Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 10.djvu/13



ERJUFSON, her'yulf-son. Bjab- Ni. The hero of an ancient Icelandic saga, according to which he was the first Norse discoverer of America. He was the son of Herjulf, one of the early settlers of Iceland. When he grew to manhood he be- came a .sea-rover, and spent most of his time abroad, returning only to pass alternate winters at his father's house. During one of his ab- sences Herjulf removed to Greenland with Eric the Red, and, when Bjarni on his return to Ice- land the following year (98(5) found his father gone, he determined to follow. Three days after he had left Iceland a storm arose and the ship drifted for some time at its mercy. When at last the storm abated, the crew hoisted sail and came to a land covered with trees. .s this could not have been Greenland, Bjarni refused to go ashore; so they sailed away, leaving the land on their left. Three times more they made the land, and the third time they found Eric's settle- ment in Greenland. News of the discovery they had made of a well-wooded country to the south- ward came to the ears of Leif Erieson (q.v.), son of Erie, and incited him to make his famous voyage to Vinland. Consult Reeves, The Finding of Wineland the Good (London, 1890).

HER'KIMER. A village and the county-seat of Herkimer County, N. Y., 81 miles west by north of Albany; on the Mohawk River, the Erie Canal, and the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad (Map: New York, F 2). It has a free library of over 7000 volumes, and the Folts Mission Institute. The village is in a dairying region, and manufactures knit goods, paper, furniture, beds, mattresses, etc. The waterworks and electric-light plant are owned by ttu' municipality. Population, in IflOO. 5555.

HERKIMER, Nicholas (1715?-77). An American soldier of the Revolutionary War. He was born probably in what is now Herkimer County, N. Y. Nicholas served as a lieutenant of militia in the French and Imlian War, and w^as in command of Fort Herkimer in 1758, when the French attack on German Flats was made. In 1775 he was commissioned a colonel of militia, and was chairman of the Committee of Safety of Tryon County. In the following year he was appointed a brigadier-general of the New York militia, and operated against Sir John Johnson. After Ticonderoga fell into the hands of Burgoyne's advancing army on July 7, 1777, Colonel Saint Leger joined Sir John John.son at Oswego, and with a mixed force of 1800 British regulars, Tories and Iroquois Indians under Joseph Brant, advanced toward Fort Stanwix ( q.v. ). The fort was invested on August 3d, and two days later Herkimer, with a force of 800 hastily recruited militia and volunteers, marched to its relief. Apprised by his Indians of the advance of the relieving column, Saint Leger arranged an ambuscade in a swampy ravine at Oriskany. The battle that ensued, perhaps the most obstinate and murderous of the entire Revo- lution, was indecisive. The Americans held the field and drove their opponents off, but lost a third of their force in dead and wounded, and were too weak to continue the advance. Saint Leger's force, on the other hand, was so crippled and disorganized as to render out of the question both the continuation of the seige and the ad- vance southward. Early in the fight Herkimer had his horse shot under him and his leg .shat- tered by a musket-ball ; but, seated on his saddle- bags underneath a tree, he continued calmly to smoke and shout out his commands until the fight was over. Ten days later he died, as a result of an unskillful operation. A monument 85 feet high was erected to his memory on the field of Oriskany in 1884.

HERKOMER, Hibert von (1849—). A genre and portrait painter and etcher of the English school. He was born at Waal, near Landsberg, Bavaria, May 26, 1849. His family emigrated to the United States in 1851, but returned to England in 1857. Herkomer's early life was a struggle with poverty and ill health. He evinced early talent for painting, and in 1865 he studied under Echtler in Munich. In 1866 he studied at South Kensington under Frederick Walker, whose influence is evident in his early works. In 1870 he removed to London, where ho soon became famous as an illustrator for the London Graphic, as well as for his painting. He was an excellent water-colorist. and became a member of the Royal Society in 1871, but was not made an -cademieian until 1890. In 187.1 he settled at Bushy, Hertfordshire, where in 1881 he established an art school, in which various branches