Centennial History of Butler County, Ohio, Part 5

Author: Bert S. Bartlow, W. H. Todhunter, Stephen D. Cone, Joseph J. Pater, Frederick Schneider, and others
Publication date: 1905
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1149

USA > Ohio > Butler County > Centennial History of Butler County, Ohio > Part 5

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While but few traces of metallic relics can be found hereabouts, stone implements of all sorts abound. It is but natural that this should be so. No section of the country was so densely peopled by the mound build- ers as this, if the number and extent of their works may be taken as an indication of their populousness; and the material from which to fashion their domestic utensils or warlike weapons was abundant. Wherever relics of this ancient people are found, there is a marked similarity in their handiwork. That is to say, the discoveries made with respect

to the stone workers in Europe show many features in common with the remains found in America. Here, too, the relics dug in New Jersey have a general resemblance to those of the Miami valley, Illinois or Cali- fornia. Locality had something to do with the fashion of their ornaments or tools, just as it has in our day. Now, Paris sets the costumes of the world. Dresden is the standard in ceramic art, and Sheffield estab- lishes the grades in cutlery. So in their times, it may be possible that certain locali- ties were notable for particular fashion or kinds of stone work, and this would be de- termined by the advance made by the work- ers toward civilization, and by the stone ma- terial most accessible. It is noticeable that the general outline of their implements is the world over the same, however they may vary in the details of finish or the elegance of workmanship. Not a little appreciation of graceful forms and lines of beauty is ob- servable in their craft. Even the imple- ments of common sorts, designed for every- day use, were fashioned with a painstaking almost incredible. In a very interesting pa- per by Charles Rau, on the subject of "Drill- ing in Stone without Metal," the labor which was necessary to the shaping of their tools is shown in an exceedingly forcible manner. Mr. Rau conceived the theory that the per- forations made by the stone workers were done with a stick, to which a rotatory motion was given by a bow string, of which a fa- miliar example may be seen at any time in a jeweler's store. Sand and water were also to be used, as in the case of the toothless saws employed in marble yards. To test this theory he conducted an experiment, choosing "a flat oval piece of diorite, of great hardness, not quite seven inches long,

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about five inches wide, and in the middle four and one-half inches long by two inches part one inch and three-eighths thick." He in width, and say two-thirds of an inch describes the process by which he finally suc- thick. Laterally a hole was drilled through, and when found the stone had been broken with a clear-cut fracture exactly at the place of perforation. This stone is finely polished on its exterior, while the bore is as smooth and true as could be made by the finest mod- ern turning lathe. This relic was without doubt the property of some chief of high rank, and was an ornament or badge of dis- tinction, as the nobility of our day wear the stars and emblems of their orders. It was certainly never intended for any practical use, and the refractoriness of its material precludes the idea that it was ever part of a stone coat of mail, such as it is pretty cer- tain the men of that day were wont to use as armor. It is reasonable to suppose that it was suspended from the neck as an adorn- ment, and from its high polish one would be led to infer that it may have descended from sire to son through generations. ceeded in piercing the stone, and states that he could never endure the drilling more than two hours in succession-not so much on account of the physical exertion as because the task was a monotonous one. His experi- ment demonstrated "that two hours of con- stant drilling added, on an average, not more than the thickness of an ordinary lead pen- cil line to the depth of the hole." It re- quired two years to complete the perforation, the hole being made half way through, and then reversing the stone to meet the first drilling from the other side. The result was a piece of work which in every respect re- sembles the specimens taken from mounds, the openings on each side tapering toward the center. He also showed how the drilling might be done by a tube of copper, used in the same way as his drill stick, the difference being that in the latter case the bore through- out was of uniform diameter while in the other case the hole resembled two cones united at their apices.

