Was Wiconisco Home Destroyed by Meteor or Lightning?

The Lykens Standard, published on Friday, September 10, 1926, claimed it was a meteor, and gave the most extensive coverage to the event. The Elizabethville Echo, published the day before on September 9, 1926, claimed the destruction was caused by lightning.

The victim of this event was Mrs. Mary [Glassic] Breslin, a widow and mother of five children. Her husband, Charles Breslin, had died in 1924 at age 50 of miner’s asthma. He had been a resident of Wiconisco most of his life and was a member of the United Mine Workers and St. Mary’s Catholic Church of Lykens. His funeral was conducted by Rev. Father Herring and he was buried in the Irish Catholic Cemetery in Lykens. The owner of the home was Henry Breslin, a brother of Charles Breslin, and Mary Breslin was renting the home from him. Mary Breslin died in 1927 at the age of 52, and her obituary in the Lykens Standard of July 1, 1927 attributed her death to apoplexy resulting from the ill health she was in since her home was “destroyed by lightning” last summer, “the nervous shock being thought to have caused her sickness.” Mary Breslin, also a member of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Lykens, was buried there in the Irish Catholic Cemetery.

Always in the shadows of unexplained events like this was the presence of the anti-Catholic Ku Klux Klan in the Lykens Valley area. In the same issue of the Lykens Standard that promoted the idea that a meteor caused the tragedy, was a large notice for an inexpensive excursion fare to the Washington D. C. Klan event that was to take place the following Monday, a report on the “big crowd” that attended the Klan event in Elizabethville the previous Saturday, and a “weenie roast” conducted by ladies of the Klan in Lykens the previous Wednesday (two days after the “meteor” struck). Both the Elizabethville and Lykens events featured the burning of large crosses.

No evidence has been seen that any authorities investigated this incident to rule out the possibility that this may have been caused by criminal activity rather than by the “natural” explanations that were given.

Nearly one hundred years after this “meteor” occurrence, it can be looked at with skepticism, particularly since the Standard went well-beyond normal reporting to come to the conclusion, without any proof, to blame the event on a object falling from outer space.

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From the Lykens Standard:

METEOR DESTROYS HOME AND FURNISHINGS IN WICONISCO

Traveled Thruout The House Renting Walls in Twain and Wrecked Furniture —

Dwelling Beyond Repair — Family Homeless

A igneous meteor which fell on the home of Mrs. Mary Glassic-Breslin in Wiconisco, Monday afternoon at about 4:00 o’clock, completely wrecked the home and furnishings leaving little of the household goods or building intact.

It was fortunate for the family that they were not in the home or every occupant would have met death.  The atmospheric phenomena was seen in the sky shooting in the direction of the mountain by Mrs. Maggie Gwyther who stated that when it neared the hill it zig-zagged and shot toward Wiconisco.  There was a terrible crash and they witnessed dust and debris flying into the air.

Mrs. Breslin was at the home of Mrs. John McAuliffe, and her ten-year-old daughter Kathryn fortunately had left the home just previous to the crash and had gone to the home of Martin Pondo.  So great was the crash that Mrs. Breslin remarked “That struck somewhere — but we’re all out of our house and maybe it’s my home.”

In eagerness to learn where the meteor struck, Mrs. McAuliffe and Mrs. Breslin joined the running crowds.  Mrs. Breslin learned the meteor had hit her home.  Her daughter, Miss Marie, who was returning from Lykens, was only a short distance from the home and saw the window sashes, curtins [sic], etc. flying thru the air.  She had become hysterical thinking her mother, who seldom leaves the home, was there when the house was struck.

Never in the history of this section has an atmospheric phenomena struck any residence and so completely demolished a building and furnishings.  The gable and chimney on the east side of the house is where the meteor started its downward course thru the dwelling.  The entire gable was rent asunder and the beams forming the rood were forced from their position more than three inches.  From the attic the meteor burst thru the attic floor and entered the front second floor room.  Here mirrors, pictures, stands and bed were broken to pieces.  The windows were broken and the sashes burst from the building and thrown to the opposite side of the street.  Lace curtains that hung in the windows were found on top of thirty foot trees more than ten yards from the house.

An explosion of some mysterious element in this room burst the door leading from the room and another of an adjoining room leading on to the landing at the top of the stairs from the frame and they were found in the kitchen on the first floor.  The door leading to the stairs on the first floor was broken as if done by a wood chopper.

