History of Shelby County, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 10

Author: R. Sutton & Co.
Publication date: 1883
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 427

USA > Ohio > Shelby County > History of Shelby County, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 10

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Touching the condition of this people, it is pretty well ascertainea they were tillers of the soil, and the centre of their population, as shown by remains, invariably sought the fertile flats or valleys, as natural to an agricultural people.

That they lived under an arbitrary and despotic government is attested

by the magnitude of the works, which could only be constructed by a people whose condition was that of vassalage. Their religion was super- stition, and it is maintained by some that they were idolaters, although the evidence is yet wanting to establish this claim. That they were superstitious is shown by the altars and offerings which belonged to their religious rites and ceremonies. Their fortifications and signal stations prove their military knowledge and character, although it is presumable these were all for purposes of defence against enemies from without. It must have been such an enemy, rushing from the north, that expelled them from the region north of the Ohio River. That expulsion must have been sudden and calamitous, as they deserted their works and mines, leaving their implements behind in their haste before the fury of the invader. Fleeing to the south, we find them improving in the arts, as shown by the superior character of their southern works, until, finally, they emigrate to Mexico, when, whether they became the original Nahoas or Toltecs, it is at least evident that a gradual improvement and advance- ment was attained, which rose to the height and development of the superior architecture of Mexico at the advent of the whites. Here it is a less difficult matter to trace their history, as their records consist not in dumb works alone, but also in a hieroglyphic, and finally in a written language.

OSTEOLOGY.

Having referred to the high antiquity of man, man away back in the ages of savagery, prior to the era of the mound builders, it appears fit- ting to refer to a few facts touching that antiquity and the development which has obtained. Prior to the study of the ancient implements of stone and the various human remains, the people, according to Dr. Buch- ner, " had so little notion of the nature and signification of the stone axes and weapons of earlier and later times, that they were regarded with superstitious fear and hope, and as productions of lightning and thunder. Hence for a long time they were called thunderbolts even by the learned. * * * As late as the year 1734, when Mahndel explained in the Academy of Paris that these stones were human implements, he was laughed at, because he had not proved that they could not have been formed in the clouds." It is needless to enumerate the discoveries on which the theory of man's antiquity is based. It is sufficient to say they were made all over the face of Europe, and to Aime Boue, a French geologist, belongs the honor of having first proclaimed the theory. Dr. Schmerling then became the founder of the new science of Osteology, while M. Boucher de Perthes became its great apostle. Still it was reserved for Sir Charles Lyell and Sir John Lubbock to give popularity to the new theory as advanced by the founders and expounded by the apostles. In this connection it may be apropos to observe that it was at the meeting of the British Association, in 1855, that Sir Charles Lyell gave his endorsement to this theory of high antiquity for man. Having first opposed it, he now became enthusiastic in his investigations, and published as the result of his researches, " Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man," in 1863. Without entering into a description, we will call attention to the far-famed Neanderthal skull, which was taken from a cave in the valley of Dussel, near Düsseldorf. As the bones were not regarded of any interest at the time of their discovery, only the larger ones were preserved. Prof. Huxley declares, "they indicate & very high antiquity," and Dr. Buchner, that "the loam deposit, which partly fills the cave of the Neanderthal and the clefts and fissures of its limestone mountains, and in which both the Neanderthal bones and the fossil bones and teeth of animals were imbedded, is exactly the same that, in the caverns of the Neanderthal, covers the whole limestone mountain with a deposit from ten to twelve feet in thickness, and the diluvian origin of which is unmistakable." Dr. Fuhlrott says, " The position and general arrangement of the locality in which they were found, place it, in my judgment, beyond doubt that the bones belong to the diluvium, and therefore to primitive times." After a very minute description of the cranium, Prof. Huxley observes, "in reply to the suggestion that the skull is that of an idiot, it may be urged that the onus probandi lies with those who adopt the hypothesis. Idiocy is com- patible with very various forms and capacities of the cranium, but I know of none which present the least resemblance to the Neanderthal skull." He further refers to it as the most ape-like of all the human

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HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY, OHIO.

skulls he has ever seen, while Dr. Buchner declares the face must have presented a frightfully bestial and savage or ape-like expression. Prof. Schaaffhausen and Mr. Busk declare, "This skull is the most brutal of all known human skulls, resembling those of the apes not only in the pro- digious development of the superciliary prominences and the forward extension of the orbits, but still more in the depressed form of the brain- case, in the straightness of the squamosal suture, and in the complete retreat of the occiput forward and upward from the superior occipital ridges." Both Prof. Schaaffhausen and Dr. Buchner regarded it as a race type, while Prof. Huxley claimed " that it truly forms only the ex- treme number of a series leading by slow degrees to the highest and best developed forms of human skulls."

