The Legend:
Variations on the Legend
1962: Nandor Fodor, Mind Over Space
1975: David Wallechinsky and Irving Wallace, People's Almanac
1979: Paul Begg, Into Thin Air
1980: Nicholas R. Nelson, Paradox
1981: Reader's Digest, Into The Unknown
1990: Time-Life Books, Time and Space (Mysteries of the Unknown Series)
1991: Charles Berlitz, Charles Berlitz's World of the Incredible but True
1995: Rodney Davies, Supernatural Disappearances
On the afternoon of September 23, 1880, on a farm just a few miles outside of Gallatin, Tennessee, a remarkable event was witnessed by five people.
The farm was occupied by farmer David Lang and his family -- his wife, Emma, his two children, eight-year-old George and eleven-year-old Sarah, and their household servants. On that afternoon, the children were playing in the front yard, when Mr. and Mrs. Lang came out of their house and Mr.Lang started across the pasture toward his quarter horses.
As Lang was crossing the pasture, the horse and buggy of the family's friend, Judge August Peck, came into view on the lane in front of the house; the children stopped playing, as Peck always brought them presents when he visited. Both Mr. and Mrs. Lang saw the buggy, and Mr. Lang waved to the judge as he turned to walk back towards the house.
A moment later David Lang completely disappeared in mid-step.
Fully witnessed by his two children, his wife, Judge August Peck, and the Judge's traveling companion (the Judge's brother-in-law), David Lang had just suddenly ceased to exist; understandably, Mrs. Lang screamed. All five witnesses ran to the spot they had last seen David, but there was nothing to hide behind or under; the field contained just grass. The adults quickly searched the field to no effect. By this time, Mrs. Lang was becoming hysterical, and was taken back into the house as neighbors were called with an alarm bell. By nightfall, all the neighbors were involved in the search, and, by lantern, they checked every foot of the field, stamping their feet to try to detect any holes that David might have fallen into. Nothing was found.
In the following weeks, Mrs. Lang was bedridden with shock; all the family servants except the cook, Sukie, left; and curiosity seekers were chased away from the farm by the local authorities. The county surveyor confirmed that the field was on perfectly solid ground, with no caves or sink holes.
Months after the occurrence, in 1881, Lang's children noticed that the grass at the site of their father's disappearance had grown strange and yellow, and formed a circle with about a fifteen foot diameter. Sarah called to her father, and, seemingly as a result, both the children heard him faintly calling for help, over and over, until his voice faded away.
Mrs. Lang never fully recovered, and there was never funeral or memorial service for Mr. Lang. Mrs. Lang eventually left the farm and allowed Judge Peck to rent it out, with the exception of the field in the front of the house. That pasture was left untouched as long as she lived.
Above is the legend of David Lang essentially as it appeared in Harold T.Wilkins' Strange Mysteries of Time and Space and Frank Edwards' Stranger Than Science, both printed in 1958 and 1959, respectively. I chose to assess the legend from just these two books because pretty much every account of this legend told since has been based on one or both of these versions of the story. This is important, for two reasons I'll explain in a while when I examine the variations between these accounts... but first, here are the variations of this story that I have collected that post-date 1959.
The story is mentioned in a chapter entitled "Falling Into the Fourth Dimension," so it shouldn't be too much of a surprise that this is what Fodor believes happened to Lang. He gives the name of Lang's daughter as being Emma, not Sarah.
States that the farm was 12 miles outside of Gallatin, that the pasture "was burned brown by a dry spell," that it was Lang's brother-in-law in the carriage (not the Judge's), says the grass circle had grown "high and thick" with a twenty foot diameter, and gives August, 1881, as the date that Sarah and George heard their father's voice in the circle. He further says that when the children heard him, they immediately brought their mother to the circle and she called him too, also getting a response with all three present. The trio then kept returning each day until his voice finally faded away. The authors of this account offer the possible "solutions" that Lang may have either been pulled into "the 4th dimesion", or that an invisible UFO captured him.
Begg gives the name of Judge Peck's brother-in-law as Wade, and says he was from Akron, Ohio.
Nelson works at the so-called "Oregon Vortex" as a tour guide; Paradox is his extended theory of how the Vortex and the Bermuda Triangle are just two examples of a world-wide series of pheonomena connected to strange magnetics and fourth dimensional holes. The Lang story is used as one of his examples of fourth dimensional travel, though Nelson carefully uses no names for any of the people involved, reducing Lang and his family to just an anonymous farmer and his family. Nonetheless, it's an obvious use.
Briefly recounts the story, and adds that Sarah went on to try to contact her father "through various extrasensory means."
Adds that the authorities, while investigating the disappearance, actually dug down a few feet in the area Lang had vanished until they hit limestone; also, it claims that the children actually brought Mrs. Lang to the circle right after they had heard their father's voice, and that this resulted in a new search effort on the part of the Lang's neighbors.
Under the title of "Vanishing Into Thin Air", Berlitz briefly recounts five such incidents, the second being his version of the David Lang mystery... and other than re-capping the disappearance in just one paragraph (without mention of the circle story), he adds nothing new.
Gives the name of Peck's brother-in-law as Wade, and says that Mrs. Lang hurried to the circle upon being told by the children that they heard their father's voice.
The fact that pretty much all these versions reference to either Harold Wilkins' or Frank Edwards' books is primarilary important because both authors failed to tell the whole story! The earliest version of the David Lang mystery I have found is in the FATE Magazine for July 1953. FATE was the source for strange stories in America in the 40's and 50's, and a magazine that Edwards had previously published stories in, and borrowed most of his stories from. The FATE article in the July 1953 issue was called "How Lost Was My Father?", by Stuart Palmer... and both Wilkins' and Edwards' versions of the mystery only include part of that original story. So without furthur ado...
