USA > Indiana > Allen County > History of Allen County, Indiana, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 18
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To the westward of Fort Wayne, these two systems approach so nearly that the waters of the great prairie discharge on one side into the rivers flowing to the Gulf, and on the other side into those rivers flowing to the Lakes, and only about four feet of earth prevents the two systems, represented by the St. Mary's and Little Rivers, from mingling their waters. It is traditional that, since the advent of the whites, a canoe could, in high water, he paddled from one river to the other across the prairie, and it is extremely probable that the prairie itself is a filled-up lake, whose waters at some period discharged both ways.
But in a geological period, extending back to an unknown antiquity, the surface geology of this section presented a far different appearance, and, by a study of its then features as revealed by seience, much that now appears anom- alous is easily explained.
To go back to the glacial period. No history has been written of the grand operations of Nature in that wonderful age, except what is written by the hand
* NOTE .- In preparing this article, the writer Is Indebted for important data relative to the geology of the Manmer, to an article ley Prof. N S Winchell, State Gen'ugist of Minnesota, In the Proceedings of the Amer- Ican Association for the Advancement of Science for 1x73, Yol XXI, p 152; to a report of Gen. G. K. Warren, Corps of Engineers, U. S A. for 1x75; and to letters of Thomas B. Roberts, of Pittsburgh, Penn,, to the Toledo Blade, datod February 22, and March 16, 187G.
of Nature herself upon the surface of the cartb, but some of these writings are still so plain as to be casily deciphered in the light of science.
Before the glacial period, Lake Erie probably had its southwestern rim at Huntington, where the outcropping limestone ridge formed a rocky margin, over which the great inland sea discharged its waters into the Wabash. Valley. This was in what is denominated the lacustrine cpoch, when the great Lakes were dammed back from an eastern outlet, by a rocky chain which was afterward broken through, and which raised Lake Erie to an altitude of 200 feet higher than its present level. Then came a period of great cold, and when great ice fields pushed down from the north and covered all the country with a glacier extending south to the Ohio River, and even beyond it in some places, hut there the advancing iee seems to have met a warm wave which stayed its progress, and ultimately caused it to retreat slowly before it. It seems to have had alternate periods of advance and retreat, as shown hy the moraines and other deposits formed at its foot, but at last the- time caine when the licat was so intense that these periods were more frequent, and the debris from the melting ice-foot was piled up in great ridges, which clearly mark the sites where the glaeier edge rested, as if unwilling further to retreat.
The first of these we will notiee is known as the Wabash Ridge, named from the Wabash River, wbich flows along the south side of it for several miles in Mercer County, Ohio, and in Jay County, Ind., thence northeasterly until its clear outline is lost iu the general drift.
The next is the St. Mary's Ridge, so named from the St. Mary's River, whose course is determined by it for more than fifty miles, twenty of which are in Allen County, and in the same manner determining the course of the St. Josepli's for nearly the same distance. Its general form bore some resemblance to the southwest extremity of Lake Erie, and might have been the lake shore, but for the continued changes of the ice-foot. While that ridge retained its original form-nearly a V, pointing eastward to Fort Wayne, with its apex just east of the St. Mary's Bridge, where we are all familiar with the steep bank of hard- pan, the waters of the St. Joseph's and the St. Mary's, then, doubtless, great rushing streams flowing from the sides of the glacier, converged into one stream, which flowed westerly through the basin of Little River and the prairie, forming a grand river flowing through the Wahash Valley to the Gulf. Then followed another moraine, but smaller, which crosses the Maunice about half-way betweeu Fort Wayne and New Haven, and is known as the Van Wert Ridge, and other moraines are traceable between here and the present lake shore, the last of which formed an impervious barrier between the waters of Lake Erie and those of the country to the southwest. Thus was formed between the last moraine and the St. Mary's moraine a vast depression, comprehending the present Maumee Valley and the country around it as bounded by tbesc moraines, which was undoubtedly a lake, discharging its waters southward into the Wabash at Fort Wayne, as Lake Erie is believed to have forinerly done at Huntington.
