Back in 1872, so the story goes, workers that were digging a hole for a fence post near Lake Winnipesaukee, in the central part of this New England state, found a lump of clay that seemed out of place.

There was something inside- an egg shaped artifact was discovered six feet below the ground.

It was a dark, odd-looking, egg-shaped stone with a variety of carvings, including a face, teepee, ear of corn and starlike circles.Called the ‘Mystery Stone’, it is one of New Hampshire’s more curious and lesser known relics.

Description of the Mysterious Stone

The mystery stone egg is approximately 4 inches (10.2cms) long, 2 1/2 inches  (6.4cms) thick, weights eighteen ounces (510.3grams) and has a dark-hue to it.

The egg is hard as granite and it is about the size and shape of a goose egg. The stone is a type of quartzite.

Another curious detail is that there are holes bored in both ends of the stone. According to an analysis done by state officials in 1994, each bore is straight, not tapered and scratches in the lower bore suggest it was placed on a metal shaft and removed several times.

“I’ve seen a number of holes bored in stone with technology that you would associate with prehistoric North America.

There ’s a certain amount of unevenness and this hole was extremely regular throughout. What we did not see was variations that would be consistent with something that was several hundred years old,” said Richard Boisvert, state archaeologist.

In the analysis there are comments from geologist Eugene Boudette, who concluded that the stone is a type of quartzite, derived from sandstone, or mylonite, a fine-grained, laminated rock formed by the shifting of rock layers along faults.

Besides the strange construction and design, what makes the stone even more interesting are bizarre carvings ranging from astronomical symbols to a human face along its smooth egg faced sides.

On one side, the cravings seem to be inverted arrows, a moon with some dots and a spiral, and the other side has an ear of corn with seventeen kernels in the row.

Underneath the egg, there is a circle with three figures; one of which looks like a deer’s leg along with some kind of animal with large ears.

The “third” side shows a tepee with four poles, an oval and a human face which is sunken with a nose that does not rise above the surface of the egg with lips that seem to give the image some kind of purposeful expression.

History of the Lake Winnipesaukee Stone Egg

Seneca A. Ladd, a local businessman who hired the workers, was credited with the discovery of the stone egg.

When the mysterious stone egg was first unveiled to the world, the American Naturalist journal described it as “a remarkable Indian relic.” According to documents and newspaper articles, by 1872 Seneca Ladd had the “egg” in his possession and by 1885, it was notable enough to be reported in the county history book.

Seneca A. Ladd

An article in The American Naturalist said: ‘As Mr. Ladd is quite a naturalist, and has already an extensive private collection of relics and specimens, he was delighted with the new discovery, and exhibited and explained the really remarkable relic with an enthusiasm which only the genuine student can feel’.

Ladd died in 1892, and in 1927, one of his daughters, Frances Ladd Coe of Center Harbor, donated the stone to the New Hampshire Historical Society in the state capital of Concord.

There the stone egg was separated from the Native American 1800’s-era cultural artifacts and items of modern day interest. The stone, which is surrounded by mirrors showing off its symbols, is on display at the Museum of New Hampshire History, where it was last exhibited in 1996.

Controversial Theories on the Origin of The Stone Egg

To date, amateur and professional archaeologists have speculated about the origin of this strange artifact and no one has been able to say for sure about the origin of the ‘Mystery Stone’.

It is possible that the egg has Celtic or Inuit origin and in 1931 a letter was written to the New Hampshire Historical Society suggesting that it was a “thunderstone.”

Also known as “thunderbolts” or “thunder axes,” a thunderstone is a worked stone object, often wedge-shaped like an axe blade, that is alleged to have fallen from the sky.

Stories of thunderstones are found in many cultures and are often associated with a thunder god. The writer in the letter went on to say that such objects ” always present the appearance of having been machine or hand-worked: frequently they come from deep in the earth, embedded in lumps of clay, or even surrounded by solid rock or coral .”

Since the rock type is not familiar to New Hampshire and there are no other known objects bearing similar markings or design in the United States, it is supposed that it may have been the work of someone living in a faraway place and time.

These hypotheses have failed to impress the masses, and so skeptics on both sides gathered for deeper analysis in the late 20th century.

A recent analysis suggested that the hole through the stone was too precise to have been crafted by ancient peoples so it must be a hoax.

