High Strangeness: When Flesh and Blood Fell from the Sky

When Flesh and Blood Fell from the Sky

by John Hairr*


The fall of flesh and blood from the sky would generate no small amount of curiosity, even in our technologically advanced society acquainted with air travel. We can only imagine the consternation that such events had upon people in the days before powered flight. Falls of blood, and in some cases even flesh, have been chronicled throughout history from all over the world. Understandably, these events sometimes caused consternation among the people, and were often seen as portents of ill luck or doom.

In North Carolina in the nineteenth century, two different incidents of blood and flesh falling from the sky were recorded. The episodes, one in Sampson County and the other in Chatham County, occurred 34 years apart.

The first flesh fall recorded in North Carolina occurred on 15 February 1850 on the farm of Thomas Clarkson, thirteen miles southwest of the county seat of Clinton. His account of the incident, and a sample of the material, was taken to Fayetteville by a Mr. Holland.

Clarkson's description of the event was taken down by Mr. Holland and printed in the North Carolinian, a newspaper published in Fayetteville. He noted, "On the 15th Feb'y, 1850, there fell within 100 yards of the residence of Thos. M. Clarkson in Sampson county, a shower of Flesh and Blood, about 250 or 300 yards in length. The pieces appeared to be flesh, liver, lights, brains and blood. Some of the blood ran on the leaves, apparently very fresh. Three of his (T.M.C.'s) children were in it, and ran to their mother exclaiming, "Mother there is meat falling!" Their mother went immediately to see, but the shower was over; but there lay the flesh, &c. Neill Campbell, Esq. living close by, was on the spot shortly after it fell, and pronounced it as above. One of his children was about 150 yards from the shower and came running to the rest saying he smelt something like blood. During the time it was falling there was a cloud overhead, having a red appearance like a wind cloud. There was no rain." (1)

The writer for the North Carolinian went on to note that the materials brought in by Mr. Holland was examined "with two of the best microscopes in the place." All who looked at the samples agreed that it was flesh and blood, but from what was unknown. (2)

The second flesh fall recorded in North Carolina occurred on 25 February 1884. Mrs. Kit Lasater, wife of a black tenant farmer who lived on the farm of Silas Beckworth in New Hope Township in Chatham County on the north side of the Pittsboro-Raleigh Road, was standing in a freshly plowed field near a barn a short distance from her family's one room cabin when blood fell from a clear sky upon the ground, bushes and fence all around her.

As word spread of the event, curious people dropped in to investigate the site. At first it was neighbors and friends, but as the news spread, curiosity seekers from further afield came by. Soon, the event was chronicled in the local newspaper, the Chatham Record. Of the event, the paper reported, "Many of the neighbors, after hearing of her statement, visited the spot and they all say that the ground--embracing an area of about 60 feet in circumference--was covered with splotches of something like blood: and an examination of the trees in this place showed blood on the branches. We are informed that a reputable physician of the neighborhood visited the spot and said it was blood." (3)

S.A. Holleman was one of the first people to visit the site. He reported the following particulars. "The space covered was about fifty by seventy feet, and nearly in a rectangular form. The drops were of sizes varying from that of a small pea to that of a man's finger and averaged about one to the square foot. Smaller drops were instantly absorbed, larger ones, with those on the wood, coagulated. Some fell in the bushes and coagulated upon the limbs."