Meteor Strikes House of Matthew Heath at Ingham
Our attention was called to an unusual occurence which recently happened at the Matthew Heath farm two miles south east of Ingham. On Sept. 14, a meteor struck the end of their house and when it struck took part of the eve off and was found against the house and as it was white hot had started a fire to the house.
The meteor Miss Jane Heath stated weighed about two and a half pounds, and struck the house with such force that it knocked the plaster off the inside of the wall and shook the structure, which was a small frame building in which they have been living since last spring when the flood washed their house away.
The meteor is of very hard rock, and is of a purple color, with white mixed in. It fell about eight o’clock in the morning and just before it struck there was a hissing and roaring sound.
The meteor has broken up since it has cooled, which might have been caused Miss Heath said by having water thrown on it to put out the fire.
Anyone who is interested in seeing it may see it at the Echo office where it has been left.
Historic Farnam editor's note: The meteorite was donated in 1937 by Mary Jane Heath to the House of Yesterday (now called Hastings Museum) in Hastings, Nebraska. At some time later, it was transferred to a meteoritical research institute which in turn produced a cast of the original meteorite and gave it to the museum in its stead. The original meteorite weighed 4.2Kg (9.26 lbs) and as of 2018 had been divided into 11 specimens:
1.48kg: London, England, Natural History Museum
1.34kg: Tempe, AZ, Arizona State University
150g: Washington, DC, National Museum of Natural History
28.2g: Algonquin, IL, DuPont Collection
27.4g: Bettlach, Switzerland, Tony Stuedi Collection
20g: Tokyo, Japan, National Institute of Polar Research
8.6g: Muenster, Germany Institute of Planetology University
5.8g: Chicago, IL, Field Museum of Natural History
3.5g: Cologne, Germany, University
3.0g: Gloggnitz, Austria, Franger Collection
1.7g: Gifhorn, Germany, Bartoschewitz Collection
Source: MetBase, 17 Aug 2018