This instance is cited to show the won- , derful patience exercised by the stone work- ers. Mr. Rau was two years in accomplish- ing his work, which was a simple affair in comparison with many of their ornamental productions. Lafitau says that "a North American Indian sometimes spent his life- time in making a stone tomahawk, yet with- out entirely finishing it." In the collection of relics owned by Dr. J. B. Owsley, of Jacksonburg, Butler county, Ohio, are sev- eral specimens which must have required long time and great labor to perfect. One is of very dark, close-grained stone, of in- tense hardness. When entire it was about

Dr. Owsley's collection numbers about four hundred separate relics. His largest stone hatchet weighs nearly fifteen pounds, and the wear upon the cutting end indicates many years-perhaps centuries-of use. A most singular stone is shaped not unlike the brass knuckles used by the rowdies of this day in their brawls. It has no perfora- tions, but is hollowed in such a manner as to allow the hand to grasp it firmly, grooves having been made at each end into which the little and index fingers fit perfectly. If this were the purpose of the instrument, it was made for a large and powerful man, as its length in entire condition was not far from six inches, its breadth about two inches, and its thickness a little less than one inch, the general contour being that of a parallelo-

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BUTLER COUNTY, OHIO.

gram. A blow from a muscular man pos- yond recovery. Relics priceless to the arch- sessed of such a weapon would assuredly have been dangerous.

From the workmanship displayed in the relics found in the Miami valley and Ohio, it is pretty certain that the mound builders who dwelt here were of the more advanced class in artistic excellence. It is as natural that this should have been so as that they should have been more numerous here than anywhere else. In sparsely settled coun- tries the people are generally ignorant. With growth in numbers comes competition in all manner of work, and increased skill and in- telligence. Here there were all the condi- tions to invite settlement and to make life pleasant. A land well wooded and abound- ing in game: fructifying rains, and streams which made communication with other parts of the country possible : a sun, whose genial- ity warmed into hearty growth their cereals while it gave to them health and strength ; scenery to entertain the eye and appeal to the semi-barbarous imagination-all these elements conjoined to invite the mound builders to this location as their home. If pleasant to our sight, who have so many sources of enjoyment that they did not pos- sess, how many more attractions must it have had for a people who were so keenly alive to external impressions. It must have been to them a paradise.

It appears not a little singular, when the extent and interesting character of the sub- ject involved is considered, that no more systematic plan of investigation has been pursued with the view to gleaning all the knowledge possible respecting the mound builders. Through this lack of system much that might have helped to solve the mysteries which surround their existence is lost be-

aeologist have been destroyed, lost, or have so wandered from the locality in which they were found that they are looked upon by their present owners, who know not even where they came from, as conveying no in- telligible story. So, too, with the mounds and other ' earth-works in which relics abound. They will be changed beyond rec- ognition, or so altered as to be of no value to the student, within a very short time. Even a generation suffices to effect such a re- sult.

This is notably true of the works whose wrecks are traceable in Butler county. In the foregoing account the argument was made that from the superior workman- ship displayed in the relics found, it is fair to conclude that this valley has been the residence of a race above the aver- age of their time. From the number of their earthworks between the Big and Little Mi- amis it is likewise fair to make the deduc- tion that here the aboriginal tribes must have been more populous than elsewhere. Travelers, whose observation has been wide and judgment acute. have said that nowhere have they seen a section capable of support- ing a denser population than the Miami val- ley. Here are to be found the largest works of the strange race after whose history we are groping. At Miamisburg is one among the great mounds of the country, sixty-five feet high by two hundred and sixty-five feet in diameter at the base, while Fort Ancient in Warren county presents a line of embank- ments four miles long by from ten to twenty feet high. In Butler county these works are so numerous, and show so plainly by their positions relatively to one another that they were built upon a system which had a

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definite object in view, that it is impossible to resist the conclusion that the region must have contained a dense population, and like- wise must have been directed by leaders who possessed no inconsiderable engineering skill.

Beginning in the southern part of the county, on the line of the Miami river, em- bankments can be traced throughout the course of that stream into Montgomery county. They may have been in remote times even more numerous than we now judge them to have been, for the late Mont- gomery P. Alston, Esq., stated that the one on his farm near Symmes' Corner has been to a very great extent washed away in his lifetime. It was much longer in his boyhood than now. Others may have been entirely removed by encroachments from the river before the white man came to this region. George F. Elliott said during his lifetime that a mound near his farm in St. Clair township has been carted away piecemeal, until its proportions are very perceptibly di- minished. This mound is on an eminence which overlooks an extensive stretch both up and down the river. Upon the opposite side of the river, a mile or more below, are the traces of an earthwork which, when the two were of full size, must have been within sight of each other. Taking the relative po- sition of these two works into consideration, the presumption is strong that the one was built as a complement to the other; the mound a vantage of observation, from which warning could be given to those behind the embankment upon the other side, in case of hostile approach.

