by the mysterious visitor; beyond heightening the mystery. A thorough search of the neighborhood revealed nothing. It was impossible to locate any tracks round the house owing to so many people having walked about during the past couple of weeks. But Hodder discovered the bootmarks of a man leaving the house in a north-easterly direction. In the earlier stages of the mystery, Hodder found similar boot tracks leading from right under one of the bedroom windows to the road, and from there to the residence of Melnnes, which has also been the subject of nocturnal stone-throwing attacks. YET ANOTHER ACT. Nothing further occurred that day or at night. Saturday night, however, saw yet another queer happening. No untoward event marked the hours of daylight, nor did anything occur till after nine O'clock that night. It was a bright moonlight night, and the guard had decided to go home. Not ten minutes later, the little girl heard a strange shuffling noise, either at the back window or the back door. Thinking it was one of the guards back again, the girl called out, "Very well," and unlatched and opened the door. At once a stone was thrown, and struck with great force the side of the door, not two feet from the little girl. The household was speedily aroused, but not a sign of the prowler could be found. Retirement to the house had no sooner been effected, however, than the loud crash of another stone was heard at the opposite side of the house where, the little girl in the meantime had gone with other members of her family. There was another hurried exit and complete search, but again wholly negative result. The nocturnal intruder had seemingly disappeared into thin air. 'Search however revealed two stones neither of which could have been thrown without mechanical contrivance from a greater distance than 20 or 30 yards, and there was no cover worth speaking of within a distance of fully fifty yards. There is no doubting the fact that the stones were thrown, as the noise of the contact was entirely different from that of the knocks of 'thuds that generally furnish the chief cause for excitement. The rest of the night passed without further incident. MORE THEORIES. Many theories and alleged motives for the mysterious attacks on Mr. Bowen's house are living around Guyra. A lot of people think someone is anxious to dispossess Bower' of his lhouse, though he only rents it, while others think, the attacks centre on the little girl for indirect reasons. The spirit theory finds favor with an astonishing number, while others think the whole thing is due to some cranky person desirous of creating a scare. Mr. Cox, the owner of the house, says the affair is a visitation from the Almighty and he goes to wonderful lengths, by means of the theory of letters and figures to prove it. One of the most remarkable earlier features of'the mystery was the fact that one night, Mrs. Bowen's attention was drawn to one of the rooms by a draught, and on entering the apartment she found the window had been raised. It fell with a bang as. she entered, but a hurried rush outside revealed no one. Foot prints were, however, found under the window, outside, in the morning. Another night an unusual noise at one of the bedroom windows attracted attention, and an examination showed that pretty well all the putty had been removed from one of the panes. Whoever was responsible had decamped. A VICARAGES SCARE. There is doubtless no analog between the two, as a similar window-lifting incident occurred at the Vicarage at Guy- the window which she had previously prised open but there was no sign of an intruder.| On Monday morning a new scheme was ra one night last week, Mrs. Best found tried. Constable Stennett, who arrived the night before, remained in the house, while the whole of the two families went away. The constable kept a very keen watch, and about 11 o'clock he saw a man outside. Constable Stennet refrained from immediately rushing, out to apprehend the stranger, in the hope that he would give some evidence that he was connected with the mysterious occurrences. A couple of minutes passed and nothing happened. So the constable went out to interview the prowler. But no one was to be seen, and, though a diligent search was made of the surrounding country, no trace was found of the man whom Constable Stennett had seen through the window. At night there was the usual vigilant crowd, including members of the police force. Five or six knocks were heard, and again nothing was discovered to reveal their origin. Source: Daily Examiner (Grafton, NSW, Australia), 22 April 1921, page 2 Then the story went around that the little girl, Minnie, 12 years old, had confessed to the Superintend of Police that she caused the rappings on three occasions and the threw three little stones, but was not responsible of any of the other happenings. I wonder if she was made to confess, as the police still could not find any solution to the case. A lot of people took that at the solution to the mystery. On May 11, newspapers reported that Minnie was now at her grandmother's house, and that the stone throwing was now happening over there:GUYRA STONE-THROWER SHIFTS QUARTERS. OPERATIONS AT GLEN INNES. GLEN INNES, Tuesday. Tho Guyra ghost has removed his ' venue from Mr. Bowen's house to that of Minnie's grandmother (Mrs. Shelton), who resides in Church-street, Glen Innes. The occupants of the house comprise Mrs. Shelton, her son (Alf. Shelton), Minnie Shelton, and a baby. Shortly after tea last night noises were heard like stones bumping on walls. The neighbours made inquiries, and the police were sent for. Constable Stewart was sent along to investigate, and while he and several others who had arrived were walking round the house a stone hit the window of Alf Shelton's bedroom, breaking a pane of glass and becoming entangled in the curtain. This stone was of ordinary white metal, and was similar to many others on the footpath in front of the house. Though constable kept a close watch, with Minnie inside the house, and while there heard four or five distinct sounds resembling knocks against iron at a distance, but he was not sure whether they emanated from inside or outside. He came to the conclusion that the girl was responsible, and declined to stay any length of time. After his departure the inmates of the house and the neighbours outside were emphatic in their statements that they heard many noises up till midnight as of stones hitting the walls or the roof. One neighbour, named Mr. Marden, says the noises were like the sounds caused by an axe being struck heavily against the wall. The occupants of the nearest house to Sheltons, named McKillop, a few yards distant, distinctly heard the noises and became greatly concerned." They are threatening to leave the premises if the mysterious noises continue. The girl, Minnie Bowen, was brought up from Guyra to Glen Innes about ten days ago, and last night was the first occasion when any untoward sounds were heard by the occupants of the house. Source: The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW, Australia), 11 May 1921, page 11
Guyra's "Ghost.' STARTS OPERATIONS IN GLEN INNES. Glen Innes, Thursday. The Guyra ghost seems to have shifted headquarters to Glen Innes, following on the removal of the girl, Minnie Bowen, from Guyra to relatives here. Though the girl has. been here over a week there were no manifestations of "supernatural interest in her movements until Monday night last, when the first sign of anything amiss came with a shower of gravel on the roof. This was quickly followed by stones of varying sizes and loud knocks on the walls. A good many people were at once attracted to the residence, but no one was detected who could in any way be connected with the mysterious affair. Further stone-throwing occurred early in Tuesday night, when the police were present in strong force. There were also strange noises at intervals, which, were credited, rightly or wrongly, by most to inmates of the house. In fact a well-known farmer, who was having tea in the house when the loud noises on the wall occurred, insisted that he had seen the girl hit the wall with her elbows .This was, however, stoutly denied by the girl, whose relatives bore out the denial. The stone throwing ceased early in the night. Last night a large body of residents gathered round the house, but were promptly sent home by the police. All the customary happenings, which have made Guyra so famous, were again in evidence, though only a few stones were thrown—about 9.30. The thrower was not detected. The police incline to the theory of hoodlums, and though there are plenty willing to believe in a supernatural origin of the trouble, the "spook" belief has many doubters here. Source: The Armidale Express and New England General Advertiser (NSW, Australia), 13 May 1921, page 4 Then the story seems to have died out. Mysterious stones fall from sky Statesman News Service Wed, 10 Jun 2009 02:15 UTC Dhenkanal, India: Mr Anil Hota of Ichchbatipur, under Baruna gram panchayat, in Kamakshanagar subdivision, was carrying a palm leaf sheet over his head, while moving around in the village today. Scorching heat, is not the only reason for such protective measures adopted by Mr Anil and other villagers, as all of them resort to leaf sheets or umbrellas, at the dead of the night, these days too. Much to the disbelief of the outsiders, the villagers of Ichchbatipur claim that, for last few days they have been witnessing bizarre and mysterious incidents like dropping of stone pieces and splinters from above and other directions. Hence, it was no surprise that at the Pandua outpost and Kamakshanagar police station police officers, were taken aback yesterday when the villagers came in large numbers and narrated the "disturbance" in the village, which is taking place from Saturday night, while requesting them to take "necessary action". The police, however, were helpless too and could do nothing except visiting the village and starting an inquiry. Saturday night was as like any other night for Mr Hemant Mohapatra. But at about 12, his slumber was disturbed by a strange sound. He woke up and realized that stone pieces were falling on his roof. Though, he immediately could not figure out what exactly had happened or who was doing it, he saw similar "attack" on the verandah and roof of many neighbours. They too could not understand what was happening and with utter disbelief, fear and confusion, all started searching for any clue, but in vain. Mr Srikant Hota, a fellow villager informed the curious and confused neighbours that one big stone had fallen from above injuring him. He showed the injuries marks on his body. As the news spread in the morning, thousands of people from nearby areas rushed to the village. Though the whole incident is still wrapped in mystery, the villagers preferred to remain indoors. "We searched extensively for the origin of the stones, but found no answer for the mystery," said Mr Hemant Mohapatra, who has sustained injuries. Many villagers feel that it is a supernatural phenomenon, while some maintain that this was the handwork of a sorcerer. Kamakshanagar MLA, Mr Prafulla Mallick, visited the village and discussed with the residents yesterday. Meanwhile, the villagers are getting ready to offer mass prayer before Lord Hanuman, seeking divine intervention to ward off the evil power. Source: Scott, Signs of the Times, June 10, 2009 The following report is interesting because the people the stone showers were also associated with mysterious fires. (in India)
Villagers in Madhya Pradesh face mysterious enemy By Rohit Ghosh, Ratria (Madhya Pradesh) Mar 21 People of a village in Madhya Pradesh are facing hostility from an unseen and a mysterious enemy. The people of Ratria village in Neemuch, a district in western Madhya Pradesh, for the last one week have been coping up with unexplained fires and stone pelting. And they do not know who is behind them. Not only the villagers, even the district administration and the police have till now failed to provide any solace to the villagers. The villagers feel that if their problem is not solved soon, they may soon face shortage of water. "Our wells have started drying up fighting the fires," said a villager. Ratria is a village around 20 km from the district headquarters of Neemuch, with a population of 1,000 people. Most of the villagers are farmers. It all started a week back when a fire suddenly broke out in the village. The villagers did not find anything unusual in the fire. Assuming that the fire resulted from the stub of a cigarette, short-circuit or a matchstick, they doused it. But to the horror of the villagers, breaking out of fires soon became very common. "Fire breaks out anywhere in the village and at anytime of the day," said Sardar Singh Gurjar, the headman of Ratria village. "We draw water from the wells of the village to douse the fire. The wells have started drying up. Major fires have broken out in the villages 11 times in a span of few days," said Gurjar. But the villagers of Ratria do not have to have to cope with fire only. "Stone pelting is another problem," said Gurjar. According to the villagers, they suddenly have to face shower of stones. "Many people have been injured in the stone pelting till now," said the chief of Ratria. "I was going to my fields in a usual manner a couple of days back when suddenly the stones started hitting me from all directions. I ran for cover," said Ram Deo, a farmer of the village. "I thought that it was a mischief. But the same thing happened on the following day also," he said. The harassed villagers informed Neemuch Police about the matter. Taking the incidents seriously, district police chief Yogesh Deshmukh visited the village. But much to the surprise of Deshmukh, he and his men also came under the shower of stones and had to scamper for saving themselves. Once the "rain of stones" subsided, Deshmukh sent his men to all directions of the village. He was suspecting the hand of some mischievous person. But all his men returned empty handed. "We have deployed policemen in plainclothes in the village. Secondly we have decided to take scientists to the village to allay the fears of the villagers. We have also deployed cameramen on rooftops," said additional superintendent of police N P Varkade, while talking to IANS. "We believe it's a mischief," he said. Source: Scott, Signs of the Times, March 21, 2004
Again a combination with mysterious fires: Mysterious fire and stones terrorise family Date:10 December 2012 - By: Kaizer Nengovhela A family from Makhura village near Vleifontein is being tormented by mysterious fires and stones that rain down unexpectedly on their house. Limpopo Mirror visited the family last week, shortly after a fire destroyed a bed, chairs and books. The family members also complained that window panes were smashed by stones. The owner of the house, Mr Samuel Makhura, explained what had happened during the latest incident. According to him, he was resting on his sofa with his wife, still trying to figure out what could be turning his life upside down, when he became aware of the smell of smoke. On inspecting where the fire had emanated from, he was surprised to see smoke billowing out from one of the rooms. "When we went to that room, we found that the clothes and bed in my son's room were on fire," he said. "My wife managed to control the fire with water from a tap," said Makhura. “I could not believe my eyes when a stone came flying from my sitting room and smashed a window pane. Since then, other stones and invisible objects keep on smashing my windows and the damage keeps on increasing on a daily basis. The fire started again last Saturday afternoon in the same room and then again on Sunday afternoon. The fire was extinguished with the help of the neighbours, who were also keeping a watch over the house," he said. The family members now fear that a spell had been cast on the house, which is making their lives difficult. At the time of going to press, seven windows had already been damaged. The close family members were offering their moral support, but their spirits were down as everyone seemed to be depressed by the events. "I have lost valuable property and I am afraid I won't be able to replace it with my small grant," said Makhura, who has been sleeping under a nearby tree with his wife since the fires started. “I do not know why this happening. I do not know who is behind this and I also do not know if I owe anybody anything. I have had enough of these fires, and our lives as a family have been turned upside down,” said Makhura. He said religious leaders from different churches had visited them, but there has not been any change as the fire continues to wreak havoc. “We have sleepless nights here. How can one sleep when one does not know when the next fire will break out? Life is really bad here,” he said. A community member, Ms Tshifhiwa Rambau, said that community structures were discussing the issue and several people had visited the family to pray for them. Rambau said that the family also need counselling as they were going through a tough and difficult time. "We appeal to anyone who can assist the family to come forward before the whole house is destroyed," she said. The police spokesperson for the Makhado SAPS, Capt Maano Sadiki, confirmed that the fire and damage caused by the stones had been reported to them. Sadiki said that they would send their experts to investigate. Source: Limpopo Mirror (South Africa), December 10, 2012 |
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The following are reports from sources other than newspaper articles.
