On February 15th, 1850 near the town of Clinton in North Carolina, blood and other bits of body fell from the sky over the farm of Thomas Clarkson.
From an article entitled "Great Fall of Flesh & Blood," printed in the North Carolinian, March 8th, 1850:
"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."
I am trying to find an archive of the entire article, but it is reported that bits of the flesh and blood were examined under microscopes and determined to be real flesh and blood, though they could not tell if the giblets came from people or animals.
A second "meat shower" occurred 34 years later (on Feb. 25th) over the farm of Silas Beckworth in Chatham County, North Carolina. It was witnessed by the wife of a black tenant farmer named Mrs. Kit Lasater. She reported that blood fell on ground, bushes, trees, and her head.
On March 6th, 1884, the Chatham Record 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."
This second case of blood rain was investigated and reported on by famed local scientist F.P. Venable of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In his article entitled "Fall of Blood In Chatham County," printed in the Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society (1883-1884, Volume 1, p. 38), Venable records the testimony of one S.A. Holleman:
"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."
Venable went on to report:
"The fall came from a cloudless sky, when the wind was so slight as to be almost imperceptible. The position of the drops seen on the fence indicated a very slight wind from the south or southwest, across some ploughed land. The woman was standing on this ploughed land, near a fence, along which some small pine bushes were growing. She noticed something falling between her and the ground, saw it leave a red splash on the sand, heard a pattering like rain around her, looked up, but it was all over and she could see nothing. She was a good deal frightened and affected, taking it as a portent of death or evil of some kind."
Venable concludes his article with . . .
"This leaves little or no reasonable doubt then that the samples examined had blood upon them. The question arises, were they carefully taken; had no animal ever bled on the same ground; had pigs never been slaughtered in that quarter of the field? etc. As to theories accounting for so singular a material falling from a cloudless sky, I have no plausible ones to offer. It may have been some bird of prey passing over, carrying a bleeding animal, but a good deal of blood must have fallen to cover so large a space. If a hoax has been perpetrated on the people of that neighborhood it has certainly been very cleverly done and an object seems lacking. On the possibility that it is not a joke, I have deemed this strange matter worthy of attention. Other similar observations hereafter may corroborate it and combined observations may give rise to the proper explanation."
Kimberly and I have visited both of those sites (as best we could) just for fun, and though there is nothing to see there now, it was pretty cool that those places are not far from where we live. The first "flesh rain" occurred on a farm in Sampson County, NC about 14 miles south-southwest of Clinton.
The second "flesh rain" occurred on a farm in Chatham County along Parker's Creek, about a mile and a half east of Mount Gilead Baptist Church in Pittsboro, NC
I have to do some traveling this December to do some research for the book I'm writing on the history of our house and its (alleged) ghost. I hope to get microfilm images of the actual articles and newspapers cited above.
Links:
-F.P. Venable, "Fall of Blood In Chatham County," Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society (1883-1884, Volume 1, p. 38).
-Map to Clarkson Farm in Sampson County
-Map to Beckworth's farm in Chatham County
. Poor Ravana!
