USA > Indiana > Pike County > History of Pike and Dubois counties, Indiana : from the earliest time to the present, with biographical sketches, reminiscences, notes, etc. : together with an extended history of the Northwest, the Indiana Territory, and the state of Indiana > Part 2
USA > Indiana > Dubois County > History of Pike and Dubois counties, Indiana : from the earliest time to the present, with biographical sketches, reminiscences, notes, etc. : together with an extended history of the Northwest, the Indiana Territory, and the state of Indiana > Part 2
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71
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HISTORY OF INDIAS
boldt have traced the Movieans to the vicinity of Behring's Straits; whence it is conjecture that they, as well as the Peruvians and other tribes, came originally from Asia, and were the Iliongnoos, who are, in the Chinese annals, said to have emigrated under Puno, and to have been lost in the North of Siberia."
Since this theory is accepted by most antiquaries, there is every reason to believe that from the discovery of what may be called an overland route to what was then considered an eastern extension of that country which is now known as the "Celestial Empire," many caravans of emigrants passed to their new homes in the land of illimitable possibilities until the way beeame a well-marked trail over which the Asiatic might travel forward, and having once entered the Elysian fields never entertained an idea of returning. Thus from generation to generation the tide of immigration poured in until the slopes of the Pacific and the banks of the great inland rivers became hives of busy industry.
Magnificent cities and monuments were raised at the bidding of the tribal leaders and populous settlements centered with happy villages sprung up everywhere in manifestation of the power and wealth and knowl- edge of the people. The colonizing Caucasian of the historic period walked over this great country on the very ruins of a civil- ization which a thousand years before eclipsed all that of which he could boast. He walked through the wilderness of the West over buried treasures hidden under the accumulated growth of nature, nor rested until he saw, with great surprise, the remains of ancient pyramids and temples and cities, larger and evidently more beauti- ful than ancient Egypt could bring forth after its long years of uninterrupted history. The pyramids resemble those of Egypt in exterior form, and in some instances are of larger dimensions. The pyramid of Cholula is square, having each side of its base 1,335 feet in length, and its height abont 172 feet. Another pyramid, situated in the north of Vera Cruz, is formed of large blocks of highly-polished porphyry, and bears upon its front hiero- glyphic inscriptions and curious sculpture. Each side of its square base is 82 feet in length, and a flight of 57 steps conducts to its summit, which is 65 feet in height. The ruins of Palenque are said to extend 20 miles along the ridge of a mountain, and the remains of an Aztec city, near the banks of the river Gila, are spread over more than a square league. Their literature consisted of hieroglyphics; but their arithmetical knowledge did not extend farther than their calculations by the aid of grains of corn. Yet,
22
HISTORY OF INDIANA.
notwithstanding all their varied accomplishments, and they were evidently many, their notions of religious duty led to a most demo- niac zeal at once barbarously savage and ferociously cruel. Each visiting, god instead of bringing new life to the people, brought death to thousands; and their grotesque idols, exposed to drown the senses of the beholders in fear, wrought wretchedness rather than spiritual happiness, until, as some learned and humane Monte- zumian said, the people never approached these idols without fear, and this fear was the great animating principle, the great religions motive power which sustained the terrible religion. Their altars were sprinkled with blood drawn from their own bodies in large quantities, and on them thousands of human victims were sacri- ficed in honor of the demons whom they worshipcd. The head and heart of every captive taken in war were offered up as a bloody sacrifice to the god of battles, while the victorious legions feasted on the remaining portions of the dead bodies. It has been ascer- tained that during the ceremonies attendant on the consecration of two of their temples, the number of prisoners offered up in sacri- fice was 12,210; while their own legions contributed voluntary victims to the terrible belief in large numbers. Nor did this horrible custom cease immediately after 1521, when Cortez entered the imperial city of the Montezumas; for, on being driven from it, all luis troops who fell into the hands of the native soldiers were subjected to the most terrible and prolonged suffering that could be experienced in this world, and when about to yield up that spirit which is indestructible, were offered in sacrifice, their hearts and heads consecrated, and the victors allowed to feast on the yet warm flesh.