Houses mysteriously pelted by stones Residents of Garikai suburb in Bindura [Bindura is a town in the province of Mashonaland Central, Zimbabwe, Africa.] have been rocked by a bizarre occurrence in which stones are thrown at their houses from mysterious sources. The Dzuda family home at number 1684 is at the centre of the drama with residents saying the family has been tortured for over a month by falling rubbles, quarry stones and even donkey dung coming from all directions. When the ZBC News arrived at the scene, the most affected family had travelled but neighbours confirmed the strange happenings. It is believed that members from some apostolic sect failed to exorcise the spirit. Of concern is that the stones are only targeting houses and not humans. Neighbours have not been spared and some were afraid to share their experiences because it is believed anyone who expresses disgruntlement is attacked with stones by the mysterious forces. This news crew spent some time trying to catch a glimpse of the stone shower, but nothing was seen. Only a large amount of pebbles, rubbles and bricks on the roof top are signs of the unfolding story and it remains to be unpacked where this said mystery emanates from. Source: Bulawayo24 News, 17 Oct 2018
Village in Romania, haunted by the undead, stones were thrown to a police car. Testimonies of Terrorized People. The locals of Sohatu commune (Calarasi County) are terrified. People say that for more than a week, they can't sleep because of the undead. They turned to the authorities, the mayor and the local policemen, but nobody can do anything. Evening after evening, after 22 o'clock until morning, invisible spirits throw stones to their homes. You get bored. Being afraid to stay in their houses, people go out with the children on the street. "It starts at 11.30 at night and it goes on to 4 am." This person said that stones were thrown all night, and he called the police. When the police arrived, they got stones thrown at them. At 11.30 they heard the stones and the stones coming in. I do not know what to suspect; I thought they were children", people complained to Romania TV . "We are away for seven days and we do not see anything. When we are here, it the stones start falling again. We look at the side where they come from and we ca't see anything. We all stay up until 3 am and we see nothing They just keep on throwing at us. There are a few houses that got stones thrown at them, and two police officers came, and stones were also thrown at them. The stones did not hit us, they only hit the houses, "a local man said, who ran in the direction of where the stones came from but saw nothing. People are being scared and I think a bad spirit troubles their nights, since they have not ceased even when the police arrive." I called the Police and they came with a gun, with a flashlight, and they did not see anything." The priest said that it means that something is haunting us. The police goes looking for the source and they don't not see anyone. When the stones are seen falling, the police run into the direction they came from, they removed even the crate but found nothing. People are afraid. We all prayed last night. The police finally gave up. Source: Romania TV, August 04, 2018
In this story the falling stones are also related to object moving by themselves. Stones falling inside and outside the house, and seemingly connected to a particular person, but other people are affected as well. Bikita family pelted by mysterious stones as father confesses to killing daughter BIKITA – A haunted family from Murahwa
village under Chief Mkanganwi is living in constant fear with mysterious
stones reportedly hitting them whenever they set their foot outside. Source: TellZim News, Zimbabwe, February 03, 2018
The following story is not limited to just falling stones. There are other phenomena, like loud noises, clothes found outside. Interestingly, sometimes the stones penetrate walls and even metal sheets without leaving a mark. Mysterious stones rain on Chinhoyi family A Chinhoyi family is living in fear and anguish as mysterious stones from invisible sources rain on them inflicting injuries and damaging property. Initially, the stones targeted family members and started at 20.08 hours every night but the attacks are now frequent. The audible claps and pinching often result in people fainting for up to three hours. The Herald visited House No. 4146A, Chikonohono suburb in Chinhoyi where these mysterious happenings have been witnessed. Heaps of stones including half bricks, broken window panes and asbestos sheets are strewn around the house. Mrs Tabitha Chiviru narrated the family’s ordeal, which started on May 9 this year.Her 22-year-old daughter, Concilia, was the first victim after she was hit by small stones on two occasions. The stones got bigger with time. The family now has two sacks of stones whose source is a mystery. “Because of the frequency of the attacks I have come to understand that some wind often precedes the attacks. Currently, the attacks are mostly targeted at my 19-year-old daughter,” said Mrs Chiviru. Prior to the attacks, the family would find a bag full of clothes on their yard. The last born, Shamiso (19), is attacked more frequently and loses consciousness when ever it happens. In some instances she reveals the identity of the family’s tormentors in a trance. The father, Mr Phillip Chiviru (55), has also been at the receiving end of the attacks which have seen him seeking help from apostolic sect prophets but to no avail. “I do not know what wrong I have done to deserve such pain and mysterious occurrences in my family. We would like to appeal for anyone who can help but from the manifestations of my daughter and previous experiences, this will need someone strong,” he said. In a bid to avoid the attacks on her daughter, Mr Chiviru tried to create a buffer around her one day using 3,6 inch metal sheets. That did not help as two stones managed to penetrate the main roof and the metal sheet giving off a thunderous sound. “I thought I could protect my daughter in the hope that when the stones penetrate the roof they would land on the metal sheet and avoid her. However, two stones hit her and she fainted and when I looked at the sheet, there were two footprints, the size of my small finger,” he said. Doors, windows and walls are pounded like someone is knocking with strong force. Some window panes have been broken, while doors have been loosened from their hinges. Strangely stones penetrate the walls, roof and windows, sometimes without living a mark. Neighbours confirmed hearing strange noises like someone is banging doors.At times clothes are mysteriously found outside.“The occurrences at this house are quite strange. People are being attacked by stones which has resulted in us fearing to visit the house,” said a neighbour. At one time, the family called apostolic faith prophets who performed rituals to cleanse the house. However, a clay pot they had buried in the ground was found at the doorstep the following morning. When they surveyed the yard, they found a large hole the size of the clay pot. At times when the family prepares a meal, it is filled with human waste. Shamiso is always escorted by her family even to visit the toilet as she is attacked whenever she is alone.“We ensure that she is not alone at any given time because any moment she is left alone, she is attacked. When it happens something forceful like a snake moves inside her stomach almost as if to squeeze her heart and lungs. So we move quickly to block it. It is a real battle,” said Concilia, a sister to Shamiso. Mrs Chiviru said she believes in prayers, which have helped calm the situation. Some elders from a local church went to the house to offer prayers but left in a huff after they were hit by stones. Shamiso could not finish her education because of the attacks. The Herald, Zimbabwe, July 8, 2017
This place is getting rid of stones, full village in panic Everyone has heard that snow falls or it rains from the sky, but have you ever heard of a rain of stones? It sounds really strange to hear you say this but it is true. In the Mandla district of MP, the stones are raining from the sky in Phulasagar village. Roof and cloths have been damaged due to heavy stone rains. In Darshal, Thakur Mohalla of Phulasagar village of Mandla district, a strange incident has occurred in the last 24 hours, due to which the whole village is in panic. Stones are falling behind people even on the streets, but these stones do not fall on any villager. From the last 24 hours, rocks have left the houses in rural panic. The villagers claim that in their village it suddenly began to rain large stones on the roof of the houses, causing damage to the roof tiles and to cloths. Initially it was thought that a mischievous person was doing this. After that the villagers ruffled the whole village, but there was no stone thrower found. The villagers have now started to understand it as a divine outbreak. Now the villagers have gathered in prayer. The village's panda is praying to stop stone rains from the deities. He says that he has seen such a phenomenon for the first time in his life. He hopes that the divine outbreaks will be removed by prayer. The women and men of the village are all living in panic. The scared villagers have stopped eating and drinking. Fearlessly, the entire village has come out of its homes on the streets. The Deputy Speaker of the District Panchayat also came out to see the event. They say that they do not believe in superstitions, so as soon as the incident came to light, they themselves came to the village. During the conversation with the villagers in the village, when suddenly huge stones appeared in front of their eyes, and hit their eyes. Source: www.sanjeevnitoday.com. June 27, 2017
A story submitted by a reader of the website Ghost Theory: Written by Scott S who went out fishing near his house, with two friends in 1975. On the last day of July 1975 my brother, a friend, and myself were witness to an event that I have failed to explain to this day. I was 12 years old, my brother was 10, and our friend was 11 years old. We lived in the small Northern California town of Willows. Willows is a small sleepy little farming community, most area farmers grew rice or safflower. A mile or so northeast of town was an old gravel mining area where abandoned gravel pits filled with ground water to create a small group of very natural looking but man made fishing ponds that the community used for recreational bass, panfish, and catfishing. My friends and family were no exceptions; we fished there on a weekly basis. So on this particular day my brother, our friend, and I gathered up our fishing gear and walked out to the ponds. The road to the ponds from town is typical of the area roadways, a slightly elevated two lane blacktop road which was straight and clear, it cut a path through wide open low lying farmland with open views in every direction, only a few farm homes were scattered through the area, and only a few small willow trees dotted the roadside, for the most part it was wide open space. The road had very little traffic on it; we found it quite safe to walk shoulder to shoulder right down the centerline all the way to the ponds. It was a clear cloudless summer sky and about mid day, we had arrived at our favorite fishing spot, a place right off the road we arrived on where it intersected a gravel road that cut across two of the ponds. We were all fishing facing East about 10 feet apart and watching our lines, there was no apparent wind or other disturbances, just a typical beautiful summer day by the water. Suddenly there was a loud splash out in front of us! Something had entered the water about 15 feet out in front of us, it must have to have been pretty large based on the splash it made, maybe 4-6 inches in diameter. We were startled and looked at each other thinking that one of us was goofing off and had tossed in a large rock in the water (major taboo while fishing!). After some blame tossing and head scratching we shrugged it off and kept fishing (with no luck BTW). A few minutes later….Another big splash, similar to the last one but further out, none of us were strong enough to heave a large rock that far, and we were now on high alert watching each other…..None of us did it! Now getting a little nervous, we started looking around for the culprits, none were found, we were absolutely alone out there with plenty of visible open farm land around us, we could see anything and everything within a half mile of us, there were no cars around, no machinery, no people, not even any animals, just low growing crops in flat farm land in every direction. There was no way any other person could have tossed those rocks! Suddenly more rocks fell; we stopped counting after a half dozen or so. All landed near to us, some on land, some in water, and variable in size from thumbnail to grapefruit sized. We picked up a couple rocks that fell near us to check them out, there was nothing unusual about them, they looked like normal rocks you’d find on the ground in the area. At this point we were downright scared; we picked up our fishing gear and started walking back down the road we arrived on. We walked right down the center of the road as before, not a single car came by on the way out or they way back. There were no noises or any other thing else out of the ordinary. As we walked down the road more rocks fell, mostly small ones about the size of a quarter, again, none hit us but fell close by, sometimes at our feet. When they hit the ground they bounced up as if they fell from quite a ways up. The rocks continued falling all the way back to town, just as we entered town the last one fell, it was a large one, a fist sized one that while falling smashed right into my fishing pole which was extended out in front of me as I walked breaking it in half! When we arrived home our father was there and we were pretty freaked out, he sort of smiled when we told our story and it was pretty obvious he didn’t believe it. My father was a mechanic and had lived and farmed in the area most of his life, you could say he’d pretty much seen it all in that area. He’s a very grounded person (as I am) and he just figured someone was messing with his kids and he was going to see exactly who it was. He owned an old Hot Rodded 57 Chevy step side pick up, it was faded black with a few rust colored primer spots. It wasn’t all that nice but it was his “baby”, he told us to get into the back and we’d take a ride out to the gravel pits to see what was going on. The ride out was uneventful except for our chatter about what we would discover, deep down inside I knew what had happened didn’t have a good explanation but I was hoping dad could figure it out. When we arrived at the gravel pits we all bailed out and looked around. It was calm and peaceful with no more rocks or anything else unusual, dad shrugged it off and said that he didn’t see anything or anyone around that could explain things so we loaded back up and headed back to town. Just as we started heading back a rock fell in the bed of the truck! Then a little ways further (doing 30-40mph) another rock hit the cab! Dad heard it and stopped the truck, he was mad because he thought someone threw a rock at his truck (the cab had a small dent where it hit). Again, nothing was seen or heard in any direction. We then headed back to town with no further rocks falling on us. That is the conclusion of my story.
