Up, Up, and Away!

sketch: balloon; Sherryl Guthrie Miller, steeple & Jackson; Sandy Guthrie Moore

Sally recalls being told about one of her relatives by the name of Jim Jackson. Between 1890 and 1895 he had sewn about 50 flour sacks together and put tar all over the outside of the sacks, Jim took it behind Blakeman's Blacksmith Shop filled it up with gas and climbed into the basket of the "balloon" and cut the rope. The balloon, with Jim in it, shot up like a rocket and flew off toward the North. In a little bit it caught on the courthouse steeple. It took a long time, but friends got him a ladder and he was able to get back down to the earth.

also mentioned in William's "History of Craighead Co."