A reference is made here to the period when the Montezumas ruled over Mexico, simply to gain a better idea of the hideous idolatry which took the place of the old Boodhism of the Monnd Builders, and doubtless helped in a great measure to give victory to the new comers, even as the tenets of Mahometanism urged the ignorant followers of the prophet to the conquest of great nations. It was not the faith of the people who built the mounds and the pyramids and the temples, and who, 200 years before the Christian era, built the great wall of jealous China. No: rather was it that terrible faith born of the Tartar victory, which carried the great defenses of China at the point of the javelin and hatchet, who afterward marched to the very walls of Rome, under Alaric, and
23
HISTORY OF INDIANA.
spread over the islands of Polynesia to the Pacific slopes of South America.
THE TARTARS
came there, and, like the pure Mongols of Mexico and the Missis- sippi valley, rose to a state of civilization bordering on that attained by thein. Here for centuries the sons of the fierce Tartar race con- tinned to dwell in comparative peace until the all-ruling ambition of empire took in the whole country from the Pacific to the Atlan- tic, and peopled the vast territory watered by the Amazon with a race that was destined to conquer all the peoples of the Orient, and only to fall before the march of the arch-civilizing Caucasian. In course of time those fierce Tartars pushed their settlements northward, and ultimately entered the territories of the Mound Builders, putting to death all who fell within their reach, and causing the survivors of the death-dealing invasion to seek a refuge from the hordes of this semi-barbarous people in the wilds and fast- nesses of the North and Northwest. The beautiful country of the Mound Builders was now in the hands of savage invaders, the quiet, industrious people who raised the temples and pyramids were gone; and the wealth of intelligence and industry, accumulating for ages, passed into the possession of a rapacious horde, who could admire it only so far as it offered objects for plunder. Even in this the invaders were satisfied, and then having arrived at the height of their ambition, rested on their swords and entered upon the luxury and ease in the enjoyment of which they were found when the van- guard of European civilization appeared upon the scene. Mean- time the southern countries which those adventurers abandoned after having completed their conquests in the North, were soon peopled by hundreds of people, always moving from island to island and ultimately halting amid the ruins of villages deserted by those who, as legends tell, had passed eastward but never returned; and it would scarcely be a matter for surprise if those emigrants were found to be the progenitors of that race found by the Spaniards in 1532, and identical with the Araucanians, Cuenches and Huil- tiches of to-day.
RELICS OF THE MOUND BUILDERS.
One of the most brilliant and impartial historians of the Republic stated that the valley of the Mississippi contained no monuments. So far as the word is entertained now, he was literally correct, but
24
HISTORY OF P.DIANA.
in some hasty effort neglected to qualify liis sentence by a refer- ence to the numerous relies of antiquity to be found throughout its length and breadth, and so exposed his chapters to criticism. The valley of the Father of Waters, and indeed the country from the trap rocks of the Great Lakes southeast to the Gulf and south- west to Mexico, abound in tell-tale monuments of a race of people much farther advanced in civilization than the Montezumas of the sixteenth century. The remains of walls and fortifications found in Kentucky and Indiana, the earthworks of Vincennes and throughout the valley of the Wabash, the mounds scattered over Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Virginia, and those found in Illi- nois, Wisconsin and Minnesota, are all evidences of the univer- ality of the Chinese Mongols and of their advance toward a com- parative knowledge of man and cosmology. At the mouth of Fourteen-Mile creek, in Clark county, Indiana, there stands one of tl- old monuments known as the "Stone Fort." It is an unmistakable heirloom of a great and ancient people, and must have formed one of their most important posts. The State Geolo- gist's report, filed among the records of the State and furnished by Prof. Cox, says: "At the mouth of Fourteen-Mile creek, and about three miles from Charleston, the county-seat of Clark county, there is one of the most remarkable stone fortifications which has ever come under my notice. Accompanied by my assistant, Mr. Borden, and a number of citizens of Charleston, I visited the 'Stone Fort' for the purpose of making an examination of it. The locality selected for this fort presents many natural advantages for making it impregnable to the opposing forces of prehistoric times. It occupies the point of an elevated narrow ridge which faces the Ohio river on the east and is bordered by Fourteen-Mile creek on the west side. This creek empties into the Ohio a short distance below the fort. The top of the ridge is pear-shaped, with the part answering to the neck at the north end. This part is not over twenty feet wide, and is protected by precipitous natural walls of stone. It is 280 feet above the level of the Ohio river, and the slope is very gradual to the south. At the upper field it is 240 feet high and one hundred steps wide. At the lower timber it is 120 feet high. The bottom land at the foot of the south end is sixty feet above the river. Along the greater part of the Ohio river front there is an abrupt escarpment rock, entirely too steep to be scaled, and a similar natural barrier exists along a portion of the northwest side of the ridge, facing the creek. This natural wall
EARLY EXPLORERS OF INDIANA TERRITORY.
