Texas Airship Sightings, 1890's

Today’s topic in Ufology will be the Texas airship sightings of the 1890s. This will be related to my previous thread on Solomon Andrews. 📜Solomon Andrews and his incredible patent No. 4… In the late 1890s, mysterious airships were reportedly seen in the skies over the United States. This thread will focus on two of these events in Texas in particular. Between April 13 and April 17, 1897, there were 38 reported mass sightings of airships, mainly in North Texas. These craft were often described as having cigar-shaped bodies, measuring roughly 50 to 60 feet long, with propellers at each end and massive floodlights fore and aft. Notably, some witnesses did not merely claim to see the vessels. Some claimed to have seen the human crews operating them, and a few even claimed to have spoken with them. Dallas Morning News correspondent C. G. Williams reported that he was told by the leader of one airship crew that he was from: “a little town in the interior of New York.” According to Williams, the airship was being test-flown across the country. Its pilot reportedly implored him: “Don’t give this thing away. We are experimenting with this vessel. So far, it is a success...” This is significant on its own, but shortly after, another sighting would occur in Stephenville under eerily similar circumstances. Author Walter Bosley reports in his book *Origin: The Nineteenth Century Emergence of the 20th Century Breakaway Civilizations*: “Witnesses to one of these ships landing in Stephenville included judges, a senator, a mayor, reporters, and a district attorney, who talked to a pilot and engineer of one of these airships. They even identified themselves as S. E. Tillman and A. E. Dolbear. They told the witnesses that they were under contract from New York capitalists and were in the middle of their experimental expedition.” Here we have two different crews in two different sightings claiming to be from or related to New York, both claiming to be on experimental journeys in the same area of Texas, in the same year. This is on record, it can't be simply coincidence! As fantastical as this sounds, the identities of both S. E. Tillman and A. E. Dolbear have been found. Not only did both men exist, but both men had the necessary skill sets, connections, and social standing at the right time to be reasonably associated with experimental aerospace research. So who were these men? S. E. Tillman’s true identity was likely that of astronomer, engineer, and Brigadier General Samuel E. Tillman, who lived from 1847 to 1942. General Tillman taught at West Point, where he “happily was given the post of Professor of Chemistry, Mineralogy, and Geology and became the chair of the department.” As a U.S. Army officer, experienced explorer, and West Point professor, Tillman would have been exactly the type of man who could have been placed in the position of test pilot for a secret airship program. Much like today’s test pilots for classified aircraft programs, such a figure would likely have been a respected military officer with technical ability and institutional trust. A. E. Dolbear’s identity was that of Amos E. Dolbear, a professor of physics and chemistry at Bethany College in 1868. In 1874, he accepted the chair of the Physics and Astronomy Department at Tufts College, where he continued his research for the rest of his career. Dolbear was involved in numerous developments in early electronics and is credited with perfecting the electric gyroscope. He was also recognized for his contributions to science at the Paris Exposition in 1881 and the Crystal Palace Exposition in 1882. In other words, this was a man clearly knowledgeable in fields that could have been applied to aviation, experimental science, and advanced engineering. Further reports indicate that A. E. Dolbear identified himself as the engineer and S. E. Tillman as the pilot of the craft, perfectly fitting the backgrounds of these two men. The airship sightings of the 1890s, with dozens of accounts published in newspapers and recorded by reporters, appear to show a continuation of the technology allegedly developed by Solomon Andrews and the Sonora Aero Club before him. Someone was clearly interested in the continued development of advanced aerospace technology decades before we are told controlled flight was officially achieved. The details recorded in the Dallas Morning News and other publications are simply too similar to be dismissed as mere coincidence. Could a group that possessed controlled flight more than half a century before the Wright brothers have had enough time to advance and develop such craft into part of what we now describe as the UFO phenomenon? I believe at least one origin point, among potentially many others, of the UFO phenomenon can be found within our own modern iteration of human civilization. I have much more research on these topics, and I hope to convince y’all of my position in the coming weeks as I continue to post evidence pointing toward this assertion.