A REMINISCENCE - 3 A REMINISCENCE CHANCELLOR HENRY M. MCCRACKEN. IT is more than half a century since I was told by my father the story of his making his way on foot to Greene County as a young man from the home of my grandfather, Who was known as Squire John MacCracken, of Butler County, Ohio. My grandfather had been told by Judge Burnet of Cincinnati, after whom the Burnet House was named, that he would give him for his Butler County land as much of the Burnet unimproved land in Greene County as he might select as a fair equivalent. My father, John Steele MacCracken, with his older brother, Samuel Wilson MacCracken, and a young man who afterwards became ,their brother-in-law, Mark McMaken (who died less than ten years since in Hamilton, Ohio, in the one hundredth year of his life) came on foot from Butler County up to Greene County. They selected certain parcels of the land belonging to Judge Burnet. The principal parcel was a section or more in Beaver Creek Township, four miles west of Xenia. The three young men returned and reported their choice of lands. The grandfather doubted if Judge Burnet would consent to give so large an acreage for the little farm in Butler County. But the Judge agreed to the proposed trade without the slightest hesitation. The young men returned to. Greene County with their axes, cleared many acres of land and builded a house of hewn logs, a part of .which is still upon the Henry Ankeny farm near the banks of Beaver Creek. 4 - GREENE COUNTY 1803-1908. My father, born in the year 1804, more than once pointed me to a pleasant knoll overlooking the Beaver Creek. Valley and said : "My older brother Samuel and I sat there upon a fence which we had builded and debated whether we could not then afford to leave farming, begin to prepare ourselves for college and go through the college course of four years and the Theological Seminary in order to be ministers according to the ordinary Presbyterian requirements. We then and there declared to one another that we would make the attempt." The farm and old folks were left behind in the care of a younger brother while the two older brothers began the battle for education. They and their parents were all connected with what is now known as the First United Presbyterian Church of Xenia, Ohio, but which was Presbyterian as the First Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church of Xenia. My grandfather, Squire John MacCracken, was a ruling elder in this church and remained so until his death. A notable resolve of my father was to keep the land which was his upon Beaver Creek to fall back upon if at any time he should require it. Aided by the productiveness of his Beaver Creek farm he was able to give to his children a liberal education without the hardship which had been encountered by those in pioneer times in order to make their way. My own individual recollection of Xenia begins with my father who was then a pioneer preacher in Hardin County about sixty years ago, bringing me, a boy of about eight years of age, to attend the meeting of Synod in this city. We were entertained by a Mr. Gowdy, father of Rev. George Gowdy, who lived upon Main Street, in whose house then and there I saw what seemed to me the most beautiful bit of architecture I had ever known, namely, a marble mantlepiece. Such a thing did not exist in the town or in the county where my father had preached since the time I was three years old. My boyish recollection continued to cherish Xenia as a notable city builded largely of brick and of stone when so many county towns of Ohio had only houses of frame or even of logs. It may have been on this same visit to Xenia or possibly an earlier one when I had my first sight of a locomotive, the Little Miami road having just been the road north A REMINISCENCE - 5 as far as Xenia. At that time the road to Columbus hbad not been built. I recollect my especial interest when told that the locomotive was going down to take ill water and how I needed to have my notion corrected that it had to find its way clown into the water of Shawnee Creek in order to get a sufficient supply. Greene County and Xenia were my own home for barely two years, from 1859 until 1861, during which period I was a student in the Theological Seminary of the United Presbyterian Church, occupying, however, the most of my time the first year as an instructor of classes, particularly in the classics, in the Xenia High School. I have always counted it a privilege that I was contemporary there with Dr. William G. Moorehead and other students who have made their impression upon the church of their generation. My recollections of those two years in Xenia just before and after the beginning of the great Civil War, are of a community of high intelligence, earnest religious life and devoted patriotic spirit. May I be permitted, while not forgetting the share that people of various races have taken .in the making of Xenia and Greene County, to emphasize the large contributions made to her history by