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ARCHAEOLOGY -135 CHAPTER VIII. ARCHAEOLOGY-DEFENSIVE AND SACRED ENCLOSURES. THE MOUND BUILDERS. THE antiquities themselves present two classifications : Earthworks and Implements, including Ornaments. IMPLEMENTS. The simple weapons of bone and stone which are found in America bear sharp analogy to those found in other countries. The axes, blue, gray and black arrow heads, flakes, hatchets and general bone implements, are closely identified with those which occur in the Swiss lakes, differing only, in some instances, in point of material. These simple and more general forms and specimens appear with others quite complicated. We find perforated axes, and it is believed by European archaeologists they represent the Metallic Age. With the bare exception of a tribe near the mouth of the La Plata, it is affirmed that iron was positively unknown to the North American aborigines upon the discovery of the New World. This tribe pointed their arrows with this metal, which we inferentially believe, was procured from the native iron. While the more polished nations of Central America were in the Age of Bronze, the North Americans were in a state concerning which, we find, in Europe, but meagre outline—the Age of Copper. Although found in but small quantities, silver is the only metal found in the ancient tumuli. Some of the copper deposits of Lake Superior are veined with this metal, though it never seems to have 136 - HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. been smelted. Yet, on the other hand, copper is determined in the tumuli both wrought and unwrought. The axes very much resemble the simple axes of Europe which embody the minimum per cent. of tin ; and some of the Mexican paintings supply us with gratifying evidence as to the way in which they were employed. However, these were of bronze, and had, therefore, been smelted or fused ; but the Indian axes, which are of pure copper, appear in all cases to have been worked in a cold state, which is the more remarkable, because "the fires upon the altar were sufficiently intense to melt down the copper implements and ornaments deposited upon them." The hint thus afforded does not seem to have been seized upon. This surprises us less than we at first imagined, as around Lake Superior, and other even more northern localities, copper in large quantities is found native, and the Indians had nothing to do but to break off pieces and hammer them to the bent and purpose of their barbarian wishes. Hearne's celebrated journey to the mouth of the Coppermine river was undertaken in order to examine the locality whence the natives of the district obtained the metal. In this instance it appeared in lumps upon the surface, the Indians picking these up, but making no pretensions to, or having no knowledge of, mining. The case is different about Lake Superior. A brief account of the ancient copper mines is given by Messrs. Squier and Davis, the works having been first discovered in 1847, by the agent of the Minnesota Mining Company. " Following up the indications of a continuous depression in the soil, he came at length to a cavern where he found several porcupines had fixed their quarters for hybernation ; but detecting evidences of artificial excavation he proceeded to clear out the accumulated soil, and not only exposed to view a vein of copper, but found in the rubbish numerous stone mauls and hammers of the ancient workmen. Subsequent observations brought to light ancient excavations of great extent, frequently from 25 to 30 feet deep, and scattered over an area of several miles. The rubbish taken from these is piled up in mounds alongside, while the ARCHAEOLOGY - 137 trenches have been gradually refilled with the soil and decaying vegetable matter, gathered through the long centuries since their desertion ; and over all, the giants of the forests have grown, and withered, and fallen to decay. Mr. Knapp, the agent of the Minnesota Mining Company, counted 395 annular rings in a hemlock tree, which grew on one of the mounds of earth thrown out of an ancient mine. Mr. Foster also notes the great size and age of a pine stump, which must have grown, flourished and died since the works were deserted ; and Mr. C. Whittlesey not only refers to living trees now flourishing in the gathered soil of the abandoned trenches upwards of 300 years old, ' but,' he adds, ' on the same spot there are the decayed trunks of a preceding generation, or generations of trees that have arrived at maturity and fallen down from old age.' " A detachment of native copper, weighing nearly six tons, was found in another excavation. Tools of the same metal and a variety of implements were found in it. Hammers and stone mauls did "most abound," one place alone producing its quota of ten cart loads. With the above implements were also found "stone axes, of large size, made of green stone, and shaped to receive the withe-handles ; some large, round, green stone masses that had apparently been used for sledges, were also found. They had round holes bored in them to a depth of several inches, which seemed to have been designed for wooden plugs, to which withehandles might be attached, so that several men could swing them with sufficient force to break the rock and the projecting masses of copper." POTTERY. Antecedent to the period of metals, or the subserviency of metallic vessels, the art of the potter attained to conspicuous preeminence. As a consequence, the sites of ancient habitations are indicated by fragments of pottery ; and this is equally true of the ancient Indian settlements as well as of the Celtic towns of England or the lake villages of Switzerland. These fragments would 138 - HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. generally be those of rude household vessels ; and it is principally from the tumuli that we obtain those better made urns and cups from which the state of the art may fairly be inferred. Squier and Davis say : " Among the North American mound- builders the art of pottery attained to a considerable degree of perfection." Some of the vases are said to rival, "in elegance of model, delicacy and finish," the rarest Peruvian specimens. The material used is a fine clay ; in the more delicate specimens, pure ; in the coarser ones, mixed with pounded quartz. The art of glazing and the use of the potter's wheel seem to not have been known, though that " simple approximation to a potter's wheel may have existed which comprises" a stick of wood grasped in the hand by the middle, and turned around inside a wall of clay, formed by the other hand, or by another workman. As specimens of ancient pottery, none, perhaps, are more characteristic than the pipes. Many of these are rude and simple bowls, not unlike our common pipes, but usually without stems, the mouth, probably, being applied to the bowl. Others