How long this period lasted, none can tell, but at last the Niagara broke through its barrier and drained Lake Erie to a lower level, leaving the inland lake formed by the ice moraine higher than Lake Erie, and separated from it only hy the upper ridge. Then this was broken through, and the pent-up waters flowed into Lake Erie and ceased to discharge into tbe Wabash, but leaving the St. Joseph and St. Mary's as Wabash tributaries. Their flow and the debris carried by them undoubtedly in course of time filled up the bed of the smaller lake, which is now the great prairie, and eut into the apex of the St. Mary's moraine until at last the wall gave way, and, washing so as to form the slight barrier to the west, turned their united currents into the Maumee Valley, and gave to this section those peculiar features which, we believe, nowhere else exist, the turning-back of waters in the opposite direction to the line of their sources, as is done by thic Maumce flowing backward between its confluent rivers.
These physical features have much to do with the economic status of our country in relation to its capacity for agriculture. Along the larger rivers nre rich alluvial bottoms, capable of producing nearly every variety of cercals in abundance. Above thicse bottomus are the ridges, composed heneath of bard-pan and bowlder clay, but on the sides covered with alluvium mixed with sand and clay. Between the ridges are flat lands with a hard-pan bottoni in many places, but covered with a clay which, though hard to work, is filled with properties which make it rich for grasses of all kinds, while here and there throughout the county a fine, sandy loam prevails, suitable for the raising of nearly every prod- uct, and occasionally the wet prairies, now drained and brought under cultivation, present a rich, black loam of unknown depth, and of a richness unsurpassed. All these varied soils were deposited by the rushing waters of the period when the whole surrounding country was submerged by Lake Erie, or the later period,
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HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY, INDIANA.
when the barriers were eut through, aud the rush of the imprisoned waters seek- ing liberty, carried and scattered here and there the elay, sand and alluvium they had gathered, to make the fertile faruis which are tho pride of our county.
Most of the county was covered originally with a dense forest of oak, walnut, maple, aslı, elm and hickory. No pines or hemlocks existed, and their species do not flourisb now, even when planted and carefully nourished. A small cluster of tamaracks is found in the prairie of Eel River Township, the only ones believed to exist. The chestnut, so common throughout the United States in this lati- tude, is unknown here. The cottonwood flourishes along the river hanks, and sometimes grows to immense size.
The timher-land was generally wet, and, for a time, it was supposed that the land would be eold and wet when cleared, hut it was found that, as fast as clear- ings were made, the land dried, and many of the richest farms iu the county have been redeemed from wet forest lands. It has taken time and lahor, and two gen- erations at least have fallen alongside of the felled timber of this seetion, hut the labor and energy of these pioneers have served to bring under cultivation a large agricultural area, from which their descendants and successors are now reaping rich harvests of grain and vegetables, and grazing stock for the markets of the world. The county is still richly timbered, and offers extraordinary inducements for manufactures of wood and commerce in lumber, the supply of which cannot be exbausted for many years to come.
The animal fauna of Allen County was as varied as such a densely wooded country generally exhibits, and, in the earlier geological periods, it seems to have been the favorite lahitat of such animals as tbe mammoth and mastodon. The first in the order of time was the American elephant; a tooth of one of this species was found in Spy Run, a few years ago, by H. J. Ruddisill, Esq., and is the only remains of the elephant known to have been discovered in the county. Next, in order of time, came the mastodon, whose remains have been quite fre- quently found in the county. In 1867, parts of the skeletons of three mastodons were found while digging a diteh near the line between Perry Township and Noble County, two adults and the otber a calf. They had probably mired in the soft marsh where found. They were sent to the Chicago Academy of Sciences, and were lost in the great fire of 1871.
The remains of another were found a few years later, near the Whitley County line, not far from Areola, which must have heen of immense size, one of the tusks heing nine inches in diameter and nearly eleven feet in length. Remains of another were found on the farm of Peter Notestine, on the St. Joseph's. All are found in marshy places, and, if tbe great marsb south west of Fort Wayue is ever drained, we may expect to find more of them. Whether they roamed here after mankind appeared is not certainly known, hut it is presumed they did.