the Scotch and Scotch-Irish. United Presbyterians came originally entirely from Scotland or the north of Ireland.. The Scotch-Irish furnished half- of the Presbyterians of every name in the United States. There are three gravestones out yonder in the Xenia cemetery which I have ever remembered as expressing the profound, religious conviction of those Scotch and Scotch-Irish Presbyterians who have gone forth from Greene County to serve their fellow men. They are placed. over the graves of the Covenanter Gilbert McMaster, and his two Presbyterian sons, all eminent doctors of the Church ; and on the first I read; "God, thou art my God ;" on the second, "Jehovah-Jireh;" on the third, "I will go unto God, my exceeding joy ;" and that is Calvinism in the warm heart and the educated brain of the Scotch-Irish. God is his God. He trusts Him to provide everything and to solve mysteries. Existence is an eternal friendship, an approaching nearer and more near to his exceeding joy. 6 - GREENE COUNTY 1803-1908. This depth of faith, joined with strength of intellect and saving common sense, has done more than all else to make many sons and daughters of Greene County of some value to their country and to the world. THE OLD " FEMALE SEMINARY." - 7 THE OLD "FEMALE SEMINARY.' HELEN EKIN STARRETT. SURELY one of the most interesting historic buildings in Xenia is the present dormitory of the Theological Seminary on Third Street, but known, prior to and in the sixties; as "Mrs. Hanna's Seminary." built by that noble founder of the Washington Female Seminary in the then little town of Washington, Pa., in the days of the first beginnings of the "higher education for women,’ it had for some reason unknown to me proven so completely a financial failure that Mrs. Hanna had closed it and in 1860 it stood, a fine, almost new building, with boarded-up doors and windows, a surprise to every stranger who visited Xenia. The year of 1860 saw thousands of returning northerners flocking back from the South after the war had been—greatly to their astonishment—actually declared. Among those who left loved homes and occupations in the beautiful southern land, was the family of my father, Rev. John Ekin, D. D., who had gone to the South (originally for his health) as pastor of a congregation. in Louisiana. Three of his daughters were teachers in the South, and when it was suddenly found that all must return to the North,. or share the fortunes of the Confederacy, it was regarded by my father as a special favoring Providence that his "old familiar friend," Rev. R. D. Harper, then pastor of the First United Presbyterian Church of Xenia, should write to him suggesting that the family take the vacant and boarded-up school building and open anew a "Female Seminary." 8 - GREENE COUNTY 1803-1908. Suffice it to say the invitation was gladly accepted. Three daughters of us came first to open the building. It is illustrative of the simple, primitive customs of those days that we three without the aid of any servant, cleaned the building from top to bottom, washed the windows and scrubbed the floors, laid in provisions and prepared to receive the rest of the family, and felt that we had the approbation of all the citizens in so doing. In fact, I think it helped to give us 'the reputation that afterwards enabled us, jointly, to build up a successful school and provided us all with a lovely and comfortable home during the vicissitudes of war times. I may add as farther illustrating the financial and social conditions of those days that when our freight and traveling expenses were paid and we were settled in our new home, my father had left just $50 in gold. At the. end of the school year we still had one $5 gold piece left of that money. In those school-rooms were gathered, during the five or six years of our occupancy, a bevy of lovely, rosy-cheeked girls, some of whom are still with us, while many have answered the heavenly roll call. Their married names I do not know, but I remember them as Ella Harper, Jennie'and Emma Millen, Julia Barr, Chessie Reid, Anna MacCracken, Chrissie Moody, Mattie Leaman, Rebecca Jacoby, Mattie Allison, Fanny Smart, Sallie McDowell, and the Paul sisters. Hettie Williamson, one of the pupils, was a beautiful girl, who created a great sensation in the school by her sudden marriage to Rev. W. C. McNary. It is a great distinction for a school girl to get married, especially to a preacher. Chessie Reid's distinguished brother, Whitelaw Reid, I remember as a tall sunburned youth, walking the streets of Xenia, who was pointed out to us as the "reporter" for the Xenia Gazette, of whom we had better stand a little in awe, as he was 'not afraid to make critical personal remarks in his paper. After we became better acquainted with "Miss Chessie," our fear of him was not so potent, as we felt sure of her kindly interest in our behalf. Anna MacCracken, too, had a brother, a preacher, which was quite a distinction for her, and very justly; for that brother has been for many