USA > Minnesota > Douglas County > History of Douglas and Grant counties, Minnesota : their people, industries, and institutions, Volume I > Part 8
USA > Minnesota > Grant County > History of Douglas and Grant counties, Minnesota : their people, industries, and institutions, Volume I > Part 8
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The immediate surface of the calcite, especially the edges formed by cutting the runes, is smoothed by a recent friction of some kind, much more than the surface of the graywacke; and this is attributable to wearing away when the stone served as a stepping-stone at the granary.
If the engraved face of this stone was separated from its neighbor since the Glacial age, as seems certain, it must have been in some way protected from the action of the elements; and consequently the calcite is comparable with the white, fine-grained limestone boulders and pebbles that are com- mon in the body of the drift in that part of the state. Such boulders when freshly taken from the till in deep excavations are not rotted, but are fresh and firm and smooth as marbles, and show distinctly the fine glacial scratches which they received during the Ice age, which ended about 7,000 or 8,000 years ago. When, however, they are found exposed at the surface of the ground, they have lost this smoothness and all the glacial marking, and their surfaces afford a fine white powder of natural disintegration. As there is nothing of this on this calcite (which is also the principal ingredient of the limestone boulders), it is evident that either the calcite has but recently been exposed or has been protected from the weather. If the slab was separated from its neighbor 548 years ago, it must have lain with its face side down dur- ing the most of that period. and if separated earlier it must have been covered by drift clay. If it was so separated fifteen or thirty years ago it may have lain with its face side up and probably would show no more weathering than it now evinces. In short, there is no possible natural way to preserve that calcite scale from general disintegration for 548 years except to bury
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it beneath the surface. If it were not thus buried and still is intact, it must have been exposed and the inscription must have been made less than a hun- dred years ago, and probably less than thirty years ago.
The general "mellow" color of the face of the graywacke, and of the whole surface of the stone, is also to be noted. This is the first apparent effect of weathering. Graywacke may be estimated to be fifty to a hundred times more durable in the weather than calcite, some graywackes being more resistant than others.
There are six stages of the weathering of graywacke which are exhibited by the stone, and they may be arranged approximately in a scale as follows :
I. A fresh break or cut. o
2. Break or cut shown by the runes of the face 5
3. Edge-face, which has not been engraved, but was apparently dressed by a rough bush-hammering. 5
4. The inscribed face of the stone. 10
5. The finely glaciated and polished back side and the non- hammered portion of the edge 80
6. The coarse gouging and the general beveling and deepest weathering of the back side. 250 or 500
These figures are but rough estimates and are intended to express the grand epochs of time through which the stone has passed since it started from the solid rock of which it formed a part prior to the Glacial period; and to a certain degree they are subject to the errors of the personal equation of the person who gives them. Prof. W. O. Hotchkiss, state geologist of Wisconsin, estimated that the time since the runes were inscribed is "at least 50 to 100 years." If the figures in the foregoing series be all multiplied by 100, they would stand :
000 : 500:
(1) (2) (3) 500: (4)
1,000: (5)
8,000: 25,000 or 50,000 (6)
Since 8,000 years is approximately the date of the end of the latest gla- ciation (5), the numbers may all be accepted as the approximate number of years required for the various stages of weathering. Hence stages (2) and (3) may have required each about 500 years.
The composition of the stone makes it one of the most durable in nature, equalling granite, and almost equalling the dense quartzyte of the pipestone quarry in the southwestern part of Minnesota. On the surface of this
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quartzyte, even where exposed to the weather since they were formed, the fine glacial scratches and polishing are well preserved, and when covered by drift clay they seem not to have been changed at all.
DISCUSSION OF THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE RUNE RECORD.
Owing to the existence of the belief with some that the inscription was made by Mr. Ohman, and the rumors that seemed to confirm that suspicion, a member of the committee has made three separate visits to the locality, and has examined into all the facts that have a bearing on such supposed origin of the stone. There is no need to rehearse the details of this search. A summary review, however, seems to be called for in order that the result reached by the committee may be seen to be based on a thorough investigation.
