Re: [DL] Hollow earth

[Jay Gilham <jaygilham@adelphia.net>]

>
>
>I`ve found, that after the War between States US goverment`ve almost
>sponsored expedition to find if Earth is hollow. The leader of this
>expedition was John Cleves Symmes, hero of the former war. Anybody knows if
>he was a Yankee or Rebel? I want to write story with him, and in Weird West
>it is very important - I want to make this expedition a national one.
>  
>

Symmes was a yank but he was dead before the war even started.  Below is 
some information I found on him

The idea that the earth possesses a hollow interior which houses an 
underground civilization is an old one-the widespread religious belief 
in hell is one expression of this notion-but the first American to try 
to prove it was the eccentric John Cleves Symmes (1779-1829). Symmes 
believed that the earth is made up of a series of concentric spheres, 
with 4,000-mile-wide holes at the north and south poles. In spite of 
massive ridicule, Symmes, wrote, lectured, and lobbied vigorously for 
funding to mount an expedition through the poles to the interior, where 
he and his party would meet the inner-earth people and open "new sources 
of trade and commerce."

SYMMES, John Cleves, jurist, born on Long Island, New York, 21 July, 
1742; died in Cincinnati, Ohio, 26 February, 1814. He was a delegate 
from Delaware to the Continental congress in 1785 and 1786, a judge of 
the superior court of New Jersey, and afterward chief justice of the 
same state. In 1787 he was. appointed judge of the Northwest territory. 
In 1788 he obtained from the government a grant; of 1,000,000 acres, 
bounded south by the Ohio, and west by the Miami, and was the founder of 
the settlements of North Bend, and Cincinnati thereon. His wife was a 
daughter of Governor William Livingston, and his daughter Anna became 
the wife of William II. Harrison.--His nephew, John Cleves, soldier, 
born in New Jersey in 1780; died in Hamilton, Ohio, 28 May, 1829, 
entered the army as an ensign in the 1st infantry, 26 March, 1802, was a 
captain in the war of 1812, and served with credit at the battle of 
Niagara and in the sortie from Fort Erie. He subsequently resided at 
Newport, Kentucky, and devoted himself to philosophical pursuits. In 
1818 he promulgated his theory that the earth is a hollow sphere, 
habitable within, and open at the poles for the admission of light, and 
containing within it six or seven concentric hollow spheres, also open 
at the poles. He wrote and spoke on the subject of his singular 
hypothesis, and petitioned congress in 1822 and 1823 to fit out an 
expedition .to test the truth of his theory. During the winters of 
1826-'7 he lectured on it before the students and faculty of Union 
college; but it was received with general ridicule, and the supposed 
aperture at the north pole was popularly called "Symmes's hole." He 
published "Theory of Concentric Spheres" (Cincinnati, 1826). An abstract 
of Symmes's theory and arguments appeared in the "Atlantic Monthly" for 
April, 1873. In 1876 Symmes's son, AMERICUS VESPUCIUS, revived his 
theory.-Another nephew of the first John Cleves, Peyton Short, poet, 
born in Sussex county, New Jersey, in 1793; died in Mount Auburn, near 
Cincinnati, Ohio, 27 July, 1861, went to Ohio in his childhood as a 
pioneer, became registrar of the land-office at Cincinnati in 1827, and 
in 1830-'50 was a member of the board of health of that city. He was one 
of the trustees of the old Cincinnati college, and a supporter of the 
Western college of teachers which met annually at Cincinnati from 1838 
till 1845. He wrote a life of his uncle, not yet published.

hope this helps you

-- 
Jay

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