The fossil skull of the Engis Cave was deposited at a depth of five feet under an osseous breccia containing a tusk of the rhinoceros, the teeth of a horse, remains of many other animals, some of which are now extinct, and rude stone and flint instruments. The breccia was over three feet wide, and rose about five feet above the floor of the cavern. Speaking of this skull, Prof. Huxley observes, "there is no mark of degradation about any part of the structure. It is, in fact, a fair average human skull, which might have belonged to a philosopher, or might have contained the thoughtless brains of a savage." Mr. Busk observed, "although the forehead was somewhat narrow, it might nevertheless be matched by the skulls of individuals of European race ;" while Dr. Schaffhausen declared, "I hold it to be demonstrated that this cranium has belonged to a person of limited intellectual faculties, and we con- clude thence that it belonged to a man of a low degree of civilization." Sir Charles Lyell held, " From the narrowness of the frontal portion it belonged to an individual of small intellectual development;" and Buch- ner declares, "In its length and narrowness, the slight elevation of its forehead, the form of the widely separated orbits, and the wide developed supraorbital arches, it resembles, especially when viewed from above, the celebrated Neanderthal skull, but in general is far superior to this in its structure." Carl Vogt "regards it, with reference to the proportion of length to breadth, as one of the most ill-formed, animal-like, and simian of skulls."

We think it highly probable that if viewed simply as an ancient for- mation and low type, but little resemblance need be discovered either to the cranium of the philosopher or to that of the ape. The difference of opinion rests upon differing comparisons with existing forms, while all of these, through a long period of development, are radically distinct. As a race type, it was a low form in which bestiality predominated, for intelligence had not yet made any particular strides in development. It was one type of physical man before the development accompanying mental growth.

The cranium found in bone breccia at Gibraltar, according to Prof. Denton, "resembles in all essential particulars, including its great thick- ness, the far-famed Neanderthal skull. Its discovery adds immensely to the scientific value of the Neanderthal specimen, if only as showing that the latter does not represent, as many have hitherto supposed, a mere individual peculiarity, but that it may have been characteristic of a race extending from the Rhine to the Pillars of Hercules." Prof. Schaaffhausen observes, " It is worthy of notice that a similar although smaller projection of the superciliary arches has generally been found in the skulls of savage races," so that different specimens "indicate a very distant period, when man stood on a very low grade of development."

The Borreby skulls of the stone age of Denmark, according to Prof. Huxley, resemble the Neanderthal specimen, while the Arno skull is by Carl Vogt considered of the same antiquity as the Neanderthal and Engis types. These evidences all attest the geological theory of a prim- itive man with a powerful organization, well adapted to the conditions by which he was surrounded. He needed that organization, for his bones tell of powerful conflicts, while the effacement of sutures tells of the great age he must have attained. He was bestial, as he must needs be to combat the animals against which he must contend for food and life. Look at the Neanderthal specimen with its broken arm, telling perhaps of an encounter with the cave bear which was outlived to see that arm dwindle away to uselessness. Again he is attacked by some savage beast or equally savage fellow man, and in the struggle he receives a blow over the right eye, so powerful as to carry away a portion of the bone. It