27
HISTORY OF INDIANA.
is joined to the neck of an artificial wall, made by piling up, mason fashion but without mortar, loose stone, which had evidently been pried up from the carboniferons layers of rock. This made wall, at this point, is about 150 feet long. It is built along the slope of the hill and had an elevation of about 75 feet above its base, the upper ten feet being vertical. The inside of the wall is protected by a ditch. The remainder of the hill is protected by an artificial stone wall, built in the same manner, but not more than ten feet high. The elevation of the side wall above the creek bottom is 80 feet. Within the artificial walls is a string of mounds which rise to the height of the wall, and are protected from the washing of the hill- sides by a ditch 20 feet wide and four feet deep. The position of the artificial walls, natural cliffs of bedded stone, as well as that of the ditch and mounds, are well illustrated. The top of the enclosed ridge embraces ten or twelve acres, and there are as inany as five monnds that can be recognized on the flat surface, while no doubt many others existed which have been obliterated by time, and though the agency of man in his efforts to cultivate a portion of the ground. A trench was ent into one of these mounds in search of relics. A few fragments of charcoal and decomposed bones, and a large irregular, diamond-shaped boulder, with a small circular indentation near the middle of the upper part, that was worn qnite smooth by the use to which it had been put, and the small pieces of fossil coral, comprised all the articles of note which were revealed by the excavation. The earth of which the mound is made resem- bles that seen on the hillside, and was probably in most part taken from the ditch. The margin next to the ditch was protected by slabs of stone set on edge, and leaning at an angle corresponding to the slope of the mound. This stone shield was two and one-half feet wide and one foot high. At intervals along the great ditch there are channels formed between the mounds that probably served to carry off the surplus water through openings in the outer wall. On the top of the enclosed ridge, and near its narrowest part, there is one mound much larger than any of the others, and so situated as to command an extensive view up and down the Ohio river, as well as affording an unobstructed view east and west. This is designated as ' Look-out Mound.' There is near it a slight break in the cliff of rock, which furnished a narrow passage way to the Ohio river. Though the locality afforded many natural advantages for a fort or stronghold, one is compelled to admit that much skill was displayed and labor expended in making its defense as perfect as possible at
Ston KAes, pestics, arrow-heads, spear-points, totams, charme and flint flakes have been found in great abundance in plowing the Lol at the foot of the old fort."
From the " Stone Fort " the Professor turns his steps to Posey conn.y. at a point on the Wabash, ten miles above the mouth, called "Bene Bank," on account of the number of human bones continually washed out from the river bank. "It is," he states " situated in a bend on the left bank of the river; and the ground is about ten feet above high-water mark, being the only land along this portion of the river that is not submerged in seasons of high water. The bank slopes gradually back from the river to a slough. This slough now seldom contains water, but no doubt at one time it was an arm of the Wabash river, which flowed around the Bone Bank and afforded protection to the island home of the Monnd Builders. The Wabash has been changing its bed for many years, leaving a broad extent of newly made land on the right shore, and gradually making inroads on the left shore by cutting away the Bone Bank. The stages of growth of land on the right bank of the river are well defined by the cottonwood trees, which increase in size as you go back from the river. Unless there is a change in the cnr- rent of the river, all trace of the Bone Bank will be obliterated. Already within the memory of the white inhabitants, the bank has been removed to the width of several hundred yards. As the bank is cut by the current of the river it loses its support, and when the water sinks it tumbles over, carrying with it the bones of the Monnd Builders and the cherished articles buried with them. No locality in the country furnishes a greater number and variety of relies than this. It has proved especially rich in pottery of quaint design and skillful workmanship. I have a number of jugs and pots and a cup found at the Bone Bank. This kind of work has been very abundant, and is still found in such quantities that we are led to conelude that its manufacture formed a leading indns- try of the inhabitants of the Bone Bank. It is not in Europe alone that we find a well-founded claim of high antiquity for the art of making hard and durable stone by a mixture of clay, lime, sand and stone; for I am convinced that this art was possessed by a race of people who inhabited this continent at a period so remote that neither tradition nor history can furnish any account of them. They belonged to the Neolithic, or polished-stone, age. They lived in towns and built mounds for sepulture and worship and pro- tected their homes by surrounding them with walls of earth and
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HISTORY OF INDIANA.