Only 30 miles away, in the town of Chico, another stone shower happened in 1922. You can find a newspaper article about this one in the above chapter. This appeared in The Theosophist magazine: Stone Showers. Following is an interesting letter which we translate from the French "Revue Spirite," of March last. It is addressed to that journal by M.A. J. Riko, of the Hague, Holland, a well-known gentleman of great education, whose name is familiar to many people in London and Paris. M. Riko is an esteemed correspondent of ours, and we believe his personal experience in various phenomena has been great. —En. Theos. The stone shower is a remarkable phenomenon which takes place at uncertain intervals in every country, and under every climate. It is frequent in the East. An official Report coming, from Dutch East Indies, and dated 1831, states that one Van Kessinger, then residing at Reanger, had in his own house, situated in Sumadon a veritable rain of stones throughout a period of sixteen days. The Governor-General ad interim, M. J. C. Baud, ordered all inquest, and a report was made to which, among other signatures, was appended that of Major-General W. Michiels, (then Lieutenant-Colonel), a man of a positive mind, known for his stern probity, and who would never allow himself to be duped. Remaining shut up in a room, near a little girl who seemed to attract the stones, this man recorded their continuous falling near the child whom they never even grazed. His verbatim report will be found further on. From most reliable information this is what happened. Belief in phenomena produced by spirits is widely spread in the Malay Archipelago, and the natives call them Gendarola. In the house of a gentleman named Van Kessinger lived a child, the cook's daughter, who kept constantly near her father. On February, the 3rd 1831, the little girl approached Madame Van Kessinger and drew her attention to her Kabaai (white native apron) on which there were numerous red spots of Sirs. The lady believing the spots were due to a trick of other servants, had the child put on a clean Kahaai, but in a few seconds the same spots appeared on it. At the same time, stones of about the size of an egg kept falling perpendicularly, seemingly from nowhere, at the lady's feet. Extremely frightened, she sent immediately a message to the Regent, Radeen Adi, a man of great probity who became convinced of the reality of the phenomena, but who, notwithstanding all his precautions, and the help of an armed force, was unable to fathom the mystery of the red spots and the cause of the stone-falling. An Indian priest attempted to exorcise the "spirit." Placing a lamp on the matting, he had hardly squatted himself on it, when upon opening his Kuran he received a box oil the ears, and both lamp and Kuran violently flew in opposite directions. As no hand was visible the priest remainenl very much perplexed. Madame Van Kessingerr having determined to pass the night with the child in the Regent's house, the rain of stones began pouring there harder than ever. The bare presence of the child seemed sufficient to bring, it on. The event having spread abroad and produced a commotion, Colonel Michiels was then officially ordered to investigate the facts, and, if possible, to find out the truth. Causing the house to be cleared of all its inmates, he placed a policeman in every tree around the building; he had the walls and ceiling of the room covered, tent-like with white canvass; but, notwithstanding all such precautions, he found that when alone with the little girl, the red spots appeared without any visible cause upon, the white liner walls, and that stones, hot and wet, were falling by fives and sixes at very short intervals, becoming visible to the eye that followed them only at a height of five or six feet from the ground. He also saw a fruit called pâpaya, plucked by an invisible hand from a neighbouring tree of that name, and at a great height; the sap running down the trunk from the wound made in it by the violent tearing away of the fruit. Sometimes, chairs and glasses were seen moved by an invisible force, and the imprint of a hand was found on the glass of the mirrors. Colonel Michiels, after many days of investigation, made a report of the same which is now in the archives. The Government offered considerable sums to any person who would discover the cause of that mystery, but all its efforts proved useless. The report runs as follows:- To His Excellency the Acting Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies. On February 4, 1831, oil the first tiny of the Javanese month Naïs Poéassa, as I was returning from an inspection tour, I saw a group of persons assembled around my house. My wife affirmed to me that stones thrown by an invisible power were falling into our room and into the interior gallery. Believing it at first either a hallucination on their part or some wicked trick, I got angry. Entering the house I placed myself in the middle of the gallery and saw at once stones falling perpendicularly, passing so to say, through the ceiling, the boards and rafters of which are closely and solidly fixed and united, and do not show the smallest crevice. This proved to me that the stones came there from no human hands. Gathering all the persons of my house and the inmates of the neighbouring abodes together, and placing them under the watch and in charge of the police, on an esplanade open fromthe four sides, I then shut myself up with closed windows and doors in my house, alone with my wife. The stones poured in still from all sides, until—the phenomenon being well proven to us —we were finally compelled to re-open doors and windows. These stones—some of which weighed nine pounds—were thrown in to the number of one thousand n day, and for a period of sixteen days. My house is built of djali wood, very dry and solid; the windows being furnished with a close, wooden lattice, the square openings of which are two inches in diameter. The stone-rain began daily at 5 o'clock a.m. and stopped at 11 p.m., offering that strange peculiarity that it seemed to acquire additional violence in the presence of a little Javanese girl whom it pursued. I close the report, which outside the simple statement of facts would become too voluminous, but to corroborate which I here give the names of well-known and respectable persons who were all witnesses, to the phenomenon, and are ready to verify it under oat should the Government require them to do so. (Signed.) W. MICHIELS, LIEUT.-COLONEL, AID-DE-CAMP, Ermalinger, late Inspector of Coffee Plantations. V. Kessinger ; J. Van Simiten; etc. etc. This document is at present in the Royal archives of Holland. Promoted, General Mr. Michiels spoke rarely of the above experience. In 1877, at an official dinner, when asked to repeat his story, he consented to do so. General Van Gagern having laughed at him, a violent quarrel was the result, and the row ended by Van Gagern offering his excuses and taking, back his imprudent and flippant remarks. Following are facts, of the same kind. In the southern part of Sochapoera (?), near the place of the same name, lived in 1834, a family named Teisseire. The husband was a Frenchman and inspector of a Government indigo manufacturing store. The family was generally liked. In that year, while they were at dinner a shower of stones came upon the table, and the same was repeated for a fortnight in every roorn of the house; the stones being sometimes replaced by buffalo bones, and once by a whole head of that animal. Once M. Teisseire being out, seated in a chariot dragged by buffaloes; he found himself stoned with pieces of dry earth. As at Sumadan (Samarang? ) not a creature was near, the stones falling perpendicularly, and never hurting or even touching any one. The Regent of Soehapoera, before he had personally investigated the above-given phenomenon, desiring passing one night at the house of M. Teisseire, went to bed. As soon as he lay down, the bed was vigorously shaken and finally lifted up entirely from the floor, in the presence of his son and several servants, and under the the full glare of several lamps. In this case what is most remarkable is, that after having marked the stones with a cross or some other sign, they were thrown into the torrent of Tjilandoog which passed near the house at a depth of 150 feet; and in less than a minute, these marked stones were thrown back out of the water, all wet, but bearing the signs that identified them. The resident Ament tells of a similar case. Finding himself on Government service on a tour in the district of Breanger, where lie was serving as inspector of coffee plantations, he learned that at Breanger, there was a gendarola (spirit) then appearing in a small house. He determined to learn the truth about the matter. The haunted cottage was situated opposite the house of the Assistant Resident of Bandoog, one Nagel, and was occupied by an old woman, a native from the Sunda islands. M. Ament, accompanied by the Assistant Resident and the Regent, placed the small building under the watch of the police, inside as well as outside. The old lady was invited to remain outside, and when all was ready the investigators proceeded to the haunted abode by the only road leading to it—a narrow path which brought the visitors to the very door. There was but a single room inn the hut. The Sundanese woman led the way, being followed closely by M. Ament, the Assistant Resident, and lastly by the Regent and his suite. On the threshold the Sundanese was caught by invisible hands by her legs, suddenly upset, and dragged around the room. She was shouting for help. Here, too, the room had had its walls and ceiling covered with white sheeting. M. Ament received a large handful of gravel right in his bosom, which upset him to such an extent that so late as in 1870 he was heard to say that nothing could induce him to repeat the experiment. The causes of these doings were never discovered. Several years later, during the Residency of M. Visscher Van Gaasbeeck at Bandung, analogous phenomena again occurred there. The civilized and well-educated Javanese regents, corroborated by the native chiefs, aver that such weird things happen very often in our colonies, but that the Indians are afraid to talk of the matter lest they should be laughed at and ridiculed by skeptical Niederlanders. In 1825 M. Mertins was Governor of the Moluccas Islands. Once, towards evening, as he was at Amboyna, in Fort Victoria, he saw a shower of stones fall. The fort was situated in in open space, and a vast esplanade separated it from the nearest house. It was simply impossible to reach the fort with a stone from any of these buildings. The esplanade was then surrounded by sentries and no one allowed to pass, and the garrison was called to arms inside the fort. But all this did not in the least prevent stones, bits of dry lime &c., from showering among the ranks of soldiers. People saw the projectiles coming from a short distance and not at very great height from the ground. The phenomenon was repeated upon several occasions, and never was a man touched by one of the stones. All this is to this day a mystery. The news spread widely over the islands, and in 1842, at Banda it was still discussed. In Europe such showers of stones have been known everywhere. The stone-phenomena of the Rue des Grès (in 1849) and that of the Rue du Bac (1858) are well remembered in Paris. I will close by giving some particulars about a case which came under my own observation at the Hague—in 1871. In the Van Hogendorp Street, there lived the family of Captain O. E. K. who occupied the second floor of a house in which one of the backrooms confronted other houses of an adjacent street. The family had been there but a few weeks, when, on one afternoon, a stone dropped on the window-sill of the said room. The phenomenon was repeated several day, generally between two and four p.m. Besides stones, there also fell pieces of bricks, coals, lime, fragments of crockery, and even dung carefully wrapped in in paper. I visited the house in company with a sceptical investigator, a surgeon, Mr. H. G. Becht, and the Captain's wife showed us a heap of rubbish. The room had been absolutely ruined. The mirrors, windows, ornaments, all were in bits and rags. The stones flew with such a force that the window curtains had been all torn into shreds. The missiles coming from a great distance were seen in their flight to fall from far higher than the roofs of the adjoining houses. The police investigated the case for several days with the utmost activity; placed some men from the police force upon every roof--but could discover nothing to explain the cause of it. Stones coming from nowhere, and directing themselves toward the windows of the room, were continually flying before the noses of the policemen, and that was all that could be ascertained. It would certainly be worth the trouble of trying to find out and accept some definite opinion, as to the nature of the invisible beings who cause such showers of stones to come down. What do they do it for? Is it to amuse themselves ? A strange pastime !....For revenge?...But the uniformity of that phenomenon in various countries forbids such a supposition. Must we believe in other beings (than human spirits) as believed in by the Theosophists? I would like to learn the opinion of your readers upon this subject. A. J. RIK0 Source: The Theosophist magazine, Vol. 2 No.11, Bombay, August 1881, page 231-232