There was a rumor that a man of the name of Ohman had taken part, about fifteen years ago, in the exploitation of a so-called "fossil man" found in Marshall county, in the Red river valley. As the owners of this wonderful specimen disagreed and went into court to settle their dispute, the facts were made a matter of record. On consulting Judges Andrew Grindeland, of Warren, and William Watts, of Crookston, it was found that one of the parties was named O'Brien, and that his name had been confounded with Ohman.
It was rumored that Mr. Ohman had rune books, was familiar with rune characters, made runes on the sidewalk, on window casings and granaries, and was generally regarded as a "queer genius," resembling Uriah Heep, of Dickens. These rumors came to the committee in letters from different direc- tions, and on occasion of the third trip to Douglas county were met with not only at Kensington, but also at Elbow Lake, at Brandon, Evansville, Moe. and sometimes at intervening farm-houses. In order to find the truth of these rumors the whole region was pretty thoroughly canvassed, and a record was made of all information obtained. These rumors will be treated of separately.
Rune Books. It was found that Mr. Ohman had a Swedish grammar, published in 1840, the author of which was C. J. L. Almquist, issued at Stockholm. This rumor was encountered by Mr. Holand, when he was in the neighborhood in 1907, when he procured the stone of Mr. Ohman. He saw the book, when Mr. Ohman was absent, as he asked Mrs. Ohman the privilege of examining Mr. Ohman's "library." He considered that it had nothing to do with the rune stone and discredited the rumor. When, more recently, interest in the stone became more active and the rumor became
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widespread, it was thought necessary to procure this "library," or at least to get the historical facts about the "rune book." It was purchased. from Mr. Ohman for fifty cents, although he reluctantly parted with it, and would be glad to have it returned to him. On the front fly-leaf is written
Sv. Fogelblad, Stockholm, d. 16 Nov. 1868.
It is a duodecimo volume, and has 472 pages. On pages 117 and 118 are shown sixteen rune characters in vertical column, with their correspond- ing names and Roman equivalents.
Mr. Ohman, when asked where and when he obtained this book, stated that he got it from Mr. Anderson, who obtained it from a preacher. This was on the occasion of our second visit to Mr. Ohman's house. On occasion of our third visit he also stated that, after the rune stone was found, Mr. Anderson had suggested that he should take it home for the purpose of read- ing the rune record by means of the rune alphabet contained in it; that he did so, but found more characters on the stone than in the book, and could not translate the record, and that he had not returned the book. It transpired later that Mrs. Anderson and Mrs. Ohman are cousins.
Sven Fogelblad. When asked about the name on the fly-leaf at the front of the book, Mr. Ohman said that it was that of a broken-down preacher who used to be at Anderson's farm-house, and who was then well known in the surrounding region, as he got a precarious living amongst the farmers, partly by teaching their children in little school-gatherings, by binding books, and by little light jobs, but principally by charity. He was always poor, by reason of his fondness for intoxicating liquor. He had his home, so far as he could claim one, at Mr. Anderson's farmhouse, and when he died, which was at the age of about seventy years, in 1895 or 1896, his books were left in the possession of Mr. Anderson. Mr. Samuel Olson, of Kensington, said he never saw Mr. Fogelblad, and is of the opin- ion that he died prior to his going there fifteen years ago. These points were verified by others. They were carefully followed up, because it had been intimated by some that Mr. Fogelblad may have traced out the runes for Mr. Ohman to carve on the stone, and that the "rune book" formerly owned by Mr. Fogelglad had been the source of the necessary knowledge.
Mr. John A. Holvik, a student of the United Church Seminary, St. Anthony Park, St. Paul, had begun a search for the book which Fogel- blad left at Mt. Anderson's at the time of his death, said to have been at the house of Mr. Ohman and to have given aid to the engraving of the rune
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inscription. After the book was obtained in the investigation by this com- mittee, he examined it at leisure for two or three days, and wrote the follow- ing letter concerning it :
Letter of John A. Holvik.
St. Anthony Park, Minn., April 20, 1910.
Prof. N. H. Winchell, St. Paul,
Dear Sir:
After comparing in detail the Kensington inscription with the book bearing the name of Sv. Fogelblad, 1 am prepared to make the following statements.
