USA > Ohio > Hancock County > History of Hancock County, Ohio : containing a history of the county, its townships, towns portraits of early settlers and prominent men, biographies, history of the Northwest Territory, history of Ohio, statistical and miscellaneous matter, etc > Part 21
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TT is now generally believed that a very numerous race of people occupied a large portion of this continent long anterior to the coming of the North American Indians, but there is no authentic history regarding them further than can be gleaned from the multiplicity of massive works stretch- ing from the great lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. These works all bear the same general characteristics, and are either mounds, effigies, or defensive inclosures, some of which are of a very marked and extraordinary character. This long forgotten race, called Mound-Builders, in lieu of a more accurate designation, evidently possessed a distinctive civilization, and from the pe- culiar hieroglyphic characters sometimes found upon their stone imple- ments, it has been thought probable they may have had a written language, though there is little evidence on which to found such a conclusion. But, beyond their almost imperishable monuments, the archæologist seeks in vain for a further solution of the grand problem of the coming, subsequent
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life and disappearance of this pre-historic race. On opening a mound he finds only moldering skeletons, scattered remnants of earthenware, rude weapons of warfare, axes of stone, flint drills, spear-heads, pestles, badges, and many other specimens of stone ornaments cut and polished from mate- rial rarely indigenous to the place where found, showing their owners to have been a migratory people or a conquering nation.
A thousand interesting queries arise respecting them, but the most searching investigations only give us vague and unsatisfactory specula- tions as an answer. If we knock at their tombs, no spirit reposing within responds to the summons, but a sepulchral echo comes ringing down the ages, reminding us how fruitless the search into that inscrutable past, over which the curtain of oblivion seems to have been irrevocably drawn. Whence came these people; who and what were they, and whither did they go? Some writers have discovered evidences, convincing, apparently, to themselves, that this pre-historic race came from the other side of the globe, and that their advent was made at different times and from different points of a general hive in the supposed cradle of humanity-Central Asia. Others think them to have been the forgotten ancestors of the degen- erate and now decaying American Indians, from whom, they having no preser- vative written language, the memory of their ancestors has gradually slipped. Still others fancy them to have been the original indigenous, sponta- neous product of the soil. Regardless, however, of the origin, progress and destiny of this curious people, the fact of their having been here is cer- tain; therefore the best that can be done by the archæologist is to examine their works and draw from them the conclusions that seem the most proba- ble.
The mounds vary in height from about five to thirty feet, with several notable exceptions, when they reach an altitude of eighty to ninety feet. The inclosures contain villages, altars, temples, idols, cemeteries, monu- ments, camps, fortifications and pleasure grounds. They are chiefly of some symmetrical figure, as circle, ellipse, rectangular parallelogram, or regular polygon, and inclose from one or two acres to as high as fifty acres. The circumvallations generally contain the mounds, although there are many of the latter to be found standing isolated on the banks of a stream or in the midst of a broad plateau, being evidently thus placed as outposts of offense or defense, for the fact that they were a very warlike, and even conquering race, is fully attested by the numerous fortifications to be met with wherever any trace of them is found.
