Boylston Meteor Hoax

     Writing a hoax requires a special imagination and some useful fishing experience. The objective is to snare and hook the reader with an artificial 'lore,' and make it believable.

     “Chet” Hull was city editor of the Oswego Daily Palladium in June, 1859, when he published the Boylston Meteor Hoax. The story ran for three days. The story got the attention of the New York State Board of Regents, who dispatched several scientists to investigate the impact site. Upon their arrival at the alleged Boylston Meteor site, scientists and other investigators found slag and iron scraps scattered in a field. The metal came from the Vulcan Iron Works in Oswego, and was placed there by Hull and his associates. Hull's reference of dogs howling when they came near a specimen of moon stone "with so moony a flavor," in his third news release, should have made readers howl with laughter. Hull also played a part in another hoax in Oswego ten years later. 
     Newspapers at Sandy Creek, Utica, Buffalo, Syracuse and New York City carried initial reports of the meteor landing at Boylston. Later, when it was determined that the event was a hoax, the same newspapers editorialized about the lies and impositions of “Chet” Hull and the Oswego Daily Palladium. The Utica Observer wrote that it was simply a shameless and unnecessary lie.

  

Oswego Daily Palladium                   PRICE TWO CENTS

 

Published daily and weekly by T. P. Ottaway
Dudly Farling, Editor
Chester Hull, City Editor

The Daily Palladium will be served to City Subscribers every morning (Sundays excepted) at $6 per annum.

 

Thursday Morning, June 16, 1859

GREAT NATURAL PHENOMENA

Descent of an Immense Meteoric Body In Oswego County !!

INTENSE EXCITEMENT IN THE COUNTRY.

     On Wednesday (yesterday) morning the inhabitants of the towns of BoyIston and Redfield to this county, were startled by the occurrence of a most remarkable phenomena—the descent from the heavens of an immense meteoric mass.

     The body struck the earth between the hours of 8 and 4 A.M., with a crash that was truly
terrific, and the shock was  sensibly felt and people aroused from their sleep at a distance of five miles from the scene. The body fell upon the farm of HORACE SANGER, situated on the line of Boylston and Redfield, striking in a meadow and partially on the highway. It is estimated by our informant to cover about half an acre of land. The earth was torn up in a terrible manner, and large fragments were thrown a distance of two-thirds of a mile, The mass is very irregular In shape, and rises at some points to sixty and eighty feet in height, and is supposed to be embedded In the earth as many feet. The surface generally has the appearance of iron ore.
     The excitement occasioned by the event among the Inhabitants was intense, and the crash is said to have been terrific beyond description. Many supposed that the final winding up of terrestrial affairs had truly arrived.

[We are indebted to our friend E. S. Putnam, Esq., of Boylston, for his efforts to furnish us at the earliest moment with the particulars of the event.]

THE METERORIC PHENOMENON

Further Particulars

Friday Morning, June 17, 1859

     On the receipt of your dispatch, at Pulaski, I started at once for Boylston, to inspect in person the scene of the startling phenomenon of Wednesday. You probably have received greatly exaggerated reports before this of the occurrence as the whole neighborhood, as in such cases, is full of the most distorted versions. I at once proceeded to the farm of Mr. Sanger where the aerolite fell and collected the following facts which are as nearly the truth as the excitement which prevailed in the immense crowd there would permit and will probably be found correct enough short of anything of a strict scientific investigation:

Mr. Hadley's Statement:

     The atmosphere had been very oppressive during Tuesday and especially in the evening—something similar I have once experienced before a toronado which

I witnessed in the West Indies in 1836. I was awakened about 3 o'clock on Wednesday morning by the room in which I slept being filled with light, and immediately heard a rushing sound like the coming on of a threat wind. This lasted but a few seconds after I was awakened when an explosion description—it was terrific. The whole house shook as if one hundred cannon had been fired under the windows.
     Quite a number of pains of glass were broken out of the windows, and the plastering of the room I was in, came tumbling about me. The light, which was so bright that I could planely [original spelling retained in transcript. CC.] see every object in the room, was at once extinguished. The window of my room is on the opposite side of the house from the place where the meteor fell so that I could only judge its direction. The light seemed to come from some body moving very rapidly and from South to North and seemed to increase rapidly during the brief space that preceded the explosion. I at once started in the direction of the explosion but was unable to find the spot and returned. The spot where the body fell is about one mile from my house.
     This is the substance of observation of all who were near the spot.

     The facts at the time of the circumstances preceeding the fall of the aerolite I have from Mr. James Hadley, a respectable citizen of the town of Redfield, who resides about one mile from the scene and the rest is from personal observation.

