The evidence
Sources and evidence: kentucky-meat-shower
On or about March 3, 1876, near Olympia Springs in Bath County, Kentucky, flakes of what looked like fresh meat reportedly fell from a clear sky onto the yard of Mrs. Allen Crouch while she was making soap, scattering over a strip of ground roughly 100 by 50 yards. Samples were bottled and mailed to chemists and microscopists in Louisville, New York, and Newark, who variously reported lung tissue, cartilage, and muscle fiber of horse or human infant, while Leopold Brandeis pronounced the whole thing the gelatinous fresh-water alga nostoc swollen by rain; a rival explanation held that a flock of startled buzzards had disgorged carrion in flight. Charles Fort revived the case in 1919 and a specimen jar survives at Transylvania University.
What the record establishes
More than one source close to the events says so, and their independence has been checked against their own wording - so they are not one account reprinted.
An event known as the Kentucky meat shower occurred in 1876.
Hiram Adolphus Cutting, ‘Meteorological Tables and Climatology of Vermont, with Map Showing Rainfall …’, 1877, page 39
Stover, Chet, ‘Mindblowers’, 1982, page 58
The Marietta journal (Marietta, Georgia;Marietta, Ga.), March 24, 1876
Public ledger (Memphis, Tenn.), April 25, 1876
Public ledger (Memphis, Tenn.), April 25, 1876
The Bossier banner (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.), June 1, 1876
The morning news (Savannah, Ga.), September 18, 1889 The source’s own wording: “some twenty years ago”.
L. D. Kastenbine, ‘The Kentucky Meat Shower’, Louisville Medical News, vol. I no. 21, 20 May 1876, p. 254
Daily Kennebec journal (Augusta, Me.), August 20, 1889
Wichita eagle (Wichita, Kan.), August 30, 1889
‘Uncle John’s smell-o-scopic bathroom reader for kids only!’, 2013, page 294
Bellows Falls times (Bellows Falls, Vt.), March 17, 1876
New Orleans Republican (New Orleans, La), April 29, 1876
The Milan exchange (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.), April 27, 1876
The Somerset press (Somerset, Ohio), June 9, 1876 The source’s own wording: “is still being investigated”.
The American Journal of Microscopy and Popular Science stated that it had published a paper on the Kentucky Meat Shower in its previous issue.
‘The American Journal of Microscopy and Popular Science’, 1876, page 461
Livy contains only one reference to a shower of flesh.
New York Microscopical Society, ‘Journal of the New-York Microscopical Society’, 1885, page 708
A Christiania newspaper stated that a worm shower was observed in Norway after a recent violent storm
‘Fanciers’ Journal and Poultry Exchange’, 1876 [text via Internet Archive: fanciersjournalp31876phil] The source’s own wording: “states that”.
Identifying the substance of the Kentucky shower and fixing its status was comparatively easy.
Leopold Brandeis, ‘Kentucky Shower of Flesh’, The Sanitarian, vol. IV (1876), p. 222 The source’s own wording: “it has been comparatively easy”.
Leopold Brandeis stated that the ‘Kentucky wonder’ is nothing more or less than the ‘Nostoc’ of the old alchemists.
Leopold Brandeis, ‘Kentucky Shower of Flesh’, The Sanitarian, vol. IV (1876), p. 222
A fall of quivering flesh from a cloudless sky occurred on the farm of Mr. Crouch in Bath County, covering an area of more than one hundred feet and adhering to leaves, fences, etc.
L. D. Kastenbine, ‘The Kentucky Meat Shower’, Louisville Medical News, 20 May 1876, p. 255
The Marietta journal (Marietta, Georgia;Marietta, Ga.), March 24, 1876
The morning news (Savannah, Ga.), September 18, 1889
L. D. Kastenbine, ‘The Kentucky Meat Shower’, Louisville Medical News, vol. I no. 21, 20 May 1876, p. 254
L. D. Kastenbine, ‘The Kentucky Meat Shower’, Louisville Medical News, vol. I no. 21, 20 May 1876, p. 254
L. D. Kastenbine, ‘The Kentucky Meat Shower’, Louisville Medical News, vol. I no. 21, 20 May 1876, p. 254
Others proposed that the material which fell in Bath County was batrachian spawn scattered by a whirlwind over the land.
L. D. Kastenbine, ‘The Kentucky Meat Shower’, Louisville Medical News, 20 May 1876, p. 255 The source’s own wording: “others as”.
A naturalist told L. D. Kastenbine that the time of the Bath County fall was not the season for spawn.
L. D. Kastenbine, ‘The Kentucky Meat Shower’, Louisville Medical News, 20 May 1876, p. 255 The source’s own wording: “a naturalist tells me”.
L. D. Kastenbine heard, the week before writing, that a vegetable fungus was the latest identification proposed for the fallen tissue.
L. D. Kastenbine, ‘The Kentucky Meat Shower’, Louisville Medical News, 20 May 1876, p. 255 The source’s own wording: “On hearing last week”.
Five specimens of the flesh which recently fell in Bath County were given to the druggist Simon N. Jones on Monday last, having first been handed to Dr. L. P. Blackburn, who gave them to Jones to examine.
L. D. Kastenbine, ‘The Kentucky Meat Shower’, Louisville Medical News, 20 May 1876, p. 255
Because the specimen had not been placed in alcohol its odor was retained, and a number of meat experts pronounced that odor without hesitation to be mutton.
L. D. Kastenbine, ‘The Kentucky Meat Shower’, Louisville Medical News, 20 May 1876, p. 255
L. D. Kastenbine learned that others had reached the same conclusion as himself about the fallen material, some even asserting that the wool of the animal was distinctly seen.
L. D. Kastenbine, ‘The Kentucky Meat Shower’, Louisville Medical News, 20 May 1876, p. 255 The source’s own wording: “Since my examination I have learned”.
An old Ohio farmer suggested that the Bath County shower was caused by the disgorgement of vultures sailing over the spot.
L. D. Kastenbine, ‘The Kentucky Meat Shower’, Louisville Medical News, 20 May 1876, p. 255 The source’s own wording: “suggested by the old Ohio farmer”.
L. D. Kastenbine judged the vulture-disgorgement theory to be the only plausible explanation of the Bath County shower.
L. D. Kastenbine, ‘The Kentucky Meat Shower’, Louisville Medical News, 20 May 1876, p. 255 The source’s own wording: “The only plausible theory explanatory of this anomalous shower appears to me to be”.
A substance is said to have fallen from the sky in Kentucky
‘The Kentucky Meat Shower’, The American Journal of Microscopy and Popular Science, vol. I no. 7, June 1876, p. 84 The source’s own wording: “is said to have fallen”.
‘The Kentucky Meat Shower’, The American Journal of Microscopy and Popular Science, vol. I, 1876, p. 84
Dick and Ab. Kervin at first regarded the fall of flesh as a miracle, having often heard of flesh ‘raining’ from above
‘Another Shower of Flesh Reported’, The American Journal of Microscopy and Popular Science, 1876, p. 110, quoting the Columbus (Ga.) Enquirer of 10 June 1876 The source’s own wording: “It at first seemed as a miracle to them”.
A Louisville Professor suggested that buzzards may account for the famous shower of flesh in Kentucky
‘Another Shower of Flesh Reported’, The American Journal of Microscopy and Popular Science, 1876, p. 110, quoting the Columbus (Ga.) Enquirer of 10 June 1876 The source’s own wording: “As a Louisville Professor has suggested”.
J. Lawrence Smith stated that in his first examination he was furnished with two small specimens that had been preserved in alcohol, one so hard and dry that he did not undertake to examine it
The people’s advocate (Alexandria, Va.;Washington, D.C.), May 20, 1876
J. Lawrence Smith stated that he cut across the softer of the two alcohol-preserved specimens and found the interior of the mass gelatinous
The people’s advocate (Alexandria, Va.;Washington, D.C.), May 20, 1876
J. Lawrence Smith stated that he could see no other source of the gelatinous matter in the specimen than the spawn of batrachian reptiles
The people’s advocate (Alexandria, Va.;Washington, D.C.), May 20, 1876 The source’s own wording: “I could see no other source”.
J. Lawrence Smith stated that he sent the remainder of his specimen to Professor Putnam, of Salem, to be examined in his institution, and had not yet heard Putnam’s results
The people’s advocate (Alexandria, Va.;Washington, D.C.), May 20, 1876 The source’s own wording: “I have not yet heard from him his results”.
J. Lawrence Smith stated that two further specimens were subsequently furnished to him, one of which had been examined by a microscopist of Lexington, and that he also received preparations carefully mounted for examination
The people’s advocate (Alexandria, Va.;Washington, D.C.), May 20, 1876
J. Lawrence Smith stated that in a conversation Dr. Kastenbine of Louisville told him he had examined a specimen with similar results and had no doubt of the fleshy nature of the substance
The people’s advocate (Alexandria, Va.;Washington, D.C.), May 20, 1876 The source’s own wording: “I learned that”.
The people’s advocate (Alexandria, Va.;Washington, D.C.), May 20, 1876 The source’s own wording: “Considering the results … conclusive”.
J. Lawrence Smith stated that he was perfectly satisfied his original theory of the substance being batrachian spawn must be abandoned
The people’s advocate (Alexandria, Va.;Washington, D.C.), May 20, 1876 The source’s own wording: “I am perfectly satisfied”.
J. Lawrence Smith stated that abandoning the batrachian spawn theory reopens the whole question and that the subject should seek a solution through the public press
The people’s advocate (Alexandria, Va.;Washington, D.C.), May 20, 1876
J. Lawrence Smith stated that Professor Robert Peter of Lexington, through whom Smith obtained Mr. Parker’s specimen, thinks the fall of flesh was the result of a kind of post-prandial disgorging by a flock of buzzards that had been feasting on the carcass of a sheep
The people’s advocate (Alexandria, Va.;Washington, D.C.), May 20, 1876 The source’s own wording: “thinks”.
Daily Kennebec journal (Augusta, Me.), August 8, 1889 The source’s own wording: “who believed”.
Daily Kennebec journal (Augusta, Me.), August 20, 1889 The source’s own wording: “who believed”.
J. Lawrence Smith left open whether the buzzard-disgorging explanation is the truth of the affair
The people’s advocate (Alexandria, Va.;Washington, D.C.), May 20, 1876 The source’s own wording: “Who knows but this is the truth of the whole affair”.
What fell in the Kentucky shower has been variously interpreted
Providence morning star (Providence, R.I.), May 29, 1876
Writers of a facetious vein argued that the shower showed the poor of Kentucky were well provided for
Providence morning star (Providence, R.I.), May 29, 1876
Some considered the Kentucky shower of flesh a hoax from the beginning
Providence morning star (Providence, R.I.), May 29, 1876
A class of writers headed their account of the Kentucky shower with the name of a naturalist and called the shower a rain of “dry frog-spawn”
Providence morning star (Providence, R.I.), May 29, 1876 The source’s own wording: “presuming on the good nature of a naturalist”.
Many other interpretations of the Kentucky shower have followed, absurd as well as impossible
Providence morning star (Providence, R.I.), May 29, 1876
A gentleman writing in a late number of the Sanitarian obtained specimens of the substance that fell in Kentucky and made a careful analysis of it
Providence morning star (Providence, R.I.), May 29, 1876
The gentleman writing in the Sanitarian proved beyond doubt the vegetable nature of the substance that fell in Kentucky
Providence morning star (Providence, R.I.), May 29, 1876
A former article by the same writer cited many “rains of blood” and their effects upon the people
Providence morning star (Providence, R.I.), May 29, 1876
Mr. Tarpley, the owner of the Tennessee farm where the flesh fell, sent for a number of his neighbors, all of whom with one voice decided that the fallen material was animal matter.
Mineral Point tribune (Mineral Point, Wis.), March 29, 1876
Dr. Girard Troost promptly pronounced the material sent from the Tennessee tobacco field to be meat and bloody matter.
Mineral Point tribune (Mineral Point, Wis.), March 29, 1876
Some of Mr. Tarpley’s negroes eventually let it out that they had taken a dead hog, chopped it up into small pieces, and scattered it broadcast over the tobacco field as a practical joke.
Mineral Point tribune (Mineral Point, Wis.), March 29, 1876
The writer of the Chicago Times contribution was a student in the University of Nashville soon after the Tennessee shower and, after graduating, spent a year in Lebanon, where the trick was still talked about.
Mineral Point tribune (Mineral Point, Wis.), March 29, 1876
The prevailing opinion attributes the origin of nostoc to a shower of flesh from the upper regions.
Gloucester County Democrat (Woodbury, N.J.), October 5, 1882 The source’s own wording: “the prevailing opinion, which is of course erroneous”.
Strange virtues have been attributed to nostoc because its origin is mysterious.
Gloucester County Democrat (Woodbury, N.J.), October 5, 1882
Mrs. Crouch gave an account of the flesh fall stating that between 11 and 12 o’clock she was in her yard, not more than forty steps from the house.
Daily Kennebec journal (Augusta, Me.), August 8, 1889 The source’s own wording: “This account, given by Mrs. Crouch, was substantially as follows”.