The works of the Mound-Builders in the United States are divided into three groups: The first group extends from the upper sources of the Alle- gheny River to the headwaters of the Missouri; the second occupies the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys, and the third stretches across the country, with very little interruption, from South Carolina to the western limits of Texas. These groups are subdivided into three varieties of elevations- mounds, inclosures and effigies-which are designated as mounds of sepul- ture, sacrifice, worship, observation, commemoration and defense. Mounds of sepulture are more numerous than the others, and conical in shape. They usually contain the bones of one or more skeletons, accompanied by ornaments and implements of stone, mica, slate, shell or obsidian; besides pottery, whole and fragmentary, bone and copper beads, and the bones of animals. Mounds of sacrifice are recognized by their stratification, being
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convex and constructed of clay and sand on the normal level of the soil, on top of which can be found a layer of ashes, charcoal and calcined bones, which in turn has a layer of clay and sand, followed by more ashes, char- coal, etc., till the gradual upbuilding resulted in the manner we now see. These mounds also often contain beads, stone implements, pottery and rude sculpture, and occasionally a skeleton, showing that they may have been used as burial places. Mounds of worship, which are comparatively few, have generally a large base and low elevation, and are in some instances terraced with inclined ways to the top. Their size and character have led to the inference that these flat-topped mounds originally were crowned with temples of wood, for had they been stone, traces of that material would be found. Mounds of observation, or beacon or signal mounds, are generally found upon elevated positions, and apparently could have sub- served no other purpose than as "look-out" stations, or beacon points, and as confirmatory of the latter purpose, ashes and charcoal have been found imbedded in their summits. These mounds occur on the line of what are considered the outposts of these pre-historic conquerors. Mounds in com- memoration of some important event or character are here and there to be found, and they are thus classed because, from their composition, position and character, they are neither sepulchral, sacrificial, temple, defensive nor observation mounds. They are generally constructed of earth, but in some instances in Ohio, where they are stone erections, they are considered to be monumental. Mounds of defense, however, with the exception, possibly, of one or two effigies in Ohio, are the most remarkable. These mounds in some instances give evidence that their builders were acquainted with all the peculiarities in the construction of the best defensive earth and stone works. They are always upon high ground and precipitous bluffs, and in positions that would now be selected by the accomplished strategist. The gateways to these forts are narrow and defended by the usual wall in front of them, whilst the double angle at the corners and projecting walls along the sides for enfilading attack show a knowledge of warfare that is phenomenal in so rude a people as their implements would indicate. Moats are often noticed around these fortifications, and cisterns or wells are to be found within the inclosures.
When the first settlers arrived at the sites of Marietta and Circleville, Ohio, a number of these earthworks were discovered, some of which yet exist; and at Newark when the circumvallation, known as the "fort," was first seen by those who settled there in the early years of the century, a large tree, whose age was possibly not less than six hundred years, stood upon one of the embankments over twenty feet above the general level, thus giving great antiquity to the erection. Ohio contains many curious forms of these works, two of the most singular being in Licking County and known respectively as the "Eagle" and "Alligator" effigies. The first is a bird with outstretched wings raised about three or four feet above the ground in the same manner as a bas-relief of the sculptors; the other is an animal closely resembling an alligator. They are supposed to have been idols, or in some way connected with the religion of the people who built them.
In Ross County a defensive inclosure occupies the summit of a lofty, detached hill, twelve miles west of Chillicothe. This hill is not far from 400 feet in perpendicular height, and some of its sides are actually inaccessi-
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ble, all of them being abrupt. The defenses consisted originally of a stone wall carried around the hill a little below the brow, the remains of this wall existing now only in a line of detached stones, but showing plainly their evident purpose and position. The area inclosed embraced about 140 acres, and the wall itself was two and one-quarter miles in length. Trees of the largest size now grow upon the ruins of this fortification. About six miles east of Lebanon, Warren County, on the Little Miami River, is an- other extensive fortification, called "Fort Ancient." It stands on a plain, nearly horizontal, about 236 feet above the level of the river, between two branches with very steep banks. The extreme length of these works in a direct line is nearly a mile, although following their angles, retreating and salient, they probably reach a distance of six miles. Another of these in- closures is located in the southeastern part of Highland County, on an emi- nence 500 feet above the level of Brush Creek, which washes its base. The walls of the fortifications are over half a mile long, and the works are locally called "Fort Hill." The remains of an inclosure may yet be seen near Carrollton, a few miles south of Dayton, Montgomery County. All of these inclosures were evidently constructed for defensive purposes, and give sig- nal proofs of the military knowledge of their builders.
Burial mounds are very numerous in this State, and there are few coun- ties that have not a greater or less number of these tumuli. The most re- markable of this class was a mound opened by John S. B. Matson, in Har- din County, in which over 300 human skeletons were found. Some antiqua- rians, however, entertain the belief that they were not all the remains of Mound-Builders, but many of them Indian remains, as it is well known that the latter often interred their dead in those monuments of their predeces- sors. When the first band of pioneers to the Western Reserve arrived at the mouth of Conneaut Creek, July 4, 1796, they discovered several mounds, and could easily trace the outline of a large cemetery then overgrown with forest. Explorations were subsequently made, and some gigantic skeletons exhumed from mounds which stood on the site of Conneaut, Ashtabula County. The frames and jaw-bones were those of giants, and could not have belonged to the race of Indians then inhabiting any portion of this country. Several years ago a burial mound was opened in Logan County, from which three skeletons were taken. The frame of one was in an excel- lent state of preservation, and measured nearly seven feet from the top of the skull to the lower part of the heel. In 1850 a mound lying on the north bank of Big Darby, about one mile northwest of Plain City, in Union County, was opened and several massive skeletons taken therefrom. The lower jaw-bones, like those found at Conneaut, could be easily fitted over the jaw of a very large man, outside the flesh. These bones -- and they are usually large wherever found-indicate that the Mound-Builders were a gigantic race of beings, fully according in size with the colossal remains they have left behind them.