A newspaper article of the Java Bode, March 24 1883 about the first event mentioned in the above can be found (in Dutch) at http://javapost.nl/2013/10/14/de-stenenwerperij-te-soemedang/
We have one old report of phenomena centered in a house in Messolongi, western Greece, reported by farmer Yannis Barbetakis and friends Spiros Matsikas and George Mantzouratos. The three men were passing outside of a bar on the first day of 1927, at 6 p.m., when they heard bangson the roof, caused by falling stones. The bar was bombarded for half an hour by stones thrown from an unknown source. At 7:30, Barbetakis noticed a little boy, approximately 4-5 years old, approaching the bar, walking steady and fast. He asked him: "Where are you going, little boy?" but he did not receive an answer. Barbetakis and seven other people followed the boy, when suddenly and without warning, the child disappeared into thin air before the astonished eyes of the eight people. Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20141010002845/http://www.vembos.gr/forteanfalls.htm
On the island of Corfu. The first took place in July 1957 in Canalia village, where a house was the target of falling stones that started to fall only after 7 p.m. The second case concerns a similar story on the same island, at Mallaki village, where the local priest's house was hit by stones for a period of days -with an interesting detail: threatening letters, written in capital Greek, were thrown under the priest's door. on both cases, the police investigations found nothing that could indicate the cause of the stone falls. (Source: Apogevmatini, 2 August 1957). Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20141010002845/http://www.vembos.gr/forteanfalls.htm
The following is an extract from a letter W. G. Grottendieck wrote in Dordrecht, the Netherlands, of his experience when he was in the then Dutch colony of Sumatra in 1903: Dordrecht, January 27th, 1906. ... It was in September, 1903, that the following abnormal fact occurred to me. Every detail of it has been examined by me very carefully. I had been on a long journey through the jungle of Palembang and Djambi (Sumatra) with a gang of fifty Javanese coolies for exploring purposes. Coming back from the long trip, I found that my home had been occupied by somebody else and I had to put up my bed in another house that was not yet ready, and had just been erected from wooden poles and lalang or kadjatig. The roof was formed of great dry leaves of a kind called "kadjang" in Palembang. These great leaves are arranged one overlapping the other. In this way it is very easy to form a roof if it is only for a temporary house. This house was situated pretty far away from the bore-places belonging to the oil company, in whose service I was working. I put my bullsack and mosquito curtain on the wooden floor and soon fell asleep. At about one o'clock at night I half awoke, hearing something fall near my head outside the mosquito curtain on the floor. After a couple of minutes I completely awoke and turned my head around to see what was falling down on the floor. They were black stones from one eighth to three quarters of an inch long. I got out of the curtain and turned up the kerosene lamp, that was standing on the floor at the foot of my bed. I saw then that the stones were falling through the roof in a parabolic line. They fell on the floor close to my head-pillow. I went out and awoke the boy (a Malay-Palembang coolie) who was sleeping on the floor in the next room. I told him to go outside and to ex- amine the jungle up to a certain distance. He did so whilst I lighted up the jungle a little by means of a small " ever-ready" electric lantern. At the same time that my boy was outside the stones did not stop falling. My boy came in again, and I told him to search the kitchen to see if anybody could be there. He went to the kitchen and I went inside the room again to watch the stones falling down. I knelt down near [the head of my bed] and tried to catch the stones while they were falling through the air towards me, but I could never catch them. It seemed to me that changed their direction in the air as soon as I tried to get hold of them. I could not catch any of them before they fell on the floor. Then I climbed up [the partition wall between my room and the boy's] and examined [the roof just above it from which] the stones were flying. They came right through the kadjang, but there were no holes in the kadjang. When I tried to catch them there at the very spot of coming out, I also failed. When I came down, my boy had returned from the kitchen and told me there was nobody. But I still thought that some body might be playing a practical joke, so I took my Mauser rifle and fired five sharp cartridges into the jungle from [the window of the boy's room]. But the stones, far from stopping, fell even more abundantly after my shots than before. After this shooting the boy became fully awake (it seemed to me that he had been dozing all the time before), and he looked inside the room. When he saw the stones fall down, he told me it was " Satan " who did that, and he was so greatly scared that he ran away in the pitch-dark night. After he had run away the stones ceased to fall, and I never saw the boy back again. I did not notice anything particular about the stones except that they were warmer than they would have been under ordinary circumstances. In a later letter dated 1st February, 1906, Mr. Grottendieck adds : The boy certainly did not do it, because at the same time that I bent over him, while he was sleeping on the floor, to awake him, there fell a couple of stones. . . . They fell rather slowly. Now, supposing that somebody might by trickery have forced them through the roof, or supposing they had not come through it at all, — even then there would remain something mysterious about it, because it seemed to me that they were hovering through the air; they described a parabolic line and then came down with a bang on the floor.' Mr. Grottendieck explains that the stones, which have unfortunately been lost, were black and polished, but not crystalline, more like anthracite, but not with such sharp edges. They were light like anthracite. Source: The Naturalisation of the Supernatural by Podmore, Frank, Published 1908, page 164-165 |
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There was an interesting case of stone showers in War End, an area of the city of Birmingham in England, in the early 1980's. it was labeled as poltergeist case, but it had all the characteristics of a stone shower case:
From 1981 to 1983 windows were smashed repeatedly by polished stones that seemingly rained continually from the night sky on five houses on Thornton Road. Numbers 32, 34 and 36 bore the brunt of the damage, with rear windows continually smashed and roofs damaged. At the height of the trouble, residents placed chicken wire over windows and erected corrugated sheeting. The residents alerted police. The police had a round the clock surveillance, and even erected barricades in an effort to catch the supposed stone-throwers. The police didn't find any fingerprints on the stones. A night-time surveillance using infra-red cameras, image-intensifiers, flood lamps, was set up, but didn't reveal any stone-throwers . The strangest thing was, the automatic cameras would go off and never catch a human figure in the dead of night. The only things they ever saw were rabbits, the occasional fox, and rats. Had anything even as small as a rabbit been in the area, the motion sensing cameras would have picked up on it. But there was nothing. Even as the police were visiting the stone throwing would continue. Going on the reports from his officers that the stones appeared to fall from the sky, CI Turley called in a ballistics expert to see if it was at all possible that the stones may have been fired or propelled from a distance. The finding from this ballistics investigation was that it was highly unlikely due to the relatively small area targeted and the accuracy involved. The inspection of the stones proved that they were from the same area and could be found in almost any of the gardens. The odd thing they did identify was that they all appeared to be smooth and clean as if they had been scrubbed or polished, none of the stones that were recovered from the properties had any dirt on them. The police investigation was finally scaled back and eventually stopped. No one was ever arrested or convicted of causing the damage. Eventually the Birmingham CID gave up and left the case open. Chief Inspector Len Turley, in charge of the investigation, said: “We have spent more than 1,000 man hours on this case. We are keeping an open mind about the whole thing. We don’t know why it’s gone on for so long. Typically for stone showers, as suddenly as it the attacks had started, they stopped. Source: The Birmingham Mail, 4 February, 2012, Paranormal Events
I think it is also significant to mention that there other phenomena happenings in War End. Wikipedia: "In 2006 Tarmac (a heavy building materials company) drew up a list of Britain's 'spookiest roads', with Drews Lane in Ward End coming 10th. Invisible cars are frequently heard on the road. Jackie used to live at Drews Lane, Ward End in the mid 1970’s. She explains, “Between house number 175 and the corner shop, I used to hear cars that used to roll over while driving. 100’s of cars have been heard and seen upside down with no reason or rhyme. There were a couple a week sometimes, nothing to explain it. There were never any other cars involved, just that when they came down our road, they would turn over. I used to say to my husband at night when I’d here them ‘there’s another one’. It was very weird.” ( also Hub4) "In 2007 around the Thornton school area it is reported that orbs were spotted by one Ward End resident. Near the wahabi mosque the Spokesman for the mosque said that they had no part in it. Various sources have claimed to have observed these mystical orbs and studied them. This garnered interest from the British institute for the occult to investigate." |
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3. Newspaper Reports Not Verified These are newspaper reports I found here and there, but I was not able to find the original newspaper articles. Harrisonville, Ohio, 1901: The stone attack on this small village began on the Sunday afternoon of October 13 when, as the Buffalo Express reported, "a small boulder came crashing through the window of Zach Dye's house." No culprit could be found around the isolated house... and this was just the beginning. The next day, dozens of stones rained down in the heart of the village, breaking windows and striking citizens. Were mischievous kids to blame? The next day, all of the male children of the village were gathered together (how could girls do such a thing?), and stones fell for a third day. None of the villagers could detect where the stones were coming from. From the book “Unexplained Mysteries of the 20th Century,” Janet and Colin Bord London Times, Jan. 13, 1843 -- that, according to the Courrier de l'Isére, two little girls, last of December, 1842, were picking leaves from the ground, near Clavaux (Livet), France, when they saw stones falling around them. The stones fell with uncanny slowness. The children ran to their homes, and told of the phenomenon, and returned with their parents. Again stones fell, and with the same uncanny slowness. It is said that relatively to these falls the children were attractive agents. There was another phenomenon, an upward current, into which the children were dragged, as if into a vortex. We might have had data of mysterious disappearances of children, but the parents, who were unaffected by the current, pulled them back.
