Collins historical sketches of Kentucky. History of Kentucky: Vol. I, Part 77

Author: Collins, Lewis, 1797-1870. cn; Collins, Richard H., 1824-1889. cn
Publication date: 1874
Publisher: Covington, Ky., Collins & Co.
Number of Pages: 1452

USA > Kentucky > Collins historical sketches of Kentucky. History of Kentucky: Vol. I > Part 77

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Thus much concerning the color of the Mound-builder's hair : Now, what is to be said in regard to his complexion, or the color of his skin ? Had we conclusive proof that his hair was red, we should naturally infer that his skin was fair, and his eyes blue; and this inference would be strengthened, if not sustained, by the unvarying testimony of Indian tradition. Among the tribes of the North- westt it was a current tradition that Kentucky had been settled by whites : An old Indian told Col. Moore that the Aborigines of Kentucky were white; the ancient Sac said to Col. Joe Daveiss, at St. Louis, that the early inhabit- ants of Kentucky were white; John Cushen, an intelligent and respectable Indian of Chillicothe, declared that the Mound-builders were white ; and finally, the "very long ago people" of Cornstalk were skilled in the arts, and white. This is the collective sense of Indian tradition derived from distinct and inde- pendent sources. There is no dissentient voice. The traditions are mutually supporting, and seem to drive with cumulative force to one inevitable con- clusion.

But how does this conclusion conform to the theory which assigns a Toltecan origin to the Mound-builder? and to the connected theory which makes the Toltecan people a branch of the great American race ? Shall we assume that this changed complexion was the result of what the philosophers term "ethnic differentiation "? If so, why were its effects manifest only in the Mound-building branch of the race ? Or shall we reject this theory altogether, and assume that these ancient seats were occupied by a succession of pre-his- toric races, of which one, at least, was of an origin possibly European, and of a complexion presumably white ? But it seems to us that it is as unneces- sary to ask these questions as it is certainly impossible to answer them. The most satisfactory solution of the difficulty is the simplest. The traditional impression as to the complexion of the Mound-builders may have been de- rived (as is suggested by Dr. Campbell, who records the tradition) from a

* Bradford's Antiquities, p. 31. + Dr. Campbell.

390

PRE-HISTORIC INHABITANTS.

perception of the superior skill exhibited by the vanished race or races in the construction of military works; or it may imply simply that the Mound builders were of a lighter hue than the peoples of later date. "The country was inhabited by white people once," said a Chillicothe Indian, "for none but white people make forts." According to Humboldt, the tribes of the Upper Orinoco, who were styled " White Indians," differed from other Indians only by a much less tawny color. Embalmed remains furnish but little light on the subject. The exsiccated "soft tissues" of the mummies give no hint of their original distinctive hue-at least nothing that is decisive. The skin is "dark, not black," says one description; * it was of "a dusky color," says another. t