was a fearful fracture, but he outlives it and sees the wound healed, showing a strength, hardihood, and love of life which fitted him to war for existence throughout that long and savage period. Away down the scale of life, he was also low in the scale of intellect, and it required the combating circumstances and exigencies of a long and savage period to develop the power of intelligence. The colossal herbivora were harm- less, but he must shrink away and find a hiding-place, or prepare for conflict when the fierce carnivora were enraged by hunger. It was then he found a retreat among the tree-tops or sought safety in the fastnesses of the rocks. But he slowly learned his own strength and the use of a club, when he began asserting his supremacy over some of the minor animals of ferocity, until the necessities of climate taught him the use of clothing, to be obtained only from the animals about him. Fear made him cautious, hunger made him active, cold made him inventive, and then the mental forces developed a feeble power which strengthened with his necessities until, by force of superior intellect, he became the lord of nature and began to add to the comfort, convenience, and sweet- ness of life. The development was tardy, prompted for ages by neces- sity alone. Just as he discovered the use of the club as a defence against savage beasts, he discovered the use of clothing as a protection against the cold, which settled in severity upon the earth. Even clothing did not suffice for the long glacial day, and he at length found the use of fire or he must have succumbed to the cold. This period also rendered necessary different kinds of food, for the climate was no longer favorable to the luxuriant flora of his early existence, and he must resort to the fauna not only for skins for clothing, but also flesh for food. Each sin- gle step was a great advance, and only resulted as necessity prompted until by extraneous forces the intellect was aroused and began asserting its equality with the blind forces about it, until by strengthening stages it recognized its powers and capacities, and bounded from equality to supremacy. The struggle lost its doubtful character, and he had next to look about him for safety from his fellows. He had warred success- fully with the elements and wild beasts, and now the battle opened with his own race and type. With him "might was right," and the strong recognized no rights to which the weak were entitled. Dangers of this kind induced the weak to unite for common defence against the strong, and so communities or bands or tribes, bound together for mutual pro- tection, laid the foundation of society. Society founded agriculture, agriculture founded property, and property founded rights, and rights protected and developed the race. Society, with its long train of devel- opments in arts, kept advancing with the years until to the arts was added science, which during the historic period has added such lustre to the human race.

It was and is a question of intellectual development, for if the human skulls of different periods be placed in a row parallel to the instruments, implements, and weapons of different ages, the same parallelism will appear between the development of those skulls and the improvement of those productions. The dug-out for a home, a tom-tom for a musical instrument, a crooked stick for a plow, and a club or flint-head spear for a weapon, are as truly on a level with the Neanderthal brain, as the dwelling, the piano, the sulky-plow, and the needle-gun rise to the level of the brain of to-day. No matter how low the type, he has advanced, and by steady, yet sometimes retarded improvement, given evidence of a progressiveness throughout the whole period of his exist- ence. Old as he is, he recognizes no limits to progress, and knows no limit to his existence.

PALEONTOLOGY. Mastodon giganteus.

The discovery of the remains of the mastodon dates back to the year 1613, when in Dauphine, France, bones were found in a sand pit, and being secured by the surgeon Mazuya, he at once set up the claim that they were discovered in a brick tomb thirty feet in length, fifteen in width, and bearing the inscription Teutobocchus Rex, who had been a chief in northern Germany and was defeated by the Romans under Caius Marius, B. C. 102. He further claimed to have found some fifty medals in the same tomb, bearing the effigy of this leader. The skeleton, after being exhibited as that of a giant in France and Germany, was finally examined by the anatomist Riolan, who pronounced it the remains of an

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HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY, OHIO.

elephant. A controversy then arose, lasting for some time, and it was not until 1832 that the remains were removed to the Paris Museum of Natural History and recognized as belonging to the mastodon by the naturalist, De Blainville.

Some gigantic bones being discovereed near Albany, New York, in 1705, were considered additional proofs of a former race of giants. Gov. Dudley, of Mass., after examining one of these teeth, wrote to Cotton Mather, he was "perfectly of opinion that the tooth will agree only to the human body for whom the flood only could prepare a funeral; and without doubt he waded as long as he could keep his head above the clouds, but must at length be confounded with all other creatures." So the bones found near Santa Fe de Bogota, in the " Field of Giants," were believed to be human remains. .

The attention of the scientific men of Europe was first attracted to the subject about the middle of the last century. M. de Longueil dis- covered some bones in Kentucky in 1739 and became so interested on account of their size that he presented them, on his return to France, to D'Aubenton and Buffon. The former ascribed the thigh bone and tusks to the elephant and the tooth to the hippopotamus; while Buffon attrib- uted the whole remains to a primitive elephant. From this time forward

of its tooth, Mastodon, being derived from the Greek words, mastos. nipple, and odons, tooth, or nipple-tooth. Dr. Wm. Hunter, being misled by the tooth, believed it to belong to the carnivora, and so called it the "Carnivorous Elephant." The North American mastodon having re- ceived the first attention, Cuvier gave it the specific term " giganteus," or gigantic mastodon, which term has been generally adopted. Buffon called it " Mastodon Ohioticus," or Ohio mastodon ; Pennant, the " Ele- phas Americanus," or American elephant; Blumenbach, " Mammut Ohioticum," or Ohio mammoth ; and Adrian Camper, " Elephas micro- cephalus," or long-headed elephant. It has also been designated the " Mastodon magnum," or great mastodon.

