Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1902-10-27
TOMB OF ERIC THE MORSE
THE MEANING OF A STRANGE STONE
AT HAMPTON, N. H.

Considerable discussion has been
| aroused in the New England states
over the meaning of strange stone
in which are cut mysterious marks
showing every evidence of extreme
age. This stone is, in fact, large
rock, and it has been attracting visit
ors to Hampton, N. H.
Judge Charles M. Lamprey of Hamp-
ton, after a prolonged investigation Of
the subject, is convinced that this
stone shows that Thorwald Eric, the
Norseman, landed at Hampton in the
year 1904 and was buried there. Judge
Lamprey, in The Boston Journal, says:
The pre-Columbian discovery of
America by the Mortimer is now
undoubtedly true, from what knowl-
edge can be gained from Icelandic
sages, although for many years it was
sincerely doubted. Bancroft, in his
history of the United States, Volume
l., alludes to it and says: "The story
of the colonization of America by
Northmen rests on narratives, myth
illogical in form, and obscure in mean
ing; ancient, yet not contemporary,
and admits that "the motives of these
intrepid mariners, whose voyages ex-
tended beyond Iceland and beyond
Sicily, could have easily sailed from
Greenland to Labrador; no other clear
historic evidence establishes the nat
ural probability that they accom-
plished the passage"
The Norsemen were a Norwegian
race of bold, seafaring men who had
founded a settlement in Iceland, so
that at the beginning of the tenth
century there was a population esti-
mated at from $4,000 to 10000 souls.
Their motto was Westward, ho!" and
they pushed on, reaching the shores
of Greenland, and there made settle
ment, and in the beginning Of the
eleventh century Greenland was well
settled and tributary to Norway,
where Eric, the leader, had established
the Christian religion.
Why, 'if they could easily have
sailed from Greenland to Labrador"
as Bancroft says, did they not sail
westward and accomplish the passage
| to Labrador? They did, and there is
no doubt in the minds of the students
! of ancient history that they sailed to
Labrador and further south till they
| landed on the New England coast as
far south as Cape Cod, and, perhaps,
as far as Connecticut.
Left Eric, according to the nara
tive, was in Greenland in the year 1000,
and proclaimed Christianity. In the
second voyage he discovered Vine
land, on the shores of New England,
| to which he gave that name because
| of the abundance of grapes growing
wild in the woods.
Where is "the point of land well COW
grave of Thorwald marked with
crosses? Several localities on New
| England's shore have tracings of in
| scriptions. One is found on the North
| mems Written Rock at or near West
| Newbury, Mass, tracings on stone
tablet and stone pipe in ancient graves
i'll Beverly, Mass, and other things in
Rhode Island and Connecticut are
evidence of the landing of the Morse
men 900 years ago on New England's
shore which they called Vineland.
Hampton has a stronger claim than
any other locality, and Great Boar's
Head must be the point of land" and
well covered with woods" centuries
ago. Boar's Head was then a much
longer point of land, and has been
wearing away constantly for long
| time. There are rocks extending out
southeasterly more than a quarter of
a mile which are easily seen under the
water by gunners and fishermen, and
which are a continuation of the rocks
| leading from the point; so it is un-
doubtedly fact that the bluff, gene
rations before the settlement Of the
| town, in 1888, was more than half
mile in length from the westerly side
where its rising commences to the
easterly point.
Tradition-hanGed down through
seven generations OF the writer's an
cestors, and to them through many
generations of Indians-says that
Boar's Head and all the upland run
ming westerly a mile or more to East
| mans Point. southwesterly to the Oil
yer Nudd farm, was covered with
wood. There is still deed taking in
a part of the Nudd farm and written
| nearly 200 years ago, which calls the
land the Nut Trees.
So there is no doubt that Boar's
Head was covered with woods, making
| it the wooded point with its bays, and
"the distance small between the forest
and the sea-" and the strand full of
white sand.
Now there is no other landing place
as described by the Norsemen in
their voyages to Vineland which an
swers this description as well as do
Hampton shores But that descrip-
ton is not all, for we have the crosses
cut on the stone many generations be-
fore the settlement of the town by the
| white man-crosses made not by the
Indians, but by some one who knew