are grotesquely ornamented, and some are animated representations of monsters or animals, such as the beaver, otter, wildcat, elk, bear, wolf, panther, raccoon, opossum, squirrel, manatee, eagle, hawk, heron, owl, buzzard, raven, swallow, paroquet, duck, grouse, etc. ORNAMENTS. Shells, necklaces, pendants, plates of mica, bracelets, gorgets, etc., have been found in the mounds, and which include the ornaments. The number of beads is sometimes quite astonishing. The celebrated Grave Creek mound contained between three and four thousand shell-beads, besides about two hundred and fifty ornaments of mica, several bracelets of copper, and numerous articles carved in stone. The beads are most generally manufactured of shell, but are sometimes made of bone and teeth. The necklaces are formed of shells and beads, and sometimes of teeth. The ornaments of mica are thin plates of various forms, each of which contains a small hole. The bracelets are of copper, and ARCHAEOLOGY - 139 generally encircle the arms of the skeletons, besides being frequent on the "altars." They are simple rings, hammered out with more or less skill, and so bent that the ends approach, or lap over each other. The so-called " gorgets" are but thin plates of copper, always with two holes, and very likely, therefore, worn as marks of authority. EARTH WORKS. Defensive Enclosures.—These "usually occupy strong natural positions." What is known as the Bourneville enclosure, in Ross county, Ohio, is a very fair specimen. This work " occupies the summit of a lofty, detached hill, twelve miles westward from the city of Chillicothe, near the village of Bourneville. The hill is not far from four hundred feet in perpendicular bight ; and is remarkable, even among the steep hills of the west, for the general abruptness of its sides, which, at some points, are absolutely inaccessible." * * * "The defenses consist of a wall of stone, which is carried round the bill, a little below the brow ; but at some places it rises so as to cut off the narrow spurs, and extends across the neck that connects the hill with the range beyond." Nothing, however, like a perfect wall exists at present, the aspect being rather what might have been " expected from the falling outwards of a wall of stones, placed, as this was, upon the declivity of a hill." Where it is most distinct, it is from 15 to 20 feet wide, by 3 or 4 in bight. The area thus enclosed is about 140 acres, and the wall is 214 miles in length, and has possibly been 7 or 8 feet high, with a corresponding base. Trees of large size are growing upon it. In Highland county, Ohio, on a similar work, known as " Fort Hill," Messrs. Squier and Davis found a chestnut tree which they supposed to have been 600 years old. " If," say they, " to this we add the probable period intervening from the time of the building of this work, to its abandonment, and the subsequent period up to its invasion by the forest, we are irresistibly led to the conclusion that it has an antiquity of at least 1,000 years. But when 140 - HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. we notice all around us the crumbling trunks of trees, half hidden in the accumulating soil, we are enabled to fix upon an antiquity even more remote." The enclosure known as Clark's work, in Ross county, Ohio, is one of the largest and most attractive, and, according to our authority, consists of a parallelogram 2,800 by 1,800 feet, and enclosing about II r acres. To the right of this, the principal work is a perfect square, containing an area of about 16 acres. Each side is 850 feet in length, and in the middle of each is a gateway 30 feet wide, and covered by a small mound. Within the area of the great work are several smaller mounds and enclosures, and it is estimated that not less than 3,000,000 of cubic feet of earth were used in this great undertaking. Sacred and Miscellaneous Enclosures. —These are to be found "on the broad and level river bottoms, seldom occurring upon the table lands, or where the surface of the ground is undulating or broken." In this respect they differ from the defensive earthworks, which occupy hilltops and other favorable points of resistance. They, too, are usually square or circular in form, a circle being combined with one or two squares. "Occasionally we find them isolated, but more frequently in groups. The greater number of the circles are of small size, with a nearly uniform diameter of 250 or 300 feet, and invariably have the ditch interior to the wall." Some of the circles, however, are much larger, enclosing 50 acres or more. These squares arid other rectangular works never have a ditch, and the earth of which they are composed appears to have been taken up evenly from the surface, or from large pits in the neighborhood. They vary much in size ; five or six of them, however, are "exact squares, each side measuring 1,080 feet—a coincidence which could not possibly be accidental, and which must possess some significance." The circles also, in spite of their great size, are perfectly round, so that the American archaeologists consider themselves justified in concluding that the mound-builders must have had some standard of measurement and some means of determining angles. ARCHAEOLOGY - 141 The most remarkable group is that near Newark, in the Scioto valley, which covers an area of about four square miles. It consists of an octagon, with an area of fifty, a square occupying twenty acres, two large circles occupying, respectively, thirty and twenty acres. From the octagon, an avenue formed of parallel extends southwards for two miles and a half. There are two other avenues which are rather more than a mile in length, one of them connecting the octagon with the square. There are other embankments and small circles in addition to these, the majority of which are about 80 feet in diameter, but some are larger. The walls of these small circles, as well as those of the avenues and of the regular portions of the work generally, are very slight, and for the most part about four feet in hight. The other embankments are much more considerable; the walls of the large circle are twelve feet high, with a base of fifty feet, and an interior ditch seven fed deep and thirty-five in width. At the gateway they are still more imposing, the walls being sixteen feet high, and the ditch thirteen feet deep. The whole area is covered with gigantic, primitive trees, and, according to Squier and Davis, in " entering the ancient avenue for the first time the visitor does not fail to experience a sensation of awe, such as he might feel in passing the portals of an Egyptian temple, or in gazing upon the silent ruins of Petra of the desert." The city of Circleville takes its name from one of these embankments. It consists of a square and a circle touching one another, the sides of the square being about 900 feet in length, and