     Many were awakened by the shock at a distance of five miles, and until the truth was ascertained, thought an earthquake had occurred.
     The aerolite struck the earth in some timberland belonging to Mr. Sanger. We believe Mr. Hadley’s dwelling to be the nearest. It seemed to have been a spherical body as near as we can judge by the fragments that remained. Its course was from the Southwest to the Northeast and descended at an angle about thirty degrees from the horizon which is proved by its track through the heavy hemlock trees before it touched the earth. The trees were cut through as a cannon ball would cut through a hedge leaving a huge track.The earth was torn upo for several rods and the huge trees are splintered and piled up like brush. One large hemlock four feet in diameter near whose roots the meteor struck was thrown bodily for eight yards cracking the surrounding trees like pipe stems. Fragments of a huge sandstone boulder which lay in its course were thrown in all directions. One weighing one-half ton was found three-quarters of a mile away.
     The aerolite seemed to have been formed of a nucleus of a crystalized substance of a semi-vitreous character but harder than quartz and unlike anything  with which we are acquainted. This was surrounded by a crust about three feet in thickness which was probably the same substance oxidized or changed by combustion. The crust broke off in fragments and lays about the spot but the nucleus penetrated the earth about twenty feet and at the same time we write is set upon by an excited crowd who are chopping away under the impression that it is of precious material of some sort.
     From appearance the outer crust of the aerolite seems to be in a partial state of fusion which is caused, according to philosophers who have written on the subject of aerolites, by heat generated by its rapid passage through the atmosphere. The crust that was broken off by collision somewhat resembles iron ore and the fact that it was very hot when it fell is proved by the grass being charred by the contact. I send you a specimen of the outer crust but every substance that had the slightest trace of crystalline matter which probably forms the nucleus has been seized on by the excited people who from its heaviness and brilliance conceive it to be at least as valuable as diamonds and will not part with it at any price. I presume they will be mistaken sadly but the fever was on them and they could not be convinced.
     This is certainly a phenomenon worthy of scientific investigation and I hope someone qualified for the task will visit it. This is written hurriedly as the conveyance that brings this is departing. I will furnish specimens if I can find them.

                                                                                              Yours, L.

 

THE BOYLSTON METEOR

Probabilities, Improbabilities, And Speculations On The Subject

Saturday Morning, June 18, 1859

     Meteoric bodies, or moon stones, have fell on the earth at many different times and places, and have ever been a source of interest to philosophers and the learned of all nations. Since the philosophers have taken a great interest in moon stones, the story is not to be confounded with moonstones but it would be no more than politeness in moon stones to tell of the finding. Moon stones, they claim, take an interest in philosophers. Whence by substitution we conclude that wherever meteors fall there reside wise men and ergo the late occurrence at Boylston is a compliment and a recognition of the philosophers tendered the people of Oswego County. We are surprised when we reflect on the above explanation that the vicinity of the city has not been visited long since by these remarkable phenomena—considering the enthusiasm with which visitors from other spheres in the shape of spirits have been received. It is not too much to expect arrivals from any stray phenomena that may be inclined for a tour into the influence of our planet.

     We are informed that some free thinking skeptics express doubt as to the occurrence of the event so graphically described by our Boylston correspondent, and regard the meteor as a product of a heated imagination. It may be so. There are circumstances that favor that belief. It is the fact that our correspondent, as we have just learned, has within a few weeks gone over to the Republican ranks. This we did not know at the time we published his letters, and of course do not feel responsible for anything they may contain after that. Still we believe in moon stones in the abstract, and would refer our readers to Andrew Jackson Davis’ “Harmonia” and Hoyle’s “Games of Chance,” for a refutation of the arguments of such as doubt. The first authority will convert the believers in spirits, and the second quid nunca. The rest of the people are very few, and had originally too much sense to require any convincing on the subject.
     As for this particular moon stone, we would like to see the man so contracted in his views as to declare that the great county of Oswego has not as good a right to such lunar honors as any other locality. Can there be a more appropriate place for a moon stone to descend? We pause for a reply!
     Personally the editor has never visited the moon. He is sorry for it, and if his patrons will furnish the funds he will gladly make the attempt, and inquire into the matter in question. Still, with our limited knowledge, we believe that the specimens furnished by our Boylston correspondent came from the moon, for this reason, that they had about them, and even the paper in which they were wrapped, so moony a flavor that every dog that has come near them has set up a howl long and sharp as ever greeted Luna herself on a winter’s night. This we consider conclusive on that point.
     We are not, in fact, sure that it makes any difference that the meteor fell in Boylston or not. It is certain that it might have fell there if it chose! There was no one near the locality to prevent it, and it has induced as much investigation into scientific subjects, and drawn out as many opinions as, ‘a moon stone of moderate desires would expect.’ Whatever is the fact, we trust it has secured several readers for “Dick’s Sidereal Heavens,” which will certainly prove a benefit, and we hope all will find in the Boylston Meteor after the recommendation of the poet—
“Sermons in stones, and good in everything.”


Reference:
1) Fulton History--Oswego County Historical Society
2) Fulton History--"Chet" Hull
3) Sandy Creek News--Where Meteor Fell