Airships over Illinois!!! Exploring 1897 Continues.

            Today, April 12^th marks the anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s famous journey aboard Vostok1. A journey which marked humankind’s first steps into outer space. However while Yuri was the first person to leave Earth to go into space, for many years prior to the Volstok’s launch there are those who believe that visitors traveling from somewhere in space to earth had been happening for quite some time. For many the idea of flying saucers and little green men from Mars seems to spring up from the now famous Kenneth Arnold sighting of 1947. It is no secret however that many before Kenneth had reported seeing unusual things in the sky, some of whom even claimed to have been visited by people from other worlds.

            As I have mentioned in my previous two entries. 1897 is noted as being a particularly unusual year filled with many extraordinary events. One of these was a wave of unusual airship sightings that spread across the world, and became the focus of many different news outlets. Many of these cases are known to be exercises of imagination and amusement, however some of them remain mysterious to this very day. 

Dyer Inspired Illustration

            On April 12^th, 1897 two different accounts come to us from Illinois, and it is possible that they are both reports of the same airship as the descriptions have certain similarities. The first account comes to us from three witnesses in Nilwood, Edward Teeples, William Street and Franklin Metcalf. These three men witnessed an airship which they describe as cigar shaped with a dome atop it. The men claim to have watched the airship land on the property of one Z. Thacker,  a little less than twenty miles north of Carlinville. The three men rushed to get a closer view of the airship, but claim it slowly rose into the sky and flew northward before they were able to reach a spot where they could see it better.  This was reported as having taken place at around two thirty in the afternoon.

             Less than four hours later, at roughly six in the evening, an airship was seen in Girard, Illinois, which is only a few miles north east from Nilwood. It is claimed that a large crowd of miners saw the airship land a few miles south of town. Paul McCramer, who was the night operator for the Chicago and Alton Railroad went on record as claiming that he was able to approach the airship close enough to witness an individual emerge from the vehicle and appeared to repair some of its machinery. All agreed that the airship was an elongated nautical like hull with a double canopied roof. Again the mysterious airship flew away towards the north. According to the accounts, trace evidence was found at the landing site, however the report does not provide any details as to what this evidence actually was. We do not know if it was discarded machinery from the repairs observed or if there were marks found upon the ground to indicate the weight and presence of the vehicle, and are simply left to speculate.

            What makes these sightings interesting however, is not only the similarities of the airship observed, but also the time and distances associated with the observances. Both accounts describe an airship landing for a brief time and then floating back up into the sky and flying away. Both descriptions roughly match in that they describe an elongated body with a canopy of some kind atop it, and in both accounts it seemed to fly off in the same direction. The distances between the two towns is not so great and it is certainly possible that an airship of conventional design for the time period could have made such a journey. Controlable airships had been around for a little over a decade it would only be a year later that Templehof Field in Berlin, Germany, would host the Shwarz designed aluminum airship. So it is possible that some unknown inventor was out testing his creation that day, someone whose identity has been lost to history.

            This was not the first airship sighted in 1897, nor would it be the last. It is simply a good example of the things people all around the world were witnessing that year. If the reports can be believed. Over the next several days, many other airship sightings were reported and I will be addressing these in my next installment.

            

1897 New Martinsville Meteor

The year 1897 was filled with a number of remarkable and unusual occurrences. In my previous post, The Tale of Mr. Shue and the Greenbrier Ghost ( nightsbreath.blogspot.com/2015/04/the-tale-of-mr-shue-and-greenbrier-ghost.html ) I mentioned briefly an unusual event that took place in New Martinsville, West Virginia that year. Several folks asked me about that and so I thought it would be good to share the following information I was able to come across while researching this.

“One Man Rendered Unconscious and the Head of a Horse Crushed

Parkersburg, West Va., March 10.

A meteor burst over the town of New Martinsville yesterday. The noise of the explosion resembled the shock of a heavy artillery salute, and was heard for twenty miles. The cylindrical shaped ball of fire was forging along in a southwesterly direction when first discovered. The hissing sound of the fire could be heard for miles, and the smoke gave the meteor the appearance of a burning balloon.

When the meteor exploded the pieces flew in all directions, like a

volcanic upheaval, and solid walls were pierced by the fragments.

David Leisure was knocked down by the force of the air caused by the rapidity with which the body passed, before it broke. The blow

rendered him unconscious. One horse had its head crushed and nearly torn from the trunk by a fragment of the meteor, and another horse in the next stall was discovered to be stone deaf.

