David Lang's Disappearance - A Hoax

Court Records Evidence that a Mr. Williamson Mysteriously Vanished

Mar 8, 2009

The similarities between the David Lang legend and the Orion Williamson case are striking and the stories' themes are identical: both men simply disappeared.

Lang’s story “happened” in 1880 in Tennessee; Williamson’s case, in 1854 in Alabama. The former has no supporting evidence; the later does. Was Lang’s disappearance a fable based on the true account that occurred years earlier? Researchers dug for answers.

David Lang Disappears

September 23, 1880: David Lang was crossing a field near his home in Sumner County, Tennessee. His wife and two children were watching him. Judge August Peck and his brother-in-law were approaching them in a horse-drawn buggy. Suddenly, Mrs. Lang started screaming. The men were stunned. Lang had vanished! The adults frantically searched for Lang, but he was gone, without a trace.

There was a 15-foot circle where Lang disappeared which continued to mark the spot for years afterwards. Nothing grew there. Animals and insects avoided it. Once, his children dared to walk into the circle’s center and claimed to hear their father’s voice emanating from another dimension. Shortly after Mrs. Lang’s death, daughter Sarah, allegedly, received a letter written in her father’s handwriting. "Together now. Together now and forever…”

Orion Williamson’s Disappearance

There’s evidence via court records that a similar incident occurred earlier. Ambrose Bierce investigated and wrote The Difficulty of Crossing a Field, describing the mysterious incident in detail.

In July, 1854, planter Orion Williamson, who lived near Selma, Alabama, was sitting with his family on the veranda. He went to talk to his overseer about horses he’d bought and walked into the pasture. Williamson saw neighbor Armour Wren and stopped to greet him. As Wren’s coach turned homeward, one of the horses stumbled. The steed had recovered when James asked his father what happened to Williamson. The man disappeared!

Wren's account of the matter was given under oath in a court case regarding Williamson’s estate. They went back to the house, got out of the carriage and saw Mrs. Williamson as she ran down the walkway, wildly screaming that her husband was gone. James corroborated his father’s testimony. None of the workers in the field where Williamson was going had seen him. An extensive search failed to find Williamson or supply a clue as to what happened. The court declared him dead.

Lang Legend Debunked

The story of Lang’s disappearance attracted the attention of researchers after versions of the tale were published by Frank Edwards, Stranger than Science (1959), and Harold Wilkins, Strange Mysteries of Time and Space (1958).

Numerous researchers tried to find evidence confirming Lang’s story, but nothing was found. There are no newspaper accounts of Lang’s disappearance nor do census records indicate that a man by his name or Judge Peck’s existed.

During the 1970s, researchers contacted Tennessee librarian Hershal Payne who found a possible source for the legend. He’d heard some people attributed the story to Tennessee hoaxer Joseph Mulhattan. Allegedly, Mulhattan created it while participating in a lying contest, but there’s no documentation indicating this.

Researcher Robert Nash believed that traveling salesman Joe Mulhatten entered a liar’s contest and, being familiar with the Williamson case, concocted the Lang incident, but many Lang researchers believe that Mulhatten is also fabrication. They believe that Mulhatten is a myth based on traveling salesmen Joseph M. Mulholland, known for his fabrications.

Many believe that mystery-novel writer Stuart Palmer created the Lang story when he published it in the July 1953 edition of FATE, claiming Sarah Lang told him the story. It’s more likely he got the idea from Bierce’s account of Williamson. It appears this article was the source that both Wilkins and Edwards relied upon.

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