1. The book is a grammar of modern Swedish, published in 1840.
2. It contains some material on the development of the language:
(a) A system of runes;
(b) Noun declensions of Old and Middle Swedish;
(c) Verb conjugations of Old and Middle Swedish :
(d) Short selections to illustrate the language at different periods from A. D. 1200 to the present time.
(e) Selections to illustrate different dialects.
3. The rune system is the Futhork of sixteen characters. The runes of the inscrip- tion are the later "punctuated" (stungne) runes.
4. The declensions give the four cases for nouns in Old and Middle Swedish. The inscription has only nominative and genitive forms. Furthermore, the word for ship, used as a type word in the fifth declension, is spelled skep in Middle Swedish. The inscription has skip.
5. The conjugation gives plural inflection for all verbs in Old and Middle Swedish. The inscription nses singular verb forms with plural subjects.
6. A selection from the fifteenth century gives the constructions: "wi ware ... wi hafwe The inscription has "vi var vi har."
7. A selection from the year 1370 gives the preposition "a." The inscription uses the proposition "po" (which is objected to by some linguists).
8. Some of the rune characters indicate (according to some runologists) that the author of the inscription must be from Dalarne in Sweden. A selection in the book shows the characteristic diphthongs of the dialect of Dalarne; but a characteristic fea- ture of the inscription is the lack of diphthongs.
To summarize: The difference in rune systems, and the so-called "errors" in the inscription, with some parallel correct forms in the book, make it evident that there is no connection between the inscription on the Kensington Rune Stone and the book bearing the name Sv. Fogelblad.
Yours truly.
J. A. HOLVIK.
OTHER RUMORS CONCERNING MR. OHMAN.
It was rumored that Mr. Ohman was a stone mason, and hence that he might be skillful in cutting rune letters. There seems to be no truth nor basis for this rumor, other than the natural desire to explain a puzzle. It may have been suggested by someone, asked by another whether true or not, intimated by another, and affirmed by the fourth. Once stated as a fact, it was hience
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additional evidence, united with the possession of the rune stone and the alleged possession of "rune books," that Mr. Ohman made the inscription on the stone. Mr. Ohman is a carpenter. No one was found who knew of his working as a stone mason, though several were asked.
The rumor that Mr. Ohman made rune characters on the sidewalks, on fences, and on granaries, asking people if they could read them, was appar- ently a very easy one to verify or disprove. And so it proved to be. Every- where, whenever this statement was made, the question was asked whether the person making it ever knew of Mr. Ohman's making rune characters. The answer was, "No, but Mr. So-and-So can give you the facts. He lives at Brandon, or near Brandon." On arriving at Brandon, where the rumor was prevalent, I was directed to Mr. O ---- , who was said to know more of the peculiar mental processes of Mr. Ohman "than any man on earth." He at once declared that Mr. Ohman was in the habit of making rune char- acters, as a joke, and "knew all about runes." Asked to state whether he him- self ever saw Mr. Ohman make runes at any time, disregarding the rumor, Mr. O. said he never had himself known of his making runes, but that Mr. Gunder Johnson, about four miles farther south, had known of his making runes. We drove then directly to Mr. Gunder Johnson's farm. The following is copied from our note book, written at the time of the interview :
"Mr. Gunder Johnson says his little testimony is not worth anything one way or the other. He knew Mr. Obman, who built his house, about 26 or 27 years ago. Mr. Ohman and be were talking about old Norske one day, and Ohman said there were old letters which were called runes, and Mr. Ohman took a pencil and made some on a board, saying they were runes. Mr. Johnson never knew of his making runes at any other time, nor of any preacher living with Ohman who made runes, nor any living in this country who could make them, nor anyone passing through here who could make them."
Later, when Mr. Ohman, was told that people said he made runes on side- walks and on granaries, etc., he indignantly demanded, "Who said it?" When he was told that Mr. Gunder Johnson stated that he had made them on a board when he worked for Mr. Johnson twenty-six or twenty-seven years ago, he denied it, but added that he "could not recall any conversation with Mr. John- son about runes," and that if at any time he had said anything to Mr. Johnson about runes, "It was because he had learned it in school in Sweden. Every school boy, and every Swede and Norwegian, knows something about runes, but not so as to use them."
