Strange UFO Reports from 1909, page 1

Here is an interesting read from 1909 that talks about strange craft in the night sky. Must have been a crazy thing for people of the time to see!

Willimantic (CT) Chronicle - 24 Dec, 1909, Page 1

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CRAFT OF MYSTERY FINALLY TRACKED TO ITS LAIR--PERHAPS!
Home of the Worcester Aeroplane Located in
west Boylston, Massachusetts, it is Believed.

SHED IS IN DENSE WOODS ON J. B. GOUGH ESTATE

While Trying to Get Close to the Place United Press Representative
Was Captured, Haled Before Justice of the Peace and Fined for
Trespass.
Worcester, Mass., Dec 24.--The home of the mysterious aeroplane which has been cruising at unheard of altitudes over Massachusetts for the last two nights and causing wonderment to thousands, it is believed has been found.

Scouring the country about Worcester in a search for the home of the Tillinghast machine a United Press representative discovered at West Boylston, six miles from this city, that fourteen men in the employ of Paul B. Morgan of the Morgan Construction company of Worcester were busy in some secret occupation on the old estate of John B. Gough, the old-time temperance lecturer. On this estate, and situated in dense woods, there is a shed more than 100 feet long which, it is believed, contains the aeroplane that is to startle the world. No aeroplane was seen by the United Press representative, however. As he was advancing through the woods to reconnoiter he was captured by some of the men employed on the estate, haled before a justice of the peace and fined for trespass.

This, so far, is the only clue to the aeroplane. That it is pregnant with possibilities, however, is certain from the fact that Paul B. Morgan is known as an intimate of Wallace E. Tillinghast and is also known to be interested in aerial navigation. Two years ago Morgan spent $15,000 on the aeroplane of a Swedish aviator but later abandoned it as unsatisfactory. It is now thought that with Tillinghast he has perfected the machine which has been sailing over New England, the same that Tillinghast declares he used in a flight from here to New York and return on September 8.

Through Tillinghast himself is believed to have been himself in Worcester last night thousands all over Massachusetts today declare the aeroplane associated with his declarations and probably manned by his mechanics was winging its way through the skies up to last midnight. Between six o'clock last evening until midnight its flashlights were trailed from Marlboro to Fitchburg and back through Worcester, thence to Boston via Natick, Wellesley, Newton and Needham. From Boston the light passed to the northeast, circling over Chelsea and Revere, through Lynn toward the Salem line, then returning as far as Farmingham where it mysteriously disappeared from the eager searchings of newspaper men who hoped to trail the daring aerial navigator to his lair and unfathom the mystery which has now perturbed the entire eastern part of the state.

Many of the 10,000 people who saw the light are positive in their belief that made the outlines of the same aerial craft that closely resembled a monoplane of the type used by Latham and Bleriot

They say the machine was under perfect control and that it flew close to the ground, coming as near to the earth as 100 feet in Natick and later rising to fully 1,000 feet. Some say there were two men in the craft. One was standing forward near the headlight, which has been seen by thousands of people, and the second man was in the stern, where a much dimmer light was burning. They say the craft at times attained a speed of fully 80 miles an hour, while again it remained stationary for fifteen minutes at a time.

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Willimantic (CT) Chronicle - 24 Dec, 1909

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"COME, RIDE IN MY AIRSHIP" INVITATION AWAITED BY MANY!
Bright Light in the East Had Willimantic Folks, Hundreds of Them Guessing.

TWINKLING LITTLE STAR SOME SAY IT WAS

Others, and Plenty of Them, Sure it was Tillinghast's or Some Other Aerial
Craft That Had All Eyes Turned Towards the Eastern Skies Last Night.

Twinkle, twinkle little star,
How I wonder what you are,
Up above the world so high,
Like an airship in the sky.

There was a bright light in the east last night and the wise ones sized it up for Tillinghast's mysterious airship. It was about 7:30 o'clock that the light was first noticed and it was then in the southeast, appearing to be above the tread plant as viewed from the foot of Railroad street but a long way off--from a twenty to thirty miles in the opinion of some of the people who saw it. Prosaic policemen and some other matter-of-fact persons winked the other eye when the airship was mentioned but there were plenty of people who were quite willing to declare, and did so declare, that what they saw in the eastern sky answered in all particulars the descriptions sent out of the mystifying aerial craft that has been aerial craft that has been creating such a sensation in Worcester and other Massachusetts cities and villages.

There were several hundred in Willimantic who saw what they believed to have been an airship and others said it was Halley's comet. Whatever it was it caused considerable excitement for a while and the curious ones spent several hours with their eyes riveted on the heavens.

The light in the southeast looked like a powerful searchlight. Because of its size and the rays it threw out it attracted wide attention. It remained stationery for a few minutes and then seemed to shoot upwards, then circle around as though the person manipulating it was trying to get his bearings.

As usual Mayor Dunn's store was crowded about that time and Benjamin Murphy, time-keeper on the New Haven road, came into the place calling the men out to see the airship. Mayor Dunn was among them and he stated last night when seen by a Chronicle reported [sic] that he would not swear it was an airship but it certainly did look like one. Others who saw it were of the same opinion.

The light was miles away apparently and quite high in the air. It played in the east for about fifteen minutes and then vanished. Later there appeared a brilliant star in the firmament and those who had not seen the first light and saw this star were of the opinion that both light were one and the same, but those who saw the first light said it was no star.

People who had come down street to do their Christmas shopping forgot what they had come for and stood on the sidewalk and even in the middle of the street looking to the east, hoping to see the return of the airship. Some of the skeptics ones just because they did not hear the buzzing of the engine or get an introduction to the man running the ship, laughed at those who claimed it was an airship they saw. The skeptics could not account, though, for the strange light and its peculiar accounts.

It was too bad that the airship, if it was one, did not come nearer the city so that the people could inspect the machine. The scoffers would then have had no ground for scoffing.

One of the skeptics had a lot of fun during the evening puting the credulous ones "wise" to the "airship." Pointing to the bright star he would say "See it? It's the airship, stopped for repairs. The fellow running it dropped a monkey wrench overboard and it struck a man on the head, and they've taken him to the hospital!" And strange to say, to such a pitch of excitement had the crowd been wrought up that even this story found believers.