the circle a little more than i,000 feet in diameter. The square had eight doorways, one at each angle, and one in the middle of each side, every doorway being covered by a mound. This work, like many others throughout the country, and some few of the simpler earth-circles of our own county, have succumbed to the vandalism of the plow, and the rash demolitions of man. Both as being the only example of an enclosure yet observed in Wisconsin, and also as having in many respects a great resemblance to a fortified town, the ruins of Aztalan have attracted great 142 - HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. attention. They are situated on the west branch of Rock river, and were discovered by N. F. Hyer, Esq., in 1836. The name "Aztalan " was given to this place by Mr. Hyer because the Aztecs had a tradition that they originally came from a country to the north, which they called Aztalan, which phrase is said to be derived from two Mexican words All, water, and An, near. " The main feature of these works is an enclosure of earth ( not brick as has been erroneously stated ) extending around three sides of an irregular parallelogram, the river forming the fourth side on the east." The space thus enclosed is seventeen acres and two-thirds. The corners are not rectangular, and the embankment, or ridge, is not straight. The ridge forming the enclosure is 630 feet long at the north end ; 1,419 feet long on the west side ; and 700 feet on the south side ; making a total length of wall of 2,750 feet. The ridge or wall is about 22 feet wide, and from one foot to five in hight. The wall of earth is enlarged on the outside, at nearly regular distances, by mounds of the same material. They are called buttresses, or bastions, and vary from 69 to 95 feet apart, the mean distance being 82 feet. Frequently the earth forming the walls appears to have been burnt. " Irregular masses of hard, reddish clay, full of cavities, bear distinct impressions of straw, or wild hay, with which they have been mixed before burning. This is the only foundation for calling these brick walls.' The ' bricks were never made into any regular form, and it is even doubtful if the burning did not take place in the wall, after it was built." Some of the mounds, or buttresses, were, though forming part of an enclosure, also used for sepulchral purposes, as has been proven by their containing skeletons in sitting posture, with fragments of pottery. The highest point inside this enclosure is " occupied by a square truncated mound, which presents the appearance of a pyramid, rising by successive steps, like the gigantic structures of Mexico." Inside this enclosure is another " rectangular, truncated pyramidal elevation of 65 feet level area at the top, with remains ARCHAEOLOGY - 143 of its graded way, or sloping ascent, at the south-west corner, leading, also, to a ridge that extends in the direction of the river." Almost the entire portion of the enclosure not occupied by mounds is a series of excavations and ridges, which might suggest the vestiges of ruined and demolished houses. A skeleton was found in one of these mounds, folded, apparently, in cloth of open texture, " like the coarsest linen fabric," the threads of which were so rotted as to render it impossible to determine the material of its composition. It is unnecessary to add that the last Indian occupants of that historic locality had neither knowledge nor tradition of these mysterious earthworks. There does not appear to be any corresponding earthworks to these so-styled sacred enclosures among the northern tribes of existing Indians. No sooner, however, do we pass to the southward and arrive among the Creeks, Natchez and affiliated Floridian tribes, than we discover traces of structures, which, if they do not entirely correspond with the regular earthworks of the West, nevertheless seem to be quite analogous to them. Sepulchral Mounds.—To say that they are innumerable, in the ordinary sense of the term, would be no exaggeration. They may be numbered by thousands and tens of thousands. They vary from six to eight feet in bight ; generally stand outside the enclosures; are often isolated, but often, also, in groups ; they are usually round, but sometimes elliptical or pear shaped. They cover, generally, a single skeleton, which is often burnt. Occasionally there is a stone cist ; but urn burial also prevailed to a considerable extent, especially in southern States. The contracted position of the corpse seems to be, as usual, as in the more ancient burials of Europe. Implements both of stone and metal occur frequently ; but, while personal ornaments, such as bracelets, perforated plates of copper, beads of bone, shell or metal, and similar objects, are very common, weapons are but rarely found ; a fact which, in the opinion of Dr. 144 - HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. Wilson, " indicates a totally different condition of society and mode of thought," from that of the present Indian. What, then, is the idea implied in these gigantic tumuli—this disposition of the inertia-smitten, soul-divorced body ? The above quoted authority seems to recognize the tumulus as a simple development of that little heap of earth " displaced by interment which still, to thousands, suffices as the most touching memorial of the dead." Rather would we coincide with Professor Nillson, the Swedish antiquary, " that the grave was but an adaptation, a copy, or a development of a dwelling place. Unable to imagine a future altogether different from the present, or a world quite unlike our own, primitive nations seem always to have buried with their dead those things which in life they valued most—with ladies their ornaments, with chiefs their weapons, and sometimes, also, their wives. They burned the house with its owner ; the grave was literally the dwelling of the dead. According to Professor Nillson, when a great man died he was placed in his favorite seat, food and drink were arranged before him, his weapons were placed at hand, and his house was closed, sometimes forever, sometimes to be opened once more when his wife or his children had joined him in the spirit land. The ancient tumuli of Northern Europe consist, usually, of a passage leading into a central vault, in which the dead " sit." The graves of the Tartars are said to resemble their dwellings. In some of the far-off islands of the East it is the custom to desert the house in which a great man dies ; and Captain Cook pleases to have us understand that he observed at Mooa certain houses erected on mounds, in which, he was told, "the dead had been buried." Bone-pits.