The morning news (Savannah, Ga.), September 18, 1889
Daily Kennebec journal (Augusta, Me.), August 20, 1889 The source’s own wording: “This account, given by Mrs. Crouch, was substantially as follows”.
Wichita eagle (Wichita, Kan.), August 30, 1889
Mrs. Crouch stated that there was a light wind coming from the west, but the sky was clear and the sun was shining brightly when the shower commenced.
Daily Kennebec journal (Augusta, Me.), August 8, 1889 The source’s own wording: “substantially as follows”.
The morning news (Savannah, Ga.), September 18, 1889
Daily Kennebec journal (Augusta, Me.), August 20, 1889
Wichita eagle (Wichita, Kan.), August 30, 1889
Mrs. Crouch stated that the fall of flesh lasted not less than one nor more than two minutes and began without any prelude or warning of any kind.
Daily Kennebec journal (Augusta, Me.), August 8, 1889 The source’s own wording: “substantially as follows”.
Daily Kennebec journal (Augusta, Me.), August 8, 1889 The source’s own wording: “substantially as follows”.
The morning news (Savannah, Ga.), September 18, 1889
The morning news (Savannah, Ga.), September 18, 1889 The source’s own wording: “I was impressed with the conviction”.
Daily Kennebec journal (Augusta, Me.), August 20, 1889
Daily Kennebec journal (Augusta, Me.), August 20, 1889
Wichita eagle (Wichita, Kan.), August 30, 1889
Wichita eagle (Wichita, Kan.), August 30, 1889 The source’s own wording: “I was impressed with the conviction”.
Mrs. Crouch stated that she saw a large piece of flesh strike the ground close by her with a snapping-like noise.
Daily Kennebec journal (Augusta, Me.), August 8, 1889 The source’s own wording: “substantially as follows”.
The morning news (Savannah, Ga.), September 18, 1889
Daily Kennebec journal (Augusta, Me.), August 20, 1889
Wichita eagle (Wichita, Kan.), August 30, 1889
Mrs. Crouch stated that the largest piece she saw was as long as her hand and about half an inch wide, and looked gristly, as if torn from the throat of some animal.
Daily Kennebec journal (Augusta, Me.), August 8, 1889 The source’s own wording: “substantially as follows”.
Daily Kennebec journal (Augusta, Me.), August 8, 1889 The source’s own wording: “substantially as follows”.
The morning news (Savannah, Ga.), September 18, 1889 The source’s own wording: “as if”.
The morning news (Savannah, Ga.), September 18, 1889
Daily Kennebec journal (Augusta, Me.), August 20, 1889 The source’s own wording: “as if it hail been tore from”.
Wichita eagle (Wichita, Kan.), August 30, 1889 The source’s own wording: “as if”.
Wichita eagle (Wichita, Kan.), August 30, 1889
An old hunter residing in the neighborhood of the Crouch farm, on being shown a piece of the flesh, declared it to be bear meat and said it had ‘that uncommonly greasy feel’ peculiar to the flesh of that animal.
Daily Kennebec journal (Augusta, Me.), August 8, 1889
Daily Kennebec journal (Augusta, Me.), August 20, 1889
Wichita eagle (Wichita, Kan.), August 30, 1889
A butcher who was persuaded to taste the meat changed his mind about swallowing any of it and declared that it tasted neither like flesh, fish nor fowl; it looked to him like mutton but the smell was a new one.
Daily Kennebec journal (Augusta, Me.), August 8, 1889
Daily Kennebec journal (Augusta, Me.), August 20, 1889
Daily Kennebec journal (Augusta, Me.), August 20, 1889
Wichita eagle (Wichita, Kan.), August 30, 1889
Professor J. L. Smith was at first inclined to pronounce the fallen substance the dried spawn of frogs.
Daily Kennebec journal (Augusta, Me.), August 8, 1889 The source’s own wording: “was at first inclined to pronounce”.
Daily Kennebec journal (Augusta, Me.), August 20, 1889 The source’s own wording: “was at first inclined to”.
Wichita eagle (Wichita, Kan.), August 30, 1889 The source’s own wording: “was at first inclined to pronouaoe”.
Mrs. Crouch gave an account of the Kentucky flesh fall which the St. Louis Globe-Democrat reproduced as substantially accurate.
The morning news (Savannah, Ga.), September 18, 1889 The source’s own wording: “substantially as follows”.
Wichita eagle (Wichita, Kan.), August 30, 1889 The source’s own wording: “was substantially as follows”.
Algin Crouch, a white married male, died on 25 May 1917 at the age of 69, per a Kentucky death certificate filed in Bath County in 1917.
Kentucky Certificate of Death no. 12987, Algin Crouch, Bath County, filed 1917
Kentucky Certificate of Death no. 12987, Algin Crouch, Bath County, filed 1917
Kentucky Certificate of Death no. 12987, Algin Crouch, Bath County, filed 1917
Kentucky Certificate of Death no. 3373, Elizabeth Crouch, Bath County, filed 26 February 1918
The names of both the father and the mother of Algin Crouch, who died 25 May 1917 in Bath County, Kentucky, were recorded on his death certificate as unknown.
Kentucky Certificate of Death no. 12987, Algin Crouch, Bath County, filed 1917 The source’s own wording: “Don’t know”.
Algin Crouch, who died 25 May 1917 in Bath County, Kentucky, was buried on 26 May 1917 in Dickerson Graveyard, with J. W. Vaughan of Salt Lick, Ky., as undertaker.
Kentucky Certificate of Death no. 12987, Algin Crouch, Bath County, filed 1917
Kentucky Certificate of Death no. 3373, Elizabeth Crouch, Bath County, filed 26 February 1918
The father of Elizabeth Crouch, who died in Bath County, Kentucky, in 1918, is recorded as Greenberry Moore, born in Virginia.
Kentucky Certificate of Death no. 3373, Elizabeth Crouch, Bath County, filed 26 February 1918
Kentucky Certificate of Death no. 3373, Elizabeth Crouch, Bath County, filed 26 February 1918
Kentucky county marriage records: Allen Crouch to Elizabeth Moore, 19 September 1867, Bath County; Allen T. Crouch to Rebecca Staten, 9 December 1837, Bath County
The informant named on the 1918 death certificate of Elizabeth Crouch was Leander Crouch of Salt Lick, Kentucky.
Kentucky Certificate of Death no. 3373, Elizabeth Crouch, Bath County, filed 26 February 1918
Allen T. Crouch married Rebecca Staten in Bath County, Kentucky, on 9 December 1837
Kentucky county marriage records: Allen Crouch to Elizabeth Moore, 19 September 1867, Bath County; Allen T. Crouch to Rebecca Staten, 9 December 1837, Bath County
1880 US Census, Seventh Precinct (Tanyard), Bath County, Kentucky, enumerated 15 June 1880, dwelling 172 (NARA microfilm T9; Supervisor’s Dist. 5, Enumeration Dist. 7, stamped page 363)
Mr. A. T. Parker of Lexington sent a slide of the Kentucky substance to Mr. Walmsley of Philadelphia, who made it available to the editors of The American Journal of Microscopy for examination.
‘The Kentucky Meat Shower’, The American Journal of Microscopy and Popular Science, vol. I, 1876, p. 84
A. T. Parker subsequently sent the journal specimens of the Kentucky substance consisting of both muscular fibre and cartilage.
‘The Kentucky Meat Shower’, The American Journal of Microscopy and Popular Science, vol. I, 1876, p. 84
Mr. Brandeis and others examined specimens of the Kentucky substance in Brooklyn and pronounced them to be Nostoc.
‘The Kentucky Meat Shower’, The American Journal of Microscopy and Popular Science, vol. I, 1876, p. 84
‘The Kentucky Meat Shower’, The American Journal of Microscopy and Popular Science, vol. I, 1876, p. 84
Professor J. W. S. Arnold and Dr. A. Mead Edwards are among the authorities for the opinion that the specimens are lung tissue.
‘The Kentucky Meat Shower’, The American Journal of Microscopy and Popular Science, vol. I, 1876, p. 84 The source’s own wording: “amongst others”.
The question of the nature of the material composing the so-called meat shower is no longer an open one.
‘The Kentucky Meat Shower’, The American Journal of Microscopy and Popular Science, vol. I, 1876, p. 84 The source’s own wording: “We therefore regard”.
The source or origin of the Kentucky meat remains undecided.
‘The Kentucky Meat Shower’, The American Journal of Microscopy and Popular Science, vol. I, 1876, p. 84 The source’s own wording: “still sub judice”.
Captain J. M. Bent exhibited specimens of the flesh to a Courier-Journal reporter, and the two took them to the residence of Professor J. Lawrence Smith.
The Eaton Democrat (Eaton, Ohio), 23 March 1876, p. 1
The White Pine news (Treasure City, Nev.), March 18, 1876
Captain J. M. Bent stated that the flesh-fall took place at two o’clock last Friday, March 3.
The Eaton Democrat (Eaton, Ohio), 23 March 1876, p. 1
Captain J. M. Bent stated that the flesh-fall occurred in Bath county, near Harry Gill’s Mudlick Sulphur Springs, about seventeen miles east of Mount Sterling.
The Eaton Democrat (Eaton, Ohio), 23 March 1876, p. 1 The source’s own wording: “I think, about seventeen miles east”.
Captain J. M. Bent stated that he did not himself witness the occurrence, and that his information first came from Judge Day, of Menifee.
The Eaton Democrat (Eaton, Ohio), 23 March 1876, p. 1
Captain J. M. Bent stated that hundreds of people were willing to attest the truth of the matter with affidavits.
The Eaton Democrat (Eaton, Ohio), 23 March 1876, p. 1
Captain J. M. Bent stated that the day of the fall had been pleasant, that the heavens were clear, the sun shining brightly, and nothing unusual visible except a few straggling light clouds.
The Eaton Democrat (Eaton, Ohio), 23 March 1876, p. 1 The source’s own wording: “as nearly as I can ascertain”.
The Eaton Democrat (Eaton, Ohio), 23 March 1876, p. 1
Captain J. M. Bent stated that the wife of farmer Crouch, whose place is near Mudlick Springs, was standing in her doorway, observed particles of a peculiar and unusual kind descending from a clear sky, and called others to witness it.
The Eaton Democrat (Eaton, Ohio), 23 March 1876, p. 1 The source’s own wording: “as nearly as I can ascertain”.
Captain J. M. Bent stated that the fall of the flakes lasted about ten minutes and that they came down in scattering showers.
The Eaton Democrat (Eaton, Ohio), 23 March 1876, p. 1
Captain J. M. Bent stated that the flakes settled on a space of Mr. Crouch’s farm probably one hundred by two hundred yards in extent.
The Eaton Democrat (Eaton, Ohio), 23 March 1876, p. 1 The source’s own wording: “probably”.
Captain J. M. Bent stated that the flakes ranged from the size of a pea to that of a human finger, were rather thin, of regular flesh color, and left a mark on trees and fences similar to that of blood in its secondary condition.
The Eaton Democrat (Eaton, Ohio), 23 March 1876, p. 1
Captain J. M. Bent stated that the fallen substance was somewhat like mutton in appearance.
The Eaton Democrat (Eaton, Ohio), 23 March 1876, p. 1 The source’s own wording: “somewhat like”.
Captain J. M. Bent stated that hogs and chickens gathered in large numbers and devoured the flakes with evident relish.
The Eaton Democrat (Eaton, Ohio), 23 March 1876, p. 1
Captain J. M. Bent stated that a butcher of Mount Sterling who was in Bath county at the time shaved off a piece of the flesh with his knife, roasted it, said the substance was palatable, but was unable to tell from what animal it came.
The Eaton Democrat (Eaton, Ohio), 23 March 1876, p. 1
Captain J. M. Bent stated that Harry Gill, of Mudlick Springs, a gentleman of very high reputation, and a hundred others would furnish affidavits if necessary.
The Eaton Democrat (Eaton, Ohio), 23 March 1876, p. 1
Captain J. M. Bent stated that after the event was noised abroad people flocked around in dozens and gathered considerable of the flesh.
The Eaton Democrat (Eaton, Ohio), 23 March 1876, p. 1
Asked by Professor J. Lawrence Smith whether decomposition affected the particles after they had fallen, Captain J. M. Bent answered that he thought so.
The Eaton Democrat (Eaton, Ohio), 23 March 1876, p. 1 The source’s own wording: “I think so, sir”.
Professor J. Lawrence Smith said of the specimens that all he could say was that the substance seemed to be of an animal nature, and that he would examine it and be able to speak further concerning it.
The Eaton Democrat (Eaton, Ohio), 23 March 1876, p. 1 The source’s own wording: “All I can say is that it seems to be”.
A scientist whose analysis of specimens from the Bath county shower of flesh was published stated that the matter gave every indication of being the ova of batrachian reptiles, taken up from ponds and swampy grounds by currents of wind and ultimately fallen on the spot where they were found.
The Eaton Democrat (Eaton, Ohio), 23 March 1876, p. 1 The source’s own wording: “In my mind this matter gives every indication”.