The coming of the meteor was heralded by a rumbling noise, followed in an instant by the hissing sound, and immediately the ball of fire, spitting and smoking, burst into full view, and before the people had time to collect their senses, the explosion occurred. “

This was from a New York Times article dated March 11^th, 1897.

Imagine what a frightening experience this must have been for the people of New Martinsville.

I am still researching this, and as I learn more I will share more whispers upon the Night’s breath from the Glittering Darkness.

-Mr. Cat

The Tale of Mr. Shue and the Greenbrier Ghost

            The year 1897 is remembered for a great many things. William McKinley was inaugurated as the 25^th President of the United States of America. The first football game between African American Colleges Atlanta and Tuskegee occurred, with Atlanta winning by ten points. Sherlock Holmes began his ‘Adventure of Abbey Grange.’  John Phillip Holland launches his gas powered submarine and Utah elects the first female State Senator, M. H. Cannon.

While all this was happening, some unusual events were occurring in West Virginia as well. A meteorite enters the Earth’s atmosphere whereupon it explodes over New Martinsville in what was reported to be a spectacular display of brilliant shrapnel. While damage and debris were reported, thankfully there were no known injures to have occurred. Earlier in the year Elva Zona Heaster is found tragically murdered in Greenbrier County, West Virginia. The events surrounding the investigation of this murder brought her husband to trial for the act.  The case remains notorious to this very day because testimony from a ghost helped to bring about a conviction.

Elva Zona Heaster (Wikipedia)

The case of Elva Heaster is in many ways a typically tragic tale of spousal abuse, and the main reason it has survived to this day is the legends that surround the incident and have perpetuated the tale as stories of the Greenbrier Ghost. Sadly Elva’s life was not so remarkable. She was known to be a native to Greenbrier County, born there in the early 1870’s, and little information remains about her life except that it is claimed she had a child out of wedlock two years prior to her murder, something that was considered shocking for the time.  The autumn before her murder she met a man named Edward Shue who was a drifter who had moved into the area to look for work as a blacksmith. About the time that Edward found work in the shop of a James Crookshanks, is also said to be about when he and Elva met. It is said that the two fell into a whirlwind romance, delighting in each other’s company. Shortly into this budding romance, the two married. Elva’s mother, Mary Jane Heaster was known to have objected to the union, and many knew of her dislike for Mr. Shue. It was not very long after the wedding that Elva Zona Heaster was murdered.

Less than five months after meeting Edward, Elva was found dead in her home by a small boy. The boy had been sent to the house on an errand by Mr. Shue. Elva was found at the base of the stairs, laid out with her feet together and one hand upon her stomach. Dr. George Knapp was sent for, however due to difficulties and distance, it took over and hour for the Doctor to arrive at the scene of the murder. When the Doctor had finally arrived, Mr. Shue had already carried Elva Heaster’s body upstairs, laid her body upon a bed, and had washed and dressed the corpse himself, placing her in a dress with a high stiff collar and covering her face with a veil. Edward was said to be strongly affected by this tragedy, cradling Elva’s head all during the doctor’s brief examination of the body. The examination was cut short when upon the Doctor’s discovery and examination of bruises around Elva’s throat, Edward was said to have gone into a raging fit which frightened the Doctor and caused him to end the visit abruptly.

The Shue House (Wikipedia)

On January 24^th, 1897, Elva was buried in the local cemetery now known as the Soule Chapel Methodist Cemetary. Sadly it would be less than a month later before her body was exhumed for examination. A great cloud of suspicion grew around Edward Shue and his particularly odd behavior at the time of his wife’s death.  Despite Elva’s body being displayed at their home during the wake, Edward specifically loomed as an emotional guard over it, not allowing anyone to approach her too closely. He is said to have placed a small pillow on one side of his dead wife’s head, and a rolled up sheet at the other side. Her neck was wrapped in a thick scarf. Al of these Edward claimed were treasured items that would bring his departed wife comfort as she passed from this world to the next. Edward is said to have flashed from incredible sadness to a disquieting  energetic demeanor during this time, which also added to local suspicion.