An examination of the osseous remains of the Mound-builder is not without interest, and, in some respects, is indispensable to a proper consideration of our theme. If, for example, the form of the skull is determined by the con- dition of cerebral development-and this, in turn, is regulated by habitual conditions of life-it is allowable to infer that the Mound-builders of the rul- ing class were distinguished by a cranial conformation of a high type. This we might anticipate from the inferential results of Aboriginal statecraft. The creation of vast and elaborate systems of military defense, implies the contem- porary existence of a teeming and industrious population. To maintain such a population by a systematic cultivation of the soil, and to organize it for the public service or for industrial pursuits by a methodical administration of def- inite and judicious laws, implies extraordinary capacity for affairs, and stamps the pre-historic statesman as the offspring of a superior race. We should nat- urally expect to find some evidence of this intellectual superiority in the con- figuration of the Mound-builder's skull; and though the requisite data are wanting to justify any positive or conclusive statement on this point, we shall not be altogether disappointed in our anticipations. Whilst it is difficult to find crania of indisputable antiquity in a good state of preservation, it is not impossible. There is at least one such specimen in the collection of Dr. Morton [Crania Americana], and this perfectly typifies, it is alleged, the cranial charac- teristics of the American race, and particularly of that singular family which Dr. Morton denominates TOLTECAN. It exhibits the salient peculiarities of the ancient Peruvian skull-the prominent vertex, the vertical or flattened occiput, and the marked inter-parietal breadth. The facial angle (a measurement on which Camper founds a distinction of races) is noted on the record as embrac- ing 81º-the "internal capacity" of the skull being 90 cubic inches. The infe- rior bone of the jaw is said to be peculiarly massive, though less projecting than the maxilla pertaining to skeletons of a later date, while the general structure of the bony frame-work is such as marks the possession of excep- tional size, activity, and strength. A skull taken from a mound in Tennessee revealed a facial angle of 80°, but the measurements of skulls found in the Mammoth cave exhibit an angle not exceeding 68°-which is considerably less than the facial angle of the Ethiopian or the Kalmuck, and is no doubt partly the result of artificial compression. # Another skull, however, from the same cavern, presents an angle of 78°-a measurement which falls but little below that of the full-browed "Caucasian." The features of the mummy described on page 160, under the head of Edmonson County, "resembled those of a tall, handsome American woman; " the "forehead was high," and the "head well formed." A skull taken from a large mound near Chillicothe "represented," in the opinion of a high scientific authority, "the most perfect type of the Indian race." It was supposed to be the skull of a pre-historic leader.|| We may fairly conclude, then, that the Mound-builder of high caste was a being of superior physical and mental organization-of commanding stature, distinct and regular features, an imposing cranial contour, and a bearing to which instinct, training, and association had imparted an air of high distinction.

* Spe p. 159, under Edmonson County, Vol. II.

t Mitchell.

! It is clear that the habit of mechanical compression of the head was common to many Amer- ican nations, and prevalent in Peru .- Bradford's Amer. Ant.

I Vestiges of the Aborigines; Western Journal.

391

PRE-HISTORIC INHABITANTS.

The Monumental evidences of the Mound-builder's existence are of great, though indeterminate, antiquity, and the chronological problemi involved gives but little promise of an early solution. But the archaeologist has not been altogether idle. He has carefully studied the monumental structure in every conceivable relationship-in its site, its surroundings, and its sepulchral re- mains. Noting the relative position of the structure and of the stream flow- ing beneath, he develops the geological law which governs the formation of the terraces that mark the slow subsidence of the stream; he holds inquest over the crumbling remains exhumed from the mounds, and finds evidences of antiquity in the peculiar condition of decay; he examines the forest trees which are rooted in its sepulchral depths, and finds "rings" indicating cen- turies of annual growth. From these and other circumstances mutually cor- roborative, he deduces the general conclusion which assigns to those inonu- mental remains a positive antiquity of eight hundred years. Their possible" antiquity has no assignable limit. We shall not undertake to devise any theory in regard to the ethnological origin of the Mound-builders, since it is not theory that is wanted, but rigid induction upon trustworthy data. A great deal of reckless speculation, on a limited basis of facts, has resulted in a bewildering diversity of views. To one class of theorists, it is quite clear that America was originally peopled by Mongolian hordes drifting across the narrow straits of Behring; to another class, equally clear that it was peopled by streams of Malayans flowing from Asiatic seas, along the shores of the Pacific isles. One may very plausibly maintain either of these theories, to the exclusion of the other; he may very consistently adopt both. Other spec- ulators, accepting neither the Malayan nor Mongolian theory, variously as- cribe the original peopling to the Atlantides, the Egyptians, the Hindoos, the Tartars, the Celts, the Polynesians, the Hebrews, and the Welsh. But, say theorists still more daring, why a derivative population, at all? Are not.the Americas the most ancient of the continents, and the Aborigines true autoch- thones, and "racy of the soil" ? It is obvious that no definite conclusions are to be drawn from speculations so conflicting as these. The best we can do at present, therefore, is to content ourselves with believing that the Mound- builders were ethnically related to the very ancient and respectable family of Toltecs or Toltecas-a migratory group which the inquirer first sees moving phantasmally in the dim back-grounds of Clavigero. If we may credit the declarations of that industrious but not too discriminating archaeologist, there can be no sort of doubt that the Toltecs came originally from the northern parts of America-driven from seats in which their ancestors had been set- tled for ages; that the Toltecan movement towards the South was the beginning of a series of migrations, occurring at successive dates from the middle of the 7th to the end of the 12th century, and closing with the movement of the Aztecs pouring southward from the land of Aztlan. All these tribes were of the same descent, were alike in physiognomical traits, spoke the same lan- guage, claimed the same country, obeyed the same laws, and worshiped the same gods. It has been suggested, by an antiquarian critic, that the ancient Aztlan, from which the Aztecs were driven about the middle of the 12th cen- tury, was situated " in some of the rich valleys of the West, where the memo- rials of an exiled race still abound." He founds the hypothesis upon an alleged etymology of the word Aztlan, meaning a "country of water," and upon a topographical representation of the land, Aztlan, preserved in Mexi- can hieroglyphical remains .* However this may be, it seems impossible, in general, to resist the somewhat impotent conclusion, that nothing short of ex- tended and accurate inductive research will ever reveal the exact ethnological position and significance of the Mound-builder, or in any degree impart to his faded civilization the hues of historic life; since no sciences, according to the acute and laborious Squier, "require so extensive a range of facts to their elucidation, as Archaeology and Ethnology, or the Sciences of Man and Nations."