—Some of these tumuli are crowded with human remains, in conjunction with which may be mentioned the so-called " bone-pits" described by Mr. Squier. " One of these pits, discovered some years ago in the town of Cambria, Niagara county, was estimated to contain the bones of several thousand individuals. Another one which he visited in the town of Clarence, Erie county, contained not less than 400 skeletons." And Thomas Jefferson, ARCHAEOLOGY - 145 in his "Notes on Virginia," describes a tumulus that was estimated to contain the skeletons of i,000 individuals. These " bone-pits" are explained by descriptions given of the old and solemn " Festival of the dead," It seems that about every decade the Indians met at some place previously designated; that they dug up their dead, collected the bones together, and laid them in one common burial place, depositing with them valuable articles. Sacrificial Mounds.—A class of ancient monuments peculiar to the New World has been honored with the above title, and which are strikingly illustrative of the ceremonies and customs of these ancient races of the mounds. Says Dr. Wilson : "This remarkable class of mounds has been very carefully explored, and their most noticeable characteristics are, their almost invariable occurrence within enclosures ; their regular construction in uniform layers of gravel, earth and sand, disposed alternately in strata conformable to the shape of the mound ; and their covering a symmetrical altar of burnt clay or stone, on which are deposited numerous relics, in all instances exhibiting traces, more or less abundant, of their having been exposed to the action of fire." This so-called " altar " is a basin, or table of burnt clay, carefully formed into a symmetrical figure, but varying much, both in shape and size. Some are round, some elliptical, and others squares or parallelograms, while in size they vary from two feet to fifty feet, by twelve or fifteen. They are pretty generally found within sacred enclosures. The " altar " is always on a level with the natural soil, and bears traces of long-continued heat. Traces of timber have been discovered even above the altar. In one of the twenty-six tumuli forming the " Mound City," on the Scioto river, were found a number of pieces of timber, four or five feet long and six or eight inches thick. "These pieces had been of nearly uniform length ; and this circumstance, joined to the position in which they occurred in respect to each other, would almost justify the inference that they had supported some funeral or sacrificial pile. Great diversity manifests itself in the contents of 146 - HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. these mounds. This one on the Scioto river embraced a quantity of pottery and implements of stone and copper, all of which had been subjected to a powerful heat. The pottery may have formed a dozen vessels of moderate size. The copper articles consisted of numerous thin strips and chisels. From fifty to one hundred stone arrow-heads and a few carved pipes completed the catalogue of this interesting tumulus." Temple Mounds. — These have been designated by Messrs. Squier and Davis, and are described by them as "pyramidal structures, truncated, and generally having graded avenues to their tops. In some instances they are terraced, or have successive stages. But whatever their form, whether round, oval, octangular, square, or oblong, they have invariably flat or level tops, of greater or less area." These mounds are said to resemble the Teocallis of Mexico, and had probably a similar origin. They are rare in the north, though examples occur even as far as Lake Superior, but become more and more numerous as we pass down the Mississippi, and especially on approaching the Gulf, where they constitute the most numerous and important portion of the ancient remains. Some of the largest, be it remembered, are located in the north. One of the most remarkable of these is at Cahokia, Illinois, and is stated to be 700 feet long, 500 feet wide at the base, and 90 feet in hight, with solid contents roughly estimated at 12,000, 000 of cubic feet. Animal Mounds.—Among our American antiquities these possess no small share of interest. They are found principally in Wisconsin, though not exclusively there. In this region, it is said, " thousands of examples occur of gigantic basso-relievos of men, beasts, birds and reptiles, all wrought with persevering labor on the surface of the soil," while enclosures and works of defense are entirely wanting, the " ancient city of Aztalan " being, as is supposed, the only example of the former class. The animal mounds were first observed by I. A. Lapham, in 1836, and have been surveyed and described by him in the work entitled "The Antiquities of Wisconsin." They seem to be most ARCHAEOLOGY - 147 numerous in the southern counties of that State, and extend from the Mississippi to Lake Michigan, following generally the courses of the river, and being especially numerous along the great Indian trail, or war path, from Lake Michigan, near Milwaukee, to the Mississippi, above Prairie du Chien. The mounds themselves not only represent animals, such as men, buffaloes, elks, bears, otters, wolves, raccoons, birds, serpents, lizards, turtles and frogs, but also some inanimate objects, if, at least, the American archaeologists are right in regarding some of them as crosses, tobacco pipes, etc. Many of the representations are spirited and correct, but others, probably through the action of time, are less definite. Their bight varies from one to four feet, sometimes, however, rising to six feet. One remarkable group, in Dale county, consists of a man with extended arms, seven more or less elongated mounds, one tumulus, and six quadrupeds. The length of the human figure is 125 feet, and it is 140 feet from the extremity of one arm to that of the other. The quadrupeds vary from g0 to 126 feet in length. At Waukesha are a variety of mounds, tumuli and animals, including several lizards, a very fine bird, and a magnificent turtle. "This, when first observed, was a very fine specimen of the art of mound-building, with its graceful curves, the feet projecting back and forward, and the tail, with its gradual slope, so accurately pointed that it was impossible to ascertain precisely where it terminated." This group of mounds is now, alas, covered with buildings, and it is said a dwelling-house stands upon the body of the turtle, and a Catholic church is built upon the tail. The rare and few animal mounds which have been discovered out of Wisconsin differ from the ordinary type in many respects. On a high spur of land near Granville, Ohio, is an earthwork known in the neighborhood as the "Alligator." It has a head and body, four sprawling legs and a curled tail. The total length is 250 feet, the breadth of the body 40 feet, and the length of the legs 36feet. The average Hight is four feet ; at the shoulders, six. But even more remarkable is the great serpent in 148 - HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO Adams county, Ohio. It is situated on a tall spur of