years Chancellor MacCracken of the great New York University. I consider it quite a distinction myself to be able to say THE OLD " FEMALE SEMINARY." - 9 that I heard him preach in Dr. Findley's Church his first sermon after he was licensed to preach. I remember the text : "In the beginning was the Word," and to this day I remember well some of the excellent points of the sermon. Next to our pupils our greatest interest was in the Theological Seminary. What a .fine body of strong, vigorous, able young men gathered within those plain walls in the early sixties.! We were all young together then, and as the "theologues" usually called each other by their first names, we learned to think of them as Joe and Will Clokey, Jack McMichael, Matt. Gibson, Pollock Mc Nary, and others. Every one of these who remain with us is now a gray-haired Doctor of Divinity. However serious they might be in their studies during the daytime, they were certainly fond of fun in the evening. Dancing was not included in their modes of entertainment, but in those good old days of simplicity and good fellowship, we could all enjoy such games as "Going to Jerusalem," "The Stage Coach," "Twenty Questions," "Charades," etc. One of the innovations of the times then was "Tableaux," and I well remember how astonished and even scandalized some of the good old United Presbyterians were when, through the good offices of the theological students, the "Female Seminary" girls were allowed the use of their Hall for a public exhibition of a very fine set of living Tableaux—an entertainment that proved so popular that it was repeated two evenings with undiminished audiences. Besides the Theological "set," there was another "set" of young people, and between them the 'distinction was sharply drawn although it was not a "class distinction," and each was very friendly to the other. The second set danced at parties, went off on summer excursions, drove good horses, dressed in the latest style, gave afternoon teas and evening receptions, and had a good time of their own generally. Of these I remember Sam Allison and Matt. Allison, his nephew (who afterwards became my brother-in-law) ; Sam Ewing, who with his dainty clothes and equally dainty manners was for us "the glass of fashion and the mould of form" ; Mr. and Mrs. Merrick and Mrs. Merrick's sister ; Mrs. Trotter and her daughter, Miss Lily Trotter, and her niece, 10 - GREENE COUNTY 1803-1908. Miss Julia Myers; the Aliens, the Boyds, Daniel McMillan and family, Mary Alexander, the Drakes, the Ankeneys, all of whom belonged to this set. All were good church goers, and the moral and religious tone of society was distinctly high—as is always the case when the good old United Presbyterians are in the ascendant in the community, as they were in Xenia. When it was fully realized that the War was a dread reality, —its scenes being especially brought home to us by the vivid and eloquent letters of the soon-to-be famous war correspondent of the Cincinnati Gazette, Whitelaw Reid,—the social life of the town began to center in the Soldiers' Aid Societies, which generally met in the churches. What stores of preserved and canned fruits, what gallons of grape juice and home-made wines, what bundles of lint and bandages, what dozens of hand-knit socks and mittens went from the hands of the good women of Xenia, the records of the Sanitary Commission will tell. And then, when some of our neighbors were wounded or taken prisoners, when some languished. in Libbey Prison and even in Anderson- every heart was touched and the people of Xenia were drawn together in a new bond of fellowship. Xenia had a taste of the realities of war to the extent of being greatly alarmed by a report that Ouantrell was planning a raid through that part of Ohio. The Home Guard was called out and practiced military maneuvers ; many citizens hid their valuables, money and silver by burying them, putting them in wells, etc.. In our home the bricks of the back parlor hearth were lifted, a deep hole excavated, and all the solid silver spoons, the five dollar gold pieces and the family daguerreotypes were safely buried. It was quite exciting and made us feel that we, too, were helping to save the country. One incident of the war many of the then young people will remember. A Division of the Army (of the Potomac, I think) was to be moved and the soldiers passed through Xenia, being transported mainly on freight cars. They were in command of Generals Hooker and Butterfield. The Xenians sent an invitation that they should stop for a good "square meal," and the invitation was accepted. Oh, the preparations that were made to give the THE OLD " FEMALE SEMINARY." - 11 soldier boys a royal breakfast, for they would arrive in morning. The chickens and turkeys and fatted calves in the surrounding country were thinned out even More effectually than for a ministerial convocation. Cakes, pies, and delicious home made bread arrived by wagon loads in great clothes baskets. In the old Female Seminary