None were more suspicious of Edward than her mother, Mary Jane Heaster, who had so strongly objected to their union. Mary Jane was convinced that Edward had murdered her daughter, and she prayed every night for four weeks that her daughter might be given the justice she deserved. Many believe her prayers were answered. Legend has it that Elva appeared to her mother four weeks after her funeral as an apparition. A distinctly bright light that gradually took on Elva’s form and filling the chamber she occupied with a profound chill. It is said she visited her mother for four nights in a row, imparting her tragic tale of woe.  Her ghostly form informed her mother that Edward Shue was in fact a cruel and evil man who abused her horrifically. He had attacked her in a fit of rage when he discovered she had cooked no meat that night for dinner and broker her neck. Unbeknownst to Mr. Shue, Mary Jane Heaster had retrieved the folded sheet from her daughters coffin prior to her burial. She had tried to return the sheet to Edward Shue, but he had refused it. Noticing an odd color to it, she washed it, which caused the water in the basin to turn a rusty red color, which permanently stained the sheet pink.

Mary Jane Heaster (Wikipedia)

It was this evidence that Mary Jane took to the local prosecutor John A. Preston. Mr. Preston is not known to have given a great deal of credit to the ghostly visitations by Elva, however the evidence of the sheet and the general disposition of the local townsfolk, a great majority of whom suspected Mr. Shue of misdoing, persuaded him to open an investigation. Almost immediately, Doctor Knapp was questioned in the case. Dr. Knapp conveyed to Mr. Preston the events that occurred as he was examining Elva’s body when it was discovered, and confessed that he himself had not been able to make a complete and thorough examination of Elva because of the interference of Mr. Shue at the time. It was this testimony that convinced John Preston to exhume Elva’s corpse for a proper autopsy, and an inquest jury was formed. 

Elva Zona Heaster’s body was exhumed and examined in the local schoolhouse on February 22^nd. The examination lasted three hours. A report, dated March 9, 1897, "the discovery was made that the neck was broken and the windpipe mashed. On the throat were the marks of fingers indicating that she had been choked. The neck was dislocated between the first and second vertebrae. The ligaments were torn and ruptured. The windpipe had been crushed at a point in front of the neck." (Wikipedia) Edward Shue, who complained and protested his wife’s grave being disturbed, was immediately arrested and charged with murder.

The trial of Edward Shue would not begin until June, and in the time between then and his arrest, the people of Greenbrier County began to learn more and more about this wandering blacksmith, and the more they learned the more villainous Edward seemed. One of the first things discovered was that his name was not in fact Edward Shue, but rather Erasumus Stribbling Trout Shue. It was also learned that Mr. Shue had been married twice prior to his wedlock with Elva Zona Heaster. His first marriage had ended in divorce after his wife had accused him of great cruelties, and his second marriage had ended when the woman he had married died in unusual circumstances.  While imprisoned, it is said that Mr. Shue spoke frequently with reporters about his ambition to eventually marry seven wives, and his complete confidence that he would be absolved of any crime due to the lack of evidence against him.

The trial came on June 22^nd, 1897, with Elva’s mother, Mary Jane Heaster as the prosecution’s star witness. While the prosecutor attempted to focus more upon the physical evidence and public perception of the character of Mr. Shue, it was the Defense who questioned Mary Jane at length about her supernatural visitations, hoping to undermine her credibility with the jury. This plan is said to have backfired completely. Rather than make Elva’s mother look foolish, Mary Jane instead repeatedly and calmly related the events of the ghostly visitations with exacting details which never wavered despite the defense’s attempts to rattle and unnerve her during testimony. Because the Ghostly witness had been introduced by the defense, the Judge could not ask the jury to disregard that particular testimony. Erasumus Stribbling Trout Shue was found guilty of Elva Zona Heaster’s murder on July 11^th and was sentenced to life in prison at West Virginia State Penitentiary in Moundsville. There are stories that a local lynch mob tried to prevent this from occurring, but were dissuaded from their actions by the local Sheriff’s Deputy.

Mr. Shue would live the rest of his life in the Penitentiary in Moundsville. He died three years later on March 13^th, 1900 when an unusual epidemic swept through the prison. He was buried in an unmarked grave in the prison cemetery. It is said that Mary Jane Heaster remained convinced of the ghostly visitations that brought justice to her daughter’s killer up to her death in 1916. At no time did she ever recant, or alter her tale, and the Ghost is not said to have appeared to anyone else since.

 

West Virginia State Penitentiary, Moundsville

1897 was indeed a very unusual year, filled with a remarkable amount of extraordinary events and the Greenbrier Ghost is not the only one which we will whisper upon Night’s breath as we fly by in the Glittering Darkness. So check back soon for more tales and events from that remarkable year.

-Mr. Cat