September 1880: Reports of an unknown object traveling in the sky, seen in various places, especially St. Louis and Louisville. Reports appeared through July and August of that year in the Louisville Courier-Journal. The object was seen in Louisville on July 28 in the evening between 6 and 7, described as ‘an object like a man, surrounded by machinery, which he seemed to be working with his hands and feet.’ It moved in various directions and seemed to be under control, disappearing when darkness came. Something had also been seen in Madisonville, Kentucky, described as ‘something with a ball at each end’ and as having ‘appeared in a circular form, and then changed to an oval.’
–Charles Fort, Lo!, pp640-641 (The Complete Books of Charles Fort, Dover, c1974).