one of the younger daughters arose at four o'clock in the morning and by eight o'clock had baked one hundred and forty-four dozen of light baking powder biscuits, besides denuding the store room of the winter's supply of winesap apples. All were at the train in season, and every soldier had all he could possibly eat, besides carrying away with him one or two days’ rations. A coterie of the Xenia girls aroused the envy of those who had not thought of doing so themselves, by giving away to the soldiers' unnumbered dozens of handkerchiefs with the names of the donors in the corners. So there were sad as well as glad days for the inmates of the Xenia Female Seminary during the war time, as there were for all the citizens of Xenia. I remember being deeply impressed once by hearing a gray-haired woman declare that the days of the war were the best days of my life, all because she had found a work worthy of her ambitions and her energies which had previously been expended on the every day duties of a farm not far from Xenia. These are sonic of the memories and reminiscences that crowd upon my mind as I accept with pleasure the invitation of the Committee to furnish a short paper for the Home Coming of Nineteen Hundred and Eight. The Starrett School for Girls, Chicago. CLIFTON ROAD AT WILBERFORCE. Drawing from photo by Dr. Hewitt. THE DEAR OLD PLACES - 13 THE DEAR OLD PLACES. AMOS R. WELLS. What is the charm of the dear old places, Flaunts and home that my boyhood knew? Is it the woodland's remembered graces? Is it the field where the clover grew? Is it the glen with its cool recesses? Is it the upland ranging far? Is it the brook and the water-cresses? Is it the cows at the meadow-bar? No, it is nothing of nature's glories Gleaming fair on the gladdened eye, None of the bright year's picture stories Moves my heart to a smile or sigh. No; but this in the dear old places Stirs my spirit when all is said: Just the vision of vanished faces, Just the echo of voices dead. INDIAN RIFFLE. THE ORIGINAL PEOPLE OF THE COUNTY - 15 THE ORIGINAL PEOPLE OF THE COUNTY. WARREN K. MOOREHEAD, Curator of the Peabody Museum I. PREHISTORIC MEN. PREHISTORIC man in Greene County left probably 60 or 70 monuments of which 41 are clearly seen at the present day. The historic period—that of the Shawanoes, or Shawnees, at Old Town, then Old Chillico he-did not embrace any of these remains. The Shawanoes buried in ordinary graven and confined their village to the little plateau south of the gravel hills flanking Old Town Run. The prehistoric people lived on Caesar's Creek, Massie's Creek, Old Town Run, and the Little Miami River. Whether glacial or pre-glacial man lived in Greene County is a debatable question. In fact, scientists are divided into two schools on the whole question of glacial man in America. There are those who believe that the discoveries in the gravels at Trenton, N. J., Wilmington, Del., Madisonville and Newcomerstown, Ohio, and in Nebraska and elsewhere are indicative of a human culture extending back 30,000 or 40,000 years. Against this proposition are most of the Smithsonian scientists and several leading geologists who do not believe that the evidence warrants any such conclusion. Although some rough implements were found by me in Old Town Run many year's ago and, at the time, thought by Dr. Thomas Wilson of the Smithsonian to be paleo- 16 - GREENE COUNTY 1803-1908. lithic in character, yet it is not established that glacial man lived in Greene County. Coming down to more recent times and accepting observations and explorations as trustworthy, we observe that the earliest man in Greene County probably buried his dead in natural formations, which appeared moundlike in character. It is quite likely that he selected glacial kames and knolls, rounded by the action of the elements during thousands of years;. and because digging in this way was easy, he placed his dead. in shallow graves upon these graceful summits. When gravel .pits were opened in Greene, Fayette, Warren and Clinton Counties, it was no uncommon thing to find human remains therein, and alongside such human remains lay types of crude implements somewhat different from those found in. mounds and upon the village sites. Therefore, I have believed that in Ohio we had not only tribes which built mounds, but also an earlier people, although not necessarily a people. of great antiquity --that is, great compared with the age of the glacial epoch. These early people found game very plentiful, the winters. not .severe and life on the whole not a desperate struggle .for existence such as characterized tribes in Canada and upon the headwaters of the Columbia and Missouri. The buffalo roamed throughout central and southern Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana and as late as 1760 buffalo were killed by Captain James Smith, long a captive among the Indians. Buffalo bones have not been found in village sites in Greene County but they were exhumed. from ash-pits at Fort Ancient and at