USA > Ohio > Montgomery County > Memoirs of the Miami valley > Part 4
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Circular earthwork on east side of the Big Miami, southwest corner Fairfield township. Described and figured by MacLean, Mound Builders, p. 178, fig. 50. Brief notice and figure in Anc. Mon., pp. 90, 91, Pl. xxxi, No. 4. 1
Enclosure with double walls; mounds and ditch on the west bank of the Big Miami, four miles southwest of Hamilton, in Ross township. Described and figured Anc. Mon. pp. 30, 31, Pl. xi, No. 3; also by MacLean, Mound Builders, pp. 188, 190, fig. 54. The mound explored, described at length and figured by J. P. MacLean, Sm. Rep., 1883, pp. 848, 849.
Mounds in Liberty township (only ancient works in this town- ship) are mentioned by MacLean as follows: In Sec. 20, on the farm of S. Rose, one, and on the farm of D. B. Williamson, one;
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MEMOIRS OF THE MIAMI VALLEY
in Sec. 26, on the farms of Stephen Clawson and C. Bandle, three; one in Sec. 15 and another on Sec. 34 (Mound Builders, p. 176).
Group of small works (square and oval enclosure and mound) in Union township. Described and figured in Anc. Mon., pp. 91, 92, P1. xxxii, No. 1. More complete description by MacLean, Mound Builders, pp. 171, 172, fig. 46.
On the adjoining section (8), same township, is a small circu- lar enclosure described and figured by MacLean, Mound Builders, pp. 172, 174, figs. 47, 48.
Ancient Fortification on the east bank of the Big Miami about six miles above Hamilton, in northeast corner Fairfield township. Described and figured, Anc. Mon., pp. 21, 22, Pl. viii, No. 1; also by MacLean, Mound Builders, pD. 181, 183, fig. 52.
Maps and diagrams of Butler county showing location of signal mounds with explanatory notes, J. P. Maclean, Sm. Rep., 1882, pp. 752, 758. A thorough description of the various ancient works of this county, a separate description being given of each work with fig. of most of them. J. P. MacLean, Mound Builders, pp. 153, 228, figs. 46, 64 and map of the county showing location of the several works. Those described by others are mentioned separately in this catalogue under "Butler County, Ohio."
General description of the mounds of the county with special notices of the group on Sec. 21 in Ross township (same group fig- ured in Anc. Mon., p. 170), figured, one opened. Brief description of the group on the Miami described in Anc. Mon., p. 30, Pl. xi, fig. 3 ; one opened and figured. J. P. MacLean, Sm. Rep., 1883, pp. 844, 851.
Hamilton County
The Langdon Mound, near Red Bank ; brief notice of the mound and contents, and of another near by.
Mound on the farm of Mr. Gould, two miles from Reading. Brief description of the mound and contents, 16th Rep. Peab. Mus., pp. 175, 176.
Large enclosure, with outside ditch, on the right bank of the great Miami, near the village of Colerain. Described and figured Anc. Mon., pp. 35, 36, Pl. xiii, No. 2. (See also C. Pl. iii.) Possibly one of the works alluded to by Hugh Williamson, Obs. on Climate of America, Appendix D, pp. 189, 190.
Ancient cemetery near Madisonville. Mentioned in Anc. Nat., Jan. 1881, Vol. XV, pp. 72-73. A lengthy and illustrated descrip- tion by T. W. Langdon in the Jour. Cin. Soc. Nat. Hist., V. III, pp. 40-68, p. 139, pp. 203-220, and pp. 237-257. Partial notices also in 15th Rep. Peab. Mus., pp. 63-67 and 77, and 16th Rep., pp. 165-167 ; pp. 196 and 199. Brief notice from C. L. Metz, Sm. Rep., 1880, p. 445.
A square enclosure and parallel lines, opposite side of Little Miami river from the Milford Works; nearly opposite Milford, Clermont county. Brief description Anc. Mon., p. 95, Pl. xxxiv, A, No. 2. Also figured in Hugh Williamson's work on Climate, p. 197, fig. 2.
