USA > Indiana > Pioneer history of Indiana : including stories, incidents, and customs of the early settlers > Part 49
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At that time Mr. McCormick was in hiding about three- fourths of a mile north of New Liberty Christian church be- tween Haubstadt and Cynthiana, Indiana. Gavitt learned that he was in that neighborhood and came out there after him. Meeting a man in whose house McCormick was lodg-
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ing on the garret floor at that very moment, Gavitt halted him and asked-"Do you know where I can find the noted. Rev. T. B. McCormick?" "Yes Sir" said the gentleman "I. can tell you exactly where to find him-he is up in my garret. loft." This frank confession staggered the noted detective. He hesitated a few moments and asked-"How is he fixed for arms?" The gentleman just as frankly replied-"All the arms he can possibly handle and he would be glad to have a little practice in using them if you see fit to give an oppor- tunity." Gavitt remarked-"I am not anxious to furnish him a target" and then slowly rode away.
After this Rev. McCormick made his way to Canada where he remained a few months when he quietly returned to his family traveling after he got into this state only after night. He made arrangements to move his family to Ohio after which he entered the lecture field, his subject being the illegality and unconstitutionality of American slavery to which he devoted his entire time until 1863 when the ques- tion of slavery was settled, and he returned to his home near Princeton. Mr. McCormick never had any direct connection with the "underground railroad" but he was intimately ac- quainted with many of the "depots" from his home to. Canada.
An interesting incident which it would not be out of place to mention here occurred in 1855 while he was on a lec- turing tour in the extreme southwest corner of Ohio. He had gotten on the train on the old O. & M. railroad to go to Cincinnati and taking an unoccupied seat beside a passenger he looked into his face and was surprised to see that he had sat down by Marshall Smith Gavitt. They at once recog- nized each other and shook hands cordially and drifted into conversation. As is known the O. & M. railroad (now the B. & O. S. W.) runs right along the Ohio river bank for some distance. With a laugh Marshall Gavitt turned to Rev. McCormick and said:
"Mack, I'll give you $1,000 if you will go across that river with me."
Enjoying the joke Rev. McCormick with a laugh replied
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--- "Couldn't possibly do it Smith. I havn't lost anything in Kentucky or Indiana either that I think needs looking for just now."
In the Civil War Smith Gavitt (as Lieut. Col.) was with the first Indiana Cavalry and was killed leading a charge at Fredericktown. Missouri.
Wood Robinson Senior was the man in whose house was McCormick's hiding place. McCormick would spend a day or so in the garret of a two-story house in which Robinson lived, then a day or so in the garret of a house in which Wil- liam Curry lived. These two houses were about one hun- dred and fifty yards apart on the grounds afterward known as McNary Boren's store. Wood Robinson died at Admore, Indian Territory several years ago. William Curry is now living at Beason, Illinois and is more than eighty years old and yet he looks almost as young as he did forty years ago. Rev. McCormick died at Princeton, Ind., 1892, aged nearly 80 years.
McCormick lived to hear many of his former enemies Say: "You were right but you were twenty years ahead of the time and we did not have enough sense to see it." ·
He united with the congregational church when he went north and was a minister of that denomination until his death. In 1856 he presided at the national convention of the Radical Abolition party held in New York and he was also candidate for Governor of Ohio on the same ticket the same year.
CHAPTER XXX.
INDIAN RELIGION.
In 1843 my father was in the lower Mississippi with a boat load of pork and hired a Choctaw Indian with an unpro- nouncable name but who went by the common name of John Choctaw. This Indian was well educated for that day; he understood the English language well and could speak it. When the boat load was sold out this Indian came with my father to his Indiana home and remained there for three years. From him were gathered the facts on Indian Religion which are contained in this article.