The scientist analysing the Bath county specimens stated that this was no isolated occurrence of the kind, and that he had come across mention of several such in the course of his reading.
The Eaton Democrat (Eaton, Ohio), 23 March 1876, p. 1
The scientist analysing the Bath county specimens cited an instance recorded by Muschenbroek as occurring in Ireland in 1675, in which the matter was described as gelatinous and fatty, softening when held in the hand and emitting an unpleasant smell when exposed to the action of fire.
The Eaton Democrat (Eaton, Ohio), 23 March 1876, p. 1 The source’s own wording: “The only way I can now fix the date is by an instance recorded”.
The scientist analysing the Bath county specimens described the ovum or egg of the batrachian reptiles as a round mass of transparent nutritive jelly with a small black globule appearing at its center.
The Eaton Democrat (Eaton, Ohio), 23 March 1876, p. 1
The scientist analysing the Bath county specimens stated that he had asked for more of the matter to be sent to him, and that if there were any modification of his views he would make them known.
The Eaton Democrat (Eaton, Ohio), 23 March 1876, p. 1
Mrs. Crouch stated that another piece of the flesh she saw was half round in shape and about the size of a half dollar.
Daily Kennebec journal (Augusta, Me.), August 20, 1889
Some people believed the Kentucky fall of flesh to be simply a disgorging of the carcass of a sheep.
Wichita eagle (Wichita, Kan.), August 30, 1889 The source’s own wording: “who believed”.
A Louisville scientist explained the mysterious shower of meat in Kentucky as spawn of frogs carried up from ponds by strong currents of wind.
The White Pine news (Treasure City, Nev.), March 18, 1876 The source’s own wording: “is explained by a Louisville scientist”.
Professor Lawrence Smith stated there is no doubt that the specimen brought to Louisville is animal flesh.
The White Pine news (Treasure City, Nev.), March 18, 1876 The source’s own wording: “who says there is no doubt”.
Professor Lawrence Smith proposed making an examination of the specimen on the day after March 10, 1876.
The White Pine news (Treasure City, Nev.), March 18, 1876 The source’s own wording: “He proposes”.
An unnamed learned professor withdrew his original theory that the Kentucky meat shower material was reptilian spawn, after being convinced by the microscopic examinations of two other men in his field.
The Somerset press (Somerset, Ohio), June 9, 1876
The Somerset press (Somerset, Ohio), June 9, 1876 The source’s own wording: “He now favors”.
The buzzard theory of the Kentucky meat shower is so extremely unpleasant that The Somerset press declined to print it as the true explanation of the matter.
The Somerset press (Somerset, Ohio), June 9, 1876 The source’s own wording: “we are unwilling to give it”.
What was claimed, and by whom
Reported here as claims rather than facts, with whoever made them named.
The material of the Kentucky meat shower of 1876 was a peculiar substance capable of taking on a flesh-like form in the atmosphere.
Asserted by: Hiram Adolphus Cutting, Mr. Brandeis and others, New Orleans Republican, an unnamed learned professor, as reported by The Somerset press.
Hiram Adolphus Cutting, ‘Meteorological Tables and Climatology of Vermont, with Map Showing Rainfall …’, 1877, page 39
‘The Kentucky Meat Shower’, The American Journal of Microscopy and Popular Science, vol. I, 1876, p. 84
New Orleans Republican (New Orleans, La), April 29, 1876
The Somerset press (Somerset, Ohio), June 9, 1876 The source’s own wording: “his original theory”.
The Somerset press (Somerset, Ohio), June 9, 1876 The source’s own wording: “the buzzard theory”.
An event at Memphis, Tennessee, would overshadow the Kentucky meat shower.
Asserted by: E. Randall Floyd.
Floyd, E. Randall, ‘Great American mysteries : raining snakes, fabled cities of gold, strange disappearances, and other baffling tales’, 1991, page 202
Leopold Brandeis published an explanation of the Kentucky meat-shower in the Sanitarian
Asserted by: Richard Marshall, ‘Mysteries of the Unexplained’.
Marshall, Richard, ‘Mysteries of the unexplained’, n.d., page 330
Flesh fell last Friday in Bath county, Kentucky.
Asserted by: Great southern mysteries, Louisville dispatch of March 10 printed in The White Pine News.
None, ‘Great southern mysteries’, 1989, page 190
The White Pine news (Treasure City, Nev.), March 18, 1876
An article titled “Another Shower of Flesh and Blood” was published in the Pittsfield Sun on February 29, 1844.
Asserted by: Southern Cultures (Volume 18, Number 1, Spring 2012), endnote.
‘Southern Cultures : Volume 18: Number 1 – Spring 2012 Issue’, 2012, page 136
A shower of flesh and blood was reported in a tobacco field at Lebanon, Tennessee, on August 17, 1841.
Asserted by: William R. Corliss (catalog of geophysical anomalies).
Corliss, William R, ‘Tornados, dark days, anomalous precipitation, and related weather phenomena : a catalog of geophysical anomalies’, 1983, page 218 The source’s own wording: “reported”.
A statement quoted in Charles Fort’s ‘The Book of the Damned’ declares that a proper explanation of the Kentucky material had at last been obtained.
Asserted by: Charles Fort (quoting an unnamed source).
charles fort, ‘the book of the damned’, 1941, page 294
Charles Fort wrote that a substance reported from Kentucky had been examined by Leopold Brandeis.
Asserted by: Charles Fort.
Fort, Charles, 1874-1932, ‘The book of the damned’, 1919, page 310
Fort, Charles, 1874-1932, ‘The book of the damned, by Charles Fort’, 1919, page 314
Worm showers in Norway are similar to the meat showers of Kentucky
Asserted by: Fanciers’ Journal and Poultry Exchange.
‘Fanciers’ Journal and Poultry Exchange’, 1876 [text via Internet Archive: fanciersjournalp31876phil] The source’s own wording: “something similar to”.
In Norway, a number of worms were found crawling on the snow after a violent storm
Asserted by: Fanciers’ Journal and Poultry Exchange.
‘Fanciers’ Journal and Poultry Exchange’, 1876 [text via Internet Archive: fanciersjournalp31876phil]
No crevices in the ground could be found from which the Norwegian worms might have crept out, the earth being frozen
Asserted by: Fanciers’ Journal and Poultry Exchange.
‘Fanciers’ Journal and Poultry Exchange’, 1876 [text via Internet Archive: fanciersjournalp31876phil]
The explanation of the Kentucky meat shower is the same as the explanation of the presence of the worms in Norway
Asserted by: Fanciers’ Journal and Poultry Exchange.
‘Fanciers’ Journal and Poultry Exchange’, 1876 [text via Internet Archive: fanciersjournalp31876phil]
The fallen material was lifted up by wind-storms having their centers in distant localities, carried up into the air, and dropped again
Asserted by: Fanciers’ Journal and Poultry Exchange.
‘Fanciers’ Journal and Poultry Exchange’, 1876 [text via Internet Archive: fanciersjournalp31876phil]
Showers of frogs, of fishes, of bloody rain and of snow have frequently occurred.
Asserted by: Leopold Brandeis.
Leopold Brandeis, ‘Kentucky Shower of Flesh’, The Sanitarian, vol. IV (1876), p. 222
The reported fall of flesh in Kentucky offers some features of special interest compared with other reported showers.
Asserted by: Leopold Brandeis.
Leopold Brandeis, ‘Kentucky Shower of Flesh’, The Sanitarian, vol. IV (1876), p. 222 The source’s own wording: “offers some features of special interest”.
Specimens of the ‘Kentucky shower’ reached Brandeis’s city preserved in glycerine and in good condition.
Asserted by: Leopold Brandeis.
Leopold Brandeis, ‘Kentucky Shower of Flesh’, The Sanitarian, vol. IV (1876), p. 222
The substance involved in the Kentucky shower was the alga Nostoc, and specifically the flesh-colored Nostoc carneum.
Asserted by: Leopold Brandeis.
Leopold Brandeis, ‘Kentucky Shower of Flesh’, The Sanitarian, vol. IV (1876), p. 222
Nostoc spores, once out of their gelatinous envelope, may be wafted by the winds and carried great distances.
Asserted by: Leopold Brandeis.
Leopold Brandeis, ‘Kentucky Shower of Flesh’, The Sanitarian, vol. IV (1876), p. 222 The source’s own wording: “they may be wafted by the winds here and there, and they may be carried”.
Wherever Nostoc spores fall and find dampness or recent rain, they thrive and spread very rapidly.
Asserted by: Leopold Brandeis.
Leopold Brandeis, ‘Kentucky Shower of Flesh’, The Sanitarian, vol. IV (1876), p. 222
Many cases are on record in which Nostoc covered miles of ground with long strings in a very few hours.
Asserted by: Leopold Brandeis.
Leopold Brandeis, ‘Kentucky Shower of Flesh’, The Sanitarian, vol. IV (1876), p. 222 The source’s own wording: “many cases are recorded”.
People almost everywhere believe Nostoc falls from the clouds because of the rapidity with which it grows.
Asserted by: Leopold Brandeis.
Leopold Brandeis, ‘Kentucky Shower of Flesh’, The Sanitarian, vol. IV (1876), p. 222
The flavor of flesh-colored Nostoc approaches that of frog or spring chicken legs.
Asserted by: Leopold Brandeis.
Leopold Brandeis, ‘Kentucky Shower of Flesh’, The Sanitarian, vol. IV (1876), p. 222 The source’s own wording: “approaches”.
Flesh-colored Nostoc is greedily devoured by almost all domestic animals.
Asserted by: Leopold Brandeis.
Leopold Brandeis, ‘Kentucky Shower of Flesh’, The Sanitarian, vol. IV (1876), p. 222 The source’s own wording: “almost all”.
The flesh fall on Mr. Crouch’s Bath County farm drew considerable attention at the time from the press, from many learned societies and from private individuals.
Asserted by: L. D. Kastenbine, L. D. Kastenbine, M. D..
L. D. Kastenbine, ‘The Kentucky Meat Shower’, Louisville Medical News, 20 May 1876, p. 255
L. D. Kastenbine, ‘The Kentucky Meat Shower’, Louisville Medical News, vol. I no. 21, 20 May 1876, p. 254
Many people were inclined to treat the reported Bath County flesh fall as ‘scientific bait.’
Asserted by: L. D. Kastenbine.
L. D. Kastenbine, ‘The Kentucky Meat Shower’, Louisville Medical News, 20 May 1876, p. 255 The source’s own wording: “Many were disposed to”.
The material that fell in Bath County was batrachian spawn scattered over the land by a whirlwind.
Asserted by: unnamed persons reported by L. D. Kastenbine.
L. D. Kastenbine, ‘The Kentucky Meat Shower’, Louisville Medical News, 20 May 1876, p. 255
L. D. Kastenbine examined one of five specimens of the fallen flesh that had been given to the pharmacist Simon N. Jones by Dr. Luke P. Blackburn.
Asserted by: L. D. Kastenbine.
L. D. Kastenbine, ‘The Kentucky Meat Shower’, Louisville Medical News, 20 May 1876, p. 255
The specimen L. D. Kastenbine examined was contained in a morphine bottle labelled with a paragraph from the Courier-Journal.
Asserted by: L. D. Kastenbine.
L. D. Kastenbine, ‘The Kentucky Meat Shower’, Louisville Medical News, 20 May 1876, p. 255
When a small portion of the specimen was heated on a platinum spatula over a Bunsen burner, it melted and burned with a spurting flame, the grease running out toward the handle.
Asserted by: L. D. Kastenbine.
L. D. Kastenbine, ‘The Kentucky Meat Shower’, Louisville Medical News, 20 May 1876, p. 255
On warming, the specimen’s odor was distinctly like rancid mutton-suet, and after ignition it had the characteristic smell of burned animal tissue.
Asserted by: L. D. Kastenbine.
L. D. Kastenbine, ‘The Kentucky Meat Shower’, Louisville Medical News, 20 May 1876, p. 255
L. D. Kastenbine’s preparation methods brought out muscular fiber in the specimen, and a solution of common salt rendered the striae exceedingly distinct, showing it to be a portion of voluntary fiber.
Asserted by: L. D. Kastenbine.
L. D. Kastenbine, ‘The Kentucky Meat Shower’, Louisville Medical News, 20 May 1876, p. 255
Connective and fatty tissues were also clearly shown in the specimen L. D. Kastenbine examined.
Asserted by: L. D. Kastenbine.
L. D. Kastenbine, ‘The Kentucky Meat Shower’, Louisville Medical News, 20 May 1876, p. 255
The material that fell in Bath County was animal flesh, specifically mutton, containing voluntary muscular fiber together with connective and fatty tissue.
Asserted by: L. D. Kastenbine, Wichita Eagle.
L. D. Kastenbine, ‘The Kentucky Meat Shower’, Louisville Medical News, 20 May 1876, p. 255
Wichita eagle (Wichita, Kan.), August 30, 1889 The source’s own wording: “perbepi, after all, tbe most satisfactory explanation”.