Partitions on the second floor were rent from their fastenings and the entire side walls of the house bulged about seven inches.

The phenomena played its worst havoc in the stairway where it pushed upward the steps leading to the attic so that they are unsafe to tread.  The stairs leading to the second floor were forced down and outward from their fastenings.  Plastering thruout the house is torn from the lath as tho it had been scraped, ready for replastering.

Little remains of the electric wires which were in the home save the cleats which held them in place.  At each of these holders, the travel of the electric part of the phenomena must have exploded as the cleats are covered with a black smoke as is the wall within a space of one foot and more from each.

No fire resulted after the crash which leads every belief that the mysterious occurrence was caused by a meteor.

Traveling thru the upper floors to the first, the phenomena twirled about the kitchen and an explosion of some kind here burst all the windows in the lower floor excepting four small ones which were in rear of the fireplace.  Jumping thru the transom above the door the meteor took a downward course, was attracted by an umbrella which stood on the porch and crashed it to bits, after which it grounded going through the floor of the porch.  The meteor to this time has not been recovered altho several parties have asked permission to dig for it.

The home is owned by Henry Breslin, a brother of the late Charles Breslin, whose family was tenanting the residence.  The owner of the property cannot be located and does not know of the home being wrecked so badly it will be necessary to rebuild.

Wiconisco Firemen were called to the scene and gave much assistance.  Their work is highly praised by Mrs. Breslin, who said they exerted every effort to place in safety what furniture remained.  Some of the firemen slept at the home for two nights in order to protect the furnishings, which were completely covered by debris.

Mrs. Breslin stated to the STANDARD representative yesterday that she had no insurance on the building nor furnishings.  The loss in complete and she will have to start refurnishing in another home.

Ask For Citizen Help

Since the occurrence Monday, Mrs. Breslin and her children have been living with neighbors who have taken them in.  Mrs. Breslin is anxious to have her family together and is willing to start in three rooms is any are available.  She requested that any resident in Lykens or Wiconisco knowing of three rooms or of a home which she could rent, that they notify her at once.  If she is not about her former residence she can be located at the home of Mrs. John Connelly in Wiconisco.

Hundreds Visit Home

Hardly had the dust cleared than the ever-present relic seekers were eager to enter the dwelling.  Protection, however, to the remaining furnishings was given by the Wiconisco Firemen who allowed no one excepting those aiding to remove the property to safety.

After the home had been cleared of the furnishings, visitors were allowed to enter.  Many have come from as far west as Harrisburg; east as far as Pottsville; and north from Sunbury to see the home.  All state they have never witnessed a like happening.

Money Recovered

About one hour after the occurrence Mrs. Breslin remembered having ten dollars in a certain part of the house.  She mentioned the fact to her daughter, who remembered placing twelve dollars at a certain place.  Both went in search of the money in the rooms where they had placed it and found that the debris had been moved about and the carpets and furnishings taken from the rooms, their money was intact, but was on the floor under the fallen plaster and splintered wood.

Thankful She Lives

Mrs. Breslin stated that altho the havoc played by the meteor left her homeless, yet she is thankful that she and her family were not tin the house when the phenomena struck.  She is standing the strain exceptionally well and is directing the work of putting her furnishings, jarred fruits, etc., in order to start another home for herself and family.

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From the Elizabethville Echo:

WICONISCO HOME STRUCK BY LIGHTNING

HOUSE WRECKED SHORTLY AFTER WOMAN LEAVES

Late Monday afternoon, during the heavy rain and electrical storm that swept this section, shortly after Mrs. Charles Breslin, Wiconisco, left her home to visit a neighbor, a “cold strike” of lightning struck the dwelling and caused considerable damage.

Mrs. Breslin, a widow, and mother of five children, was at the home of a neighbor, when the bolt struck the house and only knew of the damage when she returned.  When she did, she found that carpets were torn from the floors, windows broken, furniture smashed, plaster fallen from the walls in a number of rooms, the walls bulging, a table turned upside down, dishes broken and pictures hurled to the floor.  Windows in a neighboring house were also broken by the impact of the bolt, which struck the chimney of the Breslin home, but did not cause any of the furnishings of the house to catch fire.

It is said, Mrs. Breslin had a premonition that “something was going to happen,” and acting upon that impulse she left the house.  The children were absent, having gone to a festival.  The house is the property of Henry Breslin, a brother of the woman’s deceased husband.

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Newspaper stories from Newspapers.com.

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