· American Antiquities.

392

ANCIENT TOWNS AND MONUMENTS.

ENUMERATION OF THE SITES OF ANCIENT TOWNS AND MONUMENTS OF KENTUCKY.

As a suitable addition to the foregoing discussion, we append the first and only general list ever published of the ancient monuments of Kentucky. The catalogue-of which we copy less than one-third, omitting all those located in Ohio, Tennessee, and other States-was prepared in the year 1824, by C. S. Rafinesque, A. M., Ph. D., Professor of Natural Sciences, etc., in Transylvania University, and published in the Introduction to Marshall's History of Ken- tucky, second edition, and also in a thin octavo volume, entitled "Ancient History, or Annals of Kentucky." Of these monuments, the greater part were discovered and surveyed by Prof. R., in the course of four years pre- vious. The total number of ancient sites in Kentucky known to him was 148, and of ancient remains or monuments, 505. He regarded them all as very ancient, except those in Bourbon and Christian counties, and several in Fayette-which his researches convinced him were less ancient (from 100 to 1000 years), and belonged to the Lenapian nations heretofore referred to.

Several of the engravings of such remains-of which we give quite a num- ber in IId. volume, under the counties in which they were located-are from drawings in his large manuscript work on the Antiquities of Kentucky, em- bracing nearly one hundred maps and views; but most of the sketches were made originally for this work .*

No.of No. of Sites. Monuments.

Counties in which located in 1824.

1 3. IN Adair, on the Cumberland river.

1 .. 3 Bath, on the waters of Licking river.

4. 8 Boone, on the Ohio, a town near Burlington, etc.

5. 46 Bourbon, a circus of 1450 feet on Licking river, a town, poly- gon of 4675 feet on Stoner's creek, etc.

4 0 Bracken, great battle-ground, etc., near Augusta, iron rings and a copper medal with unknown letters, etc.

1. 1 Caldwell, a stone fort on Tradewater river.

1 .. 1 ..

Calloway, a mound 15 feet high on Blood river.

2 ... 4 Campbell, near Covington, and at Big Bone Lick.

5 ... 12

Christian, near Hopkinsville, etc.

5 .... 18.

Clark, near Winchester, Boonesborough, etc.

6 .. 6 Clay, near Manchester, etc.