stone. In some of these mounds specimens of various kinds of pottery, in a perfect state of preservation, have from time to time been found, and fragments are so common that every student of archæology can have a bountiful supply. Some of these fragments indicate vessels of very great size. At the Saline springs of Gal- latin I picked up fragments that indicated, by their curvature, ves- sels five to six feet in diameter, and it is probable they are frag- ments of artificial stone pans used to hold brine that was manufac- tured into salt by solar evaporation.
"Now, all the pottery belonging to the Monnd Builders' age, which I have seen, is composed of alluvial clay and sand, or a mix- ture of the former with pulverized fresh-water shells. A paste made of such a mixture possesses, in high degree, the properties of hydraulic Puzzuoland and Portland cement, so that vessels formed of it hardened without being burned, as is customary with modern pottery."
The Professor deals very aptly with this industry of the aborig- ines, and concludes a very able disquisition on the Bone Bank in its relation to the prehistoric builders.
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17
ASSEZO-
20055
HIEROGLYPHICS OF THE MOUND-BUILDERS.
The great circular redoubt or earth-work found two miles west of the village of New Washington, and the " Stone Fort," on a ridge one mile west of the village of Deputy, offer a subject for the anti- quarian as deeply interesting as any of the monuments of a decayed empire so far discovered.
30
HISTORY OF INDIANA.
From end to end of Indiana there are to be found inany other rel- ics of the obscure past. Some of them have been unearthed and new appear among the collected antiquities at Indianapolis. The highly finished sandstone pipe, the copper ax, stone axes, flint arrow-heads and magnetic plummets found a few years ago beneath the soil of Cut-Off Island near New Harmony, together with the pipes of rare workmanship and undoubted age, unearthed near Covington, all live as it were in testimony of their owner's and maker's excel- lence, and hold a share in the evidence of the partial annihilation of a race, with the complete disruption of its manners, customs and industries; and it is possible that when numbers of these relics are placed together, a key to the phonetic or rather hieroglyphic system of that remote period might be evolved.
It may be asked what these hieroglyphical characters really are. Well, they are varied in form, so much so that the pipes found in the mounds of Indians, each bearing a distinct representation of some animal, may be taken for one species, used to represent the abstract ideas of the Mound Builders. The second form consists of pure hieroglyphics or phonetic characters, in which the sound is represented instead of the object; and the third, or painted form of the first, conveys to the mind that which is desired to be repre- sented. This form exists among the Cree Indians of the far North- west, at present. They, when departing from their permanent vil- lages for the distant hunting grounds, paint on the barked trees in the neighborhood the figure of a snake or eagle, or perhaps huskey dog; and this animal is supposed to guard the position until the warrior's return, or welcome any friendly tribes that may arrive there in the interim. In the case of the Mound Builders, it is un- likely that this latter extreme was resorted to, for the simple reason that the relics of their occupation are too high in the ways of art to tolerate such a barbarous science of language; but the sculptured pipes and javelins and spear-heads of the Mound Builders may be taken as a collection of graven images, each conveying a set of ideas easily understood, and perhaps sometimes or more generally used to designate the vocation, name or character of the owner. That the builders possessed an alphabet of a phonetic form, and purely hieroglyphic, can scarcely be questioned; but until one or more of the unearthed tablets, which bore all or even a portion of such characters, are raised from their centuried graves, the mystery which surrounds this people must remain, while we must dwell in a world of mere speculation.
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HISTORY OF INDIANA.
