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| Wilmer McLean |
For all you Civil War buffs, here's an interesting 'Stranger Than Science' column by Frank Edwards that ran in the
Journal on Jan. 2, 1965. It's an assortment of odd tidbits about the Civil War, including the story of
Wilmer McLean and how his house and farms – one at the Battle of Bull Run, and his second home at Appomattox, Virginia – were involved in the first and last land battles of the Civil War. Unbelievable!
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| McLean and his family on the porch of his house at Appomattox |
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Frank Edwards' weekly 'Stranger Than Science' column ran in the Journal from 1963 to 1966. It looks like it was always interesting and a lot of fun, especially if you were into flying saucers and stuff like that. I wonder where he dug up all of his material?
Here's an ample sample of random columns.
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| Nov. 23, 1963 |
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| Nov. 23, 1963 |
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| Dec. 28, 1963 |
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| June 6, 1964 |
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| Aug. 15, 1964 |
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| Nov. 21, 1964 |
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| Sept. 18, 1965 |
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| Dec. 4, 1965 |
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| Dec. 11, 1965 |
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| Dec. 18, 1965 |
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| April 23, 1966 |
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| June 11, 1966 |
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| Dec. 10, 1966 |
The Dec. 10, 1966 column was the last I could find in the
Journal. Frank Edwards passed away in June 1967.
STRANGER THAN SCIENCE was a must-read for me when I was a kid, even though some of the stories troubled my sleep at times. Hey, lots of things I liked did that, like Ghoulardi, TWILIGHT ZONE, and THRILLER.
ReplyDeleteWondering where he sourced his information... I bet, one you reached a certain level of fame, people simply sent you clippings from local papers or wrote you telling you strange stories from their hometowns.
ReplyDeleteIt's happened to me, with people sending me unsolicited murder stories. Particularly unsolved ones.