Within later years bones have been found scattered throughout New York, Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Ala- bama, Mississippi, Missouri, California, and Oregon. Herewith is inserted a cut of a skeleton discovered in 1870 near the village of St. Johns, Auglaize County, Ohio. The tusks and most of the vertebra, ribs, and pelvis, were so much decayed that they crumbled on exposure to the air. The following enumeration comprises the portion of the skeleton found :-

Lower Jaw (t) .- The anterior portion of the lower jaw preserved has

Fig 1.

Fig 3. Fig 2.

9. f

great interest attached to the subject, and remains were eagerly sought by scientific men of all nations. Still the animal was believed to be car- nivorous. The first elaborate account is given by Cuvier, although he did not have the advantage of a complete skeleton. In 1801 Charles W. Peale secured an almost complete skeleton in Orange County, N. Y., and his son Rembrandt in 1803 published a pamphlet of ninety-one pages descriptive of the remains. This was entitled " An Historical Disqui- sition on the Mammoth or Great American Incognitum, an Extinct, Immense, Carnivorous Animal, whose Fossil Remains have been found in North America." In 1840 a skeleton was found in Benton County, Mo. It was imbedded in a sandy deposit full of vegetable matter, among which cypress, swamp moss, tropical cane, and stems of palmetto were recognized. This deposit was beneath fifteen feet of blue clay and gravel. In 1845 another was discovered near Newburgh, N. Y., which is minutely described by Dr. J. C. Warren in his work on the Mastodon giganteus. Through misapprehensions and other causes these remains have by dif- ferent authors been called by different names. Believed at first to belong to the fossil elephant of Siberia, it was called the " mammoth." We have already referred to it as the "Great American Incognita." Cuvier gave it its popularly accepted name, having designated it from the form

the form of a V, and is about eighteen inches long, terminating anteriorly in a horn five inches in length.

Tusks .- The circumference of one of the tusks at the point where it entered the cranium was twenty-two inches-their length was not ascer- tained.

Teeth .- There were four of the lower jaw teeth found, all of them in an excellent state of preservation. The two anterior teeth (Fig. 1) cach weigh four and one-half pounds, and are seven and one-half inches long by three and one-half inches in width. They each have three transverse furrows dividing them into four nipples or eminences, each eminence being one and one-half inches in height. The two posterior teeth (Fig. 2) are each four and one-half inches long by three and one-half inches in width. Each of these teeth has three transverse ridges, measuring one and one-fourth inches in height. The enamel is of a dark brown color, one-eighth of an inch in thickness, and not much worn. The roots are four and one-half inches long, and of a form that exhibits great strength.

Humerus (e) .- This is the upper bone of the foreleg. Its length is thirty-seven inches, its greatest circumference thirty-five inches, and its smallest seventeen inches.

Ulna (f) .- This is the larger of the bones of the lower part of the

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foreleg. Its length from the summit of the olecranon process to the lowest point of the inferior extremity is thirty-four inches, circumference at lower extremity thirty-one inches.

Radius (g) .- The smallest bone of the foreleg. Its length is twenty- nine inches, the breadth of its carpal extremity six inches, and the entire circumference of the elbow-joint is forty-five inches.

Femur, or Thigh-bone (a) .- This bone in its form resembles the femur of the human skeleton. It is thirty-nine inches long and seventeen and one-half inches in circumference at the middle of the shaft.

Tibia (b) .- The larger of the two lower bones of the hind-leg is twenty eight inches long. The circumference of the upper extremity is thirty and one-half inches, the middle of the shaft fourteen inches

Fibula (c) .- This is a slender bone, twenty-seven inches long, passing three and one-half inches below the tibia to form part of the foot.

Bones of the Feet .- All the bones of the right forefoot and right hind- foot were found, also portions of the other two feet.

Part of the bones of another mastodon was found in Clay Township, in December, 1874, by some men engaged in digging a ditch to drain Muchinippi Swamp. The ravine in which the animal was found, and through which the ditch was dug, partakes somewhat of the character of the swamp. The depth of the superficial deposit at the point at which the remains were found is about six feet. The upper third is black muck, and the remainder shell marl.

The marl thrown out of this ditch, after a few months' exposure to the air, becomes so white as to form a strong contrast with the inky sur- face soil. The following are the portions of the skeleton found :-

Tusks .- Two tusks twenty-eight inches in circumference at the base, and twelve feet long.

Teeth .- Three teeth, two of them in a good state of preservation. Vertebræ .- Six Cervical (k),

Two Dorsal. Extremities .- One Humerus,

One Femur, One Tibia, One Ulna, One Radius, Two Patellæ, Three Bones of the feet.