Ancient works in Anderson township. Notices and partial de-
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SETTLEMENT OF THE MIAMI VALLEY
scriptions, 16th Rep. Peab. Mus., pp. 167-174 and p. 202; also 17th Rep., pp. 339-346, 374 and 376. Noticed by C. L. Metz, Sm. Rep., 1879, p. 439.
Two circular enclosures in Sycamore township. Reported by J. P. MacLean, Sm. Rep., 1881, p. 683.
Fortified Hill, at the mouth of the Great Miami. Described and figured, Pres. Harrison in Trans. Hist. Soc. Ohio, Vol. I, pp. 217- 225. Brief notice and figure (copy from op. cit.) Anc. Mon., pp. 25-26, Pl. ix, No. 2.
Four mounds on the present site of Cincinnati; opened; the articles obtained described by Dr. Drake in "Pictures of Cincinnati," p. 204, etc. Mentioned by Caleb Atwater, Trans. Am. Antiq. Soc., Vol. I, (1820) pp. 156-160.
Mound and grave at Cincinnati. Opened by Col. Winthrop Sargent, and the articles taken from them described by him in a letter to Dr. Benj. L. Barton, in 1794. Illustrated, Trans. Am. Phil. Soc., Vol. IV, (1799), pp. 177-180, and Vol. V (1802), p. 74.
The following ancient works have been found "in the precincts of the town of Cincinnati:"
Three circular embankments, two parallel convex banks, an excavation, and four mounds of unequal dimensions. Described with measurements in Western Gazetteer or Emigrant's Directory, pp. 282-283.
Mound at Sixth and Mound streets, Cincinnati. Reported by H. H. Hill, Sm. Rep., 1879, p. 438.
Aboriginal vault or oven at the junction of the two branches , of Duck creek, near the Red Bank station, in the vicinity of Madi- sonville.
Old roadway on Sec. 11, Columbia township. Reported by C. L. Metz, Sm. Rep. 1879, p. 439.
Miami County
Mound on Corn Island, near Troy. Opened. Described and contents noted by George F. Adye in a letter in Cincinnati Gazette, and quoted in Hist. Mag., Nov. 1869, Vol. VI, 2d Ser., from the Christian Intelligencer.
Earthworks and mounds in Concord and Newton townships. Brief descriptions by E. T. Wiltheiss, Papers Relating to Anthro- pology, from Sm. Rep. 1884, p. 38.
Embankment of earth and stone on the left bank of the Great Miami, two miles and a half above the town of Piqua. Described and figured, Anc. Mon., p. 23, Pl. viii, No. 3. Noticed also by Drake, View of Cin. Described and figured by John P. Rogan, Thomas MS. Notice by John P. MacLean, Mound Builders, p. 27.
Below the preceding a group of works (circles, ellipses, etc.), formerly existed on the site of the present town of Piqua. Described in Long's "Second Expedition," Vol. I, pp. 54-66. Mentioned in Anc. Mon., p. 23.
Mounds and earthworks in Washington and Spring Creek townships, on the Great Miami and its tributaries. Full description and diagram by E. T. Wiltheiss, Papers Relating to Anthropology from Sm. Rep. 1884, pp. 35-38.
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MEMOIRS OF THE MIAMI VALLEY
Tablets of burnt clay found on farm of W. Morrow near Piqua. Reported by E. T. Wiltheiss, Sm. Rep. 1879, p. 440.
Graded way at Piqua. Described in Long's Sec. Expd., Vol. I., p. 60. Noticed in Anc. Mon., p. 88.
Montgomery County
Nest of flint implements, found two miles west of Centreville. Described by S. H. Binkley, Am. Antiq., Vol. III., (1881), p. 144.
Earthworks on the east bank of the Great Miami river, three miles below Dayton. Described and figured, Anc. Mon., pp. 23-24, Pl. viii, No. 4.
Small stone mound near Alexandersville. Opened, described, and contents noted at length by S. H. Binkley, Am. Antiq. Vol. III, (1881), pp. 325-328. Young Mineralogist and Antiquarian, April, 1885, pp. 79-80.