A story in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, Jan. 27, 1888 -- large stones that were appearing and "falling slowly" in closed rooms in the home of Mr. P.C. Martin, Caldwell County, North Carolina. Madras (India) Mail, March 5, 1888 -- pieces of brick that, in the presence of many investigators, were falling in a school room, in Pondicherry.
The 9th of January, 1907, Mr. McLaughlin had cleaned soot from the chimney. It is said that immediately afterward, phenomena began. There were flows of soot from undetectable sources, in rooms, and from room to room, independent of draughts, sometimes moving against draughts. Also there were flows of stones, or bombardments. About thirty panes of glass were broken by stones, in the daytime, some of them in the presence of neighbors. This is the story, as it was told by reporters of the Derry Journal and the Coleraine Constitution, who had been sent to investigate.
Ardeche, France, 1921: Most of these events are short-lived, lasting only a few days at most. But beginning in September, a farmhouse in France was victimized for four months. The stones dropped at all hours of the day, sometimes striking the family's children and a clergyman who was called in to investigate. In this case, apples were also thrown and, again, with inhuman accuracy: apples came speeding in through small holes in the shudders made by previous apples.
In August 1943, stones fell from a clear sky onto a little white stucco house. At least that’s what the newspapers said. The house was on 89th Avenue in Oakland, California, and belonged to Irene Fellows, a grandmother. Some of the rocks were pebbles, some as large as chicken eggs. According to reports, the stones fell only on the Fellows’s house. Police investigated but could find no cause. The story gained local attention. The San Francisco Chronicle reported on the mystery and its book review editor used the event as an introduction to one of his daily columns. Anthony Boucher, resident of the adjacent city Berkeley, California, visited and collected one of the stones. He gossiped about the event with fellow writer Miriam Allen de Ford, who lived across the bay in San Francisco. For many of the people—for the journalist who wrote the story, for Joseph Henry Jackson, the Chronicle’s book reviewer, for Boucher and de Ford, for Manly P. Hall who told of the happenings in his magazine Horizon—the odd occurrence on 89th Avenue immediately brought to mind one name: Charles Fort. |
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4. Cases Labeled as Poltergeist Some events of stone showers are not reported as such, but as a poltergeist phenomeon. Nevertheless these poltergeist cases have the same phenomena as reported with the stone showers. BULLIED BY GHOSTS! MAN'S TERRIFYING EXPERIENCES From India, the land of inexplicable mysteries, comes the strange story of a retired official who is being bullied by ghosts. Poltergeists, or 'noisy ghosts' are often reported to be active in, various parts, of the Indian sub continent, but the terrifying experience of a former Deputy Collector in Tellicherry seem worthy of special mention. The hobgoblins-or whatever the invisible forces, may be- which, have selected his house for their hair raising demonstrations give the bewildered ex official no peace. This is the sort of thing he has to put up with: One day his pillow catches fire -for no apparent reason whatever- is burnt; and the mattress on which it lies is not even scorched. The new pillow disappears and is found at the bottom of a well. Crockery smashes itself to smithereens all over the house. Large stones whizz through the rooms. The key of his cash box vanishes, A new key made specially to replace it is itself mysteriously replaced by the old one -and later the new key is found, locked up inside the cash box. A rich Moplah landlord who also lives in Tellicherry was recently obliged to flee from his house, owing to the unwelcome attentions of supposed poltergeists. All kinds of household utensils disappeared -even when carefully watched- and then the landlord's money and even his spectacles evaporated into thin air. Finally, as a last indignity, dirt was thrown by some unseen hand into his food. The victim surrendered- He abandoned his large and newly built home to the hobgoblins.-Reuter. Source: Northern Territory Times (Darwin, NT, Australia), 16 October 1931, front page
A mysterious Affair in Mauritius Extraordinary Incidents Are Related by an ex-Naval Officer From His Own Experience By "CAPPY RICKS" "CAPPY RICKS," narrator of this unusual story, was a naval officer who served in Australian waters during the war and lived for 11 years in Melbourne. He is now in business in Mauritius, but forwarded this story because of former associations with "The Argus." The phenomenon which he describes has been the subject of investigation by psychical research workers for very many years, as similar manifestations have been reported from other parts of the world. One of the most famous was that which occurred in the household of John and Charles Wesley at Epworth, England, in 1716-17. A German school of thought has coined the term "poltergeist" (racketing spirit) to describe the mischievous supernatural presences who are credited with playing such tricks.-Ed. AT 7.30 a.m. on September 1, 1937, a stone fell on the roof of my house, a bungalow, in the Rue Touraine, Port Louis, Mauritius, It rebounded to the paved courtyard, striking the stones only a few inches distant from the feet of the children's "nanan," a Creole girl aged 13 years. During the day 100 more fell-43 in the house itself, doing, though, only slight damage. It was thought at first that this was the work of mischievous boys, but the police proved such not to be the case. Stones fell later in the bedroom when all doors and windows were closed, one falling vertically between the feet of my wife's four sisters, coming to rest as it fell. Others fell in the court, and the nanan rushed into the house in terror, with three stones following her in, horizontally. The bombardment ceased as night fell, and the nanan left for her home; but it was resumed at 7.30 on the following morning. None of the stones was such as are common to the locality. One of them, a flat one some seven inches long, had a hole at its pointed end, and into this I inserted my pencil, to swing the stone round and round as I perplexedly deliberated on the inexplicable occurrence. More of this later. Police took up station in and all around the house. In the evening 27 stones and a large iron shackle fell in the house in an hour and a quarter, although all windows and doors were closed. Nightfall only put an end to the bombardment. On the following morning a large iron nut that had lain in the court for months past fell from the kitchen ceiling (so far as could be ascertained) and dashed a dish from the Indian cook's hands. In the bathroom I was struck by a large stone which entered by a "Cappy Ricks." 6in. space above the door. A detective inspector was at the moment leaning against a tree 6ft. distant, but he had seen nothing. At midday stones fell on the (roofed) back verandah, and I saw a large bull mouth shell that with others had lain on the tiles of the verandah for two years rise of its own accord to a height of 5ft. and make straight for the little nanan, who fled shrieking. Later, when she was laying my study table for tea, a stone flew in the partially open door, and I crouched to catch it, but as it entered the room it swung 40deg. right and smashed glassware and a milk jug on the table where the nanan was standing. This caused me to come to the determination-a weak one may be-that the nanan must go, but she left for home before I could tell her not to return. No stones fell during the night, but the morning of the fourth day saw a resumption of the bombardment. Six police surrounded the house and court-yard, one of them up a high tree. I packed off my wife and babe to her mother's house, and stones fell there, though still doing little damage. Then a retreat was made to a neighbour's house, and the stones followed, smashing pot plants and a table on the verandah. I took my people to the hotel, and left for the office to bring out my paper, only to be summoned to take wife, babe, and nanan away. Leaving the hotel, a stone flew into the car, but was caught before it could strike anyone. It was the stone with the hole in it that, to the best of my belief, lay in my courtyard a mile away. Arriving at home I at once packed the nanan off for good and all, and not a stone fell afterwards. But what a mess my home was in, not to mention the fact that it, with the street and courtyard, contained 1,000 excited people, most of them yelling advice, 1,000 varieties, at me. All I could do was to clear them off the premises, with the exception of the police. I HAD left my home for the office at 9 a.m., but before going I had collected all the stones that had fallen inside the house that morning, 14 in number, and these I placed on the bed in the adjoining room, with a note for the detective inspector whom I had been momentarily expecting. It was these stones that had 'wrecked my dining-room. I must explain that the two rooms are really one, divided by a wooden partition which cuts in two a window space common to both halves. The wall at this point is 18 inches thick, with the glass of the window flush with the outside of the street wall, leaving a large window sill recess, which was stacked with papers and magazines. A small body can pass from one room to the other round the partition. The communicating door between bedroom and dining-room was closed and bolted, and the stones travelled horizontally from the bed, round the end of the partition, breaking the window, tearing its curtains, and scattering all the papers on the dining-room floor, and smashing the hanging lamp and everything breakable on two tables. Twelve of them remained on the tables amid the wreckage; the others strewed the floor. The house was empty and all doors and windows were locked when this incident occurred. In the year that has elapsed the occurrence, which was by no means unique in the country, has taken premier place in the three quarterly deliberations of the local psychical society, which has at last announced its inability to suggest a solution of the mystery. A similar reply was received from the parent British Society of Psychical Researches. What is the answer? The type of country in which Port Louis, Mauritius, is situated A view taken just outside the town Source: The Argus (Melbourne, Vic., Australia), 4 February 1939, page 5
Poltergeist Evicts Family BALTIMORE, Md. (AP)-- the dictionary says a poltergeist is a noisy, usually mischievous ghost held to be responsible for unexplained noises. Ronald Stallings says he and his family are moving out of their home as soon as then can sell it. It's full of unexplained noises. "I don't believe in ghosts," he said. "I want to tell myself it's just my imagination. But we're getting out of here before we all lose our minds." 3 Years Enough The 32-year-old electronics technician and his wife and seven children have lived in the white frame house for three years. About a year and a half ago, the Stallings' electric appliances began going on and off without explanation. At the same time, he said, there were mysterious knocks on the walls and sounds of footsteps throughout the house. Last Christmas, Stallings said, the family had a candle in the window. "Every night he would unplug it, but in the morning it would be plugged and lit." Stones Thrown Mrs. Stallings. 25, said stones were thrown against the house during the past week but when she investigated, there was no one around. A large knick-knack shelf in the living room suddenly tilted, she said, and other objects in the house seemed to have shifted. The Stallings had a priest bless their home but said it did no good. They decided to move after what happened last week-end, when the family was in bed. "I felt somebody shaking me." said Mrs. Stallings. "I awoke and I thought somebody was standing there, but when I looked there was no one. "Then I heard footsteps coming down the hall, like a child walking with the floor squeaking. I got up and looked in the bathroom, but none of my children was there. "I went back to bed and heard more creaking, and I saw a ball that looked like mist come through the bedroom door. It went across the bedroom, went up to the corner of the ceiling and stayed there for a few minutes and must have disappeared." Source: Spokane Daily Chronicle (Spokane, Washington), August 3, 1968, page 28
Poltergeist's Carousing Routs Family From Home Osceola, Ind., Oct. 11 (UPI) ---- Strange things have been happening at the Walter Szlanfucht home here, and his family won't come home until he finds out what is causing them. Szlanfucht told police Sunday night an "unseen force" has been moving furniture, making sounds and throwing pebbles against the side of his house. Police Capt. Richard Handley said he went to the home in this community east of South Bend and saw a picture fly off the wall and a heavy ashtray shatter into pieces. "If I had not been a witness to this," Handley said. "I certainly would not have believed it could happen." Handley said a 30-40 pound chair was lifted off the floor and dropped at his feet. He said he sat the chair up again and went on to investigate the house, only to find the chair tipped over again when he returned. There was no one else in the house, he said. Szlanfucht said his wife and 9-year-old son will not return to the house until the poltergeist moves out. His family is currently living with relatives. But some of his relatives are having similar problems. David Colbert, Szlanfucht's uncle, has reported similar happenings in the past few weeks at his home a mile away. Colbert said pictures, vases and plates have been flying around the living room. Stones have been flying from the ground against the side of the house, he said, some times breaking windows. Szlanfucht said he had heard sounds like pebbles hitting the side of his house. St. Josesph County Deputy Sheriff Joseph Molnar said he found some strange plastic objects outside the Colbert home. He described them as green and just larger than a robin's egg. "You can't tell anyone about these things," Colbert said, "or they'll send you to a psychiatrist." Source: Reading Eagle (Reading, Pennsylvania), October 11, 1966, page 26 |
5. Addendum: The Lithobalia Text
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Below is the very detail accounts of stone falls in the state of New Hampshire in 1682. At that time people were still equating strange phenomena with witches, curses and the devil. This was at the end of the period of witch hunting. So you have to put these references aside and focus on the physical manifestations. |
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Lithobolia, or the Stone-Throwing Devil records the remarkable events of 1682 that took place in the Great Island (present-day New Castle, N.H.) tavern of George and Alice Walton. Lucy Treworgy Chadbourne’s brother Samuel was married to the Walton’s daughter, Dorcas. In the early 1650s, Humphrey Chadbourne built a house for George and Alice Walton on Great Island – though probably not the house attacked by a “stone-throwing devil” thirty years later. This account was written by “R.C.,” Richard Chamberlain, the secretary of the colony of New Hampshire, and agent of the Mason family. In 1682 Chamberlain was boarding at the Walton tavern, so he witnessed much of the attack. He published his work in 1698. The text below is taken from George Lincoln Burr, Narratives of the Witchcraft Cases (1684-1706) , pages 55 to 77.
