USA > Ohio > Portage County > History of Portage County, Ohio > Part 24
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In some of the borings made by Mr. Christy, near the Atwater shaft, the coal was found to be cut out by heavy beds of sandstone; no coal whatever having been reached in borings carried to a depth of 200 feet. It is quite possible, therefore, that in this locality no workable coal exists below Coal No. 4, but it is not certain that the deepest boring has been carried to the level of the Briar Hill seam, as the surface of this portion of the town- ship is at least 200 feet above the level. From the proximity of the railroad, the Briar Hill coal would have special value if found under these highlands, and it seems very desirable that a sufficient number of borings should be made to determine its presence or absence. The cost of boring to the depth of 200 feet need not exceed $300 for each hole, and experienced and reliable drillers can be found who will contract to do the work at this price. The result of boring at Limaville has already been reported, and this is such as to encourage further effort. At Limaville the upper coals are found in their proper positions, and Coal No. 1 at its regular level, far below.
It is certain, therefore, that the lower seam does exist in this region-at least in basins of limited area-and we may confidently predict that foresight and energy will bring to some fortunate person ample reward by its discovery in this part of Portage County.
Fire-clay .- As I have stated on a preceding page, the Atwater coal crops out in the northeast corner of the township. The lower limestone coal is here very thin, but, as usual, is underlaid by a seam of fire-clay, which is, perhaps, the most valuable in the series. This is apparently the same bed with that worked in Springfield, Summit County, and also that which furnishes most of the fire-clay made into pottery and fire-bricks along the Ohio, in Columbiana and Jefferson Counties. It also forms the basis of an important manufacture in Portage County, as it supplies the material for the potteries at Lima and Atwater. It is chiefly derived from John Spire's farm, Lot 10. Atwater Town- ship. The bed is about twelve feet thick, divided into two layers by a part- ing of back slate. The upper seven feet is not used in the potteries on account of the contained iron. The clay generally immediately underlies the soil, and is worked in open pits, but it is in some places overlaid by coal about thirty inches in thickness. A specimen obtained from the mine or pit (but whether from the upper or lower bench is not certain) was analyzed by Prof. Wormley, giving the following result:
Water
2.00
Silica. .
79.90
Alumina
14.60
Iron oxide.
1.60
Lime ..
0.20
Magnesia 0.24
Alkalies
1.50
Total.
100.04
217
HISTORY OF PORTAGE COUNTY.
ALTITUDES IN PORTAGE COUNTY ABOVE LAKE ERIE.
FT.
Ravenna Station.
530
Ravenna (City).
560
Rootstown ..
550
Atwater Station
560
Atwater Center
600
Railroad Summit ..
603
Topographical Summit, north
685
Cuyahoga River Bridge.
474
Garrettsville Depot.
455
Mantua ....
536
Drakesburg.
635
Windham
372
Edinburg
610
Campbellsport.
410
Charlestown Center.
575
Limestone Ridge ..
675
Freedom Station
575
.
CHAPTER III.
THE PRE-HISTORIC RACES-MOUND-BUILDERS-THEIR GREAT ANTIQUITY-OCCU- PATION OF THE COUNTRY-THE WONDERFUL MONUMENTS WHICH THEY LEFT BEIFIND THEM-SOME EVIDENCES OF THEIR EXISTENCE IN PORTAGE COUNTY -THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS-THEIR SUPPOSED ORIGIN-BRIEF SKETCH OF THEM-INDIANS OF PORTAGE COUNTY-THE GREAT TRAIL-TIIE INDIAN CHIEFS BIGSON, STIGNISH AND BIG CAYUGA-EXTRACTS FROM THIE REMINIS- CENCES OF CHRISTIAN CACKLER ON THE INDIANS OF THIS SECTION.
T HAT a very numerous race of people occupied that portion of the North American Continent now known as the United States, long anterior to its occupancy by the present Indians, is beyond proof, but of this people nothing is now known, more than can be gleaned or conjectured from the multiplicity of massive works left by them throughout, almost, the entire extent of the country. These works exist to-day as mounds, varying in size and character, and scattered either in groups or singly, from the sources of the Allegheny to the headwaters of the Missouri, and, extending southward, stretch from the Appalachians in the Carolinas to Texas. There are three grand divisions of these elevations, but they all bear the same general characteristics, being either mounds in the true sense, or circumvallations of earth and stone, the State of Ohio, alone, it is computed, containing no less than 10,000 of the former and 1,500 of the latter, some of which are of a very marked and extraordinary character. These mysterious dwellers of a long-forgotten age, called Mound- Builders, in lieu of a more accurate designation, evidently possessed a civili- zation distinctive of themselves, and that they used a written language appears entirely probable, from some peculiar hieroglyphic characters discovered upon their pottery ware and stone implements. But, beyond their almost imperish- able monuments, the archæologist seeks in vain for a further solution of the grand problem of the coming, the life, and the exodus or decay of this myste- rious race. On opening a mound, he finds only mouldering skeletons, scattered and shattered remnants of vessels of earthenware, rude weapons of warfare, axes of stone, flint drills, spear-heads, and bottles of irregular, yet finished workman- ship, cut and polished from extremely hard stone, never, or rarely, indigenous
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HISTORY OF PORTAGE COUNTY.
to the spot where found, showing the owners of them to have been an essentially migratory people, or a conquering nation, shifting about from place to place, yet leaving monuments behind them whose imperishability is not inferior to that of Cheops.