The Indians and early settlers were surrounded with hears, wolves, deer, foxes, beavers, minks, otters, the lynx, muskrats, and many of the smaller ani- mals. The hison roamed over the country, before its settlement, as it now does over the Western plains. Now, all have passed away, except the deer, which comes down from the North in the winter, an occasional mink, the muskrat and the smaller animals, which are not so readily exterminated as the larger heasts of prey, or were not so eagerly sought for for their valuable skins. The site of Fort Wayne was a great point for the trade in skins, and remained so for many years after its first settlement.
PRE-HISTORIC REMAINS. BY R. S. ROBERTSON.
Long before the Columbian period, the valley of the Mississippi, which com- prehends all the great hasin between the Alleghany and the Rocky Mountains, bad been peopled hy a comparatively dense population ; and all researeb tends to prove it was inhabited long before the advent of the red Indian, by a people whose bistory is lost forever, but who were more fixed and permanent in their hahits than were the Indian trihes wbich succeeded them. This race, whatever it was, had some elaims to be ranked among those whieb had made some advance in civilization and the arts, although, judging hy the standard of modern civiliza- tion, they had not yet advanced beyond the conditions of semi-harbarians, and perhaps were less eivilized than the Aztees.
To this raee, the name of .. Mound-Builders" has been given, on account of the many mounds of earth which they have left as the most enduring record of their having onee existed-the silent witnesses of the former existence of a race now totally disappeared.
The principal home of this race was the great valley of the Mississippi, for, though their remains are occasionally found cast of the Alleghanies, the principal part of their works are found within the limits of the great valley, and here was the center of their empire. This valley comprises an area of 2,455,000 square miles, and measures thirty degrees of longitude hy twenty-three degrees of lati- tude. Of this area, 214,000 square miles are drained hy tbe Olio and its tribu- taries, the valley of the Ohio being greater in extent than that of all the otber tributaries of the Mississippi, the Missouri excepted, and the basin of drainage of all these tributaries forms a rich territory, nearly equal to all the empires of the ancient world.
As we descend the Obio, through a heautiful and ever-changing panorama of varying landseapes, and pass down the Mississippi, with its alluvium banks, we find, everywhere we go, these mounds and earthworks in great profusion, testify- ing to the former occupation of the country hy this wonderfully busy aud industrious raee, and in the fertile valleys and plains throughout this vast area we are constantly finding some of the treasures of the past-their domestic gods, utensils, arms for war and the chase, ornaments of stone and native copper, totems of tribes, and articles for sports and games-all testifying to the vast population which once occupied this fertile and heautiful region of our land. Many theories have been advanecd as to their origin, but it will probably remain forever a ques- tion unsolved. It would seem that the strongest evidenees point to their being
an offshoot from that wonderful raee whose deserted palaces and temples iu the wilds of Central America have excited the wonder and admiration of the world. What would be more likely, than that colonies sbould set out from that quarter, pass along the shores of the Gulf, enter the mouth of the " Father of Waters," and spread through all the country watered by its tributaries, bringing with them many of the customs of the parent stock ? What are the mounds of the Missis- sippi Valley but the teocallis of Central America on a smaller scale, generally, but not always, for some of the mounds are of as great an extent as are the teocallis ? To he sure, we find no stone temples or altars surmounting our mounds, hut it must be remembered that the Mississippi Valley is comparatively destitute of building-stone, and the structures surmounting them were probably of wood, which would disappear and leave no trace in the long period whieb has elapsed sinee their builders vanished.
What hecame of them is another question, which will probably forever remain unanswered. That they disappeared at once is wholly inuprobable, as is also the theory that they were totally destroyed. The most probable theory is that as they met the first irruption of the savage red men from the Northwest, and all Indian tradition points to this quarter for the place whenee the Indians came, they were gradually driven in from their outlying settlements, and finally overwhelmed hy the constantly flowing tide of ruthless savages, more skilled than they in warfare, and envious of their rich hunting-grounds.