LITHOBOLIA LITHOBOLIA Lithobolia: or, the Stone-Throwing Devil. Being an Exact and True Account (by way of Journal) of the various Actions of Infernal Spirits, or (Devils Incarnate) Witches, or both; and the great Disturbance and Amazement they gave to George Waltons Family, at a place call’d Great Island in the Province of New-Hantshire in New-England, chiefly in Throwing about (by an Invisible hand) Stone, Bricks, and Brick-bats of all Sizes, with several other things, as Hammers, Mauls, Iron-Crows, Spits, and other Domestick Utensils, as came into their Hellish Minds, and this for the space of a Quarter of a Year.
By R. C. Esq; who was a Sojourner in the same Family the whole time, and an Ocular Witness of these Diabolick Inventions. The Contents hereof being manifestly known to the Inhabitants of that Province, and Persons of other Provinces, and is upon Record in his Majesties Council-Court held for that Province. London, Printed, and are to be Sold by E. Whitlook near Stationers-Hall, 1698.
To The much Honoured Mart. Lumley, Esq; Sir, As the subsequent Script deserves not to be called a Book, so these precedent Lines presume not to a Dedication: But, Sir, it is an occasion that I am ambitious to lay hold on, to discover to You by this Epitome (as it were) the propension and inclination I have to give a more full and perfect demonstration of the Honour, Love, and Service, I own (as I think my self oblig’d) to have for You. To a Sober, Judicious, and well Principled Person, such as your Self, plain Truths are much more agreeable than the most charming and surprising Romance or Novel, with all the strange turns and events. That this is of the first sort, (as I have formerly upon Record attested) I do now aver and protest; yet neither is it less strange than true, and so may be capable of giving you some Diversion for an hour: For this interruption of your more serious ones, I cannot doubt your candor and clemency, in pardoning it, that so well know (and do most sensibly acknowledg) your high Worth and Goodness; and that the Relation I am Dignified with, infers a mutual Patronization. Sir, I am Your most Humble Servant, R.C. To the much Honoured R. F. Esq;
To tell strange feats of Daemons, here I am; Strange, but most true they are, ev’n to a Dram, Tho’ Sadduceans cry, ‘tis all a Sham.
Here’s Stony Arg’uments of persuasive Dint, They’l not believe it, told, nor yet in Print: What should the Reason be? The Devil’s in’t.
And yet they wish to be convinc’d by Sight, Assur’d by Apparition of a Sprite; But Learned Browndoth state the matter right:
Satan will never Instrumental be Of so much Good, to’ Appear to them; for he Hath them sure by their Infidelity.
But you, my Noble Friend, know better things; Your Faith, mounted on Religions Wings, Sets you above the Clouds whence Error springs.
Your Soul reflecting on this lower Sphear, Of froth and vanity, joys oft to hear The Sacred Ora’cles, where all Truths appear,
Which will Conduct out of this Labyrinth of Night, And lead you to the source of Intellect’ual Light.
Which is the Hearty Prayer of Your most faithful Humble Servant, R.C.
Lithobolia: or, the Stone-throwing Devil, etc.
SUCH is the Sceptical Humour of this Age for Incredulity, (not to say Infidelity,) That I wonder they do not take up and profess, in terms, the Pyrrhonian Doctrine of disbelieving their very Senses. For that which I am going to relate happening to cease in the Province of New-Hampshire in America, just upon that Governour’s Arrival and Appearance at the Council there, who was informed by my self, and several other Gentlemen of the Council, and other considerable Persons, of the true and certain Reality hereof, yet he continued tenacious in the Opinion that we were all imposed upon by the waggery of some unlucky Boys;which, considering the Circumstances and Passages hereafter mentioned, was altogether impossible. I have a Wonder to relate; for such (I take it) is so to be termed whatsoever is Praeternatural, and not assignable to, or the effect of, Natural Causes: It is a Lithobolia, or Stone-throwing, which happened by Witchcraft (as was supposed) and maliciously perpetrated by an Elderly Woman, a Neighbour suspected, and (I think) formerly detected for such kind of Diabolical Tricks and Practises; and the wicked Instigation did arise upon the account of some small quantity of Land in her Field, which she pretended was unjustly taken into the Land of the Person where the Scene of this Matter lay, and was her Right; she having been often very clamorous about that Affair, and heard to say, with much Bitterness, that her Neighbour (innuendo the fore-mentioned Person, his Name George Walton) should never quietly injoy that piece of Ground. Which, as it has confirm’d my self and others in the Opinion that there are such things as Witches, and the Effects of Witchcraft, or at least of the mischievous Actions of Evil Spirits; which some do as little give Credit to, as in the Case of Witches, utterly rejecting both their Operations and their Beings, we having been Eye-Witnesses of this Matter almost every Day for a quarter of a Year together; so it may be a means to rectifie the depraved Judgment and Sentiments of other disbelieving Persons, and absolutely convince them of their Error, if they please to hear, without prejudice, the plain, but most true Narration of it; which was thus. Some time ago being in America (in His then Majesty’s Service) I was lodg’d in the said George Walton’s House, a Planter there, and on a Sunday Night, about Ten a Clock, many Stones were heard by my self, and the rest of the Family, to be thrown, and (with Noise) hit against the top and all sides of the House, after he the said Walton had been at his Fence-Gate, which was between him and his Neighbour one John Amazeen an Italian, to view it; for it was again, as formerly it had been (the manner how being unknown) wrung off the Hinges, and cast upon the Ground; and in his being there, and return home with several Persons of (and frequenting) his family and House, about a flight shot distant from the Gate, they were all assaulted with a peal of Stones, (taken, we conceive, from the Rocks hard by the House) and this by unseen Hands or Agents. For by this time I was come down to them, having risen out of my Bed at this strange Alarm of all that were in the House, and do know that they all look’d out as narrowly as I did, or any Person could (it being a bright Moon-light Night), but cou’d make no Discovery. Thereupon, and because there came many Stones, and those pretty great ones, some as big as my Fist, into the Entry or Porch of the House, we withdrew into the next Room to the Porch, no Person having receiv’d any Hurt, (praised be Almighty Providence, for certainly the infernal Agent, constant Enemy to Mankind, had he not been over-ruled, intended no less than Death or Maim) save only that two Youths were lightly hit, one on the Leg, the other on the Thigh, notwithstanding the Stones came so thick, and so forcibly against the sides of so narrow a Room. Whilst we stood amazed at this Accident, one of the Maidens imagined she saw them come from the Hall, next to that we were in, where searching, (and in the Cellar, down out of the Hall,) and finding no Body, another and my self observed two little Stones in a short space successively to fall on the Floor, coming as from the Ceiling close by us, and we concluded it must necessarily be done by means extraordinary and praeternatural. Coming again into the Room where we first were (next the Porch), we had many of these lapidary Salutations, but unfriendly ones; for, shutting the door, it was no small Surprise to me to have a good big Stone come with great force and noise (just by my Head) against the Door on the inside; and then shutting the other Door, next the Hall, to have the like Accident; so going out again, upon a necessary Occasion, to have another very near my Body, clattering against the Board-wall of the House; but it was a much greater, to be so near the danger of having my Head broke with a Mall, or great Hammer brushing along the top or roof of the Room from the other end, as I was walking in it, and lighting down by me; but it fell so, that my Landlord had the greatest damage, his Windows (especially those of the first mention’d Room) being with many Stones miserably and strangely batter’d, most of the Stones giving the Blow on the inside, and forcing the Bars, Lead, and hasps of the Casements outwards, and yet falling back (sometimes a Yard or two) into the Room; only one little Stone we took out of the glass of the Window, where it lodg’d its self in the breaking it, in a Hole exactly fit for the Stone. The Pewter and Brass were frequently pelted, and sometimes thrown down upon the Ground; for the Evil Spirit seemed then to affect variety of Mischief, and diverted himself at this end after he had done so much Execution at the other. So were two Candlesticks, after many hittings, at last struck off the Table where they stood, and likewise a large Pewter Pot, with the force of these Stones. Some of them were taken up hot, and (it seems) immediately coming out of the Fire; and some (which is not unremarkable) having been laid by me upon the Table along by couples, and numbred, were found missing; that is, two of them, as we return’d immediately to the Table, having turn’d our backs only to visit and view some new Stone-charge or Window-breach; and this Experiment was four or five times repeated, and I still found one or two missing of the Number, which we all mark’d, when I did but just remove the Light from off the Table, and step to the Door, and back again. After this had continued in all the parts and sides of the first Room (and down the Chimney) for above hours, I, weary of the Noise, and sleepy, went to Bed, and was no sooner fallen asleep, but was awakened with the unwelcome disturbance of another Battery of a different sort, it issuing with so prodigious a Noise against the thin Board-wall of my Chamber (which was within another) that I could not imagin it less than the fracture and downfall of great part of the Chamber, or at least of the Shelves, Books, Pictures, and other things, placed on that side, and on the Partition-Wall between the Anti-Chamber and the Door of mine. But the Noise immediately bringing up the Company below, they assured me no Mischief of that nature was done, and shewed me the biggest Stone that had as yet been made use of in this unaccountable Accident, weighing eight pound and an half, that had burst open my Chamber Door with a rebound from the Floor, as by the Dent and Bruise in it near the Door I found next Morning, done, probably, to make the greater Noise, and give the more Astonishment, which would sooner be effected by three Motions, and consequently three several Sounds, viz, one