Rumours abound about Mr. Ohman, connecting him with the carving of the runestone. Often they are started by some small story, and a number of them have come forth particularly in the generation since his death, as stories passed down within the familly. I present one such story here as given by Blegen:

" Mrs. Arthur Nelson of Seattle called at the museum [Minnsota Historical Soceity Museum -M] on July 13, 1955, and told Mr. Cutler [curator -M] of a story often repeated, she said, by her grandfather, Moses D. Freeberg, who operated a tool shop in Alexandria. Fredenberg, so ran the story, often laughted and joked about the Kensing stone because 'two Swedes' from out of town - that is, from outside Alexandria - had come to get tools with which to carve the Kensington inscriptoin. After Mrs. Nelson's visit, Mr. Cutler wrote to her requesting a written statement; in reply she refferred him to her cousin, Mrs W W Christopherson of Kenyon, Minnesota, who supplied some details. The grandfather, who visited Mrs. Christopherson's family each spring when that family lived at Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, had told about two young men who asked him to make chisels for use on stone. The two men said that they were 'going to have some fun.' They were Scandinavian; Mrs. Christopherson could not recall their names; her grandfather's description of them indicated 'they would go to any length to play a joke on anyone they desired.' Mrs. Christopherson's father, Alfred E Fredenberg, also knew the story, but had done nothing about it because 'no one had asked him'. (Blegen, p 78)

In his affidavit in 1909, Ohman states that he is 54 years old - which would make him 43 when the stone was uncovered and a mere 30 when he immigrated to America in 1879. Fogelblad (who's name is often mention in regards to a hoax was born in 1829, some 20 years older than Ohman. These are not 'young men' and could not possibly be the ones who bought the chisel.
The story is second hand, and gives no time, names or descriptions. From what is given it is impossible to connect the story with the stone. There is a likelihood that after the stone was intially called a fake by Breda & co., Fredenberg recalled recalled to pranksters buying a chisel, and incorrectly connected this with the stone, and told the story - laughingly - to the family, as an interesting story, a possible brush with fame.

Unfortunately, it is all to common for detractors (or simply the uninformed) to take out bits and pieces like this and try to blow them up into some great revelation. While having no solid basis, these stories add to the 'myth' of the hoax, giving it an udeserving aura of falseness. (Of course the same can be said of adherants as well)

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