Vultures sailing over the Crouch farm disgorged flesh, and from their immense height the particles were scattered by the prevailing wind over the ground.
Asserted by: L. D. Kastenbine.
L. D. Kastenbine, ‘The Kentucky Meat Shower’, Louisville Medical News, 20 May 1876, p. 255 The source’s own wording: “appears to me to be”.
The substance said to have fallen in Kentucky was carefully examined in New York City by men of experience and ability after the journal’s previous issue
Asserted by: The American Journal of Microscopy and Popular Science.
‘The Kentucky Meat Shower’, The American Journal of Microscopy and Popular Science, vol. I no. 7, June 1876, p. 84
‘The Kentucky Meat Shower’, The American Journal of Microscopy and Popular Science, vol. I, 1876, p. 84 The source’s own wording: “is said to have fallen”.
The substance said to have fallen in Kentucky proved on examination to be of animal origin
Asserted by: The American Journal of Microscopy and Popular Science.
‘The Kentucky Meat Shower’, The American Journal of Microscopy and Popular Science, vol. I no. 7, June 1876, p. 84 The source’s own wording: “of undoubted animal origin”.
‘The Kentucky Meat Shower’, The American Journal of Microscopy and Popular Science, vol. I, 1876, p. 84
Mr. Walmsley of Philadelphia enabled the American Journal of Microscopy and Popular Science to examine a slide of the Kentucky substance that had been sent to him by Mr. A. T. Parker of Lexington
Asserted by: The American Journal of Microscopy and Popular Science.
‘The Kentucky Meat Shower’, The American Journal of Microscopy and Popular Science, vol. I no. 7, June 1876, p. 84
The slide of the Kentucky substance received from Mr. Walmsley was striated muscular fibre
Asserted by: The American Journal of Microscopy and Popular Science.
‘The Kentucky Meat Shower’, The American Journal of Microscopy and Popular Science, vol. I no. 7, June 1876, p. 84 The source’s own wording: “without any doubt”.
The American Journal of Microscopy and Popular Science subsequently received directly from Mr. A. T. Parker specimens of both muscular fibre and cartilage
Asserted by: The American Journal of Microscopy and Popular Science.
‘The Kentucky Meat Shower’, The American Journal of Microscopy and Popular Science, vol. I no. 7, June 1876, p. 84
Dick Kervin and Ab. Kervin were standing in the back yard of Ab. Kervin when a shower of flesh fell upon and around them, a few days before 10 June 1876
Asserted by: Columbus (Ga.) Enquirer.
‘Another Shower of Flesh Reported’, The American Journal of Microscopy and Popular Science, 1876, p. 110, quoting the Columbus (Ga.) Enquirer of 10 June 1876
On looking up after the fall of flesh, Dick and Ab. Kervin saw several buzzards flying about roughly 100 feet above them
Asserted by: Columbus (Ga.) Enquirer.
‘Another Shower of Flesh Reported’, The American Journal of Microscopy and Popular Science, 1876, p. 110, quoting the Columbus (Ga.) Enquirer of 10 June 1876
Buzzards flying overhead were the source of the flesh that fell on Dick and Ab. Kervin at Columbus, Georgia
Asserted by: Columbus (Ga.) Enquirer, Columbus (Ga.) Enquirer, citing a Louisville Professor.
‘Another Shower of Flesh Reported’, The American Journal of Microscopy and Popular Science, 1876, p. 110, quoting the Columbus (Ga.) Enquirer of 10 June 1876
‘Another Shower of Flesh Reported’, The American Journal of Microscopy and Popular Science, 1876, p. 110, quoting the Columbus (Ga.) Enquirer of 10 June 1876 The source’s own wording: “this may account for”.
Falls of flesh have often occurred and have remained unexplained
Asserted by: Columbus (Ga.) Enquirer.
‘Another Shower of Flesh Reported’, The American Journal of Microscopy and Popular Science, 1876, p. 110, quoting the Columbus (Ga.) Enquirer of 10 June 1876
The particles of the Columbus, Georgia shower of flesh were not gathered or analyzed, unlike those of the Kentucky shower
Asserted by: Columbus (Ga.) Enquirer.
‘Another Shower of Flesh Reported’, The American Journal of Microscopy and Popular Science, 1876, p. 110, quoting the Columbus (Ga.) Enquirer of 10 June 1876
‘Another Shower of Flesh Reported’, The American Journal of Microscopy and Popular Science, 1876, p. 110, quoting the Columbus (Ga.) Enquirer of 10 June 1876
Mrs. Crouch, of Olympian Springs, Kentucky, was employed in the open air and under a particularly clear sky making soap when meat fell.
Asserted by: New York Times (reprinted in the Burlington Weekly Free Press), William Livingston Alden, ‘Domestic Explosives and Other Sixth Column Fancies’ (New York Times).
Burlington weekly free press (Burlington, Vt.), 31 March 1876, p. 1
William Livingston Alden, ‘Domestic Explosives and Other Sixth Column Fancies: (From the New York Times.)’, 1877 [text via Internet Archive: domesticexplosi00aldegoog]
The meat fell upon both Mrs. Crouch of Olympian Springs, Kentucky, and her cat, and the cat immediately gorged itself on the fallen meat.
Asserted by: New York Times (reprinted in the Burlington Weekly Free Press), William Livingston Alden, ‘Domestic Explosives and Other Sixth Column Fancies’ (New York Times).
Burlington weekly free press (Burlington, Vt.), 31 March 1876, p. 1
William Livingston Alden, ‘Domestic Explosives and Other Sixth Column Fancies: (From the New York Times.)’, 1877 [text via Internet Archive: domesticexplosi00aldegoog]
The meat that fell on Mrs. Crouch of Olympian Springs, Kentucky, was in the shape of hash, its particles ranging in size from a shred as light as a snowflake to a solid lump three inches square.
Asserted by: New York Times (reprinted in the Burlington Weekly Free Press).
Burlington weekly free press (Burlington, Vt.), 31 March 1876, p. 1
The meat that fell in Kentucky was in a raw state but was obviously perfectly fresh.
Asserted by: New York Times (reprinted in the Burlington Weekly Free Press).
Burlington weekly free press (Burlington, Vt.), 31 March 1876, p. 1 The source’s own wording: “obviously”.
Two Kentucky gentlemen in prosperous circumstances and accustomed to eating raw meat tasted the fallen meat and gave the opinion that it was either venison or mutton.
Asserted by: New York Times (reprinted in the Burlington Weekly Free Press).
Burlington weekly free press (Burlington, Vt.), 31 March 1876, p. 1 The source’s own wording: “pronounced the opinion”.
The meat that fell in Kentucky was either venison or mutton.
Asserted by: New York Times (reprinted in the Burlington Weekly Free Press), Two unnamed Kentucky gentlemen, as reported by the New York Times.
Burlington weekly free press (Burlington, Vt.), 31 March 1876, p. 1 The source’s own wording: “pronounced the opinion that”.
Burlington weekly free press (Burlington, Vt.), 31 March 1876, p. 1 The source’s own wording: “The most obvious conclusion is … Similarly we may suppose”.
The fall of meat in Kentucky had not been predicted by the Weather Bureau.
Asserted by: New York Times (reprinted in the Burlington Weekly Free Press).
Burlington weekly free press (Burlington, Vt.), 31 March 1876, p. 1
No trace of bone, buttons or other components of commercial hash could be discovered in the fallen Kentucky meat by the most searching analysis.
Asserted by: New York Times (reprinted in the Burlington Weekly Free Press).
Burlington weekly free press (Burlington, Vt.), 31 March 1876, p. 1
The Kentucky fall of meat could not have been the result of the blowing up of a distant boarding house.
Asserted by: New York Times (reprinted in the Burlington Weekly Free Press).
Burlington weekly free press (Burlington, Vt.), 31 March 1876, p. 1
The Kentucky shower consisted of fragments of exploded inhabitants who formerly occupied a wrecked planet.
Asserted by: New York Times (reprinted in the Burlington Weekly Free Press).
Burlington weekly free press (Burlington, Vt.), 31 March 1876, p. 1 The source’s own wording: “If they revive the theory … then we may require them to admit”.
The Kentucky fall of meat was caused by the explosion of a cattle steamboat.
Asserted by: Unnamed scientific persons, as anticipated by the New York Times.
Burlington weekly free press (Burlington, Vt.), 31 March 1876, p. 1 The source’s own wording: “IceDle [feeble] hyotheses”.
The fall of meat in Kentucky alarmed the Kentucky butchers and filled all other Kentuckians with amazement and delight.
Asserted by: New York Times (reprinted in the Burlington Weekly Free Press).
Burlington weekly free press (Burlington, Vt.), 31 March 1876, p. 1
No instruments show any traces of meat in the solar system or the interstellar spaces.
Asserted by: New York Times (reprinted in the Burlington Weekly Free Press).
Burlington weekly free press (Burlington, Vt.), 31 March 1876, p. 1 The source’s own wording: “Doubtless, their final argument will be that … This is very true”.
A shower of meat fell last Friday morning on a farm in Olympian Springs, Kentucky.
Asserted by: New York Graphic (comic verse reprinted in the Bismarck Weekly Tribune).
Bismarck weekly tribune (Bismarck, D.T.), 5 April 1876, p. 2
Bismarck weekly tribune (Bismarck, D.T.), 5 April 1876, p. 2
The fallen meat extended for a mile around, clung to fences and covered the ground.
Asserted by: New York Graphic (comic verse reprinted in the Bismarck Weekly Tribune).
Bismarck weekly tribune (Bismarck, D.T.), 5 April 1876, p. 2
Local country people tasted the fallen meat and disagreed over whether it was mutton, beef, pork or venison.
Asserted by: New York Graphic (comic verse reprinted in the Bismarck Weekly Tribune).
Bismarck weekly tribune (Bismarck, D.T.), 5 April 1876, p. 2
A woman called old Aunt Dinah said the fall of meat was doom and that a witch had fallen off her broom.
Asserted by: New York Graphic, New York Graphic (comic verse reprinted in the Bismarck Weekly Tribune).
Bismarck weekly tribune (Bismarck, D.T.), 5 April 1876, p. 2
The Eaton Democrat (Eaton, Ohio), 23 March 1876, p. 1
The New York Graphic sought advice about the meat fall from sages and savants.
Asserted by: New York Graphic, New York Graphic (comic verse reprinted in the Bismarck Weekly Tribune).
Bismarck weekly tribune (Bismarck, D.T.), 5 April 1876, p. 2
The Eaton Democrat (Eaton, Ohio), 23 March 1876, p. 1
President Eliot replied to the inquiry about the meat fall by telegraphing “Faugh!” and White of Cornell answered “Pshaw!”
Asserted by: New York Graphic (comic verse reprinted in the Bismarck Weekly Tribune).
Bismarck weekly tribune (Bismarck, D.T.), 5 April 1876, p. 2
McCosh replied that the meat fall was a solemn thought, that thus are the deeds of darkness wrought.
Asserted by: New York Graphic (comic verse reprinted in the Bismarck Weekly Tribune).
Bismarck weekly tribune (Bismarck, D.T.), 5 April 1876, p. 2
Morse proposed that a train ran over a cow and scattered her, producing the meat fall.
Asserted by: New York Graphic (comic verse reprinted in the Bismarck Weekly Tribune).
Bismarck weekly tribune (Bismarck, D.T.), 5 April 1876, p. 2
A train ran over a cow and scattered her remains, which is how the meat came to be strewn about.
Asserted by: Morse, as reported in the New York Graphic comic verse.
Bismarck weekly tribune (Bismarck, D.T.), 5 April 1876, p. 2
Denton said the meat fall was either the spirits’ freak or a sausage factory sprung a leak.
Asserted by: New York Graphic (comic verse reprinted in the Bismarck Weekly Tribune).
Bismarck weekly tribune (Bismarck, D.T.), 5 April 1876, p. 2 The source’s own wording: “either … Or”.
Porter and Silliman suggested that a wind-spout moving across the West whisked up a drove of Texas steers and dropped them in the blue-grass region when the cyclone veered.
Asserted by: New York Graphic (comic verse reprinted in the Bismarck Weekly Tribune).
Bismarck weekly tribune (Bismarck, D.T.), 5 April 1876, p. 2 The source’s own wording: “both suggest”.
A wind-spout moving across the West whisked up a drove of Texas steers and dropped them in the Kentucky blue-grass region when the cyclone veered.
Asserted by: Porter and Silliman, as reported in the New York Graphic comic verse.
Bismarck weekly tribune (Bismarck, D.T.), 5 April 1876, p. 2
Tice explained that the occult cause of the meat fall is found in meteorological laws.
Asserted by: New York Graphic (comic verse reprinted in the Bismarck Weekly Tribune).
Bismarck weekly tribune (Bismarck, D.T.), 5 April 1876, p. 2
The cause of the meat fall lies in meteorological laws.
Asserted by: Tice, as reported in the New York Graphic comic verse.
Bismarck weekly tribune (Bismarck, D.T.), 5 April 1876, p. 2
Cincinnati editors said that a hurricane strayed over a populous pigeon-roost, killed the birds, scattered their meat like rain and blew the feathers away.