15 ...... 36. Fayette, on North Elkhorn, a beautiful circus, a dromus, etc., on South Elkhorn, near Lexington, a polygon town, ser- eral squares, mounds, graves, etc. 9 East Indian Shells found in the ground, etc.

1 ...... 1 ..

Gallatin, at the mouth of the Kentucky river.

Garrard, principally mounds and small circus, on Paint creek, Sugar creek, etc.

3. .12. 3

1. Greenup, fine remains opposite the mouth of the Scioto.

2. 5 Harlan, on the Cumberland river, near its source.

2 7.

Hart, mounds near Green river, etc. Mummies in caves.

5. 16 Harrison, a circus near Cynthiana, many mounds, round, elliptical, or ditched, 16, 20, 25, and 30 feet high.

1 1 Hickman, a fine teocalli, on the Mississippi below the Iron- banks, 450 feet long, 10 feet high ; only 30 feet wide

4 .. 1 Jefferson, on the Ohio, near Louisville.

4 .. 10. Jessamine, mounds, graves, embankments.

3 ... 7

.. Knox, on the Cumberland river, and near Barboursville.

1 ... 1 .. Lewis, on the Ohio.

2 ... 1

Lincoln, on Dick's river, and near Wilmington.

3. .14.

Livingston, an octagon of 2852 feet on Hurricane creek, etc., mouth of the Cumberland.

10. .42.

Logan, towns and mounds on Muddy river, etc. A silver medal found in a mound.

· See biographical sketch of Prof. Rafinesque, on page 201, Vol. II.

393

ANCIENT TOWNS AND MONUMENTS.

No.of No. of

Sites. Monuments.

Counties in which located in 1824.

3 .. 7 IN Madison, near the Kentucky, etc .; mounds, etc.

2 .. 2 ... Mason, near Washington, a small teocalli.

3 .. 35. McCracken, on the Ohio, a fine square teocalli of 1200 feet, and 14 feet high; on the Mississippi, 5 rows of mounds, etc.

6 .. 12. Mercer, a fort on Dick's river, several remains on Salt river, etc.

10 .. ... 48 Montgomery, squares, hexagons, polygons, etc. On Somer- set and Buck creeks, many high, round, elliptical, or ditched mounds. A fine circus or circular temple, etc.

1 Pendleton, at the fork of Licking river.

1 1 .. .. .. Perry, a long dromus near Hazard.

2 .. ... 7 Pulaski, stone mounds on Pitman and Buck creeks.

1 1 Rockcastle, a stone grave 200 feet long, 5 feet wide, 3 feet high, near Mount Vernon.

12. Scott, a ditched town near Georgetown, on the South Elk- horn ; a square on Dry run, etc.

2 .. 2 ..

Shelby, near Shelbyville, and south of it.

5. 24. ..

Trigg, a walled town, 7500 feet in circumference, at Can- ton, on the Cumberland, inclosing several large mounds and a square teocalli 150 feet long, 90 feet wide, 22 feet high. Many mounds on Cumberland, Little river, Cadiz, etc.

3 ...... 16 ... ..

Warren, a ditched town, irregular octagon of 1385 feet on Big Barren river, near Bowling Green, inclosing 5 houses and 2 teocallis. Mounds, etc.

5 ...... 66 ... .. Whitley, a town on the Cumberland, above Williamsburg, with 20 houses, and a teocalli 360 feet long, 150 feet wide, 12 feet high. Remains of towns with houses on the waters of Laurel river and Watts creek.

6. 12 .. .. Woodford, a fine octagon teocalli of 1200 feet, and 8 feet high. A town of 2700 feet on South Elkhorn; a square on Clear creek, etc.

148 505

HISTORICAL SKETCH

OF THE

CLIMATE OF KENTUCKY.

THERE is one feature in the climate of Kentucky about which authorities gen- erally agree-that is, they concur in describing it as "fickle." Yet, if we might rely upon the accompanying record of the weather, fickleness is the exception rather than the rule. The mean annual temperature for Kentucky is about fifty-five degrees Fahrenheit; and, for the fifteen years between 1856 and 1871, but a single one (that of 1871) has varied so much as one degree from the mean.