on the Ground, the next to and on the Door, and the last from it again to the Floor, then if it had been one single Blow upon the Door only; which (‘tis probable) wou’d have split the Door, which was not permitted, nor so much as a square of the Glass-Window broken or crack’d (at that time) in all the Chamber. Glad thereof, and desiring them to leave me, and the Door shut, as it was before, I endeavoured once more to take my Rest, and was once more prevented by the like passage, with another like offensive Weapon, it being a whole Brick that lay in the anti-Chamber Chimney, and used again to the same malicious purpose as before, and in the same manner too, as by the mark in the Floor, whereon was some of the dust of the Brick, broken a little at the end, apparant next Morning, the Brick it self lying just at the Door. However, after I had lain a while, harkning to their Adventures below, I drop’d asleep again, and receiv’d no further Molestation that Night. In the Morning (Monday Morning) I was inform’d by several of the Domesticks of more of the same kind of Trouble; among which the most signal was, the Vanishing of the Spit which stood in the Chimney Corner, and the sudden coming of it again down the same Chimney, sticking of it in a Log that lay in the Fireplace or Hearth; and then being by one of the Family set by on the other side of the Chimney, presently cast out of the Window into the Back-side. Also a pressing-Iron lying on the ledge of the Chimney back, was convey’d invisibly into the Yard. I should think it (too) not unworthy the Relation, that, discoursing then with some of the Family, and others, about what had past, I said, I thought it necessary to take and keep the great Stone, as a Proof and Evidence, for they had taken it down from my Chambers; and so I carried it up, laid it on my Table in my Chamber, and lock’d my Door, and going out upon occasions, and soon returning, I was told by my Landlady that it was, a little while after my going forth, removed again, with a Noise, which they all below heard, and was thrown into the anti-Chamber, and there I found it lying in the middle of it; thereupon I the second time carried it up, and laid it on the Table, and had it in my Custody a long time to show, for the Satisfaction of the Curious. There were many more Stones thrown about in the House that Morning, and more in the Fields that Day, where the Master of the House was, and the Men at Work. Some more Mr. Woodbridge, a Minister, and my self, in the Afternoon did see (but could not any Hand throwing them) lighting near, and jumping and tumbling on the Grass: So did one Mrs. Clark, and her Son, and several others; and some of them felt them too. One Person would not be perswaded but that the Boys at Work might throw them, and strait her little Boy standing by her was struck with a Stone on the Back, which caused him to fall a crying, and her (being convinc’d) to carry him away forth-with. In the Evening, as in the Evening, as soon as I had sup’d in the outer Room before mine, I took a little Musical-Instrument, and began to touch it (the Door indeed was then set open for Air), and a good big Stone came rumbling in, and as it were to lead the Dance, but upon a much different account than in the days of Old, and of old fabulous Inchantments, my Musick being none of the best. The Noise of this brought up the Deputy-President’s Wife, and many others of the Neighbourhood that were below, who wonder’d to see this Stone followed (as it were) by many others, and a Pewter Spoon among the rest, all which fell strangely into the Room in their Presence, and were taken up by the Company. And beside all this, there was seen by two Youths in the Orchard and Fields, as they said, a black Cat, at the time the Stones were toss’d about, and it was shot at, but missed, by its changing Places, and being immediately at some distance, and then out of sight, as they related: Agreeable to which, it may not be improper to insert, what was observed by two Maids, Grand-Children of Mr. Walton, on the Sunday Night, the beginning of this Lithoboly. They did affirm, that as they were standing in the Porch-Chamber Window, they saw, as it were, a Person putting out a Hand out of the Hall Window, as throwing Stones toward the Porch or Entry; and we all know no Person was in the Hall except, at that instant, my self and another, having search’d diligently there, and wondring whence those should come that were about the same time drop’d near us; so far we were from doing it our selves, or seeing any other there to do it. On Monday Night, about the Hour it first began, there were more Stones thrown in the Kitchin, and down the Chimney, one Captain Barefoot, of the Council for that Province, being present, with others; and also (as I was going up to Bed) in an upper Chamber, and down those Stairs. Upon Tuesday Night, about Ten, some five or six Stones were severally thrown into the Maid’s Chamber near the Kitchin, and the Glass-Windows broke in three new places, and one of the Maids hit as she lay. At the same time was heard by them, and two young Men in the House, an odd, dismal sort of Whistling, and thereupon the Youths ran out, with intent to take the suppos’d Thrower of Stones, if possible; and on the back-side near the Window they heard the Noise (as they said) of something stepping a little way before them, as it were the trampling of a young Colt, as they fancied, but saw nothing; and going on, could discover nothing but that the Noise of the stepping or trampling was ceas’d, and then gone on a little before. On Saturday Morning I found two Stones more on the Stairs; and so some were on Sunday Night convey’d into the Room next the Kitchin. Upon owing Mr. Walton going (with his Men) by Water to some other Land, in a place called the Great Bay, arid to a House where his Son was placed, they lay there that Night, and the next Morning had this Adventure. As the Men were all at work in the Woods, felling Wood, they were visited with another set of Stones, and they gathered up near upon a Hat-full, and put them between two Trees near adjoining, and returning from carrying Wood, to the Boat, the Hat and its contents (the Stones) were gone, and the Stones were presently after thrown about again, as before; and after search, found the Hat press’d together, and lying under a square piece of Timber at some distance from thence. They had them again at young Walton’s House, and half a Brick thrown into a Cradle, out of which his young Child was newly taken up. Here it may seem most proper to inform the Reader of a parallel passage, (viz.) what happened what happened another time to my Landlord in his Boat; wherein going up to the same place (the Great Bay) and loading it with Hay for his use at his own House, about the mid-way in the River (Pascataqua) he found his Boat began to be in a sinking Condition, at which being much surpriz’d, upon search, he discover’d the cause to be the pulling out a Plug or Stopple in the bottom of the Boat, being fixed there for the more convenient letting out of the Rain-Water that might fall into it; a Contrivance and Combination of the old Serpent and the old Woman, or some other Witch or Wizard (in Revenge or innate Enmity) to have drown’d both my good Landlord and his Company. On Wednesday, as they were at work again in the Woods, on a sudden they heard something gingle like Glass, or Metal, among the Trees, as it was falling, and being fallen to the Ground, they knew it to be a Stirrup which Mr. Walton had carried to the Boat, and laid under some Wood; and this being again laid by him in that very Boat, it was again thrown after him. The third time, he having put it upon his Girdle or Belt he wore about his Waste, buckled together before, but at that instant taken off because of the Heat of the Weather, and laid there again buckled, it was fetch’d away, and no more seen. Likewise the Graper, or little Anchor of the Boat, cast over-board, which caus’d the Boat to wind up; so staying and obstructing their Passage. Then the setting-Pole was divers times cast into the River, as they were coming back from the Great Bay, which put them to the trouble of Padling, that is, rowing about for it as often to retrieve it. Being come to his own House, this Mr. Walton was charg’d again with a fresh Assault in the out-Houses; but we heard of none within doors until Friday after, when, in the Kitchin, were 4 or 5 Stones (one of them hot) taken out of the Fire, as I conceive, and so thrown about. I was then present, being newly come in with Mr. Walton from his middle Field (as he call’d it), where his Servants had been Mowing, and had six or seven of his old troublesome Companions, and I had one fall’n down by me there, and another thin flat stone hit me on the thigh with the flat side of it, so as to make me just feel, and to smart a little. In the same Day’s Evening, as I was walking out in the Lane by the Field before-mentioned, a great Stone made a rusling Noise in the Stone-Fence between the Field and the Lane, which seem’d to me (as it caus’d me to cast my Eye that way by the Noise) to come out of the Fence, as it were pull’d out from among those Stones loose, but orderly laid close together, as the manner of such Fences in that Counìtry is, and so fell down upon the Ground. Some Persons of Note being then in the Field (whose Names are here under-written to visit Mr. Walton there, are substantial Witnesses of this same Stonery, both in the Field, and afterward in the House that Night, viz, one Mr. Hussey, Son of a Counsellour there. He took up one that having first alighted On the Ground, with rebound from thence hit him on the Heel; and he keeps it to show. And Captain Barefoot, mentioned above, has that which (among other Stones) flew into the Hall a little before Supper; which my self also saw as it first came in at the upper part of the Door into the middle of the Room; and then (tho’ a good flat Stone, yet) was seen to rowl over and over, as if trundled, under a Bed in the same Room. In short, these Persons, being wonderously affected with the Strangeness of these Passages, offer’d themselves (desiring me to take them) as Testimonies; I did so, and made a Memorandum, by way of Record, thereof, to this effect. Viz. These Persons under-written do hereby Attest the Truth of their being Eye-Witnesses of at least half a score Stones that Evening thrown invisibly into the Field, and in the Entry of the House, Hall, and one of the Chambers of George Walton’s. Viz.
Samuel Jenings, Esq; Governour of West-Jarsey. Walter Clark, Esq; Deputy-Governour of Road-Island. Mr. Arthur Cook Mr. Matt. Borden of Road-Island. Mr. Oliver Hooton of Barbados, Merchant. Mr. T. Maul of Salem in New-England, Merchant. Captain Walter Barefoot Mr. John Hussey And the Wife of the said Mr. Hussey.