Asserted by: New York Graphic (comic verse reprinted in the Bismarck Weekly Tribune).
Bismarck weekly tribune (Bismarck, D.T.), 5 April 1876, p. 2 The source’s own wording: “We reckon”.
A hurricane passed over a populous pigeon-roost, killed the birds and scattered their flesh like rain while their feathers were blown away.
Asserted by: Cincinnati editors, as reported in the New York Graphic comic verse.
Bismarck weekly tribune (Bismarck, D.T.), 5 April 1876, p. 2 The source’s own wording: “We reckon”.
Talmage said of the meat fall that it was ghastly and that he would build a sermon on it.
Asserted by: New York Graphic (comic verse reprinted in the Bismarck Weekly Tribune).
Bismarck weekly tribune (Bismarck, D.T.), 5 April 1876, p. 2
Dana said he hoped the rain of meat would foreshadow a rain of sweet virtue.
Asserted by: New York Graphic (comic verse reprinted in the Bismarck Weekly Tribune).
Bismarck weekly tribune (Bismarck, D.T.), 5 April 1876, p. 2 The source’s own wording: “may”.
Oliver Wendell Holmes said he thought the meat fall a sign of a wreck in the upper air, among the constellations.
Asserted by: New York Graphic (comic verse reprinted in the Bismarck Weekly Tribune).
Bismarck weekly tribune (Bismarck, D.T.), 5 April 1876, p. 2 The source’s own wording: “says that he thinks”.
News from Louisville reported that nobody could find any Harrison Gill.
Asserted by: New York Graphic (comic verse reprinted in the Bismarck Weekly Tribune).
Bismarck weekly tribune (Bismarck, D.T.), 5 April 1876, p. 2
People at Olympian Springs said the reported meat shower was one of Old Allen’s jokes, a hoax.
Asserted by: New York Graphic (comic verse reprinted in the Bismarck Weekly Tribune).
Bismarck weekly tribune (Bismarck, D.T.), 5 April 1876, p. 2
The reported meat shower was a hoax perpetrated as a joke.
Asserted by: Olympian Springs residents, as reported in the New York Graphic comic verse.
Bismarck weekly tribune (Bismarck, D.T.), 5 April 1876, p. 2 The source’s own wording: “Say it is”.
The New York Evening Post considers that, given hard times, news of a food supply of the kind reported in the Kentucky meat shower is important to dwellers in cities.
Asserted by: Bellows Falls Times, reporting the New York Evening Post, Stephen Moss, ‘BBC weather watch’.
Moss, Stephen, 1960-, ‘BBC weather watch’, 1992, page 134 The source’s own wording: “reported”.
Bellows Falls times (Bellows Falls, Vt.), March 17, 1876 The source’s own wording: “thinks”.
A shower of meat is described as an exotic form of manna falling to earth.
Asserted by: Stephen Moss, ‘BBC weather watch’.
Moss, Stephen, 1960-, ‘BBC weather watch’, 1992, page 134
A gentle shower of meat suddenly descended upon a woman.
Asserted by: W. L. Alden, William Livingston Alden (New York Times).
William Livingston Alden, ‘Domestic Explosives and Other Sixth Column Fancies: (From the New York Times)’, 1877, page 365
Alden, W. L. (William Livingston), 1837-1908, ‘Domestic explosives and other sixth column fancies. (From the New York times.)’, 1877, page 372
Professor J. Lawrence Smith has been engaged in making an investigation of the recent so-called meat shower in Kentucky
Asserted by: The people’s advocate.
The people’s advocate (Alexandria, Va.;Washington, D.C.), May 20, 1876
Professor J. Lawrence Smith sent a letter on the Kentucky meat shower to the Louisville Courier Journal
Asserted by: The people’s advocate.
The people’s advocate (Alexandria, Va.;Washington, D.C.), May 20, 1876
The substance that fell in Kentucky was the spawn of batrachian reptiles
Asserted by: Dr. Kastenbine, as reported by Professor J. Lawrence Smith, Professor J. L. Smith, Professor J. L. Smith, as reported by the Daily Kennebec Journal, Professor J. Lawrence Smith, a professor named only as “Prof. J.” in the report (name garbled in print).
The people’s advocate (Alexandria, Va.;Washington, D.C.), May 20, 1876 The source’s own wording: “I could see no other source”.
The people’s advocate (Alexandria, Va.;Washington, D.C.), May 20, 1876 The source’s own wording: “he had no doubt of”.
The Eaton Democrat (Eaton, Ohio), 23 March 1876, p. 1 The source’s own wording: “gives every indication of being”.
Daily Kennebec journal (Augusta, Me.), August 20, 1889 The source’s own wording: “at first inclined to pronounce”.
Wichita eagle (Wichita, Kan.), August 30, 1889 The source’s own wording: “at first inclined”.
A flock of buzzards that had been feasting on the carcass of a sheep disgorged their stomach contents, producing the fall of flesh in Kentucky
Asserted by: Professor Peter of Lexington, Ky., as reported by the Daily Kennebec Journal, Professor Peter, of Lexington, Ky., as reported by the St. Louis Globe Democrat, Professor Robert Peter, as reported by Professor J. Lawrence Smith.
The people’s advocate (Alexandria, Va.;Washington, D.C.), May 20, 1876 The source’s own wording: “thinks that”.
Daily Kennebec journal (Augusta, Me.), August 8, 1889 The source’s own wording: “believed”.
Daily Kennebec journal (Augusta, Me.), August 20, 1889 The source’s own wording: “believed”.
It is not uncommon for buzzards to disgorge their overcharged stomachs, and when one bird in a flock begins, the others are excited to nausea, so that a general shower of half-digested meat takes place
Asserted by: Professor J. Lawrence Smith.
The people’s advocate (Alexandria, Va.;Washington, D.C.), May 20, 1876 The source’s own wording: “I am informed that”.
A shower of flesh recently occurred in Kentucky and created much excitement and waste of ink and paper
Asserted by: F.C., writing in the Providence Morning Star.
Providence morning star (Providence, R.I.), May 29, 1876
The Kentucky fall was a rain of dry frog-spawn
Asserted by: unnamed writers, as reported by F.C. in the Providence Morning Star.
Providence morning star (Providence, R.I.), May 29, 1876
The Kentucky shower was a bona fide shower after all
Asserted by: F.C., writing in the Providence Morning Star.
Providence morning star (Providence, R.I.), May 29, 1876
The true nature of the Kentucky shower has at length been discovered
Asserted by: F.C., writing in the Providence Morning Star.
Providence morning star (Providence, R.I.), May 29, 1876
The substance found in Kentucky is of vegetable nature and, instead of coming from the clouds in a shower, took root upon the surface of the earth and increased very rapidly by self-division
Asserted by: a gentleman writing in the Sanitarian, as reported by F.C..
Providence morning star (Providence, R.I.), May 29, 1876
The substance that fell in Kentucky belongs to the Nostoc family, though some authors place that family among the Algae
Asserted by: a gentleman writing in the Sanitarian, as reported by F.C..
Providence morning star (Providence, R.I.), May 29, 1876 The source’s own wording: “apparently”.
The Kentucky substance is related to “Gory Dew”, “Red Snow” and other lowly vegetable forms of a bloody or fleshy color
Asserted by: F.C., writing in the Providence Morning Star.
Providence morning star (Providence, R.I.), May 29, 1876
Lowly vegetable forms of a bloody or fleshy color have in one form or another caused much consternation in the past by their sudden presence
Asserted by: F.C., writing in the Providence Morning Star.
Providence morning star (Providence, R.I.), May 29, 1876
The germs of these lowly vegetable forms are constantly taken up into the atmosphere by currents of air and wafted about to many different localities, so that when the growth is at last seen it reproduces itself so rapidly that one would surely think it had rained down from the clouds
Asserted by: F.C., writing in the Providence Morning Star.
Providence morning star (Providence, R.I.), May 29, 1876
Even in one night large quantities of these algal forms may be reproduced
Asserted by: F.C., writing in the Providence Morning Star.
Providence morning star (Providence, R.I.), May 29, 1876 The source’s own wording: “may”.
Substances besides vegetable matter, including seeds of plants, have been known to be carried upward by currents of air and deposited in different places
Asserted by: F.C., writing in the Providence Morning Star.
Providence morning star (Providence, R.I.), May 29, 1876 The source’s own wording: “have been known to”.
With the problem of the Kentucky shower solved and no panics or seditions caused by it, the subject becomes one of peculiar interest to the naturalist
Asserted by: F.C., writing in the Providence Morning Star.
Providence morning star (Providence, R.I.), May 29, 1876
The rarity of such showers at the present day and their frequency in antiquity and the Middle Ages must be explained by the general enlightenment regarding simple natural phenomena which ignorance, superstition and error could only accept as terrible inflictions of punishment for fancied crimes
Asserted by: F.C., writing in the Providence Morning Star.
Providence morning star (Providence, R.I.), May 29, 1876 The source’s own wording: “must be explained by”.
Grassy Pond, a lake in Lowndes County, Georgia, covering five acres, emptied itself of all its water by a subterranean passage on last Friday, leaving millions of fish on dry land
Asserted by: The Marietta Journal.
The Marietta journal (Marietta, Georgia;Marietta, Ga.), March 24, 1876
Georgia’s Grassy Pond incident eclipsed the Kentucky shower of meat, Georgia being unwilling to be outdone
Asserted by: The Marietta Journal.
The Marietta journal (Marietta, Georgia;Marietta, Ga.), March 24, 1876
The recent shower of flesh in Bath County, Kentucky provoked a religious revival among the colored population there, who sat in little groups with faces turned upward and sang a verse about the Lord throwing victuals down
Asserted by: The Marietta Journal.
The Marietta journal (Marietta, Georgia;Marietta, Ga.), March 24, 1876
Newspapers were considerably exercised over the strange appearance of a rain of flesh which fell in Kentucky a few weeks before late March 1876.
Asserted by: Unnamed contributor to the Chicago Times.
Mineral Point tribune (Mineral Point, Wis.), March 29, 1876
About the year 1833 or 1834, a remarkable shower of flesh and blood fell in a tobacco-field near Lebanon, in Wilson County, Tennessee, during the night.
Asserted by: Unnamed contributor to the Chicago Times.
Mineral Point tribune (Mineral Point, Wis.), March 29, 1876 The source’s own wording: “About the year 1833 or 1884”.
On the morning after the Tennessee fall, negroes going out to work saw particles of meat and spots of blood over the tobacco leaves and cried out “A miracle! a miracle!”
Asserted by: Unnamed contributor to the Chicago Times.
Mineral Point tribune (Mineral Point, Wis.), March 29, 1876
Whence and how the Tennessee flesh came was as profound a mystery to Tarpley and his neighbors as the recent Kentucky shower is to the wise men of the land today.
Asserted by: Unnamed contributor to the Chicago Times.
Mineral Point tribune (Mineral Point, Wis.), March 29, 1876
Mr. Tarpley gathered a quantity of the flesh from the tobacco leaves and sent it with care to Dr. Girard Troost, a chemist and naturalist then a professor in the University of Nashville.
Asserted by: Unnamed contributor to the Chicago Times.
Mineral Point tribune (Mineral Point, Wis.), March 29, 1876
Dr. Girard Troost was not under the necessity of eating any of the Tennessee material in order to satisfy himself that it was meat and bloody matter.
Asserted by: Unnamed contributor to the Chicago Times.
Mineral Point tribune (Mineral Point, Wis.), March 29, 1876
Some men in Kentucky ate some of the fallen material in order to test the recent Kentucky shower.
Asserted by: Unnamed contributor to the Chicago Times.
Mineral Point tribune (Mineral Point, Wis.), March 29, 1876 The source’s own wording: “as it is said”.
Various theories as to the origin of the Tennessee shower were suggested, discussed and laid aside, some of them as wise as those advanced to account for the recent Kentucky shower.
Asserted by: Unnamed contributor to the Chicago Times.
Mineral Point tribune (Mineral Point, Wis.), March 29, 1876
The Tennessee shower of flesh and blood near Lebanon was caused by farm workers scattering the chopped-up pieces of a dead hog over the tobacco field.
Asserted by: Unnamed contributor to the Chicago Times.
Mineral Point tribune (Mineral Point, Wis.), March 29, 1876
A New York advertiser announced that he had travelled to Kentucky and procured twenty genuine samples of the Kentucky meat shower, preserved in alcohol in twenty separate jars, which he offered to send C.O.D. for ten dollars per sample.
Asserted by: an unnamed New York advertiser, quoted in the Public Ledger (Memphis).
Public ledger (Memphis, Tenn.), April 25, 1876
Twenty samples of material from the Kentucky meat shower were obtained in Kentucky and preserved in alcohol in twenty separate jars.
Asserted by: an unnamed New York advertiser, quoted in the Public Ledger (Memphis).
Public ledger (Memphis, Tenn.), April 25, 1876
A shower of cats, more objectionable than the recent Kentucky meat shower, fell on a single city lot on Van Ness Street, San Francisco.
