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I i ill 11 fXU Ullguioi (UlU 1MV ** V* MV*Rubbing uncovers truthDate inscription on stone altered.■.VftW.WiWAVMVW! !vXwX‘Av/!vX‘W!yI * ■ ■ • T •.1.1.1.1 V,‘AVAVV.V.WVM■VA*.Wlv,'(K-I-.'.V.-.WwSaiigvr.w.y.j!'r,rr%’•AV**.V.ViVlt;5y«r.WAVBy RICHARD G. CASE New information on an old fraud, the so-called “Pompey Stone,” has been uncovered accidentally during a Bicentennial exhibit in Onondaga County.The discovery, according to Richard Wright of the Onondaga Historical Association, may help explain differences in inscriptions on the boulder between its discovery in the Pompey hills about 1820 and this century.For example, the stone found by a farmer near the hamlet of Watervale was marked with the date 1520. It now reads 1589.Labeled Hoax The stone, first called a major discovery and later labeled a hoax, has been part of the State Museum collection in Albany for years.It was returned, to Pompey last weekend, however, for a town Bicentennial display, on temporary loan from the state.Prior to opening of the exhibit' Saturday morning, Wright explained, Johanne D. Alexander of Henneberry Road, a member of the Pompey Bicentennial Committee,decided to make a tubbing of the inscription using rice paper, roller and ink. The technique is the same used to copy carvings on gravestones.When she was finished, Mrs. Alexander reported she had brought out the original 1520 date, as well as a missing “L” and “n” shown in sketches of the Pompey Stone of the 1800s.“I had never done anything like that before,” Mrs. Alexander explained later, “but I just had to see what was there.”She said she had researched the stone’s odd history for the exhibit and was familiar with the- sketch of the inscription published in J. V. Clark’s Onondaga County history of 1849. This showed the 1520 date, and the missing letters.Loan ExtendedThe committee then contacted Wright, who was excited by the discovery, and arranged to extend the State Museum loan so the stone could be brought to the historical association headquarters in Syracuse for further study. It will be returned next week.Wright said yesterday he thinks the stone is .the same one found on the Philo Cleveland farm on Watervale Road in 1820 or 21. Part of the inscription was changed, hebelieves, perhaps to make itmore readable, between the stone’s last visit to Onondaga in 1894, when it was pronounced a hoax, and 1937, when the state archaeologistHerald-Jotimal photo by John Dowling 'Johanne Alexander of Pompey with Pompey Stone and rubbing sbe made which brought out what are believed to be the original figures.Plant plans revealedMurphy Products Co. will begin construction July 15 of its plant in the Wetzel Road Industrial Park near Liverpool, which will convert spent grains from the new Jos. Schlitz brewery Radisson into feed for dairy cattle'Eugene H. Spitzer, president of the firm, said.about 10 persons will be employed at first to make the feed which will be sold to dairy customers in New York and Pennsylvania.The Herald-Joumal revealed in April that the company planned to build a facility to process spent grain (the materials remaining from the beer brewing process).Spitzer said the 8,900-square-foot plant will be builton ID acres of land. Completion is expected by April 1977.The facility will be the fifth such plant for Murphy products. All are operated in conjunction with breweries of the parent Schlitz company.Receives B.A.» '. Patricia Darby, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Joel H. Darby, 207 Melrose Dr., North Syracuse, received her bachelor of arts degree during spring commencement exercises at Westminster College, Wilmington, Pa. Majoring in elementary education with a concentration in music, shewas a member of Zeta Tau Al-*pha sorority and participated in the Concert Choir's 1974 European tour. She is a graduate of North Syracuse High School. i.noticed the different markings.The story of this strange souvenir of early America begins when Philo Cleveland found the stone on his farm. Rude calligraphy read “Leo. De VI, 1520.” It caused a local sensation, was displayed at Watervale- and Manlius and then was carried to a museum of areheaeology in Albany.Until much later, almost everyone, including the state experts, thought it was an authentic document pointing to an earlier presence of Europeans west of the Hudson River than had been authenticated.In 1879, for example, the state librarian was writing that he thought it was the gravestone of a . Spaniard named Leo who died while stalking the wilderness. ExplanationIn 1894, however, while thestone was in Syracuse for an historical association exhibit, the Rev. William Beauchamp got a look at it. The eminent historian declared it a hoax, using peat detail to buttress his case.This report brought out Prof. John Sweet, a. native of Pompey, who explained what had happened. Years before, Sweet said, his uncle, Cyrus Avery, told him that he and William Ward Willard created the Pompey Stone “just to see what would come of it.”By that time, both Avery, who had become an inventor and seller of farm machinery in Pennsylvania, and Willard, a prominent Syracuse busi-, nessman, were dead.Blacksmith ShopBut Sweet said he agreed with Beauchamp that the stone was chiseled with tools of the 1820s, probably from the Avery blacksmith shop at Oran.(The new research into the stone's history lead Wright to the birth records of both Avery and Willard. He learned they were 13 and 12 years old in 1820, when they did the hoax.)After the revelations of 1894, the stone was returned to the State Museum, where it was displayed from time to time. In 1937, archaeologist Noah Clark wrote to the Onondaga association, noting “there is a decided difference in the inscription which now appears from tl|e one” in the original sketches. “I am at a loss to give a reason for this unless in the years since its discovery someone has made an attempt to restore the faint lines by scratching them deeper and in so doing lost a part or erred in the date.”Records LostSince museum records were lost in an Albany fire in 1911, it was not possible to make a comparison based on research information.Both Wright and Mrs. Alexander said it may never be known why the changes were made, but careful examination of the stone reveals deeper impressions in the questionable sections of the surface.Local rock experts who examined the stone at the OHA said they thought it was a piece of glacial material, probably transported to Pompey from Canada. They said the stone, which weighs 127 pounds and is about eight inches high, seems to be gneiss, a combination of quartz, feldspar and mica.State Museum experts, meanwhile, expressed interest. in the local findings. They said consideration is being given to using the Pompey Stone as a feature in a future exhibit of “celebrated frauds” in the new State Museum, paired, perhaps, with the Cardiff Giant, found nearly 50 years later and a few miles from Pompey Hill. rJ
Newspaper Details
Syracuse Herald Journal
Syracuse, New York, US
Fri, Jul 02, 1976
Page 21
Full Page
Clipped by
Edward E.
NA, 31 Aug 2021
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