This view of the purpose for which such embankments were erected is not the one laid down by many writers on the subject,

and the author of these sketches presents his suggestions with much diffidence, lest he be deemed presumptuous. Many authorities regard embankments of the kind referred to as merely inclosures, the uses to which they were put of course being conjectural. It would appear more natural to view them as defensive works, rather than to seek some mysterious significance in their presence. From the scriptures, and also from authentic profane history, we learn that men in the early days of our race everywhere exhibited the instinct to erect fortifications. The phrase "He built a walled city," or its equiv- alent, is frequently met with in ancient writ- ings. The walls of that time were walls of stone, because their builders possessed the knowledge of working in iron, and could fashion tools suited to the hewing of stone. The walls of the mound builders were of earth because they did not possess that knowledge, and where embankments are found it is certainly not a stretch of imagin- ation to look upon them as the defenses of a city. If two or three thousand years hence, our race and history having perished, explor- ers of that age should find on some of our. late battlefields the evidences of earthworks, and should find also that these works bore such a relation to one another in their posi- tions as to show unity in design, how would the archaeologists of that day be most likely to interpret their discoveries? Would they seek some financial meaning in what they discovered? Or would they view the relics time had spared as the mementoes of a strife between warlike peoples? In questions surrounded by so much ob- scurity, the simplest solution is the most likely to be the correct one; and as before said, the relation to one another of the earth-

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BUTLER COUNTY, OHIO.

works in Butler county and its vicinity are odile was an object of worship among the in the nature of a chain of fortifications. Egyptians, the serpent was venerated as the type of wisdom, and the body of a lion with the beak and wings of an eagle is among the common forms.of sculpture brought to light by explorers in that part of the world where the human race had birth. What the river may have been in the time of the mound builders we do not know. It may have been fordable in certain seasons at the very places where these embankments were built, and their purpose may have been to repel incursions from a hostile tribe. Where our best information is only theory, this explanation appears as plausible as any.

All earthworks belonging to the period treated of in this article may be classified under a very simple nomenclature. The mounds were for purposes of religious wor- ship, for burial, for monuments in perpetua- tion of the memory of the dead, and for ob- servation. Still another class, few in num- bers, symbolized the superstitious faith of their builders. Two or three illustrations of the latter kind are found in Licking county, Ohio, and have been described at length by learned writers. It is note- worthy that this sort of mound is always in the likeness of some creature other than hu- man. One near Newark is in the form of an eagle in flight. two hundred feet long, and about the same from tip to tip of wings. It is said that search in this effigy mound re- vealed an altar with traces of charcoal and ashes. Another in the same county is in the shape of a crocodile, two hundred feet long by a breadth varying from twenty feet at But to return to the Miami valley, from - which we have somewhat strayed. The mounds in Fairfield township, near Symmes the widest to the tips of the tail and nose. The largest yet discovered is in Adams county, is in the form of a serpent, and is Corner, are six in number, and the embank- more than one thousand feet long. We have ments two. One of these embankments in- closes a mound. . It is the same referred to as having been to a considerable extent washed away by the river, and presents a horseshoe shape, with the ends toward the water. The mound was for burial purposes. in these instances of ancient works some- thing strangely like the forms carved by the Egyptians and other races four thousand years ago, with the difference that the one is in earth and the other in stone. The croc-

The fact that nations so widely separated as were the mound builders from the dwell- ers in Egypt should have had a common ven- eration for the same beasts, reptiles and birds, hardly to be explained by the argu- ment that human nature is in all climes and ages the same, and that therefore man, igno- rant of a knowledge of the true Maker of all things, will everywhere single out the same objects for his adoration. It would perhaps be difficult to prove that the mound builders of the Miami valley had never seen a crocodile; but it would be equally as hard to demonstrate that they had ever seen one, for the probabilities are against the exist- ence of such a creature in Ohio, at the period when it is supposed they flourished. Yet his form was delineated in earth in such plain fashion as to give an unmistakable likeness. The similarity between the objects wor- shiped here and under the suns of Africa is most readily explained by the common origin of mankind. The mound builders but per- petuated the traditions of their fathers.