Enclosure, partly of stone, on the bluff, two miles south of Day- ton. Described by S. H. Binkley, Am. Antiq. Vol. VII (1885), p. 295. (Possibly the same as mentioned in Anc. Mon., pp. 23-24.)
Group of ancient works consisting of square, circles, and mounds, near Alexandersville and six miles below Dayton. De- scribed and figured, Anc. Mon., pp. 82-83, P1. xxix, No. 1. S. H. Binkley, Am. Antiq., Vol. III (1881), pp. 192-193 and 325-328. Young Mineralogist and Antiquarian, April, 1885, pp. 79-80.
The great mound at Miamisburg. Western Gazetteer (1847), p. 295. Howe's Hist. Coll. Ohio (1847), p. 375. Anc. Mon. (1848), p. 5, fig. 1. Ohio Centen. Rep. (1877), Pl. ii. MacLean's "Mound Builders," (1879), pp. 59-60, fig. 1.
Ancient manufacturing village on the farm of M. T. Dodds, near West Carrollton. Described by S. H. Binkley, Am. Antiq., Vol. I (1879), pp. 256-258.
Aboriginal cemetery on the bank of the Miami river, close to Dayton. Full description of the explorations by Aug. A. Foerste, Sm. Rep., 1883, pp. 838-844. Also noticed by S. H. Binkley, Am. Antiq., Vol. VII (1885), pp. 295-296.
Shelby County
A mound in the northern part of Van Buren township. Ex- plored ; contained balls and burnt human bones. Described by C. Williamson, "Science," Vol. IX (1887), p. 135.
Warren County
Fort Ancient, on a bluff in Washington township, overlooking the Little Miami, six miles east of Lebanon. Described and plan given in the "Portfolio" (Phila., 1809). Described and figured by Caleb Atwater, Trans. Amer. Antiq. Soc., Vol. 1 (1820), pp. 156- 159, P1. ix. Howe's Hist. Coll. Ohio, pp. 503-505. Drake's "Pic- tures of Cin." (1815), p. 2. Western Gazetteer, p. 292. Anc. Mon. (1847), pp. 18-21, Pl. vii. Drake's Inds. N. A. (15th Ed.), p. 58. Amer. Antiq., Vol. I (1878), pp. 49-51, and Vol. V (1883), pp. 238- 239. Statement of present condition, Sixteenth Rep. Peab. Mus.
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SETTLEMENT OF THE MIAMI VALLEY
(1884), Vol. III, pp. 168-169; also by Prof. Cyrus Thomas, with figures, in "Science," Vol VIII (1886).
A mound on N. W. Quar. Sec. 23, Franklin township. Opened and briefly described.
Two mounds on the S. W. Quar. Sec. 22, Franklin township, between the turnpike and the township line. Opened. Briefly noticed by J. P. MacLean, Sm. Rep., 1883, p. 851.
Ancient forks (fortifications and mounds) near Foster's Cross- ing, on the hills west of the Little Miami. Brief notice by Josiah Morrow, Sm. Rep., 1879, p. 439. Reported also by J. D. Blackburn.
The Miamisburg mound is the second most important one of its character perhaps in the United States. It is of perfect conical shape, some seventy feet high with the circular base of 300 feet in diameter. It is located just outside the city on one of the highways. In 1869 a number of citizens sunk a shaft from the top to two feet below its base. So far as startling revelations are concerned, the exploration was not a success. About eight feet below the sum- mit a human skeleton was discovered in a sitting posture. A cover of clay several feet in thickness and a deposit of ashes and char- coal seemed to be the burial. At a depth of twenty-four feet was found a number of flat stones, set at an angle of forty-five degrees, and overlapping like shingles on a roof, and this may have been the top at one time. Several theories have been advanced regard- ing the object of the builders of this mound. It is thought to have been a place for sacrifice, or a burial mound. The failure to dis- cover a large number of human bones within it seems to disprove these theories. It was in all probability used as a place of signaling, as it is one of a chain of similar earthen structures through this part of Ohio. Fires on its summit, which rises above the top of the surrounding forests, could be seen at a great distance. The trees which now cover it have grown since the settlement of the country by the whites.