The largest mound in Ohio, called the "Great Mound," is located on the east bank of the Miami River, a short distance southeast of Miamisburg, Montgomery County. The surface elevation at this point is more than 150 feet above the level of the stream. The mound measures 800 feet around the base, and about sixty-five feet in height, though archæologists claim that it was originally more than eighty feet high. Explorations and the wear and tear of the elements have worn off the summit about fifteen feet. At the
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time the pioneers first came to the Miami Valley this mound was covered with trees, a large maple crowning the top, from which, it is said, the few cabins then constituting Dayton were plainly visible. In 1869 a shaft was sunk from the top of the mound to a distance of two feet below the base, and about eight feet from the surface a human skeleton was found in a sitting posture, facing due east. A deposit of vegetable matter, bones of small ani- mals, also wood and stone surrounded the skeleton, while a cover of clay, ashes and charcoal seems to have been the mode of burial.
Few traces of the Mound-Builders are now left in Hancock County, al- though it has been stated by several intelligent pioneers that many small mounds were found by the first settlers, who regarded them as "Indian graveyards." All of the tumuli in this portion of the State were each about five feet high and thirty feet in diameter, and on being opened ex- hibited the same evidences of construction as those previously mentioned. Three of these mounds were located northeast of Cannonsburg, in Union Township; two on Section 11, and one on Section 13, Orange Township; one on the old John Povenmire farm in Section 21, Liberty Township, and one about a mile south of Mount Blanchard, on the farm of Isaac Elder. Those in Orange and Union Townships were opened by William M. McKin- ley and Fayette Ballard, who found human remains in each mound, also flint arrow heads and other implements of stone, some of which Mr. McKinley has now in his possession. Most, if not all of these tumuli have been nearly obliterated by cultivation, as no effort was ever made toward pre- serving them from the iconoclastic wantonness of the agriculturist. No doubt many more small mounds once existed in other townships of Hancock County, which the plow has long since obliterated. Numerous evidences of this strange people cannot be looked for here, but that they once inhabited the valley of the Blanchard is beyond all reasonable doubt.
"The red man came- The roaming hunter tribes, warlike and fierce, And the Mound-Builders vanished from the earth."
The question of the origin of the North American Indian has long inter- ested archæologists, and is one of the most difficult they have been called upon to answer. The commonly accepted opinion is that they are a deriva- tive race, and sprang from one or more of the ancient peoples of Asia. Some writers have put forward the theory that the Indians, from their tribal organization, faint similarity of language and religion, and the high cheek- bone in the well developed specimen of the race, are the descendants of the two lost tribes of Israel. Others contend that they descended from the Hin- doos, and that the Brahmin idea, which uses the sun to symbolize the Creator, has its counterpart in the sun-worship of some Indian tribes. They have lived for centuries without much apparent progress-purely a hunter race-while the Caucasian, under the transforming power of Christianity- the parent of art, science and civil government-has made the most rapid advancement. Under the influences of the church, however, the Indian has often shown a commendable capability for accepting the teachings of civili- zation; but the earnest efforts of her devoted missionaries have often been nullified or totally destroyed by the unwise policy pursued by the governing power, or the dishonesty and selfishness of the officials in charge. Stung to madness at our injustice and usurpation of his hunting grounds, he has remained a savage, and his career in the upward march of man is forever
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stunted. The Indian race is in the position of a half-grown giant cut down before reaching manhood. There never has been a savage people who could compare with them in their best estate. Splendid in physique, with intense shrewdness and common sense, and possessed of a bravery unex- celled, there never was a race of uncivilized people who had within them so much to make them great, as the red man. Whatever he has been or is, he was never charged with being a coward or a fool, and as compared to the barbarians of other portions of the globe, he is as "Hyperion to a satyr."