We know it was always the eustom of the red savage to incorporate into their tribes the women and children, and sometimes the men, of conquered enemies ; and it is probable that the reninants of the Mound-Builders were thus incorporated into, and amalgamated with the conquering raee, which would also acquire some of the hahits and customs and implements of' the conquered; and that this will account for the difference in language and hahits of the various trihes found inhabiting this area on the advent of the wbites.
The remnants of the Mound-Builders would he pressed hack southward, whence they came ; and those of the savages who followed tbem to the south and overcame tbem would retain wore of their customs than those tribes of the north who amalgamated with them in lesser degree, or not at all. On no other tbcory ean we account for the fact that the southern trihes were found to be more advanced in civilization, less warlike, and much more given to the cultivation of the soil than were the restless, treacherous and bloody warriors of the nortb.
Northern Indiana has many proofs of the presence of this race recorded almost indelibly upon its soil, aud they have left some of their monuments in Allen County, but not as many, nor so extensive, as are found in Ohio or the southern part of Indiana. While some of them were pushing upward, and making great settlements along the tributaries of the Ohio, others bad passed further up the Mississippi, discovered the Great Lakes, and entered into quite extensive copper-mining operations on the shores of Lake Superior. Colonies bad occupied Michigan, and as far south in Indiana as tbe Kankakee, and it is front them, we think, that Allen County received the marks of their occupation. All along the valley of Cedar Creek, in De Kalb County, their mounds and earthworks appear in considerable number, hut decrease in nuniber as we proceed southward into Allen County, and are totally wanting in the southern portion of the county. Few, if any, are found along the Maumee, and the only traces of their settlements are along Cedar Creek, or in the vicinity of its junetion with the St. Joseph's.
On Cedar Creek, near Stoners, on the Ft. W., J. & S. R. R., is a group of four mounds. Two of them are in a line north and south and are ahout forty feet apart. About fifteen rods east of these are two others .ibout the same dis- tance apart, and on a line nearly east and west. When visited hy the writer a few years since, three of them had heen partially excavated years before and were said to have contained a large number of human bones, arrow-heads and some copper ornaments. Tbe remaining mound was excavated at the time but diselosed only lumps of ebarcoal and a layer of hard-baked earth near its basc.
These mounds are situated on the high ground between the Cedar and Wil- low Creeks, and the Auburn road passes between tbem.
Four miles south of these on the Coldwater road, on the farm of Henry Wolford (now owned by Mr. Bowser), is a large ohlong mound which was only partially explored, hut in which a perforated piece of ribhoned slate was found, with much charcoal and a stratum of haked earth.
At Cedarville, on the St. Joseph, near the mouth of Cedar Creek, are three mounds about a hundred feet apart, situated on a line running northwest nearly parallel with the general direction of the river at this point. None of them have been fully explored, hut one has nearly heen removed to use its earth for mending the road, and charcoal was found in considerable quantities, as is usual in mouuds of this class.
Deseending tbe St. Joseph on the east, to the farmu of Peter Nolestine, one of the oldest settlers, we find a circular "fort," or earthwork, situated iu the hend of the river. It has been plowed over for nearly thirty years and bas lost much of its outlines. Many relics have heen found here, and, when newly plowed, numerous fragments of pottery, flints and stone implements are yet found in and around its site. A large rude pipe of pottery was found here some years, sinee. The bowl and stem are moulded in one piece and the end of the stem has been flattened by the fingers while plastie, to form a mouth-piece.
Still further down the river, on the west side, opposite Antrap's Mill, is a semi-eireular fort with its ends on the river hank. It is about 600 feet in are. The earthiwork is yet nearly two feet high, with a well-defined diteh on the out- side. Very large trees which have grown on the embankment have fallen and gone to decay. We found in the earth which had been upturned by a fallen tree a fragment from the neck of a vessel of pottery with square indentations on the surface, and a flint, flat on one side and regularly ehipped to a convex surface on the other, of the variety known as scrapers, or " turtle-baek flints." Still further down the river on the east side, at the mouth of Breckenridge Creek, is
46
HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY, INDIANA.
a single mound, which has not been opened exeept by a slight excavation in its side, which developed the customary lumps of chareoal. This point is about four miles north of Fort Wayne, and is the most southerly point in the county at which mounds or carthworks are known to exist.
