The Brownstown Giant

 

05 April 1899
Wheeling Register
Source: Chronicling America

Happy Giant Skeleton Saturday! Today's tale of a giant skeleton unearthed in West Virginia is kind of a puzzler for me, so maybe there's someone out there much more knowledgeable than me who can clear things up!  Anyway...

I found this story about Harry Berry finding a 14 foot skeleton near Brownstown, West Virginia. He was near the wharf landing and recent flood damage had partially unearthed the skeletal remains of an 'evident Indian' with a pipe and a tomahawk by his side. Remarkably, the skeleton was well-preserved. Although I've posted a photo of the article, you can see the article for yourself in the April 5, 1899 edition of the Wheeling Register, available for FREE at Chronicling America. 

The mystery comes in as I was trying to do some additional research. I started by trying to confirm exactly where Brownstown is located. I found a Brownstown, which used to be located in Cabell County along the Ohio River. Today it is part of Huntington. I also found out that Marmet, located in Kanawha County and along the Kanawha River USED to go  by the name of Brownstown and was absolutely still known under that name the article above was published.

But...I found several  sources that REALLY threw me for a loop. Apparently, a near-identical article to this one was published in the April 5, 1933 edition of the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette! Among the minor changes in the article's format, the name of the town changes from Brownstown to Browntown (No 'S'). And, several websites that shared this version have noted that Browntown is actually located in Barbour County, WV. There is a Brownton located in Barbour County, and it is located very close to the Tygart River. However, the fact that the article was post-dated 34 years later makes me really wonder if that information is inaccurate as well. 

Allegedly found in the
05 April 1933 edition of the
Fort Wayne Journal Gazette
Source: Greater Ancestors

Okay, so things get even WEIRDER!!  I've also found several references, including a mention allegedly from the History of the Great Kanawha Valley that in Brownstown, WV, located ten miles from Charleston at Lens Creek (so the Marmet location would be correct) a GIANT skeleton as well as a  deformed DWARF skeleton were unearthed together! (Source: Opera News) However, another source (Anomaly Info) states that this information allegedly came from the book, A History of Fayette County, but was a 2014 hoax posted by the website, the Nephilim Chronicles. So yeah, maybe I should have just left this one alone, but I love a good mystery! 

If you have any information that can help clear up this mystery, I'd love for you to chime in. Let me know in the comments below, or find me over on Theresa's Haunted History Facebook. Thank you and as always, stay spooky! 

East Wheeling Giant Skeleton

From the Shepherdstown Register, November 29, 1856. 

When Sheriff Wickham of East Wheeling was having some work done on his vineyard property, workmen were surprised to find a human skeleton---a GIANT human skeleton---measuring almost eleven feet tall with jaws and teeth almost as large as a horse's. So what does one do when finding the remains of another human being on their property? Put them on display in their office, of course, which is exactly what Sheriff Wickham did. 

As I said in my post last month about a giant skeleton found in Harrison County, old West Virginia newspapers are FULL of these types of stories. It seems like every town has its own giant skeleton, attributed to an ancient Indian of epic size and buried with various types of ornamentation. Some of the bodies are sent to museums. Some are simply lost. None, however, seem to receive a respectful and proper reburial. And we wonder why West Virginia is so haunted...

Giant Skeleton in Harrison County

West Virginia's old newspapers are FULL of reports of giant skeletons being found throughout the state. In the November 27, 1916 edition of the Martinsburg WVa Evening Journal, a story can be found about workmen uncovering a giant skeleton while putting in a railway line in Harrison County. You can see this article at the Chronicling America website. 

SKELETON OF GIANT FOUND BY WORKMEN

While grading for the Fairmont and Wyatt Railroad on the farm of B.W. Shinn near Pine Bluff, W.Va, workmen unearthed the skeleton of a human giant, believed to be the remains of a prehistoric man. The skull and several of the large bones are in splendid state of preservation. The skull is near the size of a two-gallon bucket, with no forehead and a large under jaw. The ribs are about three times the size of the present-day average man. One thigh bone, well preserved, measures four and one-half feet in length. The skeleton was found in a mound and there had long been speculation as to what the mound contained, but all feared to open it. The skeleton will be shipped to the New York museum. 

Theresa's Note: In the December 13, 1916 edition of the Martinsburg, WVa Evening Journal a little addendum to this story appeared, claiming that the tale, which originated in the Shinnston News, was the work of practical jokers upon an otherwise honest newspaper editor. 