So far as we can see, therefore, the common rumor that Mr. Ohman made rune characters on the sidewalks and on fences, in hours of idleness, and was familiar with runic literature, was derived from the simple fact
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that twenty-six or twenty-seven years ago, according to Mr. Gunder John- son, though forgotten by Mr. Ohman, he had made some rune characters for Mr. Johnson with a pencil on a board when he was working on Mr. John- son's house as a carpenter, in order to show him the kind of letters formerly used by the Scandinavians. The following is also extracted from our field book, bearing on the existence of this rumor.
"I found Mr. Gunder Johnson a very talkative man. I recall it now, and record it for its bearing on the existence and spread of the idea that Mr. Ohman knew runes long ago, had a number of books on runes, and made runic characters on the walks. window casings, and the granary doors about the country. I have traced up, under the direction of those who believed and repeated this story, all the promising lines of evidence, and I have found the report especially prevalent and detailed about Brandon, where Mr. Ohman lived 26 or 27 years ago. 1 have asked, not for the story, but for positive statements as to whether the parties affirming the story actually knew of Mr. Ohman's making runes. They said they did not. except Mr. Gunder Johnson, and some of them said they knew nothing about it except what emanated either from Mr. O. of Brandon or Mr. Gunder Johnson.
"The incident which seems to have given origin to the rumor was probably dormant until Prof. Breda and Prof. Curme pronounced the stone a fraud, and the stone had been returned to Ohman's farm. Then all the people began to speculate as to how the stone was inscribed. All minds turned to Mr. Ohman. Eighty years passed. The knowledge of Mr. Gunder Johnson about Mr. Ohman's making runes, and the fact that be retained the fraudulent stone. were coupled together and seemed to explain each other. springing at once into importance. I have no doubt, through Mr. Johnson. The idea was. very naturally, given broadcast. There was no other possible explanation of a fraudu- lent rune stone found on Mr. Ohman's farm and kept by him, however indifferently.
"Mr. Ohman is a rather taciturn man, and he took no pains to counteract the report that he was the impostor. One man said that if the rune inscription were genuine. it was a very valuable historic document, and any man would have made it well known as a valuable possession, the inference being that, as Mr. Ohman did not make it notorious, he must have known it was fraudulent. His neighbors made sport of him for keeping, or even for having made, a fake inscription. Mr. Gunder Johnson's knowledge was amplified. as such rumors grow in a farming community, and some intimated that. as Fogelblad was a scholar, he was the man who traced out the runes for Mr. Obman to cut on the stone.
"More lately, as it became known that Mr. Ohman had 'rune books,' the story was credited by many who had no knowledge of the case nor any personal acquaint- ance with Mr. Ohman; and during the last few years, when the recent renewal of inquiry about the stone became known by the people of this region. of course all the rumors. however increased in detail, were revived also, and there is no doubt that some have innocently spread the story, on the assumption that what was reported and was not denied must be true. In its exaggerated form it was sent in letters to members of this committee, and these letters prompted this thorough investigation."
Ohman is not a thrifty farmer. His premises are in disorder. His cattle, pigs, chickens, and his children, have a common way of approach to his front door, and when it is muddy the floor of his house is also muddy.
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There is no grading, no sidewalk, no fence, to make his home pleasant; and it is plain that the farm is not at its best. This listlessness has its influence in estimating the causes of the apparent neglect of Mr. Ohman to make the most of his discovery. After the rune stone had been pronounced a fraud by two professors (Breda and Curme), his interest in it extended no further than to insist on its return to him. A Swede farmer, in ignorance of the ways and means to have the inscription further investigated, not fully know- ing the English language, and having no spare money to use in a doubtful quest, he was obliged to let the stone rest in his yard uncared for.
It should not be inferred from the foregoing discussion of "rumors," as to Mr. Ohman's agency in fabricating the rune inscription, that there is a prevalent opinion connecting him with it. Most of the people, and especially his neighbors, believe that these rumors are baseless, and affirm their con- fidence in Mr. Ohman as well as in the genuineness of the rune stone. It is chiefly at a distance from Ohman's farm, and among strangers, that these rumors are sustained by those who have curiosity enough to form opinions about the discovery. The pastor, Rev. Mr. Saethre, of the church where Mr. Ohman's children were confirmed, said that Mr. Ohman came to that vicinity, to his knowledge, later than himself, which was twenty-five years ago. He is confident that Mr. Ohman, whom he had known ever since he came to his farm, "is utterly incapable of making the inscription." He has never heard that Mr. Ohman traveled about and made runes on the sidewalks and granaries in idle hours, nor has he ever heard of a clergyman in that region who did so.