Of the historic fortifications of the Miami valley that known as Fort Ancient is the most imposing. It is located in Warren county, on the Little Miami river, about ten miles east of Lebanon. It is on a promontory 270 feet above the river bottoms, and com- mands a magnificent prospect of the fertile valley below. Two ravines head near each other on the tableland to the east of the river. Along the margin of the summit of the jagged outline eroded by these streams earth has been piled all around to strengthen the natural fortification. So irregular is the line, that though enclosing but 150 acres, it measures nearly four miles in length (18,712 feet, not counting any detached works). A moderate estimate of the amount of material removed to constitute this earth wall is 9,000,- 000 cubic feet. Its construction would require the continuous labor of several hundred men, with primitive tools, as much as ten years. In the words of Prof. Orton, "We cannot be mistaken in seeing in the work of Fort Ancient striking evidence of an organized society, of intelligent leadership, in a word, of a strong government. A vast deal of labor was done and it was done methodically, systematically and with continuity. Here again we must think of the conditions under which the work was accomplished. Not only were
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MEMOIRS OF THE MIAMI VALLEY
the Mound Builders without the aid of domestic animals of any sort, but they were without the service of metals. They had no tools of iron; all the picks, hoes and spades that they used were made from chipped flints, and mussel shells from the river must have done the duty of shovels and scrapers. In short, not only was the labor severe and vast, but was all done in the hardest way. Can we be wrong in further concluding that this work was done under a strong and efficient government? Men have always shown that they do not love hard work, and yet hard work was done persistently here. Are there not evidences on the face of the facts that they were held to their tasks by some strong con- trol?"
If it is desired to go further into the unknown and largely con- jectured past, it may be stated that the Miami valley is located well within the glaciated region of Ohio. And it is of great interest to know that when man, in a state of development similar to that of the Eskimo, was hunting the mastodon, and the reindeer, and the walrus in the valley of the Delaware, the ice-front extended in Ohio as far south as Cincinnati. At that time the moose, the caribou, the musk-ox, and reindeer ranged through the forests and over the hills of Kentucky. And, if the theory of a glacial dam at Cin- cinnati can be entertained, there was for a period a long, irregular lake occupying the valley of the Ohio and its tributaries, rising to the top of the bluffs in all the lower portions of the valley above Cincinnati, and being as much as three hundred feet deep at Pitts- burgh. The explorer at that time, coming up from the south, would have encountered an ice wall along the line which marked the glacial margin; and upon ascending it would have had before him naught but such icy wastes as Commodore Peary and Dr. Cook found while engaged in their polar expeditions. The forests and flowers south of this margin were then also very different from those now covering the area. From the discoveries of Prof. Orton and others, it may be inferred that red cedar abounded all over the southern part of Ohio. There is record of preglacial red cedar wood in Butler county, specimens of which can be seen in the cabinet of the State university. Excavations made in these glacial terraces have disclosed evidences of a preglacial race of men, which opens a new realm of conjecture. The chief value of this fact, in this con- nection, is to show that the work of the Mound Builders is very recent, as compared with the glacial period. The mounds and earth- works of the lost race which inhabited the Miami valley before its discovery by Europeans, are all upon the surface, being built like our present cities, upon the summits of the glacial terraces, or upon the present flood plains. Without doubt, where the antiquity of the Mound Builders is counted by hundreds of years, that of pre- glacial man must be counted by thousands.
To what degree of civilization the Mound Builders attained will perhaps ever remain a matter of conjecture, as they have left naught, save the mounds and the articles found in them, upon which we can base an opinion. But whatever their status as a civilized people, certain it is that the region of which we write was later allowed to become an unclaimed and unbroken wilderness. At the
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SETTLEMENT OF THE MIAMI VALLEY
time of early explorations in this region there were no permanent settlements by the white race within what is now a populous terri- tory, and with the exception perhaps of a few French traders and a few captives among the Indians, there were within it no white people. Within this valley there are now several populous and prosperous cities, many prosperous towns and villages, and a popu- lation of approximately a million people, living under conditions of prosperity and happiness, of morality and intelligence not surpassed by any community of equal magnitude which has ever existed in the history of the world. But we must not forget that another peo- ple-another race-occupied this territory between the exodus of the Mound Builders and the entrance of the Anglo-Saxons, and that here they lived and energized for many centuries, before the advent of the white man. And in this introduction to the marvelous record of development in the Miami valley it is fitting that mention be made of our immediate predecessors, the Indians.
