Stone's throw

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This is the first time I've heard this story of stones raining down on people right before the Salem Witch Trials.

A 2-foot-high rock wall borders the elementary school near the spot where a satanic spirit purportedly showered George and Alice Walton's home and tavern with stones 325 years ago. It set off a wave of hysteria that foreshadowed the Salem witch trials.

Could some of the rocks now neatly arranged outside Mabel H. Trefethen School in New Hampshire be among those that came crashing down on Walton's property on the night of June 11, 1682, creating the belief that a stone-throwing devil was on the loose?

"Who knows where (the rocks) came from? Your guess is as good as mine," says historian Emerson W. Baker, whose book, "The Devil of Great Island," uses the historical footnote as an opening to explore witchcraft and deviltry in the Colonial New England mind-set.

The moon was full that Sunday night when stones rained onto George Walton and several companions as they headed toward the tavern, according to an eyewitness. The rocks, some as large as a man's fist, continued to fly even after those targeted by the barrage took shelter inside. Some of the rocks were hot, as if they had just been pulled from a fire.

There were other signs of supernatural forces, including eerie, demonic noises and objects inexplicably moving about and standing at odd angles.

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