The Indians believe in religion but have no knowledge of their spiritual teachings; in fact they are ignorant of the ·cause which forms their belief in heavenly things. It is cer- tain that they all acknowledge the Supreme, omnipotent Be- - ing, the Great Father, the Giver of all things, who created and governs the universe. They believe that when the hunt- ing grounds were made and supplied with buffalo, bear and all game, that He then made the first red man and red woman who were giants in stature and they lived for a very long time. The Great Supreme Being often held counsels and smoked with them and often gave them laws to follow and taught them how to kill their food and raise corn and to- bacco. They believe also that these big Indians after a while were living so easily that they did not obey the Great Supreme Power and for this disobedience He withdrew His favor from them and turned them over to the bad spirits, "who had since been the cause of their misfortunes. They be- lieve Him to be too exalted a power to be directly the cause
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of evil and notwithstanding their many shortcomings, He continues to send down them all the good things that they have in consequense of this parental regard for them. They are truly sincere in their devotion and pray to Him for such things as they need and return thanks for the good they re- ceive. On the other hand, when they are afflicted or suffer- ing any great calamity they pray to the evil spirit with great earnestness, believing that the evil spirit is directly re- verse to the good Spirit and they pray to him hoping to make him more favorable to them that he may lessen their affliction.
All Indians believe that the Great Spirit can at pleasure be present yet invisible, that He is endowed with a nature more excellent than theirs and will live for all time. They believe in a future existence but they associate that state with natural things. They have no idea of the soul's intel- lectual enjoyment after death but expect to be in their person in a great country where the hunting grounds have abund- ance of game and they will never have bad luck in the chase. They think it is one continual spring day-no clouds, no. snow, no rain, but all sunshine.
They believe those who were killed in battle. those who were the most expert hunters in this land will, in that beaut- iful country, have the best wigwams, the best wives and the most game for their hunting grounds and that the Indians who were bad here will be left out on the outside where the snow comes all the time and where there is no game but that which is poor and that Indians who were cowardly and mean to old people will go where the snakes are all around.
The Indians have no day of worship, such as our Sun- day, but they have times for their devotions. In such times as they declare war they go to the Great Spirit and implore Him to give them victory over their enemies. When peace is. made they have great rejoicings, particularly if they have been successful.
They have other times for rejoicing and giving thanks- when their harvest time comes and when the new moon is first seen. No day passes with the older Indians that they
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do not have a moment for their devotions and when they are to break camp and go to another, they repair in a body to the spring that has furnished them water and give thanks to the Great Power for all His blessings.
At times when occasion demands it, such as declaring war, they are very loud in their devotions. After it is over one of the older men who has a good record, addresses the band, urging them to be brave and to slip up on their ene- mies and enjoins them to so conduct themselves as to be worthy of success. They always address the evil spirit with as much earnestness as they do the Good Spirit, for they believe that the two have equal power over them, one to bless, the other to do evil; but the evil spirit can do them no harm while they are doing the things that please the Good Spirit; hence the older and staid Indians are never known to im- plore the evil spirit to do them any favor. They are continually in a devotional mood and call upon the Great Spirit many times each day. There is one thing that is cer- tainly much to the credit of the Indian race-that hypocrisy is never known to exist among them in sacred things and in many tribes the devotion in sacred things is the standard by which their character is measured. The title of "Prophet" is given to some who are considered good men and are able , to teach, but they fill their sacred office much as our minis- ters do, teaching their tribe to be good and not drink "fire- water.".
Thomas Morton, author of "The New Canaan," in 1637 says of the Indian conjurors-"Some correspondency they have with the devil of all doubt." Woods, to the same effect remarks that-"By God's permission, through the devil's help, their charms are force to produce wonderment."
Smith declares of the Indians-"Their chief God they worship is the Devil." Cotton Mather intimates that it was the devil who seduced the first inhabitants of America into it.
CHAPTER XXXI.
THE MOUND BUILDERS.
AGE OF MOUNDS-WORKMANSHIP OF BUILDERS-THE TRA- DITION OF THE PIASSA - REMAINS -- DIFFERENCE BE- TWEEN MOUND BUILDERS AND INDIANS.