land, which rises 150 feet above Brush creek. " Conforming to the curve of the hill, and occupying its very summit, is the serpent, its head resting near the point, and its body winding back for 700 feet in graceful undulations, terminating in a triple coil at the tail. The entire length, if extended, would be not less than 1,000 feet. * The neck of the serpent is stretched out, and slightly curved, and its mouth is opened wide, as if in the act of swallowing or ejecting an oval figure which rests partially within the distended jaws. This oval is formed of an embankment of earth, without any perceptible opening, four feet in hight, and is perfectly regular in outline, its transverse and conjugate diameters being 160 and 80 feet, respectively." By whom, or why, or when, these mysterious works were erected we know not, and may not wholly know. The explored recesses of these mounds send us back no explanation ; and the Indians themselves, though they contemplate them with stupid reverence, are unable to furnish any aid in their solution. Time and science may, in the long, coming future, lift the mystery enveloping these hoary monuments of the Pre-historic Man. TUMULI OF WAYNE COUNTY. We have thus with persistent effort introduced the more prominent classifications of these mysterious works of the Mississippi valley, which can not fail to be interesting to the general reader ; but intended to be particularly so, as presenting an interpretation of the passing consideration we shall bestow upon the little known, but not less remarkable, pre-historic tumuli of our own county. The order of tumuli observable in Wayne county, Ohio, is of the character of defensive enclosures and sepulchral mounds, and comes under the classification of earthworks. The exact number that may have been within its limits at the first settlement we are not able to define, as the traces of many of them have been entirely blotted out. Civilization, it would appear, sometimes uncivilized man ; for in his highest estate of it he will mutilate pyramids, ARCHEOLOGY - 149 destroy palaces and level monuments. These monuments of our pre-historic age should be preserved by the owners of the soil. The voice within them, that the centuries have throttled, may yet speak. Of those that still exist there is an indefinite number. Concerning others the places that mark them are now known only by the oldest people. Others are found in a partially obliterated condition, while a few may be observed with shape and contour of first construction, abraded and worn by the friction of centuries, and but faintly exhibit their original outlines. The one in Canaan township, a merely circular embankment, near the Killbuck, and in the earlier days quite sharply defined, has been sacrilegiously obliterated. In the eastern portion of the county, those in Sugarcreek township, present some quite prominent features and possess keen interest. The one south-west of Dalton has a diameter of about three hundred feet east and west, and north and south a diameter of about two hundred and twenty-five feet. It is bisected or cut in two by a road, and that part of the circle south of the road is included in a field of John Swartz, which is cultivated, and where there no longer remains a vestige of embankment or ditch. The other segment is on the farm of Joseph McElhenie, and as yet remains in forest. There is also in this township on the lands of Graber, in a dense and elevated wood, what we have chosen to style a sepulchral mound, four or five feet in bight, and with the other average dimensions of this class of tumuli. Many of those of East Union, Clinton, Wooster, Plain, etc., with their faded outlines, have their history, but we see them best in the glamour of tradition. Concerning some of those in Wooster township, Mr. Jeffries in his late work says : " Two mounds of this class are upon the author's premises within the limits of the city of Wooster, Ohio. They are situated upon an eminence, and constructed of fine gravel and sand, and not of the same material of the surrounding country. The gravel 150 - HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. and sand composing these tumuli were brought from some other locality. On opening one of the mounds fifteen years ago, and reaching a point on a level with the surrounding plain, the workmen came upon a deposit of black loam, in which were found two stone axes, one of which was granite, the other flint. The granite had a deep groove, or crevice, extending around the main body of the axe, near the pole, evidently designed to sustain the handle. The pole was flat, with edges rounded ; the other end shaped like a common axe, and sharp, as much so as stone could be made. The other instrument had a pointed pole and sharp ax-bit, the whole surface being smooth. It was originally, when discovered, about six inches long, the axe end being about two and a half inches wide. Both of these instruments were of symmetrical proportions. Several arrow-heads of flint were also found in the mound. The aborigines occupying this valley when the whites first settled here, had no knowledge, by tradition or otherwise, as regards the builders of these mounds. Their constructors had passed away long before the Shawanese, Delawares, and other Indian tribes had entered the country. " On the highlands overlooking the city of Wooster, at the south, is an ancient fortification enclosing several acres of land. Only part of it now remains unobliterated, the main portion being in cultivated fields. That part uncultivated, lying in the woodland, is still visible, though the embankment is greatly worn down and the trench nearly filled up. Thirty years ago the whole enclosure was easily traced, even through the plowed fields and across the public road, which was cut through the banks of the enclosure. The fort was not fully circular, that portion of it overlooking the Killbuck river to the west being an obtuse angle." Fort Hill, Wayne Township.