Cold Spells .- American authorities all make our storms approach, in winter, from the west. Kentucky is an inland district, swept over by winds ranging many hundred miles, and its temperature may be affected very considerably when the temper of those winds is intensely cold. On two occasions, only, since the commencement of the present century, the mercury has been caused to sink sixty degrees within twelve hours by these cold winds. The first oc- curred on the evening of the 6th of February, 1807, which was Thursday At nightfall it was mild, but cloudy; after night it commenced raining, with a high west wind. This rain soon changed to snow, which continued to fall rapidly to the depth of sowie six inches; but the wind, which moved at the rate of a hurricane, soon lifted and dispersed the clouds, and, within the short space of twelve hours from the close of a very mild Thursday, all Kentucky was treated to a gentle rain, a violent snow-storm, and a bright. sunshiny morning, so bit- terly cold that by acclamation it was termed "Cold Friday."

The first day of January, 1864. made its appearance under conditions iden- tical with those of Cold Friday. The mercury, on the afternoon of the last day of December, 1863, stood at 45°. A drenching shower of rain fell, at Louisville, lasting only a few minutes, followed, about nightfall, by an almost blinding snow- storm and deep snow; the storm gradually subsided as the cold wind increased, blowing a hurricane from the west, and, on the morning of the 1st of January, the volume of cold wafted in the winds had sent the mercury in the open air from 45° above zero to more than 20° below.

At six other periods since 1800, the thermometer has stood as low as on Cold Friday in 1807, or the 1st of January, 1864-this result also brought about in part by the volume of cold air which constituted the winds. On these occasions the winds moved slowly, and allowed the earth time to give off its surface heat and warm up the advanced portions of the wave of cold wind; so that it was two days, instead of twelve hours, before the greatest degree of cold was reached. Of these six periods of great cold, the first was February 9, 1818, when the mercury in the morning was at 20° below zero, and the next morning it fell to 22° below zero; February 14, 1823, was the second; January, in 1835, was the third; January 19, 1852, was the fourth; January 10, 1856, the fifth; and January 19, 1857, the sixth and last.

The most severe season of cold ever known in Kentucky and the neighbor- ing States was the winter of 1779-80. It is still known as "the cold winter." The degree of cold reached does not seem to be recorded. In the Delaware river, at Philadelphia, the ice was three feet thick, and continued fast for three months and a half. Long Island sound was frozen over, and the Chesapeake bay, at Annapolis, was passed over with loaded sleds and sleighs. The Cum- berland river, near where Nashville now is, was frozen over-the ice being solid enough to allow the cattle of the emigrant, Capt. Raines, to pass over .* In the interior of Kentucky, about Harrodsburg, from the middle of Novem- ber to the middle of February, snow and ice continued on the ground without a thaw, and snow-storms, accompanied with bleak, driving, and piercing winds,

. Putnam's History of Middle Tennessee, page 66.

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395

CLIMATE OF KENTUCKY.

were wonderfully frequent. Not a drop of rain fell; the rivers, rivulets, and springs were all frozen solid, and water for drinking, cooking, and washing was obtained only by melting snow and ice. All through the hours of the night the slumbers of the suffering pioneers were disturbed and broken by the roar- ings and strugglings of herds of distressed buffaloes and other wild animals, who fought and bellowed, and strove to reach positions of shelter from the winds and of warmth against the chimneys of the rude log-houses. Myriads of bears, wolves, buffaloes, deer, and other wild animals, and birds and wild fowl, were found starved and frozen to death.