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Many years ago M. P. Alston as- ers were close by. The research was not sisted John Maxwell in some investi- gations of this work. A skeleton was taken out, apparently that of a very large man, but the bones were long since lost. The boys of that day treated the skull with little ven- eration, and used it as a football on the green. Other relics not now remembered were also unearthed. Among other things there was a very good parrot, fashioned of clay and apparently dried in the sun. The resemblance to that bird was so plain as to make clearly evident what it was intended to represent.

Directly east of the works just men- tioned, in section No. 9, is a mound one hun- dred and fifty feet in circumference by twelve feet high. This work had an entrance in its base large enough to admit a man in creeping posture. Charcoal has been found in its interior, and two copper plates, pierced. were taken out which are still in the possession of the heirs of Robert Cooper, the owner of the land. They are parallelogram-shaped, and have the appear- ance of ornaments to be worn about the neck. Still further to the east, and on very nearly the same line, in section No. 3, is an- other mound, having a similar entrance large enough to admit a dog, and rabbits have been frequently chased into and out of it. Perhaps as singular a discovery as any was in the case of the Emerson mound. This. within the recollection of persons now liv- ing. was twelve feet high, though not more than eight feet now. Excavations several years ago revealed ten or twelve good-sized flat stones, set on edge like curb stones, and surrounding a central stone larger than its fellows. The figure formed by the stones was a square, and a large number of bowld-

prosecuted, however, and the hole has since been filled. In section No. 10 the remains of the second fortification are clearly dis- cernible, though much reduced in height since they were first observed. This work is on the bank of a creek which runs into the Miami river. In incloses perhaps eight acres. is oval in shape, and on the face pre- sented to the creek has an opening or gate- way, as if a passage to the water had been left. All of the works above referred to should be systematically explored, and it is probable the task will be attempted ere long. if the co-operation of the property owners can be gained.

A peculiarity of many earthworks is that they are composed of material which evi- dently does not belong to the locality where they are found. In such cases the works are usually of a memorial nature. or investi- gation discloses human bones. From these facts it has been conjectured that mounds exhibiting such peculiarities are the graves of persons who held high rank among the tribes, and that at their death their subjects brought earth, each from the locality to which he belonged, as a mark of respect to the dead. Such a custom would not be strangely at variance with the manner of our own time, when friends send from re- mote parts of the county floral offerings in tribute to the memory of the nation's de- parted great. The correctness of this view is substantiated by the fact that in many in- stances, as is the case with some of the mounds near Symmes' Corner, there are no hollows or depressions in the immediate vi- cinity of the mounds, as would be the case had the material of which they are built been taken from the neighborhood. Where

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the mounds, by the presence of altar stones and charcoal, as mentioned before, indicate that their purpose was of a religious nature or for the offering of sacrifices, the material is usually of the same kind as that near the works. This is also true with regard to em- bankments of a defensive or warlike charac- ter, so that the distinction between tumuli commemorative of the dead and those erected for other purposes is pretty clearly defined.

In many instances, where stone relics are found in great abundance. there are no traces of earthworks remaining. If such works did exist in those localities, they have been washed away to such extent that the plow now brings their contents to view. It may be, however, that such places were ex- tensive encampments, and that the stone im- plements were left behind in the hurry of flight from an enemy, or in the confusion of removal to a new abode. A collection of this nature is owned by Robert Livingston, who lives in Fairfield township, close by the Hamilton county line and not far from the Miami river. His specimens were all found on or near the surface, in the course of ordi- nary - farm operations. Among them are some forms not frequently seen. One is a flat piece of copper, an inch and one-half broad by three inches long, and about one quarter of an inch thick. One end is ham- mered to a shape somewhat resembling a common ax, while the other end shows nearly a straight line; its sides are parallel. It is but little oxydized, and at the end shaped for cutting-if that was its purpose -- the metal exhibits an appearance much like what we see when a blacksmith makes a faulty weld, the metal being scaled up so as to show two layers. This was probably

done by excessive hammering in fashioning it to the desired form. What its uses were would be difficult to say. It must have been grasped in the hand of the user. for there is no groove by which a handle could be at- tached, nor perforations for suspension from the neck as a badge or ornament. It may have served for removing the flesh from the skins of animals, as has been conjectured was the purpose of similarly constructed stone implements.