MOUND BUILDERS
Anyone attempting to write about the builders of the mounds which were constructed by a pre-historic race, is handicapped from the start. Everything that may be said about these early people, outside of a very few unraveling footprints left by them, is pure imaginary speculations. It is probable that the efforts being made to find the history of the people who once densely populated a great portion of this country and who may have ante-dated the deluge and confusion of tongues at the tower of Babel may be rewarded with success. The great mounds scattered over this country may have a history in hieroglyphics on many tablets that may tell the story of these wonderful people and a history of the monstrous animals, birds and reptiles which once roamed over this country and whose bones are yet found and are held in our museums as relics of an extinct species.
It is contended by some that these mounds are not so old as historians want to make them. If they were, the action of time would have obliterated them. There is one law of nature that those so contending have not understood. An excavation made in the earth or a mound made on it is never obliterated without the aid of human agencies, unless the ex-
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cavation is made in the river bottoms and overflows. The question has been asked by all classes ever since this country has been peopled by the white race, by scholars, by teachers, by explorers and by those who read and travel-"Who were the Mound Builders?" "What race of people did they come. from and what were the thousands of mounds built for?" To. this question there can be but one answer-"Don't know," The most accepted theory is that they came from Asia into North America through the Behring Strait. This is a diffi- cult route but it was possible. They may, for ages have oc- cupied the Yukon country in Alaska and by degrees came farther south down through the Dominion of Canada and into the warmer climate of the United States. All over this. country their marks are indelibly made. They went far into the south land. The many mounds and towers around Vera Cruz and other places in Mexico are attributed to the same people. Probably the leaning towers of Central Amer-
ica were their work. In most all the mounds which have been examined, small and great, human bones have been found with relics of those buried, placed by their side. In many cases burial vases have been found (now in our state museum and other places) in which the trinkets and orna- ments were placed by the body of the owner. Many of these. bones are of a larger race of people than any that have been known since the dawn of history. After the battle of Stone. river the Union forces built a very strong fort and named it in honor of General Rosecrans. It was located on a low mound which was not more than six or eight feet high in the centre and covered something near a half acre of ground. To those who had not before had knowledge of such mounds there was. nothing unusual about the shape of the ground, but General Whipple, of General Thomas' staff was a learned man and had before that opened some of the mounds in other parts of the country. He told the men at work what it was and in excavating to make the walls of the fort, he asked them to look out for human bones and relics. When the ground for the fort had been excavated the depth wanted, a bomb-proof vault was made about ten feet deep and fourteen or fifteen .
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feet square. In digging this, a skeleton was found. The bones were of a very large man, probably more than eight feet tall. When the thigh bone was put by the side of the tallest man's thigh, he sitting down, the bone went as far back as the back of his hip and then reached beyond the bent knee five or six inches.
It is generally thought now that in the early ages of this country it was roamed over by animals, fowls and rep- tiles which were huge in size, many times larger than the animals and fowls of this period. It is claimed by some that the mound builders were here as soon as the country was suitable to be occupied by man; that it was peopled with in- digenous inhabitants who began life the same way as did the trees, plants, animals, birds and other living things. If this theory is true then the large men were not out of pro- portion to their surroundings. The geologist tells us at that time, that ferns grew to be immense trees and all vegetation was hundreds of times more luxuriant than now-hence our great coal fields. The naturalist tells us that animals and birds were all huge monsters and that snakes and lizards were represented in size by large and long logs. Another fact cited by those that claim that man was here before the world was old, is that at many places in this country the print of the human foot of a very large size was made in the rocks; in some cases several inches deep, which were made while the rocks were in a plastic state.
To believe that this continent was finished and filled with animals, birds and other living things which roamed over its immense forests and swam in its many rivers, lakes and oceans and yet there was no human being with powers of thought other than intuition, is not reasonable. The con- clusion to come to is that man was here as soon as the ·country was suitable to be occupied by living things, not with the intelligence and reasoning powers of the educated people of after ages. Most probably these primitive men were savage in the beginning and the only history left by them is such as savage people have always left-the flint arrow heads, the stone axes and such crude implements as
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would enable them to secure their food from the animals, birds and fish which was necessary for their sustenance. They have left no history that can be unraveled. If they had there would be no further mystery about the mound builders, or about the huge monsters that were in this country at that time.