THE TREE THAT GREW ON THE RUNE STONE.
As it is well established that a poplar tree grew in the soil above the stone, it is plain that the size of the tree has a direct bearing on the possible fabrication of the inscription by Mr. Ohman, or by any person since Mr. Ohman located on the farm. Mr. Samuel Olson, of Kensington, who was of the party that excavated in the earth where the stone was found, in the spring of 1899, expecting to find the remains of those who were massacred, made from memory a pencil sketch of the stump and roots of the tree as they appeared at that time.
No one was found who questioned the existence of this tree, nor the flat- ness of the roots caused by long contact on the stone. Indeed, one man who regarded Mr. Ohman as the possible maker of the inscription stated that he saw the roots and that they were flattened on one side.
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The shortest time that has been assigned to the growth of the tree is ten years. Mr. Ohman took the first part of his farm in 1890. The stone was found in the fall of 1898 on that portion of his farm which was the earliest deeded to him, and which he received by warranty deed from Halvor Stenson. If Mr. Ohman is responsible for the stone, he must have buried it with its face downward in sufficient soil at once to support a young tree, and the tree would have had the period of eight years to attain the size which it had in 1898; and if the tree were as large as most of those who saw it have testified to, its growth in eight years is put entirely outside of possibility. It would then be possible still to presume that the stone was put there during the owner- ship of the land by Mr. Stenson. The committee has taken no steps to ascer- tain the truth that might be in such a hypothesis, nor to learn anything of the antecedents of the land earlier than the record of the deeds to Mr. Ohman.
REVIEW OF THE FINDING OF THE STONE.
The foregoing sketch of the facts of the finding of the stone, and of the attendant conditions, embraces everything of importance that has come within the scope of our inquiry. It may be well, before leaving this part of the subject to call attention to some obvious inferences which bear on the question of the authenticity of the stone.
I. The inscription was made upon a boulder of graywacke found in the near vicinity.
2. The inscribed face of the stone has not passed through even the latest glaciation, but the opposite side shows such glaciation that it may have witnessed two ice-epochs. The boulder had been split along an old jointage plane, and the inscription is mainly on the resultant even face. The inscribed edge was also, doubtless, caused by a jointage plane, but appears to have been shaped by hammering.
3. The inscribed face appears weathered so as to indicate that it was separated from its companion piece perhaps several thousand years ago (but has not been glaciated), or was affected by water that entered along the joint-opening for a long time before such separation. The preservation of the calcite scale shows that since its separation it has been protected from the weather.
4. Two remarkable boulders are at the end of a sharp point, at the southwestern side of Pelican lake, and though they are not now surrounded by water, they probably were so five hundred and forty-eight years ago, and
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may stand for the "skerries" referred to in the inscription. If the inscription is modern, the engraver could hardly refer to these boulders as "skerries." They are about twenty miles north of the place where the stone was found.
5. The stone was found on an elevation surrounded with a swamp, and it is in keeping with a slow known physical change to suppose that the elevation was formerly surrounded by water, and that the term "inland" was applicable. If the inscription is modern, the engraver must have known that five hundred and forty-eight years ago this elevation was an island.
6. The sea was said to be fourteen days' journey distant from the place of the stone. The sea at Hudson bay is about that distance from Douglas county, for a canoe party descending the Nelson river. If parties reached Minnesota by that route they must have brought boats with them by way of Lake Winnipeg and the Red river of the North. It is not easy to see any reason for their leaving the regular watercourse and taking their boats across the country to Pelican lake, but if they were fishing on Pelican lake they must have had boats. At Pelican lake they would have been about twenty- five miles from the nearest point of the Red river of the North.
7. When found, the face of the stone was down. On any supposition as to the maker of the inscription it seems to be necessary to assume that it was not originally placed in that position. Owing to the easy disintegration of calcite in the weather, it is evident that the inscription is either recent or the stone was so placed (or was overturned) as to protect the inscription from the weather.
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