Asserted by: New York Times (reprinted in The Bossier banner), The Milan Exchange.
The Bossier banner (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.), June 1, 1876
The Milan exchange (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.), April 27, 1876
A comic column treated the Kentucky meat shower as a well-known recent event to which a burlesque California ‘fall of cats’ could be compared.
Asserted by: New York Times (reprinted in The Bossier banner).
The Bossier banner (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.), June 1, 1876
A shower in Dutchess County, New York, in which it rained wild geese for several minutes, was reported.
Asserted by: The Redwood gazette (Redwood Falls, Minn.).
The Redwood gazette (Redwood Falls, Minn.), August 31, 1876
One man picked up on his farm all the wild geese that a horse could haul and is going into the feather bed business.
Asserted by: The Redwood gazette (Redwood Falls, Minn.).
The Redwood gazette (Redwood Falls, Minn.), August 31, 1876 The source’s own wording: “name, unhappily not given”.
The geese were seen when the storm struck them.
Asserted by: The Redwood gazette (Redwood Falls, Minn.).
The Redwood gazette (Redwood Falls, Minn.), August 31, 1876
The Dutchess County fall of geese was less mysterious than the Kentucky meat shower because the geese were seen when the storm struck them.
Asserted by: The Redwood gazette (Redwood Falls, Minn.).
The Redwood gazette (Redwood Falls, Minn.), August 31, 1876 The source’s own wording: “not quite as mysterious”.
Paracelsus, while seeking the “elixir of life” in 1537, discovered a strange vegetable mass which he called “Nostoc”.
Asserted by: Gloucester County Democrat (Woodbury, N.J.), Watertown Republican.
Watertown republican (Watertown, Wis.), September 6, 1882
Gloucester County Democrat (Woodbury, N.J.), October 5, 1882
Nostoc is the substance found in the so-called “flesh showers” that are reported from time to time.
Asserted by: Gloucester County Democrat (Woodbury, N.J.), Watertown Republican.
Watertown republican (Watertown, Wis.), September 6, 1882
Gloucester County Democrat (Woodbury, N.J.), October 5, 1882
Nostoc is a gelatinous growth of which there are about fifty species.
Asserted by: Gloucester County Democrat (Woodbury, N.J.), Watertown Republican.
Watertown republican (Watertown, Wis.), September 6, 1882
Gloucester County Democrat (Woodbury, N.J.), October 5, 1882
The spores and seeds of nostoc work through its gelatinous cover and are carried great distances by the winds.
Asserted by: Gloucester County Democrat (Woodbury, N.J.), Watertown Republican.
Watertown republican (Watertown, Wis.), September 6, 1882
Gloucester County Democrat (Woodbury, N.J.), October 5, 1882
When nostoc spores alight where the soil is damp or recent rains have fallen, they grow so rapidly as to cover miles of ground in a few hours with strings of the substance.
Asserted by: Watertown Republican.
Watertown republican (Watertown, Wis.), September 6, 1882
Icebergs in the ocean have been found covered with nostoc.
Asserted by: Gloucester County Democrat (Woodbury, N.J.), Watertown Republican.
Watertown republican (Watertown, Wis.), September 6, 1882
Gloucester County Democrat (Woodbury, N.J.), October 5, 1882
The prevailing opinion attributes the origin of nostoc to a shower of flesh from the upper regions.
Asserted by: Watertown Republican.
Watertown republican (Watertown, Wis.), September 6, 1882 The source’s own wording: “the prevailing opinion, which is of course erroneous”.
Watertown republican (Watertown, Wis.), September 6, 1882 The source’s own wording: “of course”.
One variety of the nostoc plant is flesh colored, which heightens the impression that nostoc fell as a shower of flesh.
Asserted by: Gloucester County Democrat (Woodbury, N.J.), Watertown Republican.
Watertown republican (Watertown, Wis.), September 6, 1882
Gloucester County Democrat (Woodbury, N.J.), October 5, 1882
Because the origin of nostoc is mysterious, strange virtues have been attributed to it.
Asserted by: Watertown Republican.
Watertown republican (Watertown, Wis.), September 6, 1882
Nostoc is used as an application to wounds in the East Indies.
Asserted by: Gloucester County Democrat (Woodbury, N.J.), Watertown Republican.
Watertown republican (Watertown, Wis.), September 6, 1882
Gloucester County Democrat (Woodbury, N.J.), October 5, 1882
Eastern nations consider nostoc a choice article of food.
Asserted by: Gloucester County Democrat (Woodbury, N.J.), Watertown Republican.
Watertown republican (Watertown, Wis.), September 6, 1882
Gloucester County Democrat (Woodbury, N.J.), October 5, 1882
When nostoc spores alight where the soil is damp or recent rains have fallen, they grow so rapidly as to cover miles of ground in a few hours with strings of the substance.
Asserted by: Gloucester County Democrat (Woodbury, N.J.).
Gloucester County Democrat (Woodbury, N.J.), October 5, 1882
The belief that nostoc originates as a shower of flesh from the upper regions is erroneous.
Asserted by: Gloucester County Democrat (Woodbury, N.J.).
Gloucester County Democrat (Woodbury, N.J.), October 5, 1882 The source’s own wording: “of course”.
A fall of flesh took place on the farm of a Mr. Crouch in Bath county, Kentucky, at a spot surrounded by high hills and mountains.
Asserted by: Daily Kennebec Journal, St. Louis Globe Democrat, St. Louis Globe-Democrat (reprinted in The Morning News, Savannah), Wichita Eagle.
Daily Kennebec journal (Augusta, Me.), August 8, 1889
The morning news (Savannah, Ga.), September 18, 1889
Daily Kennebec journal (Augusta, Me.), August 20, 1889
Wichita eagle (Wichita, Kan.), August 30, 1889
The Kentucky meat shower was the most sensational of remarkable events of the kind of showers described, and mystified many people some twenty years before 1889.
Asserted by: St. Louis Globe Democrat, Wichita Eagle.
Daily Kennebec journal (Augusta, Me.), August 8, 1889
Wichita eagle (Wichita, Kan.), August 30, 1889 The source’s own wording: “regarded by many”.
The Kentucky meat shower was at first regarded by many as a hoax but was found to be a veritable occurrence.
Asserted by: Daily Kennebec Journal, St. Louis Globe Democrat.
Daily Kennebec journal (Augusta, Me.), August 8, 1889
Daily Kennebec journal (Augusta, Me.), August 20, 1889 The source’s own wording: “was at first regarded by many as”.
The Kentucky meat shower is hardly susceptible of a thoroughly satisfactory explanation.
Asserted by: Daily Kennebec Journal, St. Louis Globe Democrat, Wichita Eagle.
Daily Kennebec journal (Augusta, Me.), August 8, 1889 The source’s own wording: “although bardly susceptible of”.
Daily Kennebec journal (Augusta, Me.), August 20, 1889 The source’s own wording: “hardly susceptibla of”.
Wichita eagle (Wichita, Kan.), August 30, 1889 The source’s own wording: “was fouud to be a veri-table occurrence, although hardly susceptible”.
The flesh that fell on the Crouch farm was bear meat.
Asserted by: an old hunter residing in the neighborhood, as reported by the St. Louis Globe Democrat, an unnamed old hunter, as reported by the Daily Kennebec Journal.
Daily Kennebec journal (Augusta, Me.), August 8, 1889
Daily Kennebec journal (Augusta, Me.), August 20, 1889
Some of the fallen meat was quite dry, and there seemed to be a fine, wool-like fiber running through it.
Asserted by: Daily Kennebec Journal, St. Louis Globe Democrat.
Daily Kennebec journal (Augusta, Me.), August 8, 1889 The source’s own wording: “there seemed to be”.
Daily Kennebec journal (Augusta, Me.), August 20, 1889 The source’s own wording: “there seemed to be”.
A great deal of the flesh was sent to chemists and others in various parts of the country, and analyses were made by several well known scientists.
Asserted by: Daily Kennebec Journal, St. Louis Globe Democrat, Wichita Eagle.
Daily Kennebec journal (Augusta, Me.), August 8, 1889
Daily Kennebec journal (Augusta, Me.), August 20, 1889
Wichita eagle (Wichita, Kan.), August 30, 1889
The substance that fell on the Crouch farm was the dried spawn of frogs.
Asserted by: Professor J. L. Smith, as reported by the St. Louis Globe Democrat.
Daily Kennebec journal (Augusta, Me.), August 8, 1889 The source’s own wording: “at first inclined to pronounce”.
The frog-spawn theory was abandoned because the substance was found under the microscope to possess undoubted characteristics peculiar to the flesh of animals.
Asserted by: Daily Kennebec Journal, St. Louis Globe Democrat, Wichita Eagle.
Daily Kennebec journal (Augusta, Me.), August 8, 1889
Daily Kennebec journal (Augusta, Me.), August 20, 1889
Wichita eagle (Wichita, Kan.), August 30, 1889
The buzzard-disgorging account is the simplest and perhaps the most satisfactory explanation that can be given of the supposed miracle at the Crouch farm.
Asserted by: Daily Kennebec Journal, St. Louis Globe Democrat.
Daily Kennebec journal (Augusta, Me.), August 8, 1889 The source’s own wording: “perhaps, after all”.
Daily Kennebec journal (Augusta, Me.), August 20, 1889 The source’s own wording: “Perhaps the most reasonable explanation … perha i a, after all”.
The Kentucky meat shower was at first regarded by many people as a hoax but was later found to be a genuine occurrence.
Asserted by: St. Louis Globe-Democrat (reprinted in The Morning News, Savannah).
The morning news (Savannah, Ga.), September 18, 1889 The source’s own wording: “was at first regarded by many as”.
The Kentucky meat shower is hardly susceptible of a thoroughly satisfactory explanation.
Asserted by: St. Louis Globe-Democrat (reprinted in The Morning News, Savannah).
The morning news (Savannah, Ga.), September 18, 1889 The source’s own wording: “hardly susceptible of”.
The sky was clear and the sun shining brightly, with a light wind from the west, at the time flesh fell on the Crouch farm.
Asserted by: Mrs. Crouch, Mrs. Crouch, as quoted by the Daily Kennebec Journal.
The morning news (Savannah, Ga.), September 18, 1889
Daily Kennebec journal (Augusta, Me.), August 20, 1889
Wichita eagle (Wichita, Kan.), August 30, 1889
Flesh fell on the Crouch yard for a period of between one and two minutes.
Asserted by: Mrs. Crouch.
The morning news (Savannah, Ga.), September 18, 1889
The fall of flesh on the Crouch farm was a miracle or a warning.
Asserted by: Mrs. Crouch.
The morning news (Savannah, Ga.), September 18, 1889 The source’s own wording: “I was impressed with the conviction”.
On the morning of March 2, 1876, the ridge of highest atmospheric pressure could be traced from Minnesota south-southwestward to northern Texas.
Asserted by: Monthly Weather Review.
‘Monthly Weather Review’, March 1876 (Vol. IV, No. 3), Office of the Chief Signal Officer, War Department
‘Monthly Weather Review’, March 1876 (Vol. IV, No. 3), Office of the Chief Signal Officer, War Department
‘Monthly Weather Review’, March 1876 (Vol. IV, No. 3), Office of the Chief Signal Officer, War Department
‘Monthly Weather Review’, March 1876 (Vol. IV, No. 3), Office of the Chief Signal Officer, War Department
An 1880 US Census entry for White Sulphur Precinct No. 5, Bath County, Kentucky, dwelling 8, family 8, lists Allen Crouch as a white male aged 32, occupation farmer, born in Kentucky.
Asserted by: 1880 US Census, Seventh Precinct (Tanyard), Bath County, Kentucky, 1880 US Census, White Sulphur Precinct No. 5, Bath County, Kentucky.
1880 US Census, White Sulphur Precinct No. 5, Bath County, Kentucky, enumerated 1 June 1880, dwelling 8 (Ancestry collection 6742, record 41937663; NARA microfilm T9)
1880 US Census, White Sulphur Precinct No. 5, Bath County, Kentucky, enumerated 1 June 1880, dwelling 8 (Ancestry collection 6742, record 41937663; NARA microfilm T9)
1880 US Census, White Sulphur Precinct No. 5, Bath County, Kentucky, enumerated 1 June 1880, dwelling 8 (Ancestry collection 6742, record 41937663; NARA microfilm T9)
1880 US Census, White Sulphur Precinct No. 5, Bath County, Kentucky, enumerated 1 June 1880, dwelling 8 (Ancestry collection 6742, record 41937663; NARA microfilm T9)
1880 US Census, White Sulphur Precinct No. 5, Bath County, Kentucky, enumerated 1 June 1880, dwelling 8 (Ancestry collection 6742, record 41937663; NARA microfilm T9)
1880 US Census, White Sulphur Precinct No. 5, Bath County, Kentucky, enumerated 1 June 1880, dwelling 8 (Ancestry collection 6742, record 41937663; NARA microfilm T9)
1880 US Census, Seventh Precinct (Tanyard), Bath County, Kentucky, enumerated 15 June 1880, dwelling 172 (NARA microfilm T9; Supervisor’s Dist. 5, Enumeration Dist. 7, stamped page 363)
A Kentucky certificate of death numbered 3373 was filed in Bath County on 26 February 1918 for a woman recorded as Elizabeth Crouch.