Vigo, Jasper, Sullivan, Switzerland and Ohio counties can boast of a most liberal endowment in this relation; and when in other days the people will direct a minute inquiry, and penetrate to the very heart of the thousand cones which are scattered throughout the land, they may possibly extract the blood in the shape of metal- lic and porcelain works, with hieroglyphic tablets, while leaving the form of heart and body complete to entertain and delight un- born generations, who in their time will wonder much when they learn that an American people, living toward the close of the 59th century, could possibly indulge in such an anachronism as is im- plied in the term "New World."
THE INDIANS.
The origin of the Red Men, or American Indians, is a subject which interests as well as instructs. It is a favorite with the eth- nologist, even as it is one of deep concern to the ordinary reader. A review of two works lately published on the origin of the Indians treats the matter in a peculiarly reasonable light. It says:
" Recently a German writer has put forward one theory on the subject, and an English writer has put forward another and directly opposite theory. The difference of opinion concerning our aborig- inals among anthors who have made a profound study of races is at once curious and interesting. Blumenbach treats them in his classifications as a distinct variety of the human family; but, in the threefold division of Dr. Latham, they are ranked among the Mon- golidæ. Other writers on race regard them as a branch of the great Mongolian family, which at a distant period found its way from Asia to this continent, and remained here for centuries separate from the rest of mankind, passing, meanwhile, through divers phases of barbarism and civilization. Morton, our eminent eth- nologist, and his followers, Nott and Gliddon, claim for our native Red Men an origin as distinct as the flora and fauna of this conti- nent. Prichard, whose views are apt to differ from Morton's, finds reason to believe, on comparing the American tribes together, that they must have formed a separate department of nations from the earliest period of the world. The era of their existence as a distinct and insulated people must probably be dated back to the time which separated into nations the inhabitants of the Old World, and gave to each its individuality and primitive language. Dr. Robert Brown, the latest authority, attributes, in his " Races of Mankind," an Asiatic origin to our aboriginals. He says that the Western In- dians not only personally resemble their nearest neighbors-the Northeastern Asiatics-but they resemble them in language and traditions. The Esquimaux on the American and the Tchuktchis on the Asiatic side understand one another perfectly. Modern an-
32
HISTORY OF INDIANA.
thropologists, indeed, are disposed to think that Japan, the Kuriles, and neighboring regions, may be regarded as the original home of the greater part of the native American race. It is also admitted by them that between the tribes scattered from the Arctic sea to Cape Horn there is more uniformity of physical features than is seen in any other quarter of the globe. The weight of evidence and authority is altogether in favor of the opinion that our so- called Indians are a branch of the Mongolian family, and all addi- tional researches strengthen the opinion. The tribes of both North and South America are unquestionably homogeneous, and, in all likelihood, had their origin in Asia, though they have been altered and modified by thousands of years of total separation from the parent stock."
The conclusions arrived at by the reviewer at that time, though safe, are too general to lead the reader to form any definite idea on the subject. No doubt whatever can exist, when the American In- dian is regarded as of an Asiatic origin; but there is nothing in the works or even in the review, to which these works were subjected, which might account for the vast difference in manner and form between the Red Man, as he is now known, or even as he appeared to Columbus and his successors in the field of discovery, and the comparatively civilized inhabitants of Mexico, as seen in 1521 by Cortez, and of Peru, as witnessed by Pizarro in 1532. The fact is that the pure bred Indian of the present is descended directly from the earliest inhabitants, or in other words from the survivors of that people who, on being driven from their fair possessions, re- tired to the wilderness in sorrow and reared up their children under the saddening influences of their unquenchable griefs, bequeathing them only the habits of the wild, cloud-roofed home of their de- clining years, a snllen silence, and a rude moral code. In after years these wild sons of the forest and prairie grew in numbers and in strength. Some legend told them of their present sufferings, of the station which their fathers once had known, and of the riotous race which now reveled in wealth which should be theirs. The fierce passions of the savage were aroused, and uniting their scat- tered bands marched in silence upon the villages of the Tartars, driving them onward to the capital of their Incas, and consigning their homes to the flames. Once in view of the great city, the hurrying bands halted in surprise; but Tartar cunning took in the situation and offered pledges of amity, which were sacredly ob- served. Henceforth Mexico was open to the Indians, bearing pre- eisely the same relation to them that the Hudson's Bay Company's
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