The advent of the whites upon the shores of the Western continent engen- dered in the bosoms of the aborigines a spark of jealousy, which, by the im- politic course of the former, was soon fanned into a blaze, and a contest was thereby inaugurated that sooner or later must end in the extermination of the latter. The struggle has been long and bitter; many a campaign has been planned by warriors worthy and able to command armies for the de- struction of the pale-faced invaders. When Philip struck the blow which he hoped would forever crush the growing power of the white man, both recognized the supreme importance of the contest, and the courage and re- sources of the New England colonists were taxed to the utmost to avoid a defeat, which meant final destruction. The fierce resistance of later days, as the Indians were driven farther and farther toward the setting sun, are historic facts with which the student is already familiar. The conspiracy of Pontiac, the famous Ottawa chieftain, in 1763, failed in its object of ex- termination, and the bravery and sagacity of the celebrated Indian leaders, Brandt, Red Jacket, Cornplanter, Cornstalk, Logan, Black Hoof, Tarhe, Little Turtle and Blue Jacket, could not prevail against the heroes of the Revolution, and the triumph of Wayne in 1794 closed a long series of bloody Indian wars. A few years passed by when Tecumseh flashed out like a brilliant meteor in the firmament of great Indian leaders, and or- ganized the Western tribes for a last desperate effort to hold their own against the advancing tide of civilization. But he too went down in defeat
and death before the prowess of Harrison's legions. When the Creeks, in 1813, through the intrigue of Tecumseh, challenged the people of the South to mortal combat, it required the genius of a Jackson, and soldiers worthy of such a chief, to avert a serious calamity. But since the decisive battle of Tohopeka, March 27, 1814, there has been but one Indian war of any considerable magnitude, viz .: the Seminole war in Florida. The Black Hawk outbreak in Illinois, in 1832, required but a few weeks' service of raw militia to quell, but the Seminoles of Florida, led by the indomitable Osceola, a half-breed of great talents, carried on a bitter struggle from 1835 to 1839, when their power was completely crushed, and they were soon after removed beyond the Mississippi. Since then campaigns have dwindled into mere raids, and battles into skirmishes. The massacre of Custer's command in Montana must be regarded as an accident of no per- manent importance, and a dozen such melancholy events would not in the least alarm the country. Indian fighting, though not free from peril, now serves a useful purpose for the army graduates of West Point, who might otherwise go to their graves without ever having smelled hostile gunpowder.
Two hundred years ago the white man lived in America only by the red man's consent, and within that period the combined strength of the red man might have driven the white into the sea. Along the Atlantic coast are still to be seen the remains of the rude fortifications which the early settlers
Jonathan Pathan
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HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY.
built to protect themselves from the host of enemies around; but to find the need of such protection'now one must go beyond the Mississippi, to a few widely scattered points in Arizona, New Mexico and Oregon. The enemy that once camped in sight of the Atlantic has retreated toward the slope of the Pacific, and from that long retreat there can be no returning. East of the stream which he called the Father of Waters, nothing is left of the Indian except the beautiful names he gave and the graves of his dead, save here and there the remnants of once powerful tribes, living on reservations by the sufferance of their conquerors. The Indian has resisted and will continue to resist every effort to civilize him by coercion, every attempt to force at the point of the bayonet the white man's ideas into his brain. He does not want and will not have our manners or our code of morals forced upon him. The greatest redeeming feature in the Indian character and career is that he has always preferred the worst sort of freedom to the best sort of slavery. Whether his choice was a wise one or not the reader can determine; but it is impossible not to feel some admiration for the indomit- able spirit that has never bowed to the yoke, never called any man "master." The Indian is a savage, but he never was, never will be, a slave. We have treated him like a dog and are surprised that he bites. In a speech in New York City, not long before his death, Gen. Samuel Houston, indisputable authority on such matters, declared with solemn emphasis that "there never was an Indian war in which the white man was not the aggressor." Ag- gression leading to war is not our heaviest sin against the Indian. He has been deceived, cheated and robbed to such an extent that he looks upon most of the white race as villains to whom he should show no quarter. A very decided feeling of justice to the abused red man is gaining ground of late years, and numerous able writers have been engaged in defending him, among whom are Joaquin Miller, the poet, and Hon. A. B. Meacham. But we can well afford, after getting all his land and nearly exterminating him, to ex- tend to him a little cheap sympathy.