Asserted by: Kentucky Certificate of Death no. 3373.
Kentucky Certificate of Death no. 3373, Elizabeth Crouch, Bath County, filed 26 February 1918
Kentucky Certificate of Death no. 3373, Elizabeth Crouch, Bath County, filed 26 February 1918 The source’s own wording: “about”.
Kentucky Certificate of Death no. 3373, Elizabeth Crouch, Bath County, filed 26 February 1918 The source’s own wording: “aged about 71”.
Kentucky Certificate of Death no. 3373, Elizabeth Crouch, Bath County, filed 26 February 1918
The Allen Crouch household at dwelling 172 in Seventh Precinct (Tanyard), Bath County, Kentucky, included Margret, a white female aged 37, listed as daughter and at home.
Asserted by: 1880 US Census, Seventh Precinct (Tanyard), Bath County, Kentucky.
1880 US Census, Seventh Precinct (Tanyard), Bath County, Kentucky, enumerated 15 June 1880, dwelling 172 (NARA microfilm T9; Supervisor’s Dist. 5, Enumeration Dist. 7, stamped page 363)
1880 US Census, Seventh Precinct (Tanyard), Bath County, Kentucky, enumerated 15 June 1880, dwelling 172 (NARA microfilm T9; Supervisor’s Dist. 5, Enumeration Dist. 7, stamped page 363)
The slide of the Kentucky substance sent by A. T. Parker to Mr. Walmsley consisted of striated muscular fibre.
Asserted by: The American Journal of Microscopy and Popular Science.
‘The Kentucky Meat Shower’, The American Journal of Microscopy and Popular Science, vol. I, 1876, p. 84 The source’s own wording: “without any doubt”.
The specimens of the Kentucky substance previously called Nostoc are lung tissue.
Asserted by: experienced histologists, including Professor J. W. S. Arnold and Dr. A. Mead Edwards.
‘The Kentucky Meat Shower’, The American Journal of Microscopy and Popular Science, vol. I, 1876, p. 84
Kurt Gohde’s article ‘Transylvania’s Meat Rain’ is listed in the reading list of the Monroe Moosnick Medical and Science Museum guide at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky.
Asserted by: Evelyn Schultz, LEX 18 (WLEX, Lexington), Monroe Moosnick Medical and Science Museum guide, Transylvania University.
Evelyn Schultz, ‘Spooky Sunrise: Transy’s museum of medical curiosities’, LEX 18 (WLEX, Lexington)
Kurt Gohde, ‘Transylvania’s Meat Rain’, Transylvania Treasures 4.1 (Winter 2013), pp. 12-13
Among the holdings of Transylvania University’s Monroe Moosnick Museum is a possible sample of the Kentucky meat shower.
Asserted by: Evelyn Schultz, LEX 18 (WLEX, Lexington).
Evelyn Schultz, ‘Spooky Sunrise: Transy’s museum of medical curiosities’, LEX 18 (WLEX, Lexington) The source’s own wording: “a possible sample”.
The topography of Bath County, Kentucky, is for the most part hilly to mountainous.
Asserted by: Kentucky Geological Survey, University of Kentucky.
Kentucky Geological Survey, University of Kentucky, ‘Topography’, Groundwater Resources of Bath County, Kentucky The source’s own wording: “For the most part”.
The highest point in Bath County, Kentucky, is Tater Knob at 1,388 feet, 6 miles southeast of Salt Lick.
Asserted by: Kentucky Geological Survey, University of Kentucky.
Kentucky Geological Survey, University of Kentucky, ‘Topography’, Groundwater Resources of Bath County, Kentucky
Peaks in Bath County, Kentucky, include South Knob of Big Mountain at 1,384 feet and Carrington Rock at 1,340 feet.
Asserted by: Kentucky Geological Survey, University of Kentucky.
Kentucky Geological Survey, University of Kentucky, ‘Topography’, Groundwater Resources of Bath County, Kentucky
Mount Olympus, at 1,201 feet, lies about 4 1/2 to 5 miles south and southeast of Olympia in Bath County, Kentucky.
Asserted by: Kentucky Geological Survey, University of Kentucky.
Kentucky Geological Survey, University of Kentucky, ‘Topography’, Groundwater Resources of Bath County, Kentucky The source’s own wording: “about”.
The elevation of Owingsville, the seat of Bath County, Kentucky, is 1,000 feet.
Asserted by: Kentucky Geological Survey, University of Kentucky.
Kentucky Geological Survey, University of Kentucky, ‘Topography’, Groundwater Resources of Bath County, Kentucky
Some of the hills in the area of Bath County, Kentucky, described are flat-topped because of resistant caps of harder rocks.
Asserted by: Kentucky Geological Survey, University of Kentucky.
Kentucky Geological Survey, University of Kentucky, ‘Topography’, Groundwater Resources of Bath County, Kentucky The source’s own wording: “Some”.
A representative of the Louisville Courier-Journal visited Captain J. M. Bent of Mount Sterling at the Willard Hotel on the evening before the report was written.
Asserted by: Louisville Courier-Journal.
The Eaton Democrat (Eaton, Ohio), 23 March 1876, p. 1
Captain J. M. Bent was the gentleman who first informed the general public of the Bath county flesh-fall phenomenon, through the Courier-Journal.
Asserted by: Louisville Courier-Journal.
The Eaton Democrat (Eaton, Ohio), 23 March 1876, p. 1
Particles of an unusual kind descended from a clear sky onto farmer Crouch’s place near Mudlick Springs in Bath county, Kentucky, at about two o’clock on Friday, March 3.
Asserted by: Captain J. M. Bent, of Mount Sterling, as reported by the Louisville Courier-Journal.
The Eaton Democrat (Eaton, Ohio), 23 March 1876, p. 1 The source’s own wording: “as nearly as I can ascertain”.
A butcher from Mount Sterling cut off a piece of the fallen flesh, roasted it and tasted it, finding it palatable.
Asserted by: Captain J. M. Bent, of Mount Sterling, as reported by the Louisville Courier-Journal.
The Eaton Democrat (Eaton, Ohio), 23 March 1876, p. 1
The particles brought to Louisville by Captain J. M. Bent were preserved in alcohol and had changed from their original appearance to a dull red and white hue and somewhat withered.
Asserted by: Louisville Courier-Journal.
The Eaton Democrat (Eaton, Ohio), 23 March 1876, p. 1
Captain J. M. Bent is a retired lawyer and respected citizen of Mount Sterling.
Asserted by: Louisville Courier-Journal.
The Eaton Democrat (Eaton, Ohio), 23 March 1876, p. 1
Professor J. Lawrence Smith would submit the Bath county specimens to a most careful examination.
Asserted by: Louisville Courier-Journal.
The Eaton Democrat (Eaton, Ohio), 23 March 1876, p. 1
A comic verse titled “Meateoric Shower” states that a shower of meat was seen to spill last Friday morning upon the farm of Harrison Gill, who lives with his wife and cows in Old Kentucky Olympian Springs.
Asserted by: New York Graphic.
The Eaton Democrat (Eaton, Ohio), 23 March 1876, p. 1
A comic verse titled “Meateoric Shower” states that the fallen meat clung to fences and covered the ground for a mile around, and that the rustics tasted of what they found.
Asserted by: New York Graphic.
The Eaton Democrat (Eaton, Ohio), 23 March 1876, p. 1
A comic verse titled “Meateoric Shower” has bystanders variously call the fallen substance mutton, underdone beef, pork and venison.
Asserted by: New York Graphic.
The Eaton Democrat (Eaton, Ohio), 23 March 1876, p. 1
Readers may or may not credit the story of the Kentucky meat shower.
Asserted by: Bellows Falls Times.
Bellows Falls times (Bellows Falls, Vt.), March 17, 1876 The source’s own wording: “Whether people take any stock in the story or not”.
The attention of “Old Probs” (the government weather forecaster) has been called to the Kentucky meat shower.
Asserted by: Bellows Falls Times.
Bellows Falls times (Bellows Falls, Vt.), March 17, 1876
A mock weather forecast printed as a “sample of the weather predictions of the future” predicted for New England and the Middle States falling barometer and increasing cloudiness “with beef steaks changing to mutton chops” during the night.
Asserted by: Bellows Falls Times, quoting the New York Evening Post.
Bellows Falls times (Bellows Falls, Vt.), March 17, 1876 The source’s own wording: “a sample of the weather predictions of the future”.
Frog spawn was carried up from ponds by strong currents of wind and fell in Kentucky.
Asserted by: an unnamed Louisville scientist, as reported by The White Pine News.
The White Pine news (Treasure City, Nev.), March 18, 1876
Capt. J. M. Bent, a retired lawyer of Mt. Sterling, arrived in Louisville on the night of March 10, 1876 with specimens of the flesh which fell in Bath county.
Asserted by: Louisville dispatch of March 10 printed in The White Pine News.
The White Pine news (Treasure City, Nev.), March 18, 1876
Capt. J. M. Bent of Mt. Sterling was well known for reliability.
Asserted by: Louisville dispatch of March 10 printed in The White Pine News.
The White Pine news (Treasure City, Nev.), March 18, 1876
The flesh that fell in Bath county, Kentucky covered two acres of ground.
Asserted by: Louisville dispatch of March 10 printed in The White Pine News.
The White Pine news (Treasure City, Nev.), March 18, 1876
The White Pine news (Treasure City, Nev.), March 18, 1876
The fallen flesh in Bath county, Kentucky resembled mutton and left traces of blood on the trees and fences that were touched by the fallen flakes.
Asserted by: Louisville dispatch of March 10 printed in The White Pine News.
The White Pine news (Treasure City, Nev.), March 18, 1876
Chickens and hogs devoured the fallen flesh in Bath county, Kentucky with evident relish.
Asserted by: Louisville dispatch of March 10 printed in The White Pine News.
The White Pine news (Treasure City, Nev.), March 18, 1876
At the time of the fall of flesh in Bath county, Kentucky - 2 p.m. on March 3d - the heavens were clear, the sun shone, and only floating clouds were visible.
Asserted by: Louisville dispatch of March 10 printed in The White Pine News.
The White Pine news (Treasure City, Nev.), March 18, 1876
The specimen brought to Louisville is animal flesh.
Asserted by: Professor Lawrence Smith, via Louisville dispatch of March 10 printed in The White Pine News.
The White Pine news (Treasure City, Nev.), March 18, 1876
A family on Van Ness Street, San Francisco, rushed to their front piazza one evening and saw scores of cats pouring from the roof, sliding over the shingles and turning somersaults in the air
Asserted by: The Milan Exchange.
The Milan exchange (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.), April 27, 1876
An article by Kurt Gohde titled ‘Transylvania’s Meat Rain’ was published in Transylvania Treasures volume 4, number 1 (Winter 2013), pages 12-13.
Asserted by: Transylvania Treasures / Monroe Moosnick Medical and Science Museum guide reading list.
Kurt Gohde, ‘Transylvania’s Meat Rain’, Transylvania Treasures 4.1 (Winter 2013), pp. 12-13
What we do not repeat, and why
Widely told, with nothing behind it that we could find. We cannot disprove any of this and do not claim to - we simply will not present it as fact.
A gentle shower of meat suddenly descended upon Mrs. Crouch of Olympian Springs, Kentucky.
- no source close to the events makes this claim at all
- it is asserted as fact by 3 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Stover, Chet, ‘Mindblowers’, 1982, page 58
Burlington weekly free press (Burlington, Vt.), 31 March 1876, p. 1
William Livingston Alden, ‘Domestic Explosives and Other Sixth Column Fancies: (From the New York Times.)’, 1877 [text via Internet Archive: domesticexplosi00aldegoog] The source’s own wording: “one day”.
On March 3, 1876, Mrs. Allen Crouch was in her yard making soap.
- no source close to the events makes this claim at all
- it is asserted as fact by 3 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Gregory, Leland, ‘Stupid history : tales of stupidity, strangeness, and mythconceptions throughout the ages’, 2007, page 278
Leland Gregory, ‘Stupid History’, 2007, page 278
Gregory, Leland, ‘Stupid history : a collection of stupidity, strangeness, and mythconceptions through the ages’, 2014, page 550
On a clear day in March 1876, flakes of meat fell from the sky in Bath County, Kentucky.
- no source close to the events makes this claim at all
- it is asserted as fact by 2 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Kathryn Walker, ‘Mysteries of the cosmic joker’, 2010, page 42
‘Strange & unexplained happenings : when nature breaks the rules of science’, 1995, page 234
Material reported fallen in Kentucky was examined by Leopold Brandeis.
- no source close to the events makes this claim at all
- it is asserted as fact by 3 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
charles fort, ‘the book of the damned’, 1941, page 294
Charles Fort, ‘The Book of the Damned: By Charles Fort’, 1919, page 311
charles fort, ‘the book of the damned’, 1972, page 360
A group of mourners was caught in a shower of meat and blood and was horrified by it.