A tradition of migration is owned by all the nations which have filled the earth and they all go back to some other people they have learned about. The Egyptians have a record longer than any others. They have monuments which are four thousand years old and show an advanced civilization at the time they were built; yet Wilkinson in his "Ancient Egyptians," says that "The origin of these Egypt- ians is enveloped in the same obscurity as most of the other races. They were, no doubt of Asiatic stock and when they came, they found on the Nile an aboriginal race of people to be dispossessed before they could occupy the country," and many writers about that country say that beneath the found- ation of the ruins on the Nile are yet found the rude stone implements of a people who lived there before the Egyptians did.
The mound builders were skilled in making pottery or vessels for culinary purposes and they were quite artistic. There have been taken out of many mounds in all sections of this country many very fine specimens of sculpture work, showing the rounded images of human beings. This work is pronounced by men, who are experts in this line, to have a real, artistic value. They also made pictures in many places in caves and on rocks, of animals and birds. They had a reason for this laborious work which is not now understood. Probably they tried to leave a record of some of the most im- portant events of their history. Some of these carvings were seen by Joliet and Marquette, the first French explorers who were on the upper Mississippi river. There is not much doubt left but they were made many ages before Columbus discovered America, by the early people who lived in the Mis- sissippi valley for the purpose of trying to tell the history of their country.
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The most prominent of these carvings was that of the- Piassa which in Indian signifies: "The Bird which Devours. People" which was cut high up on the smooth surface of a very high bluff rock near where the city of Alton, Illinois now stands. It was the representation of an enormous bird with its wings outspread. The animal or bird was called Piassa, named for the stream of that name that empties into. the Mississippi at that point. This carved picture has been seen by thousands of people who were on the Mississippi.
Joliet and Marquette, in the missionary stations on the. upper lakes had heard frequently from the Indians of the- Great River or Father of Waters (which was discovered by DeSoto more than 130 years before but was still unknown to. white man as far north as the Missouri and Illinois Rivers) and in 1673 these two explorers with a small party started out from Green Bay to find the Great River. The Indians of the Lakes endeavored to deter them from going. The
country, they said, was filled with savage and frightful creatures and in the Great River at a certain point there was. a monster whose roar could be heard a great distance and it swallowed every person who came near it. They found the Mississippi and drifted down it. Below the mouth of the ; Illinois, they beheld a sight which reminded them that the Devil was still paramount in the wilderness. On the flat face. of a high rock was painted in red, black and green a pair of monsters each as large as a calf, with horns like a roe-buck, red eyes and a beard like a tiger and a frightful expression of countenance. The face was something like that of a man, the body was covered with scales, and the tail was so long that it passed around the body between the legs and over the. head, ending like a fish. John Russells first brought it into. general notice. He wrote for a magazine "The tradition. of the Piassa" which he claimed was obtained from the Illinois Indian tribes. A part of the article is here produced :: "Many thousand moons before the arrival of the 'Pale- Face,' when the great magalonyx and the mastodon were still living in the land of green prairies there existed a bird of such dimensions that it could carry off in its claws a full.