The bones of this specimen are much larger than the corresponding ones of the specimen found in 1870, and are probably those of an old animal, as the teeth are very much worn. The remains were purchased by the writer, and deposited in the museum of the Heidelberg College of this State.

A third mastodon was discovered by Mr. Samuel Craig, in January, 1878, whilst engaged in surveying in Washington Township. No careful search for the skeleton has yet been made. The boggy character of the ground in which the animal is located leads us to believe that the remains will be found in a good state of preservation.

The first and second mastodons were found so near the surface that we are almost led to the belief that they have been buried within 500 or 1000 years. " There can be no question that they lived and died long after the deposition of the drift on which the marsh deposits rest."

Such discoveries exhibit different conditions, some being perfect, while others are in a crumbling state. In Europe, greater antiquity renders the remains fewer and more fragmentary than in America. Teeth are found in large quantities on both continents. These are composed of dentine, and enamel which is spread over the crown, while the trans- verse ridges are not filled with cement, as is the case with those of the elephant. They bear no relation to the carnivora, for although having an external covering of enamel, they are destitute of the longitudinal serrated cutting edge exhibited by the flesh-eating. By use the protube- .rances became truncated to a lozenge form, and the whole structure shows adaptation to the mastication of vegetable substances. The teeth in different species varied in number, and instead of all appearing at once, were developed in succession as the waste by wear demanded. The upper teeth are a little wider than the lower, the first three wider at the back than the front, the next square, while the last terminates in blunt points. Eight deciduous teeth, two on each side, are developed soon after birth, but these are soon shed and followed by a third decid-

nous tooth, somewhat larger and more complicated, constituting the first three-ridged, six-pointed molar. This in turn is followed by a fourth of the same form, but of greater size. Sometimes these four on each side of each jaw are found to have coexisted. The fifth is still larger, but before its development, and generally before that of the fourth, one or more of the earlier teeth have disappeared. The sixth and last, occupying the whole side of the jaw, is much larger and differs otherwise from all others. It is about ten inches long, four wide, twenty around the neck, and weighs .from ten to twelve pounds. The crown is divided into four or five ridges with eight or ten points or furrows. Such a succession of teeth was rendered necessary by the prodigious labor imposed in masticating the large quantities of food necessary to the maintenance of life. During the wear thus evolved by the molars in crushing branches and twigs, another tooth developed to take the place of the old decayed and displaced one. In addition to the testimony of the teeth, the contents of the stomach have been found, showing con- clusively that the animal was of the herbivori. This was found with the Newburgh remains, in a description of which Dr. Prime observes : " In the midst of the ribs, imbedded in the marl and unmixed with shells or carbonate of lime, was a mass of matter composed principally of the twigs of trees, broken into pieces of about two inches in length, and varying in size from very small twigs to those of a half inch in diameter. There was mixed with these a large quantity of finer vegetable sub- stances, like finely divided leaves, the whole amounting to from four to six bushels." All evidence is corroborative, and goes to show the mas- todon was a vegetable feeder, and subsisted on the coarse as well as ten- der branches of trees, leaves, rushes, and other aquatic plants. That it was covered with hair is attested by the locks and tufts of a dun brown color found in the vicinity of the skeleton at Scotchtown, New York. These locks varied in length from two to seven inches. Again, both the skin and hair were found with the bones sixty feet below the ground surface near the mouth of the Wabash River. It is evident several dif- ferent species existed, being ranged by different authors into from four to thirty different classes, although the latter number is probably unwar- ranted. Many of these classifications are based on a slight variation of a tooth, and not on a comparison of skeletons. That the mastodon appeared during the tertiary period-the age of mammals-is attested by geology, for its traces are found running across the miocene, plio- cene, and glacial periods. Great changes of climate were thus withstood, and this monster stood a witness to the development and extinction of many other forms until, after untold ages, it succumbed to the fate of other monsters of the old world, while its bones are made a text-book by the student of the new world as he seeks the history of organized life, development, and extinction. In their case the cause of extinction is unrevealed, for it could not have been on account of rigorous climatic changes, because the tropics still furnish a pliocene climate; neither could it have been produced by a calamity, as the different species were dispersed too widely to be overwhelmed by any catastrophe of nature. It yielded at last, perhaps, a prey to some lingering hostile agency which, operating for untold ages, first weakened, then reduced, and finally destroyed.

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History of Shelby County, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 10

Author: R. Sutton & Co. Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Number of Pages: 427

Author: R. Sutton & Co.
Publication date: 1883
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 427