Madisonville. Accustomed as we are to innumerable luxuries, regarding the high development of the 20th century. as a matter of course and forgetting the millenniums through which man was slowly toiling upwards, we cannot understand how the American aborigine achieved what he did. He had no metal, save a limited supply of copper in a few isolated centers. All his art, manufacturing, building, etc., must be accomplished by the use of stone, bone and shell tools. The Indian was more ingenious and saving than are we. He made use of such material as .he could find.. THE ORIGINAL PEOPLE OF THE COUNTY - 17 His textile fabricswhether baskets or blankets,—his elaborate pipes, his skilfully made bows were all worked out of raw material by hand. It seems incredible to us that he accomplished his work with such tools as the flint drills, the bone awls, the flint saws and the hammerstones that we find in every collection in Greene County. But one must not forget that the Indian had great capabilities. The Indian brain is finer than that of the Negro and his skeletal structure is also of a higher order. The mound building, to which he was given, extended throughout the entire Mississippi valley.. While there are some mounds in China and a few elsewhere in the world, yet .mound building was not practiced largely save among American tribes. Reference to the archaeological map of Greene County herewith presented will show the distribution of mounds, village sites. and the earthworks. From the character of the earthworks It is to be supposed that they are defensive. The mounds were for burials exclusively. The method of mound construction was simple. Natives selected a level spot of ground, well situated, preferably near a stream and commanding the surrounding country. They burned off the grass and shrubs and beat the surface until it was level. On these hard burned floors they placed the bodies of their dead with various implements, ornaments, etc., and over the interment heaped a large mass of earth. The earth was carried in baskets and skin bags, as is clearly shown by the different lens-shaped masses averaging about half a bushel in quantity. Shortly after the mound was constructed, grass began to grow and then the monument became more indestfuctible than imposing structures of stone or brick. A simple mound of earth outlasts any other work erected by man. Nearest to Xenia of all the works in the county is the circle on Old Town Run, two miles northeast. Unfortunately I do not recall the name of the gentleman on whose land it lies, but it may easily be found. Within the enclosure is a small mound. It is quite evident that circles were erected as sun symbols, and sometimes as symbols of the universe. The square represented the earth, or the four winds, or the four cardinal points. West of Xenia is a large mound on the land of Mr. John * See the article" A Description of the County and Its Townships." PREHISTORIC REMAINS. Mound on the Lucas Farm. Mound near Cedarville. The Spring Valley Mound. The two lower pictures were taken at the "ancient work" described in the article—the one, of the " embankment "; the other, of the " ancient channel" from point G. THE ORIGINAL PEOPLE OF THE COUNTY - 19 B. Lucas, which was opened about 15 years ago by Messrs. George Day and Clifford Anderson. The burials in this mound presented two types, the ordinary interment and the cremated skeletons. Curious tubular pipes, flat tablet-shaped ornaments of slate, the war hatchets, large flint knives, copper bracelets and problematical forms were found with the skeleton. The largest ancient fortification of Greene. County is at Cedarville Cliffs. Messrs. Squier and Davis, the pioneers of American archaeology, in their famous publication "Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley" (1848), being the first work issued by the Smithsonian Institution, present a map of this work which is herewith reproduced. I quote from their original descrip tion. "It is situated on Massie's Creek, a tributary of the Little Miami River, seven miles east from the town of Xenia, Greene County, Ohio; and consists of a high promontory, hounded on all sides, excepting an interval at the west, by a precipitous limestone cliff. Across the isthmus, from which the ground gradually sub- 20 - GREENE COUNTY 1803-1908. sides towards the plain almost as regularly as an artificial glacis, is carried a wall of earth and stones. This wall is now about ten feet high by thirty feet base, and is continued for some distance along the edge of the cliff where it is least precipitous, on the north. It is interrupted by three narrow gateways, exterior to each of which was formerly a mound of stones, now mostly carried away. Still exterior to these are four short crescent walls, extending across the isthmus. These crescents are rather slight, not much exceeding, at the present time, three feet in height. The cliff has an average height of upwards of twenty-five feet, and is steep and almost inaccessible. At dd are