--In Wayne township, on the farm of Hugh Culbertson, Esq., 3 miles north-west of Wooster, is situated a most remarkable work. It consists of an enclosure and two mounds on a beautifully elevated bluff or ridge, the Chester township line taking off a very small portion of the western slope of the bluff. In the neighborhood, and with persons acquainted with ARCHAEOLOGY - 151 it, it is familiarly known as "Fort Hill." From the point on its western slope traversed by the Chester township line north and south, it is six hundred feet in length to its eastern termini ; its greatest width being about one hundred and fifty feet. The bluff is oblong with a slight curvature on its north side, its western point bearing faintly north of west, and its eastern extremity inclining north of east. A small ravine on its north side separates it from the bolder inclines of the Killbuck valley banks, the ravine defining its western slope and extending eastward its whole length to the Cedar V alley road. The road, penetrating the valley of Little Killbuck to the eastward on its northern side, approaches the ravine on the north at a mixed angle, forming, with the ravine, its south-west and north-west boundaries, and then, bearing in a more southerly direction, constitutes its southern boundary. On the extreme east passes the Cedar Valley road. The bluff faces to the south on the Little Killbuck Valley road, and has a perpendicular hight of about 35 feet above the road and the valley below. The circle is west of the center of the bluff, and is about I 1 2 feet east and west by 82 feet north and south, it being apparently broken now on the south by the falling away of the bank. About 65 feet from the enclosure, and a little north of west, and about t00 feet from the same, north of east, are two mounds 30 feet in circumference, with elliptical elevations of 3 feet above the surrounding surface. Out of these mounds human teeth and bones have been taken, and on the south side of the bluff, midway to its summit, a party of hunters, several years ago in digging after a ground hog, came in contact with and excavated human bones. These mounds on Fort Hill bear indisputable resemblance to those sepulchral ones already described. The bluff is a semi-isolated elevation, and its superficies are studded with stately trees and others of lesser growth. Other Earthworks in the County.—Opposite to this point, across the Killbuck valley, due east one mile, on the farm of Rose Ann Eicher, in Wayne township, is another of these lines of circumvallation, consisting of an inner moat or trench and parapet. This work is emphatically a defensive enclosure, and as a simple fortifi- 152 - HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. cation possesses great natural strength, and in its selection and arrangement indicates war-cunning and masterly ideas of defense. From trench to trench, east and west, its greatest length is 300 feet, and similarly measured, its greatest width, from north to south, is 195 feet. It is situated in the woods, and covered with a stout and ancient growth of timber. On its north side, in the trench, is growing a gum tree, over two feet in diameter, and on the south-east side, in the trench, stands a sturdy soft maple, 27 inches in diameter at the time it was measured. Other and larger trees occupy this enclosure. This extensive and formidable work is situated on the western declivity of the hills, east of the Killbuck valley, and is most acutely defined. The trench is several feet wide, and from its bottom to the top of the embankment or parapet, the distance is probably over four feet. Its extreme western boundary extends to the banks of the Killbuck stream, which affords water protection in front. On its north and south sides are ravines breaking the surface beyond the farther east line of the work, flanking each side of the enclosure, very close to the same, and to the stream. These ravines are abrupt and deep, and, before the waste and deposition of the ages, were difficult of passage. Fort Tyler, Plain Township.- On the western border of the county, and on the " mile strip," about two miles south-west of Blachleysville, is situated the most complete, interesting and perfectly outlined tumulus of the county. Since the memory of the oldest man runneth it has been known as " Fort Tyler." In point of grandeur of location, determinate configuration and perfection of physical outline, we may well doubt if any in the range of the State surpass it. The site of the mound, with its regularly expressed elliptical circle, is on an imposing eminence, variously estimated from one hundred to one hundred and frfty feet above the surrounding levels and bottoms at its base. This vast elevation is coniform in character, with steep, but gradually descending sides, and on its vertex, in primitive woodland seclusion, and under the friendly shelter of a nascent forest, is to be seen this mute but elo- ARCHAEOLOGY - 153 quent monument of the faded, Conjectural Man. The view from the summit, were it not obstructed by the young growth of trees, dotted all over the great cone, would be picturesque and charming. To the north-east, north and west, and forming a portion of its base, lie the rich alluvial levels of the Muddy Fork and Mohican valleys, while on the east and south-east repose the deep bottoms of the Big Prairie, stretching far to the south—a beautiful scroll of nature, pinned, on either side, to the skirts of the upland and hill. This tumulus is 1, 200 feet in circumference in the trench, 300 feet across east and west, and 500 feet north and south. The trench, at this time, is two feet deep, and sufficiently wide to drive two horses abreast in it. What its depth and width was at the period of its construction is left to hypothesis. The embankment retains very marked proportions. Within this enclosure is a mound, five feet high, with a base circumference of over one hundred feet, and a summit, or top diameter, of twenty feet, and is situated west and north of the center of the circle. The timber-growth covering this elevation is of the character of that which we find growing in what is recognized as the " Plains " of the county, the largest being a wild cherry, fourteen inches in diameter, though the different oaks, of approximate size, flourish abundantly. When John Collier, Major Tyler, John Tryon, etc., settled in that neighborhood over sixty years ago, this growth of saplings, as they may now be denominated, were but sprouts and shoots, through and over which the fleet deer could be seen springing, and which furnished browse for cattle in the winter. Skeleton Exhumed—Thomas Bushnell, Esq., of Hayesville, Ashland county, Ohio, an archaeologist of local repute, having for half a century had knowledge of this tumulus, and believing that the interests of archaeological science might be promoted by exploring it, resolved to penetrate it, and see if within its depths there was not an answer to its own dark mystery. On the 17th of June, 1877, calling to his aid George C. Blanford and John Andrews, he introduced the work of excavation. They commenced 154 - HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. digging about the center of the mound, and, after descending to the depth of about six feet, discovered a human skeleton, some of the bones of which were entirely gone, others much wasted, and others, again, in a fair state of preservation. So far as inference is valuable, the judgment of the excavators was, that from the time of interment the body had been undisturbed. Its position was face upward, indicating a civilized burial, head lying to the south, and represented a human being six feet in length. Drs. Kindig and Armstrong, of Hayesville, examined it, and pronounced it the skeleton of a male, the "structural intention" and contour being rather massive and heavy. The thigh bones, femur heads and sockets were large. The skull was in pieces, with the exception of the upper part and frontal section, and directly underneath where it lay, was a deposit resembling fine sifted dirt. The forehead was low, but the general cranial development was full. Ten sections of the vertebra were found in a fair state of preservation. The nasal bone was readily identified, though the teeth and jaw-bones were missing. The shoulder blades and ribs were present. The arm, hand and finger bones were in an exceptionally well-conditioned state, and seemed to be near the center of the chest region of the skeleton-a proof that the arms were folded in death. The bones lower than the ankle joints were entirely gone. Mr. Bushnell says, that, notwithstanding he exercised the most watchful scrutiny, he was wholly unable to detect the slightest vestiges of a coffin, either in the discoloration of the earth or other manifestations. In the clay he observed two flint scales, and near the body, about a half-bushel of ashes in a sunken hole and some charcoal. A bowlder, weighing two hundred pounds or more, was encountered, lying in the abdominal or pelvic region of the skeleton. Alexander Finley settled on the farm on which Tylertown is located, in Wayne county then, but in Mohican township, Ashland county now, as early as April, 1809, and Thomas Eagle, in the month of May, of the same year, and they, during their lives, ARCHAEOLOGY - 155 had no knowledge of any burial in that mound ; and Mr. Bushnell says he has repeatedly visited it during the last fifty years, and there has been no interment there. Sarah Collier, wife of John Collier, the first white settler in Plain township, is buried directly north of this mound a short distance. A weather-blurred head-stone, sadly leaning over the remains of the buried mother, dimly reads : " Sarah Collier died, 1830, Aged, 38." Some pitying, church-yard-haunting Old Mortality, straying hither, might employ his chisel and renew the fading words of death upon this mossy stone. THE MOUND BUILDERS. Various opinions are entertained by our most profound archaeologists as to the character, origin and pursuits of this pre-historic race. The various tumuli, so frequently found, considered in the light of their contents and other surroundings, induce some writers to denominate them as a people whose occupation was chiefly that of war. Others again claim they were devoted to the arts of peace. While there is evidence that they possessed weapons and had a knowledge of the use of them, understood modes and methods of defense, and were likely endued with the instinct of blood, there is reason, on the other hand, to presume that they were inclined to the pursuits of peace. The fact of their remains and traces being found along streams and in the rich and fertile valleys of the great rivers of the continent, where cultivation of the lands was attended with less labor and more profit, would seem to justify the rational conclusion that they were an agricultural people and inclined to pastoral living and habits. No positive proof of a knowledge of letters, no trace of a burnt brick, have yet been discovered, and, so far as we may judge from * The age may be 88 instead of 38, as the stone is much defaced. It is also said two or three of the children of Samuel Miller are buried there, and a lady, probably Sarah Tyler. 156 - HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. their arms, ornaments and pottery, the mound-builders resembled at least some of the more recent Indian tribes ; and the earthworks have similarity of form, if they differ in magnitude from those still, or until lately, in use. Yet this very magnitude is sufficient to show, that, at some early period, the great river valleys of the United States must have been very much more densely populated than they were when first discovered by Europeans. The immense number of small earthworks, and the mounds, which may be counted by thousands and tens of thousands, might, indeed, be supposed to indicate either a long time or a great population ; but in other cases we have no such alternative. The Newark constructions ; the mound near Florence, Alabama, which is 45 feet in hight by 440 feet in circumference at the base, with a level area at the summit of 150 feet in circumference ; the still greater mound on Etowah river, also in Alabama, which has a hight of more than 75 feet, with a circumference of 1,200 feet at the base and 140 at the summit ; the embankments at the mouth of the Scioto river, which are estimated to be 20 miles in length ; the great mound at Selsertown, Mississippi, which covers six acres of ground ; and the truncated pyramid at Cahokia, to which we have already referred-these works, and others which might have been quoted, indicate a population large and stationary, for which hunting can not have supplied food enough, and which must, therefore, have relied in a great measure upon agriculture for its support. "There is not," say Messrs. Squier and Davis, "and there was not in the sixteenth century, a single tribe of Indians (north of the semi-civilized nations) between the Atlantic and the Pacific which had means of subsistence sufficient to enable them to apply for such purposes the unproductive labor necessary for the work ; nor was there any in such a social state as to compel the labor of the people to be thus applied." We have some assurances that many of the Indian tribes cultivated the soil to a limited extent ; we feel inclined, however, with our knowledge of the matter, to credit the cycles of their industrial activity to the more remote periods. ARCHAEOLOGY - 157 Ingenious arguments have been introduced by Lapham and others sustaining the opinion that the forests of Wisconsin were, at no very distant day, very much less general than now. In the first place, the largest trees are probably not more than 500 years old ; and large tracts are at present covered with "young trees where there are no traces of antecedent growth." Again, every year many trees are blown down, and frequent storms pass through the forest, sweeping almost everything in their course. Mr. Lapham furnishes some facts relative to one of these wind-falls in a single district. They are very conspicuous, says he, first, because the trees, having a certain amount of earth entangled among their roots, continue to vegetate for several years ; and, secondly, because, even when the trees themselves have died and rotted away, the earth so torn up forms little mounds, which are often mistaken, by the inexperienced, for Indian graves. " From the paucity of these little tree mounds," it is inferred that "no great antiquity can be assigned to the dense forests of Wisconsin, for during a long period of time with no material change of climate we would