Still, on the ridges, and especially on the ridge terminating on Spy Run at the late residence of H. J. Rudisill. many implements and ornaments of the " stone age," and fragments of pottery are found, and few portions of the county are devoid of them. Many of them have a beauty of design and polish unknown to the Indians found here on the advent of the whites, and may undoubtedly be referred to the age of the Mound-Builders. Stone axes and hatehets worked from granite or syenite are quite common.
Flint arrow and spear heads of every variety have been plowed up in nearly every field. Some are very small and some are very large, and most of them are very neatly chipped. Flint knives and serapers of fine workmanship are often found, and some of the flint spear and arrow heads are cut with a beveled or winding edge to give them a rotary motion when in the air. They are of every variety of flints or eberts, and one in the cabinet of the writer is a beautifully veined agate.
Many of the stone ornaments and totemic emblems are of a material not found in this vicinity except in a worked form. The ribboned silicious slate seems to have been held in special estimation by them in forming these ornamen- tal and emblematic stones, and they were probably banded down as family heir- looms from generation to generation.
Of course, all of these are not the work of the Mound-Builders, for the same forms of weapons and ornaments were used hy both people, as they are by all races in a state of barbarism throughout the world.
The only distinguishing feature now clearly marked between them was in their manner of burying the dead. The former were generally buried under tumuli or mounds, while the Indian rarely went to the trouble of ereeting large mounds over their dead. In this vicinity, several forms of Indian burial have been observed. Generally they were buried recumbent in the earth, but some have been found in a sitting position. Another mode was to place the body upon the ground and build a pen of logs over the remains in the shape of a roof; and still another was to place the body in a rude coffin, formed either by splitting a log and excavating the two halves, or by using a hollow trunk of a tree in the same manner, after which the balves were joined and fastened to the ground by driving in crossed stakes over them.
Three prominent Indian burying-grounds have been diselosed. One occu- pied the series of sand hills in the west end of Fort Wayne, another on the St. Joseph, just north of Fort Wayne, and near the site of the old Miami town, and a third at Cedarville, on the banks of the St. Joseph. Probably other localities will yet develop them, but these are the most prominent, and a vast number must have found their resting-place in these three localities. At the latter place, a large hewn eross of oak was exbumed several years since, indicating that at least a temporary mission was established there at an early date, of which no history exists, and which was probably abandoned and its cross buried on aeeount of the superstition of the Indians, who, in their relapse from the faith, attaebed some superstitious dread to the sacred emblem.
The builders of these earthworks and the makers of these relies of the stone nge have long sinee passed away, and their remains are rapidly being obliterated by the hand of the agriculturist. In place of the irregular village of huts and wigwams and the throngs of savage men, a modern eity has grown, busy with the hum of machinery, and of hurrying feet engaged in peaceful pursuits. The dense forest it rapidly disappearing before the woodman's ax, and fertile fields waving with grain, and golden with the tassels and ears of the corn our Indian predecessors have beqneathed to us have taken its place, and they themselves will soon live only in the bistorical past.
Sentimental regret for the fate of the aboriginal tribes is useless and misap- plied. It is the natural fate of all savage and barbarous races. They have never in all history become civilized. but have disappeared before the advance of eivil- ization, and the world is no worse, and probably better that they have disappeared. The vast fertile plains of our country were not designed by the Creator for oecu- pation solely by the wild and savage beasts of the forest; and the no less wild sav- age of the forest, who lived by hunting them, and dressed in their skins; and much as we may regret the extinction of a raee, we should reflect that it is replaced hy a better, which knows bow to appreciate and use the bounteous gifts of the soil which lay waste for so many centuries under the dominion of the savage.
CHAPTER II. ORGANIZATION.
Preliminary Legislative Artion .- Process of Organization .- Selection of Officers (hosen .- First Meeting of the Board doing County Business .- Meeting of Commissioners to Select a " Seat of Justice" for Allen County .- Fort Wayne Selected .- County Agent and his Duties .- His First Action .- Board of Jus- tices, Etc.
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