breaks in the limestone, where the declivity is sufficiently gentle to admit of a passage on horseback. At E is a fissure in the cliff, where persons may ascend on foot. The valley, or ravine, CC, is three hndred feet broad. Massie's creek, a considerable stream, washes the base of the promontory on the north. The area bounded by the cliff and embankment is not far from twelve acres. The whole is covered with the primitive forest. "The natural strength of this position.is great, and no inconsiderable degree of skill has been expended. in perfecting its defences. A palisade, if carried around the brow of .the cliff and along the summit of the wall, would render it impregnable to savage assault. .About one hundred rods above this work, on the opposite side of the creek, is a small circle, two hundred feet in diameter, enclosing a mound. About the same distance below, upon the same bank, is a large conical mound, thirty feet in height and one hundred and forty feet in diameter at the base." Messrs. Squier and Davis also illustrated the semi-circular embankment and mound lying half a mile south of the work previously described. They present a diagram of the polygon, seven miles north of Xenia on the east bank of the Little Miami river, some distance below Yellow Springs. These gentlemen refer to the mound enclosure by a circle on Old Town Run, two miles north of Xenia. At the time their Look was published, the high conical-shaped mound below the cliffs (near the Hon. Whitelaw Reid's house) was something over thirty feet in altitude and one hundred and forty feet diameter at the base. In subsequent years THE ORIGINAL PEOPLE OF THE COUNTY - 21 people from Cedarville have attempted its exploration and the height is somewhat reduced and the diameter extended. The other mounds are scattered about the county, following more or less regularly the water courses. None of them were house sites or "lookout stations", but all may be safely classed as mortuary tumuli. No stone mounds are to be found in the region and artificial terraces common on Caesar's Creek in Warren County, do not, I think, extend into Greene. If they appear in the southwest edge of Greene, I stand corrected. Save at Cedarville, no large mound exists in the county. There have been, from time to time; persons living in Xenia who were interested in archaeology. When I was a boy a picnic party was organized to visit Fort Ancient, twenty-two miles .south. I remember following Judge E. H. Munger and two or three other gentlemen who were familiar with Professor Short's "North Americans of Antiquity", about the wonderful enclosure and listening to their comments. Although the monuments, sixty or seventy years ago, were much more distinct than at present, yet very few persons in Ohio took any interest in them. The pioneer was Caleb Atwater of Circleville, who visited Greene County before 1818. His book, "Archaeologia Americana", was published in 1820 in Worcester, Mass. Old citizens in Xenia will remember Mr. W. B. Fairchild. Of the Xenians of seventy-five years ago, Fairchild was one of the most intelligent. His interest in science was marked and he is mentioned in the first report of the Smithsonian Institution several times. Mr. S. T. Oweins, surveyor of Greene County in the early forties, is credited with having made the first accurate survey of these interesting monuments. In recent years a number of gentlemen residing in or near Xenia have accumulated archaeological collections. These have a special value to science and should be preserved in the Xenia public library, or where they will be available to future generations. Perhaps the best exhibit of stone art of prehistoric tribes is the collection owned by Mr. George Charters. His exhibit comes from Caesar's Creek, Massie's Creek, Old Town Run and other favorite sites. 22 - GREENE COUNTY 1803-1908. Particular attention is called to the skill of the Greene County natives in the chipping of flint, now a lost art. Some of the large spear heads found in Greene County are made of pink and white flint brought from the Flint Ridge pits in Licking County, pearly a hundred miles distant, and are marvels of .skill and beauty. On some of the larger ones I have seen depressions from which flakes as small as the 32nd of an inch were detached. Any prehistoric man was able to make his ordinary arrow-heads, but it required a master hand to make a certain kind of spearhead which I have named the "sunfish" pattern because of its resemblance in form and color to the large blue and red sunfish of Greene County streams. The late Mr. Jacob Ankeney had a large collection of Greene County specimens. As a boy I used to go to his house and spend hours with him in the examination of his treasures. But unfortunately this collection has become scattered, so it is said. Next to Mr. Charters' exhibit in size is that of Mr. George Day. Dr. Spahr of Clifton has some hundreds of interesting implements relating to primitive art of northern and eastern Greene County, and