*Want more posts about giant skeletons in WV? Check out my post, Giant Skeleton in Central City!*

The Cyclops of Buzzard's Bay: Weird Wednesday

 Happy Weird Wednesday!  Like a lot of paranormal enthusiasts, I follow a lot of Facebook pages dealing with the strange and supernatural.  One such page is Blurry Creatures, a page dedicated to a podcast about cryptozoology.  Today, I ran across a newspaper clipping they had posted about a cyclops skull!  I noticed the article was from a West Virginia newspaper, The Wheeling Intelligencer, and got more excited than I should have. So, I consulted my trusty sources in a search for more information.

On the Chronicling America database of historic newspapers, I found a more in-depth article from the Wheeling Register, dated July 8, 1891. Unfortunately, the 'cyclops' in question was not found in West Virginia, but in Buzzard's Bay, Massachusetts, on the property of actor, Joseph Jefferson. Apparently, Jefferson had recently purchased the property as a summer residence, and when doing some alterations, found it necessary to remove a sand hill. Inside this apparent burial mound was a large skeleton, which crumbled to dust when the workmen tried to move it.  Fortunately, the skull of the taller than average skeleton remained intact and was brought to Mr. Jefferson. Mr. Jefferson was astonished to find that the skull did not have two eye sockets...but rather one large eye socket in the middle of its forehead, and thus concluded he now owned the skull of cyclops. Although he encouraged men of science to offer an explanation, Mr. Jefferson, being an actor, apparently was more excited over using the skull in an upcoming production of Hamlet than finding a scientific explanation for its existence. You can read the article in its entirety down below.  Happy Weird Wednesday! 

Mason County's Mysterious Skeletons

The idea that giants once roamed the Kanawha and Ohio Valleys is always a fascinating and popular topic within the mysterious history of West Virginia.  Time and time again, we hear stories of Adena burial mounds throughout the state and surrounding areas having once held the skeletal remains of a people who averaged over 7 feet in height. 

Source

Today, the area of West Virginia where I live is still dotted with some of the larger burial mounds, such as the Criel Mound in South Charleston and the Shawnee Mound in Dunbar.  The May Moore Mound, located on private property in Mason County, WV is another large mound, but it is believed to be largely intact---never properly excavated.  What many don't realize, though, is that at one time, there were many, many more (usually much smaller) mounds throughout this area!  I've always heard stories that farmers along the Ohio River in what is now Mason County, WV would constantly come across small burial mounds in their fields, and simply plow them over.  Supporting that claim is an old newspaper article I ran across from the Niles Register (Ohio paper), dated October 20, 1821.  I haven't been able to locate a copy of the original article, but the text can be found in West Virginia Heritage: Volume One, a collection of books compiled and edited in the late 1960's by the West Virginia Heritage Foundation.  The article is as follows:

Mason County's Mysterious Skeletons
From Niles Register
October 21, 1821

From the Kenhawa Spectator.  A gentleman from Mason County, Va. has very obligingly furnished the following singular facts:  On the 19th ult. four very large skeletons were found in a field which had for twenty-four years past been cultivated in corn. They were deposited in a mound apparently very ancient.  The first was discovered by the owner of the field, having ploughed it up, which induced him to make a further examination, when three others were found.  The bones are perfectly sound, and much larger than common, and more especially the skulls, which can be very easily slipped over the largest man's head.  The upper jaw bone has one row of double teeth all round, and the under jaw two teeth only on the left side, and no sockets whatever in the rest of the bone were provided by nature for more.  Considerable quantities of broken crockery ware, with buck horns and bones, bear's bones and muscle (mussel?) shells, etc. were found with the skeletons, and the whole buried in line two feet deep.

It is hoped that the curiosity of the intelligent public may excite them to examine the skeletons, and furnish us with some interesting speculations on the subject. 

May Moore Mound. Image from Todd Bledsoe

I've seen this particular case mentioned on a few websites, mostly in passing, but haven't been able to really find any more substantial information about who the farmer was, where the property is located, and just what the heck happened to these giant skeletons with their strange double row of teeth.  However, with stories such as these, it makes me wonder why the nearby May Moore Mound was never excavated...and if it ever is, just what will we find inside?

Craving MORE Giant Skeletons in Burial Mounds stories?  Check out my post about another small mound, complete with giant skeleton found in the Central City area of Huntington, WV.  People drive over the site every day, and very few realize that the road was once blocked off by an ancient burial mound!