On Saturday, July 24, One of the Family, at the usual hour at Night, observ’d some few (not above half a dozen) of these natural (or rather unnatural) Weapons to fly into the Kitchin, as formerly; but some of them in an unusual manner lighting gently on him, or coming toward him so easily, as that he took them before they fell to the Ground. I think there was not any thing more that Night remarkable. But as if the malicious Daemon had laid up for Sunday and Monday, then it was that he began (more furiously than formerly) with a great Stone in the Kitchin, and so continued with throwing down the Pewter-Dishes, etc. great part of it all at once coming clattering down, without the stroke of a Stone, little or great, to move it. Then about Midnight this impious Operation not ceasing, but trespassing with a continuando2 very great Stones, weighing above 30 pound a piece (that used to lye in the Kitchin, in or near the Chimny) were in the former, wonted, rebounding manner, let fly against my Door and Wall in the ante-Chamber, but with some little distance of time. This thundring Noise must needs bring up the Men from below, as before, (I need not say to wake me) to tell me the Effect, which was the beating down several Pictures, and displacing abundance of things about my Chamber: but the Repetition of this Cannon-Play by these great rumbling Engines, now ready at hand for the purpose, and the like additional disturbance by four Bricks that lay in the outer-Room Chimney (one of which having been so imploy’d the first Sunday Night, as has been said) made me despair of taking Rest, and so forced me to rise from my Bed. Then finding my Door burst open, I also found many Stones, and great pieces of Bricks, to fly in, breaking the Glass-Windows, and a Paper-Light, sometimes inwards, sometimes outwards: So hitting the Door of my Chamber as I came through from the ante-Chamber, lighting very near me as I was fetching the Candlestick, and afterward the Candle being struck out, as I was going to light it again. So a little after, coming up for another Candle, and being at the Stare-foot door, a wooden Mortar with great Noise struck against the Floor, and was just at my Feet, only not touching me, moving from the other end of the Kitchin where it used to lye. And when I came up my self, and two more of the same House, we heard a Whistling, as it were near us in the outer Room, several times. Among the rest of the Tools made use of to disturb us, I found an old Card for dressing Flax in my Chamber. Now for Monday Night, (June 26) one of the severest. The disturbance began in the Kitchin with Stones; then as I was at Supper above in the ante-Chamber, the Window near which I sate at Table was broke in 2 or 3 parts of it inwards, and one of the Stones that broke it flew in, and I took it up at the further end of the Room. The manner is observable; for one of the squares was broke into 9 or 10 small square pieces, as if it had been regularly mark’d out into such even squares by a Workman, to the end some of these little pieces might fly in my Face (as they did) and give me a surprize, but without any hurt. In the mean time it went on in the Kitchin, whither I went down, for Company, all or most of the Family, and a Neighbour, being there; where many Stones (some great ones) came thick and threefold among us, and an old howing Iron, from a Room hard by, where such Utensils lay. Then, as if I had been the design’d Object for that time, most of the Stones that came (the smaller I mean) hit me (sometimes pretty hard) to the number of above 20, near 30, as I remember, and whether I remov’d, sit, or walk’d, I had them, and great ones sometimes lighting gently on me, and in my Hand and Lap as I sate, and falling to the Ground, and sometimes thumping against the Wall, as near as could be to me, without touching me. Then was a Room over the Kitchin infested, that had not been so before, and many Stones greater than usual lumbring there over our Heads, not only to ours, but to the great Disturbance and Affrightment of some Children that lay there. And for Variety, there were sometimes three great, distinct Knocks, sometimes five such sounds as with a great Maul, reiterated divers times. On Tuesday Night (June 28) we were quiet; but not so on Wednesday, when the Stones were play’d about in the House.And on Thursday Morning I found some things that hung on Nails on the ‘Wall in my Chamber, viz, a Spherical Sun-Dial, etc. lying on the Ground, as knock’d down by some Brick or Stone in the ante-Chamber. But my Landlord had the worst of that Day, tho’ he kept the Field, being there invisibly hit above 40 times, as he affirm’d to me, and he receiv’d some shrowd hurtful Blows on the Back, and other Parts, which he much complained of, and said he thought he should have reason to do, even to his dying day; and I observ’d that he did so, he being departed this Life since. Besides this, Plants of Indian Corn were struck up by the Roots almost, just as if they had been cut with some edged Instrument, whereas re vera they were seen to be eradicated, or rooted up with nothing but the very Stones, altho’ the injurious Agent was altogether unseen. And a sort of Noise, like that of Snorting and Whistling, was heard near the Men at Work in the Fields many times, many whereof I my self, going thither, and being there, was a Witness of; and parting thence I receiv’d a pretty hard Blow with a Stone on the Calf of my Leg. So it continued that day in two Fields, where they were severally at Work: and my Landlord told me, he often heard likewise a humming Noise in the Air by him, as of a Bullet discharg’d from a Gun; and so said a Servant of his that work’d with him. Upon Saturday (July 1), as I was going to visit my Neighbour Capt. Barefoot, and just at his Door, his Man saw, as well as my self, 3 or 4 Stones fall just by us in the Field, or Close, where the House stands, and not any other Person near us. At Night a great Stone fell in the Kitchin, as I was going to Bed, and the Pewter was thrown down; many Stones flew about, and the Candles by them put out 3 or 4 times, and the Snorting heard; a Negro Maid hit on the Head in the Entry between the Kitchin and Hall with a Porringer from the Kitchin: also the pressing-Iron clattered against the Partition Wall between the Hall and a Chamber beyond it, where I lay, and Mr. Randolph, His Majesty’s Officer for the Customs, etc. Some few Stones we had on Sunday Morning, (July 2) none at Night. But on Monday Morning (the 3d) both Mr. Walton, and 5 or 6 with him in the Field, were assaulted with them, and their Ears with the old Snorting and Whistling. In the Afternoon Mr. Walton was hit on the Back with Stones very grievously, as he was in his Boat that lay at a Cove side by his House. It was a very odd prank that was practis’d by the Devil a little while after this. One Night the Cocks of Hay, made the Day before in the Orchard, was spread all abroad, and some of the Hay thrown up into the Trees, and some of it brought into the House, and scatter’d. Two Logs that lay at the Door, laid, one of them by the Chimny in the Kitchin; the other set against the Door of the Room where Mr. Walton then lay, as on purpose to confine him therein: A Form that stood in the Entry (or Porch) was set along by the Fire side, and a joint Stool upon that, with a Napking spread thereon, with two Pewter Pots, and two Candlesticks: A Cheese-Press likewise having a Spit thrust into one of the holes of it, at one end; and at the other end of the Spit hung an Iron Kettle; and a Cheese was taken out, and broke to pieces. Another time, I full well remember ‘twas on a Sunday at Night, my Window was all broke with a violent shock of Stones and Brick-bats, which scarce miss’d my self: among these one huge one made its way through the great square or shash of a Casement, and broke a great hole in it, throwing down Books by the way, from the Window to a Picture over-against it, on the other side of the Chamber, and tore a hole quite through it about half a foot long, and the piece of the Cloth hung by a little part of it, on the back-side of the Picture. After this we were pretty quiet, saving now and then a few Stones march’d about for Exercise, and to keep (as it were) the Diabolical hand in use, till July 28, being Friday, when about 40 Stones flew about, abroad, and in the House and Orchard, and among the Trees therein, and a Window broke before, was broke again, and one Room where they never used before. August 1. On Wednesday the Window in my ante-Chamber was broke again, and many Stones were plaid about, abroad, and in the House, in the Day-time, and at Night. The same Day in the Morning they tried this Experiment; they did set on the Fire a Pot with Urin, and crooked Pins in it, with design to have it boil, and by that means to give Punishment to the Witch, or Wizard (that might be the wicked Procurer or Contriver of this Stone Affliction) and take off their own as they had been advised. This was the Effect of it: As the Liquor begun to grow hot, a Stone came and broke the top or mouth of it, and threw it down, and spilt what was in it; which being made good again, another Stone, as the Pot grew hot again, broke the handle off; and being recruited and fill’d the third time, was then with a third Stone quite broke to pieces and split; and so the Operation became frustrate and fruitless. On August 2, two Stones in the Afternoon I heard and saw my self in the House and Orchard; and another Window in the Hall was broke. And as I was entring my own Chamber a great square of a Casement, being a foot square, was broke with the Noise as of a big Stone, and pieces of the Glass flew into the Room, but no Stone came in then, or could be found within or without. At Night, as I, with others, were in the Kitchin, many more came in; and one great Stone that lay on a Spinning-Wheel to keep it steady, was thrown to the other side of the Room. Several Neighbours then present were ready to testifie this Matter. Upon August 3, On Thursday the Gate between my said Landlord and his Neighbour John Amazeen was taken off again, and thrown into Amazeen’s Field, who heard it fall and averr’d it then made a Noise like a great Gun. On Friday the 4th, the Fence against Mr. Walton’s Neignbour’s Door, (the Woman of whom formerly there was great Suspicion, and thereupon Examination had, as appears upon Record;) this Fence being maliciously pull’d down to let in their Cattel into his Ground; he and his Servants were pelted with above 40 Stones as they went to put it up again; for she had often threatned that he should never injoy his House and Land. Mr. Walton was hit divers times, and all that Day in the Field, as they were Reaping, it ceas’d not, and their fell (by the Mens Computation) above an hundred Stones. A Woman helping to Reap (among the rest) was hit 9 or 10 times, and hurt to that degree, that her left Arm, Hip, Thigh, and Leg, were made black and blue therewith; which she showd to the Woman, Mrs. Walton, and others. Mr. Wood-bridge,a Divine, coming to give me a Visit, was hit about the Hip, and one Mr. Jefferys a Merchant, who was with him, on the Leg. A Window in the Kitchin that had been much batter’d before, was now quite broke out, and unwindow’d, no Glass or Lead at all being left: a Glass Bottle broke to pieces, and the Pewter Dishes (about 9 of them) thrown down, and bent. On Saturday the 5th, as they were Reaping in the Field, three Sickles were crack’d and broke by the force of these lapidary Instruments of the Devil, as the Sickles were in the Reapers hands, on purpose (it seems) to obstruct their Labour, and do them Injury and Damage. And very many Stones were cast about that Day; insomuch, that some that assisted at that Harvest-Work, being struck with them, by reason of that Disturbance left the Field, but were follow’d by their invisible Adversaries to the next House. On Sunday, being the 6th, there fell nothing considerable, nor on Monday, (7th) save only one of the Children hit with a Stone on the Back. We were quiet to Tuesday the 8th. But on Wednesday (9th) above 100 Stones (as they verily thought) repeated the Reapers Disquiet in the Corn-Field, whereof some were affirm’d by Mr. Walton to be great ones indeed, near as big as a Man’s Head; and Mrs. Walton, his Wife being by Curiosity led thither, with intent also to make some Discovery by the most diligent and vigilant Observation she could use, to obviate the idle Incredulity some inconsiderate Persons might irrationally entertain concerning this veneficial Operation; or at least to confirm her own Sentiments and Belief of it. Which she did, but to her Cost; for she received an untoward Blow (with a Stone) on her Shoulder. There were likewise two Sickles bent, crack’d, and disabled with them, beating them violently out of their Hands that held them, and this reiterated three times successively. After this we injoy’d our former Peace and Quiet, unmolested by these stony Disturbances, that whole month of August, excepting some few times; and the last of all in the Month of September, (the beginning thereof) wherein Mr. Walton himself only (the Original perhaps of this strange Adventure, as has been declared) was the designed concluding Sufferer; and going in his Canoo (or Boat) from the Great Island, where he dwelt, to Portsmouth, to attend the Council, who had taken Cognizance of this Matter, he being Summoned thither, in order to his and the Suspect’s Examination, and the Courts taking Order thereabout, he was sadly hit with three pebble Stones as big as ones Fist; one of which broke his Head, which I saw him show to the President of the Council; the others gave him that Pain on the Back, of which (with other like Strokes) he complained then, and afterward to his Death. Who, that peruses these praeternatural Occurences, can possibly be so much an Enemy to his own Soul, and irrefutable Reason, as obstinately to oppose himself to, or confusedly fluctuate in, the Opinion and Doctrine of Daemons, or Spirits, and Witches? Certainly he that do’s so, must do two things more: He must temariously unhinge, or undermine the Fundamentals of the best Religion in the World; and he must disingenuously quit and abandon that of the Three Theologick Virtues or Graces, to which the great Doctor of the Gentils gave the Precedence, Charity, through his Unchristian and Uncharitable Incredulity.
Finis. |