The winter of 1781-82, beside being severely cold, was remarkable for a sleet which covered the trees and shrubbery, and was a matter of great won- der to the white settlers, who had never seen any thing like it .* The winters of 1783, 1784, and 1785 were all intensely cold. On the 26th of December, 1788, the Delaware river. in the East, and the Ohio river,t in the West, were completely closed with ice, so that no boat moved either up or down until the 18th of March. "The inhabitants were hard pressed for provisions; no meat but venison or bear-and these very scarce, from the destruction made by the Indians, in the summer and autumn previous, while waiting to attend a treaty at Marietta. Before the river opened, many of the people lived for weeks with- out bread, eating boiled corn, or coarse meal ground in the hand-mill, with lit- tle or no meat of any kind."

On the 23d of January, 1792, about 150 volunteers rendezvoused at Cincinnati, to go out to St. Clair's battle-ground to help bury the dead.# They were prom- ised horses from among those belonging to the United States, which were kept across the Ohio river, in Kentucky, where Newport now is. There was the heaviest snow on the ground ever known within the memory of the whites, which, on the day the troops started, was increased to two feet in depth. The Ohio had been frozen, and so thick was the ice that all efforts to open a chan- nel for the flats to ferry over the horses proved abortive, and they had to be taken up and crossed over above the mouth of the Little Miami river, where the ice was found strong enough to bear their weight.

For ten days previous to Tuesday, December 20, 1796, the Ohio river had been frozen over to the depth of nine inches, enclosing firmly the "Kentucky boats" of quite a number of emigrants. Heavy rains fell, inspiring them with hopes of release and of a prosperous journey ; but the weather turned colder, and on that night, and the next, the thermometer stood at 17º below zero. Be- fore daylight, on the 22d, the ice bridge broke up with a noise like thunder, carrying to destruction many of the boats, and to death some of their adven- turous passengers.| Soon after this, there fell two feet of snow. In February, 1799, the cold was nearly as severe, and the snow quite deep. ?

Quicksilver will freeze, and burst the bulb of the thermometer, at -40°, or 40° below zero; therefore, in very cold climates, thermometers are used which are filled with spirits of wine. In his second voyage to the North Pole, Perry said his alcoholic thermometer sunk to 58° below 0.

Action of Cold Winds .- There is one peculiarity which results from the ac- tion of cold winds upon the climate of inland countries that deserves the at- tention of the student of climatic influences. It is that, while radiation and conduction-the local laws regulating cold-make daylight, or the dawn of morning, the coldest period of the twenty-four hours, a volume of cold wind overrides these laws, and makes the moment of greatest intensity as indefinite as the winds are fickle.

When the moving winds are colder than the local atmosphere at any merid- ian, the greatest degree of cold occurs at the moment when the wind ceases to blow and a calm ensues. But the extreme crust of the earth exposed to a moving cold wind-like a ball of hot iron immersed in cold water, and sud- denly withdrawn-will throw out heat from the interior, and raise the surface temperature, as soon as the cooling element ceases to operate.

An example of the power of the wind over the hour of greatest cold occurred on the night of the 19th of January, 1852. On that night, at six o'clock P. MI.,

. Putnam's History of Middle Tennessee, page 140. t Hildreth's Pioneer History, pago 215.

! Letter from Judge John Matson, in Cist's Miscellany, vol. 2, page 31.

I Fraucis Dailey's Journal of a Tour in 1796 aud 1797, page 163.

¿ Hildreth, page 487.

396

HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE

the thermometer stood at -4º, and at eleven o'clock p. M., had sunk to -18°, when a calm ensued. At six A. M., next morning, the thermometer, under a clear sky. instead of falling, as it usually does, had risen to 7º below zero.

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Collins historical sketches of Kentucky. History of Kentucky: Vol. I, Part 77

Author: Collins, Lewis, 1797-1870. cn; Collins, Richard H., 1824-1889. cn Publication date: 1874 Publisher: Covington, Ky., Collins & Co. Number of Pages: 1452

Author: Collins, Lewis, 1797-1870. cn; Collins, Richard H., 1824-1889. cn
Publication date: 1874
Publisher: Covington, Ky., Collins & Co.
Number of Pages: 1452