Mysterious Object Appears on Prairie - Divine Warning

“Father, Lucien and myself fitted up a team, a wagon and three horses and on the 15th day of November 1825 started for Spoon River, in the state of Illinois, to settle on the land that father bought the previous Spring. We had little or no trouble on our way until we were crossing the grand prairie in Illinois. We passed the Lynn Grove about five miles and encamped for the night, after supper, having secured our horses by tying them to the wagon. We retired to our beds in the wagons. When all of a sudden the horses took a fright by a horse coming galloping to the wagon. The horses snorted and pitched about. Finally, one of them broke loose and ran back on the road with the strange horse with full speed, as far as we could hear their feet clatter on the ground. I got one of the other horses ready and was about to start after them, when I heard them coming back. They ran up to the wagon. I caught our horse and secured him, and was in the act of putting my hand on the strange horse, when he made a spring and ran back again. About this time, father discovered an object on the ground about 3 or 4 rods from the wagon. The horses saw it, and kept looking that way and snorting so I could scarcely hold them. Father called to me to give him his gun and get my revolver ready and defend myself, at this the object rolled off and disappeared in the dark, as a cloud at that time came over the moon. The horses were still uneasy so we could not sleep, so father proposed hitching up and going to the next settlement which was ten miles distance.”

— Lewis Barney, Autobiography (1808-1846)