A thousand interesting queries arise respecting them, but the most search- ing investigations only give us vague and unsatisfactory speculations 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 dis- covered 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 for- gotten ancestors of the degenerate and now decaying American Indians, who, having no preservative written language, the memory of their ancestors has gradually slipped from them. Still others fancy them to have been the orig- inal indigenous, spontaneous product of the soil. Regardless, however, of the origin, progress and destiny of this curious people, the fact of their having been here is certain; therefore the best that can be done by the archaeologist is to examine their works and draw from them the conclusions that seem the most probable.
The mounds vary in height from about five feet to thirty feet, with several notable exceptions, when they reach an altitude of eighty to ninety feet. The erections consist of villages, altars, temples, idols, cemeteries, monuments, camps, fortifications and pleasure grounds. They are chiefly of some symmet- rical figure, as circle, ellipse, rectangular parallelogram, or regular polygon, and inclose from one or two acres to as high as fifty acres. The circumvalla- tions 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 sepulture, sacrifice, worship, observation, commemoration and defense. Mounds of sepulture are more numerous than the others, are conical in shape, and range from three to fifty feet in height. 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 cop- per beads, and the bones of animals. Mounds of sacrifice are recognized by their stratification, being convex and constructed of clay and sand on the nor- mal level of the soil, on top of which can be found a layer of ashes, charcoal and calcined bones, which in time has a layer of clay and sand, followed by more ashes, charcoal, etc., till the gradual upbuilding resulted in the manner we now see. These mounds also often contain beads, stone implements, pot-
219
HISTORY OF PORTAGE COUNTY.
tery and rude sculpture, and occasionally a skeleton, showing that they may have been used as burial places. Mounds of worship, which are compara- tively few, have generally a large base and low elevation, and are in some instances terraced and having inclined ways to the top. Their size and char- acter 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 subserved no other purpose than as "look-out " stations, or beacon points, and as con- firmatory 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 commemoration 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, on precipitous bluffs and in positions that would now be selected by the accomplished strategist. The gateways to these forts are narrow and are 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 imple- ments would indicate. Moats are often noticed around these fortifications, and cisterns 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 anti- quity 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 inaccessible, 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 exist- ing 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 Leba- non, Warren County, on the Little Miami River, is another extensive fortifi- cation, 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
.
220
HISTORY OF PORTAGE COUNTY.
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 those inclosures is located in the south- eastern part of Highland County, on an eminence 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 those inclosures were evidently constructed for defensive purposes, and give signal 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 remarkable 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 predecessors. 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. Ex- plorations 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 excellent 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 mas- sive 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 orig- inally more than eighty feet high. Explorations and the wear and tear of the elements have worn off the summit about fifteen feet. At the time the pio- neers 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 cabirs then con- stituting 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 animals, also wood and stone surrounded the skeleton, while a cover of clay, ashes and charcoal seems to have been the mode of burial.
There are few traces left of the Mound Builders in Portage County, although at an early day in the settlement of this section, many small tumuli were observed, which the plow has long since almost entirely obliterated. Still, there are eminences in various sections in the northern and southeast-
221
HISTORY OF PORTAGE COUNTY.
ern portions of the county which seemingly owe their origin more to the labors of man than to nature. In Randolph Township, we have been informed, a mound was opened some years ago which disclosed the bones of a skeleton, together with some fragments of pottery and rude stone implements. To the northeast of Hiram Center the writer noticed an elevation that bears the almost unmistakable marks of artificial workmanship, and it is believed that if excavations were made into it the usual pre-historic "finds" would be the reward. In the townships of Suffield and Streetsboro are several tumuli which resemble the works of the Mound-Builders, but as no scientific examina- tion has been made into them, they are still held in doubt. In Palmyra Town- ship, a little northwest of the Center, about one mile therefrom, is a low but well- defined series of mounds, almost unnoticeable to the untrained eye, that have all the characteristics of the true mound. They are not far from where there was, in the early days of the county, an Indian camp or small village, the spot being pointed out to us by Mr. Alva Baldwin. But all these indica- tions, until they have some actual foundation given them by examination, must be taken with a grain of allowance. The remains of this strange people are usually found near the larger water courses and lakes, and as Portage County lies somewhat out of the course of these by-ways of navigation, many evidences of their presence cannot be looked for here. Yet, that they passed over those very hills is beyond all reasonable doubt, for their mounds are to be seen eastward and westward of this section.
The question of the origin of the North American Indians has long inter- ested archaeologists, and is one of the most difficult they have been called upon to answer. The commonly accepted opinion is that they are a derivative 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 cheekbone 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 Hindoos, 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 with- out 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 civilization; 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 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 unexcelled, there never was a race of uncivilized people who had with- in 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 bosom of the aborigines a spark of jealousy, which, by the impolitic 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
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HISTORY OF PORTAGE COUNTY.
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 destruction of the pale-faced invaders When Philip struck the blow which he hoped would forever crush the growing power of the white men, both sides recognized the supreme importance of the contest, and the courage and resources 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 extermination, 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 organized 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 bat- tle 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 permanent 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 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 fea- ture 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
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