Another relic is curious in its form, and is of a grayish sandstone. It is in almost ex- act likeness of the lead plummets which we see every day in the hands of bricklayers, or suspended from a surveyor's tripod. It is smaller than the plummets, is finely polished, and has close to its apex a neatly cut groove entirely around its circumference. This groove is scarcely deep enough to allow a string to be securely tied in it. otherwise the relic might be classed among ear bobs or pendants. Possibly its maker lost it before the groove was cut to a depth necessary for such a use.

Of arrow and spear heads, Mr. Living- ston's collection has some fine specimens. They are polished with a skill which modern art can not surpass. Some of the arrow heads are as clear as white agate, while oth- ers are as brilliant as cornelian. He has also an almost perfectly preserved specimen of an oval flat stone with a double perforation, such as has been heretofore described. This was the work of an unskilled artisan, how- ever, as in drilling through from both sides he has failed to make his perforations meet exactly in the center.

In this article on the mound builders, the writer is well aware, that he has added little to the knowledge already possessed re-

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specting that remarkable race. The purpose of this article has been to stimulate investi- gation by those who have within reach means of examining the works of a people who have passed away, leaving no history save that which the surface of the land where they dwelt presents. If each farmer in Butler county upon whose property are the traces of that race would devote a little of his idle time to the probing of the works, he would soon find himself interested, and possibly a valuable contributor to archaeo- logical knowledge.

Leaving for the present investigations respecting the mound builders, let us look very briefly into the condition of the race found here by the early settlers of the con- tinent.

THE INDIANS.

What the Indians were whom Captain John Smith found in 1607, and the Pilgrims met in Massachusetts during the winter of 1620, we know something about. Their counterpart exists to this day, so far as the character of the race goes. Like white men, there was a difference between one Indian and his brother. The one might be kindly disposed, and the other implacable and un- forgiving, as witness the contrast shown by a comparison of Uncas with King Philip. . Uncas held out the ear of corn, as a symbol of peace to the pale-faced stranger, while King Philip had nothing but the tomahawk and the firebrand for the intruder.

It should be borne in mind that while the inter-tribal communication of what we now call news was slow and uncertain, that news was not likely to lose any of its inten- sity by transmission. A race by nature in- clined to imagination and hyperbole would

not suffer a story of wrong to lose force on its journey. It may be doubted whether the right of the contest between the early settlers of Massachusetts and the Provi- dence plantations with the Indians has ever been told. But among the Indian tribes of that time it is only natural to suppose that the outrages perpetrated by lawless ad- venturers traveled faster than the good deeds of honest emigrants, in verification of the adage that a lie will travel a league while the truth is getting its boots on. So it hap- pened that while the fight was going on along the Atlantic coast, the news of that contest was conveyed toward the west. As the increase in numbers of the whites and their modes of warfare, with which the In- dians were unable to successfully contend, forced back the tribes from the seaboard. the chiefs found their influence waning and many of them sought death voluntarily in hopeless battle rather than survive to live under the disgrace of lost prestige. But a stand must be made somewhere, and the re- gion which comprises Ohio and Kentucky af- forded the best vantage ground for a des- perate stand. They afterward took part with the parent country in its struggle against the colonies. That fight was lost. and they had nothing to hope from the fa- vor of their quondam allies, and naught but retribution to expect from the white dwell- ers. Following the war of the Revolution came the Wyoming massacre, and minor events of a similar nature which further roused the blood of the settlers, and the con- test was finally brought for final arbitra- tion to the section where we live. The wa- ger was at last decided in favor of the whites, at the expense of St. Clair's defeat and many contests of minor note, until the

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Centennial History of Butler County, Ohio, Part 5

Author: Bert S. Bartlow, W. H. Todhunter, Stephen D. Cone, Joseph J. Pater, Frederick Schneider, and others Publication date: 1905 Publisher: Number of Pages: 1149

Author: Bert S. Bartlow, W. H. Todhunter, Stephen D. Cone, Joseph J. Pater, Frederick Schneider, and others
Publication date: 1905
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1149