Could this brief article that ran in the April 28, 1899 edition of The Daily Progress be the first record of a UFO sighting?
“On Wednesday evening, the residents on West Main Street were very much exercised over a mysterious light which appeared in the northeast. It seemed, according to the best information we could get, to be located just over that notable clump of trees on the Dunlora farm. It was in size apparently as large as a hogshead, round in form, with a slight elongation at the lower edge. It did not flash like a flame, and remained of the same size, neither moving from its position not increasing nor diminishing.
One gentleman said he watched it for more than an hour, and it did not change in any manner. Many persons assembled on the bridge to see the mysterious luminary but none could furnish anything approaching an explanation of it. It was sufficiently elevated to preclude the idea that it was a house afire, even if the other characteristics of such an event had been present. Every theory as to the strange visitor has fallen through, and yet it remains a mystery apparently unsolved.”
In that same edition, another unusual brief appeared.
“In excavating for a foundation in the city, the workman came across the tooth of an animal, at a depth of 14 feet from the surface. The tooth was 12 inches long and 2 ½ inches in diameter. It was broken by a pick, but was fixed together again, and will serve as a basis for investigation. It evidently belonged to some antedeluvian animal.”