- no source close to the events makes this claim at all
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
O’Sullivan, Joanne, ‘Bizarre weather : howling winds, pouring rain, blazing heat, freezing cold, huge hurricanes, violent earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes and more of nature’s fury’, 2012, page 166
The meat that fell on the mourners was mixed with animal fur.
- no source close to the events makes this claim at all
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
O’Sullivan, Joanne, ‘Bizarre weather : howling winds, pouring rain, blazing heat, freezing cold, huge hurricanes, violent earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes and more of nature’s fury’, 2012, page 166
Physics Professor Jamie Day serves as curator of the Monroe Moosnick Museum collection at Transylvania University.
- no source close to the events makes this claim at all
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Evelyn Schultz, ‘Spooky Sunrise: Transy’s museum of medical curiosities’, LEX 18 (WLEX, Lexington)
The book ‘The United States of Absurdity: Untold Stories from American History’ contains a chapter on the Kentucky Meat Shower beginning on page 131.
- no source close to the events makes this claim at all
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Anthony, Dave, 1967- author, ‘The United States of absurdity : untold stories from American history’, 2017, page 154
Speculation, clearly labelled
Offered as speculation and nothing more.
The greater part of the state of Kentucky is covered with baskets and tubs placed in open fields in readiness to catch the next shower of atmospheric hash.
Burlington weekly free press (Burlington, Vt.), 31 March 1876, p. 1 The source’s own wording: “is probably, at this moment”.
Scientific men will hoot at the theory of a meat belt and instead put forward hypotheses of the explosion of a cattle steamboat or the tying of nitro-glycerine to a large dog’s tail to account for the Kentucky fall of meat.
Burlington weekly free press (Burlington, Vt.), 31 March 1876, p. 1 The source’s own wording: “they will hoot … and will put lorwara IceDle hyotheses”.
Farmers in Georgia will wish for a rain of meat like Kentucky’s before next winter if they do not quit going into debt and raising cotton
The Marietta journal (Marietta, Georgia;Marietta, Ga.), March 24, 1876
Wise theories as to the origin of the recent Kentucky shower should be withheld until time lets out the secret facts of the case, as it did with the Tennessee shower forty-three years earlier.
Mineral Point tribune (Mineral Point, Wis.), March 29, 1876 The source’s own wording: “Perhaps we had better”.
The Kentucky meat shower has been rendered thoroughly insignificant by the reported shower of wild geese in Dutchess County, New York, which was much more profitable.
The Redwood gazette (Redwood Falls, Minn.), August 31, 1876
The Bath county flesh-fall was the most wonderful phenomenon ever known and would occupy the attention of the world of science for some time to come.
The Eaton Democrat (Eaton, Ohio), 23 March 1876, p. 1 The source’s own wording: “Certainly … doubtless”.
A comic verse titled “Meateoric Shower” has Morse suggest that a train ran over a cow and scattered her through the lot.
The Eaton Democrat (Eaton, Ohio), 23 March 1876, p. 1
A comic verse titled “Meateoric Shower” has Denton suggest the fall was either the spirits’ freak or a sausage factory sprung a leak.
The Eaton Democrat (Eaton, Ohio), 23 March 1876, p. 1
A comic verse titled “Meateoric Shower” has Porter and Silliman suggest that a wind-spout moving across the West whisked up a drove of Texas steers and dropped them in the Blue Grass region when the cyclone veered.
The Eaton Democrat (Eaton, Ohio), 23 March 1876, p. 1 The source’s own wording: “suggest”.
A comic verse titled “Meateoric Shower” has the Cincinnati editors reckon that a hurricane strayed over a populous pigeon-roost, made the birds its prey, scattered their meat like rain and blew the feathers away.
The Eaton Democrat (Eaton, Ohio), 23 March 1876, p. 1 The source’s own wording: “We reckon”.
A comic verse titled “Meateoric Shower” has Tice explain that the occult cause of the meat fall is found in meteorological laws.
The Eaton Democrat (Eaton, Ohio), 23 March 1876, p. 1
A comic verse titled “Meateoric Shower” has Oliver Wendell Holmes take the fall as the sign of a wreck in the upper air, with the constellation Dragon having snapped up the Fishes.
The Eaton Democrat (Eaton, Ohio), 23 March 1876, p. 1 The source’s own wording: “says that he thinks”.
If meat storms become common, the nature of the meat should be known and “Old Probabilities” will need to give careful attention to the laws governing food showers.
Bellows Falls times (Bellows Falls, Vt.), March 17, 1876 The source’s own wording: “If meat storms are to become common”.
What we looked for and did not find
Recorded because a search that comes back empty is a finding, and an expensive one. It is also the difference between having looked and saying so.
7 record series were named as likely holdings and searched without result:
- Monthly Weather Review, March 1876
- Smithsonian Institution, Office of the Secretary, Registers of Letters Received, 1876
- Proceedings and Transactions of the Newark Scientific Association
- Reports of the Kentucky Geological Survey, N. S. Shaler, 1876
- Transactions of the Kentucky State Medical Society, 1876-1877
- Annual Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture, 1876
- United States Census 1870 and 1880, population schedules, Bath County, Kentucky
A further 204 results matched our search terms and turned out to be about something else entirely — the hazard of searching archives by keyword rather than by meaning.
Where this came from
Every source below was located by searching the archives directly. Where a scan is public, the link goes to the page itself rather than to a catalogue entry about it.
Contemporary and first-hand
- Hiram Adolphus Cutting, ‘Meteorological Tables and Climatology of Vermont, with Map Showing Rainfall …’, 1877, page 39 — scan
- ‘The American Journal of Microscopy and Popular Science’, 1876, page 461 — scan
- ‘Fanciers’ Journal and Poultry Exchange’, 1876 [text via Internet Archive: fanciersjournalp31876phil] — scan
- Leopold Brandeis, ‘Kentucky Shower of Flesh’, The Sanitarian, vol. IV (1876), p. 222 — scan
- L. D. Kastenbine, ‘The Kentucky Meat Shower’, Louisville Medical News, 20 May 1876, p. 255 — scan
- ‘The Kentucky Meat Shower’, The American Journal of Microscopy and Popular Science, vol. I no. 7, June 1876, p. 84 — scan
- ‘Another Shower of Flesh Reported’, The American Journal of Microscopy and Popular Science, 1876, p. 110, quoting the Columbus (Ga.) Enquirer of 10 June 1876 — scan
- The Eaton Democrat (Eaton, Ohio), 23 March 1876, p. 1 — scan
- Burlington weekly free press (Burlington, Vt.), 31 March 1876, p. 1 — scan
- Bismarck weekly tribune (Bismarck, D.T.), 5 April 1876, p. 2 — scan
- William Livingston Alden, ‘Domestic Explosives and Other Sixth Column Fancies: (From the New York Times)’, 1877, page 365 — scan
- Alden, W. L. (William Livingston), 1837-1908, ‘Domestic explosives and other sixth column fancies. (From the New York times.)’, 1877, page 372 — scan
- William Livingston Alden, ‘Domestic Explosives and Other Sixth Column Fancies: (From the New York Times.)’, 1877 [text via Internet Archive: domesticexplosi00aldegoog] — scan
- The people’s advocate (Alexandria, Va.;Washington, D.C.), May 20, 1876 — scan
- Providence morning star (Providence, R.I.), May 29, 1876 — scan
- Bellows Falls times (Bellows Falls, Vt.), March 17, 1876 — scan
- The White Pine news (Treasure City, Nev.), March 18, 1876 — scan
- The Marietta journal (Marietta, Georgia;Marietta, Ga.), March 24, 1876 — scan
- Mineral Point tribune (Mineral Point, Wis.), March 29, 1876 — scan
- Public ledger (Memphis, Tenn.), April 25, 1876 — scan
- The Milan exchange (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.), April 27, 1876 — scan
- New Orleans Republican (New Orleans, La), April 29, 1876 — scan
- Port Royal standard and commercial (Beaufort, S.C.), May 11, 1876 — scan
- The Bossier banner (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.), June 1, 1876 — scan
- The Somerset press (Somerset, Ohio), June 9, 1876 — scan
- The Redwood gazette (Redwood Falls, Minn.), August 31, 1876 — scan
- Watertown republican (Watertown, Wis.), September 6, 1882 — scan
- Gloucester County Democrat (Woodbury, N.J.), October 5, 1882 — scan
- Daily Kennebec journal (Augusta, Me.), August 8, 1889 — scan
- Daily Kennebec journal (Augusta, Me.), August 20, 1889 — scan
- Wichita eagle (Wichita, Kan.), August 30, 1889 — scan
- The morning news (Savannah, Ga.), September 18, 1889 — scan
- ‘Monthly Weather Review’, March 1876 (Vol. IV, No. 3), Office of the Chief Signal Officer, War Department — scan
- 1880 US Census, White Sulphur Precinct No. 5, Bath County, Kentucky, enumerated 1 June 1880, dwelling 8 (Ancestry collection 6742, record 41937663; NARA microfilm T9) — scan
- Kentucky Certificate of Death no. 12987, Algin Crouch, Bath County, filed 1917 — scan
- Kentucky Certificate of Death no. 3373, Elizabeth Crouch, Bath County, filed 26 February 1918 — scan
- Kentucky county marriage records: Allen Crouch to Elizabeth Moore, 19 September 1867, Bath County; Allen T. Crouch to Rebecca Staten, 9 December 1837, Bath County — scan
- 1880 US Census, Seventh Precinct (Tanyard), Bath County, Kentucky, enumerated 15 June 1880, dwelling 172 (NARA microfilm T9; Supervisor’s Dist. 5, Enumeration Dist. 7, stamped page 363) — scan
- L. D. Kastenbine, ‘The Kentucky Meat Shower’, Louisville Medical News, vol. I no. 21, 20 May 1876, p. 254 — scan
- ‘The Kentucky Meat Shower’, The American Journal of Microscopy and Popular Science, vol. I, 1876, p. 84 — scan
Scholarship
- ‘Southern Cultures : Volume 18: Number 1 – Spring 2012 Issue’, 2012, page 136 — scan
- New York Microscopical Society, ‘Journal of the New-York Microscopical Society’, 1885, page 708 — scan
- Kurt Gohde, ‘Transylvania’s Meat Rain’, Transylvania Treasures 4.1 (Winter 2013), pp. 12-13 — scan
- Kentucky Geological Survey, University of Kentucky, ‘Topography’, Groundwater Resources of Bath County, Kentucky — scan
Later retellings
- Anthony, Dave, 1967- author, ‘The United States of absurdity : untold stories from American history’, 2017, page 154 — scan
- Floyd, E. Randall, ‘Great American mysteries : raining snakes, fabled cities of gold, strange disappearances, and other baffling tales’, 1991, page 202 — scan
- Allen, Michael, ‘The gigantic reader : overstuffed with irresistible information’, 2009, page 582 — scan
- E. Randall Floyd, ‘America’s Great Unsolved Mysteries’, 1995, page 202 — scan
- ‘Uncle John’s smell-o-scopic bathroom reader for kids only!’, 2013, page 294 — scan
- Marshall, Richard, ‘Mysteries of the unexplained’, n.d., page 330 — scan
- Stover, Chet, ‘Mindblowers’, 1982, page 58 — scan
- Gregory, Leland, ‘Stupid history : tales of stupidity, strangeness, and mythconceptions throughout the ages’, 2007, page 278 — scan
- Leland Gregory, ‘Stupid History’, 2007, page 278 — scan
- None, ‘Great southern mysteries’, 1989, page 190 — scan
- Gregory, Leland, ‘Stupid history : a collection of stupidity, strangeness, and mythconceptions through the ages’, 2014, page 550 — scan
- Corliss, William R, ‘Tornados, dark days, anomalous precipitation, and related weather phenomena : a catalog of geophysical anomalies’, 1983, page 218 — scan
- Kathryn Walker, ‘Mysteries of the cosmic joker’, 2010, page 42 — scan
- ‘Strange & unexplained happenings : when nature breaks the rules of science’, 1995, page 234 — scan
- charles fort, ‘the book of the damned’, 1941, page 294 — scan
- Fort, Charles, 1874-1932, ‘The book of the damned’, 1919, page 310 — scan
- Fort, Charles, 1874-1932, ‘The book of the damned, by Charles Fort’, 1919, page 314 — scan
- Charles Fort, ‘The Book of the Damned: By Charles Fort’, 1919, page 311 — scan
- charles fort, ‘the book of the damned’, 1972, page 360 — scan
- O’Sullivan, Joanne, ‘Bizarre weather : howling winds, pouring rain, blazing heat, freezing cold, huge hurricanes, violent earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes and more of nature’s fury’, 2012, page 166 — scan
- Moss, Stephen, 1960-, ‘BBC weather watch’, 1992, page 134 — scan
- Evelyn Schultz, ‘Spooky Sunrise: Transy’s museum of medical curiosities’, LEX 18 (WLEX, Lexington) — scan