Twenty-four hours after the Bonham incident, a device of the same
description appeared at Fort Scott, Kansas. Panic-stricken soldiers
fled the parade ground as the thing flashed overhead. In a few seconds
it disappeared, circling toward the north.

Until now, I had supposed that the term "saucer" was original with
Kenneth Arnold. Actually, the first to compare a flying object with a
saucer was John Martin, a farmer who lived near Denison, Texas. The
Denison Daily News of January 25, 1878, gives the following account:

{p. 58}

From Mr. John Martin, a farmer who lives some six miles south of this
city, we learn the following strange story: Tuesday morning while
out hunting, his attention was directed to a dark object high up
in the southern sky. The peculiar shape and velocity with which
the object seemed to approach riveted his attention and he
strained his eves to discover its character.
When first noticed, it appeared to be about the size of an orange,
which continued to grow in size. After gazing at it for some time
Mr. Martin became blind from long looking and left off viewing it
for a time in order to rest his eyes. On resuming his view, the
object was almost overhead and had increased considerably in size,
and appeared to be going through space at wonderful speed.
When directly over him it was about the size of a large saucer and
was evidently at great height. Mr. Martin thought it resembled, as
well as he could judge, a balloon. It went as rapidly as it had
come and was soon lost to sight in the heavenly skies. Mr. Martin
is a gentleman of undoubted veracity and this strange occurrence,