History of Lehigh county, Pennsylvania and a genealogical and biographical record of its families, Vol. I, Part 7

Author: Roberts, Charles Rhoads; Stoudt, John Baer, 1878- joint comp; Krick, Thomas H., 1868- joint comp; Dietrich, William Joseph, 1875- joint comp; Lehigh County Historical Society
Publication date: 1914
Publisher: Allentown, Pa. : Lehigh Valley Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1158

USA > Pennsylvania > Lehigh County > History of Lehigh county, Pennsylvania and a genealogical and biographical record of its families, Vol. I > Part 7

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Every other material from which the Indians made their stone tools is found in the Lehigh Hills, south of Allentown, which are nearly one- half pure quartz.

The so-called arrow-head was the most plenti- ful of the Indian's implements. It is found where in deadly feud one hostile tribe was ar- rayed against another, in plowed fields situated on the banks of streams or lakes, around springs on their encampments, and wherever the Indian

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INDIANS.

INDIAN IMPLEMENTS.

HISTORY OF LEHIGH COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

hunter wandered in quest of sustenance. Quickly made and continually lost one can easily under- stand why they are found in such great quan- tities. Very often they are picked up artis- tically chipped, and of graceful torm. Not every Indian was an adept in the making of flaked tools, for they are often found very rudely made. It is said that with some tribes were men who de- voted their whole time to the manufacture of implements. As from time to time they accum- ulated a supply they would leave their mountain homes and visit intermediate regions for the pur- pose of exchanging these implements for shells and various other articles not readily obtain- able in the localities where they resided. These were usually old men or persons who did not mingle in the excitement of war or the chase. To thein while engaged in these commercial pur- suits free passage was at all times granted. Their avocation was deemed honorable, and they were welcomed wherever they appeared. The Indian propelled his arrow-tipped shaft with wonder- ful force and exactness. The traveller Carver tells us that so strong were these red people, and so dexterous in the manipulation of their bows, which were as thick as a man's arm, about eleven or twelve spans in length, that they could project their arrows a distance of two hundred paces.

The Spaniards, under the adventurer, De Soto, experienced this to their sorrow while arrayed in battle against them. Their armor was pierced by these small points, and many of them were wounded and killed, the arrows often passing completely through their bodies. Cabeca de Vaca, a Spanish historian, writes that he saw the butt of an elm tree which had been pene- trated by an arrow to the depth of a span. He also mentions another instance in which an In- dian shot an arrow through the saddle and hous- ings and penetrated one-third of its length into the body of a Spaniard's horse.

Clavigero, in his history of Mexico, tells us that at the time of the invasion of that country by the Spanish adventurer, Cortes, it was usual for a number of Aztec archers to assemble and for one of them to throw up into the air an ear of corn at which the others immediately shot with such quickness and dexterity that before it reached the ground it was stripped of every grain. The chevalier Tonti who travelled in what is now the United States two hundred years ago, says: "That which is wonderful in this is the havoc which the shot sent by the sav- ages makes; for, besides the exactness and swift- ness of the stroke, the force of it is very sur- prising, and so much the rarer because it is no- thing else but a stone, or a bone, or sometimes a piece of very hard wood, pointed and fastened

to the end of an arrow with some fishes glue that causes this terrible effect."

Wahnatah, a Dakota chief, on one occasion, it is said, sent an arrow with such force after a female buffalo that it passed entirely through her body killing her calf on the other side.

The late Dr. Walter J. Hoffman an anthro- pological writer of note, a native of our county, and during his life an intimate friend of the writer of this chapter while in 1873 a surgeon with General Custer saw a Sioux Indian shoot an arrow clear through a buffalo. He also asserted that in the command there was not a man who was strong enough to draw to its full length an Indian's bow.

Chipped or flaked implements, such as spear and arrow heads, knives, awls, or drills and scrap- ers were made both by percussion and pressure. In their manufacture the Indian used hard wood, bone and other stones. Many interesting accounts of their manipulation are given in vari- ous works by writers who saw the Indians make them. While numerous tools of this class clearly indicate their use it is impossible to classify cor- rectly the greater part of them. Many small objects, classed as arrow heads, may have served as cutting tools. Up to within a few years so- called arrow heads were fastened by western Indians into wooden handles about eight inches long, which served very well as knives. The arrowheads made by the Delawares were of different forms. First and the oldest of its kind is the lanceolate or leaf form, next those of tri- angular shape, those which have stems, and those barbed. Spearheads were also made in these forms. The idea that the leaf shaped is the oldest form is combated by other archaeological writers, who claim that the triangular stands first in this classification and no matter how various other forms are they are but modifica- tions of the triangular idea; thus if the lower corners of the triangular arrowpoint are rounded we have the leaf shaped implement. Still pre- serving the triangular form and merely chipping away a small portion on each side of its base to facilitate its attachment to the shaft we have the stemmed point. See plate. Hollowed out at the base of the triangle the indented or shark- tooth form is produced. Add a minute notch on each side and you will see a likeness of the beau- tiful forms found on the Pacific Coast. In

making this so-called primary form the Indians may have taken his cue from the leaf of the birch tree which is triangular. Many curious superstitious beliefs are attached in both hemis- pheres to the stone implements made by pre- historic races.