expect to find great numbers of these little monuments of ancient storms scattered every where over the ground." We give another and additional evidence of ancient agriculture. In many localities the surface is covered with small mammillary elevations commonly known as Indian corn-hills. " They are without order of arrangement, being scattered over the ground with the greatest irregularity. That these hillocks were formed in the manner indicated by their name, is inferred from the present custom of the Indians. The corn is planted in the same spot each successive year, and the soil is gradually brought up to the size of a little hill by the annual additions." But Mr. Lapham has also found traces of an earlier and more systematic cultivation. These consist " of low parallel ridges, as if corn had been planted in drills. They average 4 feet in width, 25 of them having been counted in the space of a hundred feet, and the depth of the walk between is about 6 inches." These manifestations which are here denominated " ancient garden-beds," indicate an earlier and more perfect 158 - HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. system of cultivation than that which now prevails, as the present Indians are destitute of those conceptions of order and taste necessary to such harmonious work. In the ancient monuments of the Mississippi valley it is stated that no earthwork has ever been found on the first or lowest terrace of any of the great rivers, and that this observation is confirmed by all who have given attention to the subject. If true, this would indeed have indicated a great antiquity, but in a subsequent work Mr. Squier informs us that "they occur indiscriminately upon the first and upon the superior terraces, as also upon the islands of the lakes and rivers." Messrs. Squier and Davis are of opinion that the decayed state of the skeletons found in the mounds may enable us to form " some approximate estimate of their remote antiquity," particularly when we consider that the earth around them is exceedingly solid and dry and that the conditions for their preservation are exceedingly auspicious. " In the barrows of the ancient Britons," they add, "entire, well-preserved skeletons are found, although possessing an undoubted antiquity of at least 1,800 years." Dr. Wilson also attributes much importance to this argument, which, in his opinion, " furnishes a stronger evidence of their great antiquity than any of the proofs that have been derived from the age of a subsequent forest growth, or the changes wrought on the river terraces where they most abound." This argument, if it be worth anything, certainly requires a much longer time than 1,800 years, and carries us back, therefore, far beyond any antiquity indicated by the forests. Near the Ontonagon river, and at a depth of twenty-five feet, have been observed stone mauls and other implements, in contact with a vein of copper. Above these was the fallen trunk of a large cedar, and " over all grew a hemlock tree, the roots of which spread entirely above the fallen tree," * * indicating a probable growth of not less than three centuries, to which must be added, the age of the cedar, which indicates a still " longer succession of centuries subsequent ARCHEOLOGY - 159 to that protracted period, during which the deserted trench was slowly filled up with accumulations of many winters." In an address to the Historical Society of Ohio, the late President Harrison said, touching upon this subject : " The process by which nature restores the forest to its original state, after being once cleared, is extremely slow. The rich lands of the west are, indeed, soon covered again, but the character of the growth is entirely different, and continues so for a long period. In several places upon the Ohio, and upon the farm which I occupy, clearings were made in the first settlement of the country, and subsequently abandoned and suffered to grow up. Some of these new forests are now sure of fifty years growth, but they have made so. little progress towards attaining the appearance 0f the immediately contiguous forest as to induce any man of reflection to determine that at least ten times fifty years must elapse before their complete assimilation can be effected. We find in the ancient works all that variety of trees which give such unrivaled beauty to our forests in natural proportions. The first growth on the same kind of land, once cleared and then abandoned to nature, on the contrary, is nearly homogeneous, often stinted to one or two, at most to three kinds of timber. If the ground has been cultivated, the yellow locust will thickly spring up ; if not cultivated, the black and white walnut will be the prevailing growth. Of what age, then, must be the works so often referred to, covered, as they are, by at least the second growth, after the primitive forest state was regained?" But we have still another " sign " of antiquity in the aforementioned garden-beds. This system of cultivation has long been replaced by the simple and irregular " corn-hills," yet the authorities are, that the garden-beds are much more recent than the mounds, across which they extend in the same manner as over the adjoining grounds. If, therefore, these mounds belong to the same era as those which are covered with wood, we get the indications of three periods : the first, that of the mounds themselves ; 160 - HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. the second, that of the garden-beds ; and the third, that of the forest. American agriculture, let it be remembered, was not imported from abroad. It resulted from American semi-civilization, and reciprocally made possible its gradual and majestic development. The grains of the Old World were absent in the New, and American agriculture was founded on the maize, an American plant. We seem, therefore, to have indications of the following four long periods : 1. That in which, from an original barbarism, the American tribes developed a knowledge of agriculture and a power of combination, 2. That in which the mounds were erected, and other great works undertaken. 3. The age of the " garden beds," which occupy some, at least, of the mounds. Hence, it is evident that this cultivation was not until after the mounds had lost their sacred character in the eyes of the occupants of the soil ; for it can hardly be supposed that works executed with so much care would be thus desecrated by their builders. 4. The period in which man relapsed into barbarism, and the spots which had been first forest, then (perhaps) sacred monuments, and, thirdly, cultivated ground, relapsed into forest once more. Ascribing to these changes all the importance which has ever been claimed for them, they will not require an antiquity of more than 3,000 years. It is not denied, of course, that the period may have been very much greater or very much less.