there are a score of smaller exhibits scattered throughout the county. These taken as a. whole give one a comprehensive knowledge of the Stone Age in this region. The tribes do not appear to have been sedentary in their habits although they appear to have lived long enough in one place to raise crops of corn, tobacco, pumpkins, and beans. Numerous stone pestles attest this. So far as we are able to judge, Greene County natives were not given to travel or exchange.. Aside from Flint Ridge flint, all materials were local. They received a little copper from the north and a few plates of mica from the south—both dear to aboriginal hearts. But they did not import ocean shells, and pearl beads, and galena, obsidian, and Tennessee flint as did the tribes in the Scioto Valley. Prehistoric man in Greene County was of what is called "Fort Ancient culture," that is, the Fort Ancient culture is totally different from the higher culture of the Scioto Valley. The tribes of surrounding counties from beyond the Great Miami on the west to the headwaters of Paint Creek on the east belong to THE ORIGINAL PEOPLE OF THE COUNTY - 23 this same general Fort Ancient stock. It is quite likely that in Case of attack by enemies from the north or from the Scioto, they retreated to Fort Ancient. Traveling light, as aborigines do when in danger, they could reach Fort Ancient from almost any part of Greene County in from four to five hours. With the exception of the site at Old Town made historic by Kenton, and Boone, and Blackfish, and Captain Bowman, all the other places on which Indian implements are found in the county are pre-Columbian. Their exact age cannot be determined although it is probable that some of them may have been inhabited two or three thousand years ago. Nothing remains today of prehistoric man in Greene County save his mounds and stone artifacts. Civilization has obliterated pretty much all else. -Yet, it seems to me, that we owe it to science—if not to the memory of those red men of the simple life—to preserve such of their works as time has vouchsafed to us. The notable ones are the enclosure and mound near Cedarville Cliffs. The "Cliffs" have been a favorite picnic resort for a century. Nothing more picturesque exists in the state. Greene County could easily make of the place a park, for the natural beauty and park conditions are perfect. The expense would be trifling and the benefit to the community at large beyond price. Such a place as the Cliffs" near any city would have become a public "nature-field" a generation ago. The park scheme would properly include the imposing mound near Mr. Reid's home and the fortification on the bluffs overlooking Massie's Creek. Then future generations might exclaim with pride : "Greene and Licking Counties are the only two of the eighty-eight that preserved their natural scenery and their antiquities." 24 - GREENE COUNTY 1803-1908. II. THE INDIANS. The greatest Indian known in history, Tecumseh, was born not far from Xenia in a little cabin on Mad River. As the exact location is not known, it is possible that he was born somewhere near Old Chillicothe (Old Town) in Greene County. Be that as it may, the authorities give the site of his mother's cabin as on Mad River. The village was a small one, the main village being at Old Town.. Tecumseh was a full-blooded Shawano. He was one of three boys born at the same time.. As-twins are rare among Indians, this incident-being remarkable—carried religious significance to the aborigines and Tecumseh became famous even in his youth. His brother, Els-Kwau-Ta-Waw,- was afterwards a famous medicine man or shaman and was second in influence to Tecumseh. He .is known in history as the Prophet. These two remarkable men and their people hunted and fished within the confines of Greene County long before any white people had settled in the valley of the Little Miaiili. Tecumseh and his brother are better known in American history than many of the white men who fought . against them and now that we can view those troublesome times dispassionately, we have ample evidence that the contentions of Tecumseh . were entirely Just, right and reasonable, and that he was superior in many ways to his white contemporaries. There were no Indians in Greene: County save the Shawanoes. Their original home was in the South, and to escape persecution they fled north to the Ohio, settling in Ross; Pickaway and Greene Counties and later in Indiana. The Delawares, Mingoes and other tribes visited the Shawanoes between 1750 and the war of 1812. But the Shawano village mentioned was the only permanent abode of Indians in the county. This Indian tribe never contained more than 300 fighting men in all its villages, yet it engaged the Americans in.22 actions. , By our own records—which are naturally prejudiced–.--the Indians won thirteen, there were four drawn battles and five defeats. The Shawanoes could outfight and outmaneuver, man for man, ,the Iroquois, the Delawares, or the white backwoodsmen. When the