However, what can be said for certain is an unknown craftsman, likely in the mid to late 1800s, carved this strange egg shaped object, and that is has been a source fascination since.

Today, you can visit the New Hampshire Historical Society to see the stone for yourself and decide in what you will believe.

Sources:
http://theunexplainedmysteries.com/Lake_Winnipesaukee_mystery_stone.html
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-englands-mystery-stone/
http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/lake-winnipesaukee-mystery-stone
http://www.oddthingsiveseen.com/2011/06/mystery-stone-of-lake-winnipesaukee.html
http://www.meta-religion.com/Archaeology/Europe/other/carved_stone.htm
http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/lake-winnipesaukee-mystery-stone
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-englands-mystery-stone/
http://www.ancient-origins.net/

Kong Qui, or as we all know him, Confucius (551B.C. – 479 B.C.) was born in the Lu state near China. Records of the Historian claim that he was born in a wealthy family while other accounts claim that he was born in a poor family.

However, one thing which is known for sure is that he lived in China during a period of ideological crisis. 

According to his teachings, preserved in the Analects, Confucius was striving towards better society reached by improved moral, better family and social relationships, justice and sincerity, and improved educational standards for everyone no matter the class.

Confucius had a vision of just and peaceful China. He also had a vision of a better world. According to his teachings that was possible if we follow the rules of the concentric circles system.

The meaning of this theory was that every man must respect himself and behave in a virtuous manner, if one respects himself than he will respect his family, the respect will expand further on the neighbourhood, than on the society, nation, county, on the universe and beyond.

When Confucius was 50 years old, he was appointed Governor of the state of Lu and had the opportunity to change China for the better. With his ruling Confucius was ahead of his time.

He had some bizzare rules like: women and men should walk on a different side of the road, but he also had some marvelous ideas like: poor children and poor elderly people should be fed on the state expense and education should be equally accessible to everyone no matter the social class.

His theory was that education is not just something you do at a certain period in your life rather is the meaning of life.

He also believed that if every man is educated, there won’t be difference between classes. In Confucius’ class both sons of wealthy noblemen and sons of poor peasants sat together and learnt about the aspects of justice and truth.

Confucius encouraged them that each and every one of them can become a superior man – when aristocracy of noble character matters and not noble birth. Anybody can be a superior man, one just has to desire.

Here are 10 powerful life-altering lessons which are based on Confucius’ philosophy:

1.When anger rises, think of the consequences.

2. If you hate a person, then you’re defeated by them.

3. Never form a friendship with a man who is not better than you.

4. When it is obvious that goals cannot be reached, don’t adjust the goals, but adjust the action steps.

5. If they spit at you behind your back, it means you’re ahead of them.

6. What the superior man seeks is in himself; what the small man seeks is in others.

7. Give instructions only to those people who seek knowledge after they have discovered their ignorance.

8. It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.

9. Looking at small advantages prevents great affairs from being accomplished.

10. Wherever you go, go with all your heart.

If only half of us were thinking the way Confucius was, the world would be a better place for living.

SHARING IS CARING!

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Sarah Breedlove, later known as Madam C. J. Walker, is a household name in America’s culture and history and her incredible story is both inspiring and heart-warming.

She was an African American entrepreneur, philanthropist, and a political and social activist, but is best known for becoming the first female self-employment millionaire in America by developing and marketing a line of beauty and hair products for black women through the Madame C.J. Walker Manufacturing Company, a business she had established in 1910 in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Her estate in Irvington-on-Hudson, New York, which served as a social gathering place for the African American community, and the Madame Walker Theatre Center, which opened in Indianapolis in 1927, are both listed on the National Register of Historic Places and highlight the incredible achievements she had made during her lifetime.

Ms Breedlove didn’t have it easy. 19^th century America was the white man’s world, where racial segregation and slavery left little or no chance for a black man or a woman to even dream of life of riches.

Such was the setting in America in the years before Sarah Breedlove was born to Owen and Minerva (Anderson) Breedlove in 1867 near Delta, Louisiana.

The Breedloves, which had six children, had soon fallen victims to rich plantation owners who bought slaves to work and die on their lands. Sara’s parents and her older siblings were enslaved on Robert W.

Burney’s Madison Parish plantation, while she managed to escape the same destiny simply because she was the first child in her family to be born after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed.

Both her parents had died before Sarah turned seven and soon after she moved to Vicksburg, Mississippi, and worked as a domestic.