The Miamis, of the Algonquin linguistic family, occupied all the western portion of Ohio, all of Indiana and a large portion of what is now the State of Illinois. This tribe had long occupied that territory and was once the most numerous and powerful of the tribes in the Northwest. They had no tradition of ever having lived in any other portion of the country and so they must have occupied this territory for many generations. Their principal vil- lages were along the headwaters of the two Miamis of the Ohio, and the Miami of the Lake (now the Maumee) and along the waters of the Wabash in Indiana as far south as the vicinity of Vincennes. At the time of the treaty of Greenville they had been greatly reduced in numbers and in power, but were the oldest occu- pants of the Ohio territory. They claimed the right of possession in the territory between the Scioto and the Miamis, and they were at one time in possession of and entitled to the same, but in time the Wyandots seem to have been accorded the right thereto. In the traditions which the Miamis gave of their own history they stated that they had been at war with the Cherokees and Chick- asaws for so long a period of time that they had no account of any time when there had been peace between them.
As illustrating the fierce nature of the conflicts between the tribes north of the Ohio and those south of it in times past, it is an important fact that no tribes lived along the banks of that river or permanently occupied the contiguous territory. The Ohio as it flowed through the wilderness was and has always been considered one of the most beautiful rivers on the globe and its banks presented every allurement to, and advantages of permanent occupation. Yet, there was not on it from its source to its mouth, a distance of more than a thousand miles, a single wigwam or structure in the nature of a permanent abode. Gen. William Henry Harrison, in an ad- dress before the Historical Society of Ohio, said :
"Of all this immense territory, the most beautiful portion was unoccupied. Numerous villages were to be found on the Scioto and the headwaters of the two Miamis of the Ohio; on the Miami of the Lake (the Maumee) and its southern tributaries and throughout the whole course of the Wabash, at least as low as the present
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MEMOIRS OF THE MIAMI VALLEY
town of Vincennes; but the beautiful Ohio rolled its amber tide until it paid its tribute to the "father of waters" through an unbroken solitude. At and before that time and for a century after its banks were without a town or single village or even a single cottage, the curling smoke of whose chimneys would give the promise of com- fort and refreshment to a weary traveler."
There is every reason to believe that it was the ambition and effort "of the five nations to subdue, disperse or assimilate all the tribes of the Ohio valley," as stated by Dodge, in his "Indians in the Ohio valley." But they seem to have been successful only along the lake shore. In the hundred years preceding 1750, it is certain that many Indian tribes were gravitating towards the navigable rivers, rich valleys and fertile fields of Ohio. That was the most accessible and advantageous territory between the Great Lakes and the "beautiful river." There were easy portages connecting the sources of the rivers emptying into the Erie and those debouching into the Ohio; short transfers from the Cuyahoga to the Tus- carawas; the Sandusky to the Scioto; the Maumee to the Miami or to the Wabash. Thus the canoes of traffic and travel from the St. Lawrence to the Mississippi would traverse the natural water channels of the Ohio country. All roads led to Rome. All rivers led to and from Ohio. The cunning red man selected in peace and war these avenues of least resistance. Hence the Ohio country was a chosen center for the western tribes and in the early half of the eighteenth century the tide of permanent settlement was Ohioward. The Miamis, chief occupants of Indiana and portions of Illinois, spread into the valleys of the Maumee and the Miamis. They were divided into three tribes: the Twigtwees, or Miamis, the Pianke- shawes and the Weas. Their limits were well defined and doubt- less correctly described by Little Turtle: "My father kindled the first fire at Detroit; from thence he extended his lines to the head- waters of the Scioto; from thence to its mouth ; from thence down the Ohio to the mouth of the Wabash, and from thence to Chicago, over Lake Michigan. These are the boundaries within which the prints of my ancestor's houses are everywhere to be seen." The Miamis, who belonged to the Algonquin family, were a powerful nation and were undoubtedly among the earliest immigrants into Ohio. In their prime, they could command two thousand warriors, and it is claimed were the forces that met and repelled the inundat- ing waves of the Iroquois. It must be kept in mind that the settle- ments of the various tribes, which came into the Ohio country, were not permanent, but were more or less shifting as tribal wars, white immigration and changing conditions required. The Indian above all else is migratory, and if he did not descend from the lost tribes of Israel, as many ethnologists claim, he certainly had the characteristics of the "wandering Jew."