The Indians of this continent were never so numerous as has generally been supposed, although they were spread over a vast extent of country. Continual wars prevented any great increase, and their mode of life was not calculated to promote longevity or numbers. The great body of them origi- nally were along the Atlantic seaboard, and most of the Indian tribes had traditions that their forefathers lived in splendid hunting grounds far to the westward. The best authorities affirm that, on the discovery of this country, the number of the scattered aborigines of the territory now forming the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky and Michigan could not have ex- ceeded 18.000.
The earliest date of any authentic knowledge of the Indian in this section is 1650, when the Eries held possession of the northern portion of what is now Ohio. They lived along the southern borders of the lake which bears their name, but when their domains were invaded by the Iroquois, about 1655, most of them fell before their relentless foes, whilst the remainder became incorporated with other tribes, were driven farther southward, or adopted into those of their conquerors. During the first half of the seven- teenth century the Shawnees were living along the valley of the Ohio, but they, too, were dispersed by the Five Nations, or Iroquois, and dispossessed of their lands, though they subsequently returned to their early hunting grounds. For many years before and after 1700 this entire territory was
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occupied by the remnants of defeated tribes, who were permitted to remain by sufferance of their conquerors, the latter exacting a tribute, collected at will from the wandering and unsettled tribes. In 1750, however, some- thing like permanent occupation had again taken place, and we find in what is now Ohio the Wyandots, Delawares, Shawnees, Miamis, Munsees, Ottawas, Senecas, Cayugas, Mohawks, Oneidas and Onondagas, the last five being known in history as the Mingoes of Ohio.
The Wyandots then inhabited the valleys of the Sandusky River and its tributaries, and also dwelt around Sandusky Bay, and along a few other streams flowing into Lake Erie. The Delawares and Munsees occupied the Muskingum Valley. The Shawnees lived along the Scioto from the Ohio to the Scioto Marsh, and also had a few towns on the Miami and Mad Rivers. The Miamis occupied the country drained by the headwaters of the Mau- mee, Wabash and Great Miami Rivers, from the Loramie portage across to Fort Wayne and down the Maumee Valley. The Ottawas were scattered along the Lower Blanchard, Auglaize and Maumee Rivers, and around the western end of the lake; while the Mingoes, composed of Senecas, Cayugas, Mohawks, Oneidas and Onondagas, were settled in the eastern and north- eastern portions of the State, but, like the other tribes, were gradually pushed westward.
By the Greenville treaty, ratified August 3, 1795, the United States ac- quired from the Indians about two-thirds of the present territory of Ohio. The boundary line began at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River; thence up that stream to the portage leading to the Tuscarawas River; thence along the portage and down the Tuscarawas to the forks (the town of Bolivar); thence in a southwesterly direction to Loramie's store, on the Great Miami River (in Shelby County); thence to Fort Recovery (in Mercer County); thence southwest to the Ohio, opposite the mouth of the Kentucky River. All of the lands east and south of this line were ceded by the Indians to the Government. The previous treaties of Fort McIntosh, in 1785, Fort Fin- ney, in 1786, and Fort Harmar, in 1789, had a similar object in view, but failed in accomplishing a peace of sufficient permanence for the whites to obtain possession of the coveted territory. The Indians also ceded to the Government, by the treaty of Greenville, several tracts within the territory still retained by them, for the establishment of trading posts or settlements. Those in Ohio were located at or near Loramie's store, and on the St. Mary's, Auglaize, Maumee and Sandusky Rivers, and Sandusky Bay. The tribes likewise guaranteed to the people of the United States free passage by land and water between said posts. By a treaty made at Fort Industry (Toledo), July 4, 1805, all of the Western Reserve west of the Cuyahoga River was secured. In November, 1807, the lands north of the Maumee were purchased by treaty at Detroit, Mich., from the Ottawas, Wyandots, Pottawatomies and Chippewas; and in November, 1808, the same tribes, with the Shawnees, by a treaty at Brownstown, Mich., granted a tract two miles wide for a road through the Black Swamp, from the Maumee Rapids to the east line of the Western Reserve. On the 29th of September, 1817, a treaty was made at the foot of the Maumee Rapids, with the Wyandots, Ot- tawas, Shawnees, Delawares, Senecas, Pottawatomies and Chippewas, and all of the lands in this State then remaining in possession of the Indians were ceded to the United States.
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