Sarah married Moses McWilliams In 1882, at the age of fourteen, and three years later the couple had their only daughter, A’lelia McWilliams.

Shortly after Moses died in 1887, Sarah and her daughter moved to Saint Louis, Missouri, where three of her brothers lived. There, she found work as a laundress, determined to help her daughter gain a formal education.

Sarah remarried in 1894, only to leave her second husband, John Davis, around 1903. Two years later, she moved to Denver, Colorado, where she married once again in January 1906, to the newspaper advertising salesman Charles Joseph Walker. This was also the time when Sarah came to be known as Madam C. J. Walker.

It was during the 1880s when Breedlove developed a yearning for an educated life and conceived the idea of setting up her own business.

At the time, she had experienced severe dandruff and other scalp ailments, which were common among black women of her era due to skin disorders and the application of harsh products such as lye that were included in soaps to cleanse hair and wash clothes.

Her early knowledge of hair care, which was passed to her by her brothers (both of whom were barbers in Saint Louis), allowed her to become a commission agent selling products in 1904 for Annie Turnbo Malone, an African American hair-care entrepreneur and owner of the Poro Company.

During her tenure with the Poro Company, which would later become Walker’s largest rival in the hair-care industry, Sarah began to adapt her knowledge of hair and hair products to develop her own product line.

In 1905, when she moved to Denver with her daughter A’lelia, Sarah continued to sell products for Malone and started developing her own hair-care business.

Following her marriage to Charles Walker, she became known as Madam C. J. Walker (“Madam” was adopted from women pioneers of the French beauty industry) and marketed herself as an independent hairdresser and retailer of cosmetic creams.

Initially, Sarah sold her products door to door, teaching other black women how to groom and style their hair.

She and her husband then relocated the business to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where they opened a beauty parlor and established A’lelia College to train “hair culturists.”

Subsequently, the pair established a new base in Indianapolis in 1910, followed by the opening of an office and beauty salon in New York City’s Harlem neighborhood in 1913.

Having established the Madame C. J. Walker Manufacturing Company’s headquarters in Indianapolis, Sarah then purchased a house and factory at 640 North West Street.

She also built a hair salon and a beauty school to train her sales agents, as well as a laboratory to help with research.

Between 1911 and 1919, Walker was at the peak of her career and her company employed several thousand women as sales agents for its products. She was also quick to learn the power of advertising and brand awareness. 

By utilizing heavy advertising, primarily in African American newspapers and magazines, her products became well known not only in the United States, but also Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti, Panama, and Costa Rica.

In 1917, Walker began organizing her sales agents into state and local clubs, which resulted in the establishment of the National Beauty Culturists and Benevolent Association of Madam C. J. Walker Agents.

Its first annual conference, convened in Philadelphia during the summer of 1917, is believed to have been among the first national gatherings of women entrepreneurs to discuss business and commerce.

In parallel to her rise to prominence, Sarah gradually became more vocal about her views. In 1912, she gave a speech at an annual gathering of the National Negro Business League (NNBL), where she declared:

“I am a woman who came for the cotton fields of the South. From there I was promoted to the washtub. From there, I was promoted to the cook kitchen,” she famously said.

And from there, I promoted myself into the business of manufacturing hair goods and preparations. I have built my own factory on my own ground.”

Sarah also supported the establishment of a branch of the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) in Indianapolis’s black community, committing $1,000 to the building fund for the Senate Avenue YMCA.

Walker became more actively involved in politics after her move to New York, when she started delivering  lectures on political, economic, and social issues at conventions sponsored by powerful black institutions.

Some of her influential friends and associates included Booker T. Washington, Mary McLeod Bethune, and W. E. B. Du Bois, to name a few.

When World War I erupted, Sarah became a leader in the Circle For Negro War Relief and advocated for the establishment of a training camp for black army officers.

Her generous contributions to her political and philanthropic interests saw the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs (NACWC) recognize Walker for making the largest individual contribution to help preserve Frederick Douglass’s Anacostia house.

Shortly before she died in 1919, Walker donated $5,000 to the NAACP’s antilynching fund, which at the time was the largest gift from an individual that the NAACP had ever received.

During her lifetime, Walker gave away nearly $100,000 to orphanages, institutions, and individuals. In her will, she instructed lawyers to direct two-thirds of future net profits of her estate to charity.

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