It is not quite 170 years since the first white man of which we have knowledge visited the locality of the Miami valley. In 1751 Christopher Gist, accompanied by George Croughtan and Andrew Montour, passed over the Indian trail from the forks of the Ohio to the Indian towns on the Miami. Gist was the agent of an English and Virginia land company. On January 17, 1751, he and his party
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SETTLEMENT OF THE MIAMI VALLEY
were at the great swamp in what is now Licking county, known to us as the "Pigeon Roost," or "Bloody Run Swamp," which is five miles northwest from the Licking reservoir and one-half mile south of the line of the National road. Thence they proceeded to the Miami towns, which were in the region of Xenia and Springfield.
In 1780, while the Revolutionary war was still in progress, Col. Bird, with a detachment of 600 Indians and Canadians, and with four pieces of artillery, left Canada, passed up the Maumee over to Loramie creek, thence to the Miami, down the same, passed the site of what eleven years later was Fort Hamilton, all a wilderness, to the Ohio, up the Ohio to the Licking, reduced several American frontier stations and returned by the same route with prisoners and plunder. And in the same year, Gen. Rogers Clark, with his Ken- tuckians, took up his line of march from the site of Cincinnati for the Shawnee towns on Little Miami and Mad rivers, which towns he destroyed. On this campaign he erected two blockhouses on the north side of the Ohio. These were the first structures known to have been built on the site of the city of Cincinnati.
The beautiful country between the Miamis had been so in- fested by the Indians that it was avoided by the whites, and its settlement might have been procrastinated for years, but for the discovery and enterprise of Major Benjamin Stites, a trader from New Jersey. In the summer of 1786 Stites happened to be at Wash- ington, just back of Limestone, now Maysville, where he headed a party of Kentuckians in pursuit of Indians who had stolen some horses. The pursuit continued for some days, and the In- dians escaped, but Stites gained a view of the rich valleys of the Great and Little Miami as far up as the site of Xenia. With this knowledge, and charmed by the beauty of the country, he hurried back to New Jersey and revealed his discovery to Judge Cleves Symmes, of Trenton, a man of great influence. Symmes was about forty-four years old, a native of Long Island, had been a colonel of militia in the Revolution, and had rendered public service as lieutenant-governor of New Jersey, judge of the supreme court of that State, and member of the council and of Congress. Stites was of a speculative turn of mind and became enthusiastic over the possibilities of the Miami valley. He had but little trouble in arousing the interest of Symmes, and with the latter was associated Gen. Jonathan Dayton, Elias Boudinot, Dr. Witherspoon, and other worthies of that day. An association resembling the Ohio, or Marietta, company, was formed, Congress was asked (August, 1787) for a grant on the same terms given Rufus Putnam and his associates in the Muskingum country. The territory asked for was the lands between the two Miamis, as far back as the north line of the proposed purchase of the Ohio company. Symmes encoun- tered considerable delay on the part of the government, but being of an enthusiastic nature, he seems to have taken it for granted that his enterprise would be approved, and began disposing of the country, in November, by covenanting to deed Stites 10,000 acres of the best lands in the valley. This he followed with a glowing prospectus, inviting settlers to select lands and avail themselves of the low price, two-thirds of a dollar per acre, before it was raised on May
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