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grown deer. Having obtained a taste of human flesh it would after vard eat nothing else. It was cunning as it was powerful, would dart suddenly on one of the Indians and carry him off to one of the caves in the bluff and devour him. Hundreds of warriors tried for many years to destroy this monster but could not. Finally a detail of fifty men was made to not cease their efforts until the great bird was killed. They tried many plans to get rid of it, but it was more cunning than they. They agreed to select by lot, one of the number, who would place himself in a position that the bird would see that he was alone and would attack him. This lot fell on Anato- go, the great chief of the Illinois Indians whose fame extend- ed to the Great Lakes. He separated himself from the rest of his tribe and fasted in solitude for a whole moon and prayed to his great father to protect his children from the Piassa. On the last night of the fast the Great Spirit ap- peared to Anatogo in a dream; told him to select twenty of his best men, armed with bows and poisoned arrows and con- ceal them in a certain spot. Near that place another warrior was to stand in open view as a victim for the Piassa, which they must shoot the instant he pounced upon his prey. When the chief awoke the next morning he thanked the Great Spir- it. Returning to his tribe he told them his great vision. The warriors were quickly selected and placed as directed, the Chief offering himself as the victim. He soon saw the Piassa perched high up on the cliff. watching its prey. The Chief began to sing his death song and a moment afterward the Piassa rose in the air and as swiftly as a thunder bolt darted down upon its victim. As soon as the horrid monster was near the Chief, twenty arrows were sent from their feathered quivers into its body. The monster uttered an awful scream and fell dead at the feet of the Chief, who was not harmed. There was great rejoicing in all the tribes and it was solemnly agreed that in memory of the great event in the nation's history. which had suffered so long from this monster, the image of the Piassa should be engraved on the bluff." Russell further says that at one time he was induced to visit the bluff below the mouth of the Illinois river. His
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curiosity was principally directed to the examination of a cave which tradition said was the one into which the great bird carried its human victims. Preceded by an intelligent guide who carried a spade he set out on his excursion. The cave was very hard to get into as it was in the solid face of the bluff, more than fifty feet above the bed of the river. It was a perilous undertaking, but after many attempts he suc- ceeded in placing a long pole from a crevice in the rock to its mouth and thus entered the cave. The roof of the cave was vaulted and the top about twenty feet high. As far as he could judge the bottom was about twenty by thirty feet. The floor of the cavern, throughout its whole extent, was one mass of human bones. Skulls and other bones were mingled
in the utmost confusion. To what depth they extended he was unable to decide, but they dug to the depth of three or four feet in every part of the cave and found only bones. The remains of thousands of human beings must have been depos- ited there; how or by whom or for what purpose it was im- possible to conjecture."
It has often been asked: "What became of the mound builders? Why did they leave the fertile valleys of the Mis- sissippi?" To these questions there can by no certain ans- wer given. These people were here for untold ages and from them probably came the savage Indians who were here when this country was first seen by the white race. The mound builders who came a long time ago from Asia, very much im- proved the Indians who were, no doubt, in touch with all sec- tions of this country. After a long period of time, while the foreigners were cultivating and improving the country, in- dustriously laboring to raise cereals and vegetables, prepar- ing their homes and building the countless thousands of mounds, there may have come to them an epidemic of sick- ness or a great plague such as has destroyed many millions of people in China and India at times, and destroyed them or so weakened them that they may have fallen an easy prey to the savage horde who have ever been jealous of any improve- ments which would take away the forest or drive the game away; and were destroyed by them or driven out of this
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country. It is not reasonable to suppose they would have voluntarily left their homes and this fertile country and the thousands of mounds that they had spent ages in preparing for sepulchers for their dead.
In many of the State museums there are large numbers of vessels, vases and trinkets which have been taken from these mounds in various places. All of them, no doubt, were made for the purpose of being placed in sepulchers with the remains of those buried there. In these vases, trinkets of various sorts were found, some of them no doubt, were used for tools, made of rock, bones and copper. Others were or- naments, such as bands of copper for the wrist and for the head, to hold the hair in place; also small bands for the fingers. Round balls of white stone, about the size of bil- liard balls were found which were used in games, also large copper balls that in size and appearance were much the same as sling balls used by the ancient Grecians in war. In mak- ing the vases they used a cement which was equal to the best Portland and it is supposed they ground the shells. found in rivers and lakes with some other ingredient which made a beautiful white color with tints of various hues. Some of these vases were made of many colors; the main body black and the neck white and others with rings of white and black, all no doubt made by some coloring material put in the cement. The mound builders used the bones of the deer, elk and antelope to make these ornaments. Why they did not use the horn and strong bone of the buffalo for that purpose and to make their tools is unexplained.
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