Peasants in Ireland and Scotland call these

INDIANS.

little darts, elf-arrows which fall from the clouds, and when their cattle are sick believe that the sickness is caused by fairies who shot them with arrows. The witch doctor upon being sent for, manages to find upon the sick animal one or more of these little poisoned points which with a few coins are placed in water. This prepara- tion when given to the animal to drink is said to effect a cure. It appears they are never found when searching for them, but are come upon accidentally. A well-known Scotch geographer named Robert Gordon, living about 200 years ago mentions an instance related to him by a man and woman of credit, each of whom while riding found a so-called elf-arrow in their clothes, never knowing how they got there. Similar beliefs prevailed in Scandinavia.

Arrowheads of stone were supposed to con- tain virtues not to be found in those of metal. In Italy they were kept in houses to prevent lightning strokes, the people believing that light- ning struck with a similar stone. They are also carried on the person as a preventive against such strokes and a countryman upon finding one devoutedly kneels down, picks it up with his tongue and jealously preserves it as a most potent amulet. Many of the small pretty im- plements were mounted in gold or silver and worn as charms. The finding in an ancient Etruscan grave of a necklace of gold to which was attached a flint arrowhead seems to show that a belief in their supernatural power was of ancient date. The writer of this essay in his collecting tours in Eastern Pennsylvania met people who kept in their possession flaked im- plements as well as chips of flint which were used for pow wowing purposes.

The general idea prevailing with our present people that each tribe of Indians made its own peculiar form of arrow or spearhead is a mis- taken one. In possession of the writer are three similar leaf shaped flaked forms, one of which is shown as number nine on accompany- ing plate. One of them, a prettily made trans- lucent specimen of true flint was found on the surface near Belfast, Ireland. Number nine, a black object of Hornstone, was picked up on Kline's Island, Allentown, and the third, a fine pellucid point of agatized wood, was taken from the sand on the west bank of the Willamette river near Oregon City, Oregon, thousands of miles apart. The same may be said of other flaked forms on the plate.

This plate shows a number of the typical forms of stone implements used by the Dela- wares in this section before they came into con- tact with the whites. Numbers 1, 3, 6, 13, 15, 16, 17, some of them artistically wrought, may

have served their owners either as spearheads or knives. Numbers 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 were used either as knives or arrowpoints. Numbers 16, 3 and 6 were made from jasper and were formed by Indians who understood how to manipulate that material. The material of No. 3 is a lead colored jasper, and is found in place in Ten- nessee. The writer picked up the specimen near Virginsville, Berks county, this state. Many other fine objects have been found near this village. Here, then, we have evidence that in prehistoric times there was carried on an extensive aboriginal trade, if not one of peace, then by the more forcible one of conquest, in which the victor took from the vanquished that which appeared to him the most useful or orna- mental. The subject of primitive commerce is of particular interest because it sheds additional light on the conditions of life of our aboriginal people. In many cases, however, these artifacts may have been brought as booty, and not through trade to the places where they are found in our days. The modern Indians, it is well known, sometimes undertook expeditions of 1,000 or I,- 200 miles in order to attack their enemies. The warlike Iroquois, for example, who inhabited the present state of New York frequently fol- lowed the warpath as far west as the Mississippi river. The traveller Carver was told by the Winnebago Indians, who then lived in that section of country now embraced in Wisconsin, that they sometimes made war excursions to the southwestern parts-then Spanish possessions- and that it took months to get there. No. 6, a finely made implement of yellow jasper is barbed and has partly serrated or sawlike edges. It was found on Kline's Island.

Nos. 2, 5 and 7 were used as tools to perfo- rate the ceremonial objects and ornaments of slate, such as the writer has figured further on in this paper. The forms exceedingly rare are 17, loz- enge shaped and 10 leaf shaped with a stem. Nos. 22 and 23 are fish spears. The first is 3 7-8 inches long and 7-16 of an inch thick. The other has a length of 4 5-8 inches and is 5-16 of an inch thick. Both were found on Kline's Island by the writer.

Scrapers are simple forms of stone implements easily changed from flint chips or broken spear or arrow heads into serviceable tools. They are so called because they were used principally in scraping skins and other surfaces. Or, in other words, a typical scraper may be defined as a broad flake, the point of which has been chipped to a semicircular bevelled edge, similar in char- acter to a round nosed turning chisel. Nos. 18 and 20, of jasper, found on Lehigh Island by the writer, are of this form. When in use they

HISTORY OF LEHIGH COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

were held between the thumb and fingers, and for this reason are often called "thumbflints." They are perfect. No. 21, viewing it stem downward, is called a "sheaf of wheat scraper." Unlike those just described as bevelled, this is chipped to an edge from both sides. The scrap- ing edge, which is polished, shows signs of con- siderable wear. It was found on the surface in New Jersey, opposite Riegelsville, this state. It is a very fine implement, and was made either from a broken knife or spear head. Both Nos. 19, which is also a scraper, and 21, were fas- tened to short handles.

No. 4 is an ungrooved axe or celt of green- stone, very tough and hard. It is also often called a handaxe or chisel. It was originally a much longer tool. Often it was used with the hand when scraping skins, or when the Indian scraped the charcoal from the inside of his boat or dugout. They were hafted in various ways.

I. A hole was bored through a stick and the celt was inserted so that it projected from both sides.

2. The hole was cut partly through the handle and the celt was pushed in as far as it would go.

3. The top of the celt was set in a socket of deerhorn, then fastened in a handle as in 2.

4. A stick was split its entire length and a single turn taken around the tool, the ends being brought together and tied, forming a round handle.

5. A stick was split part way, one fork cut off and the other wrapped once or twice and tied, thus forming a round handle of solid wood. They are at times found simply chipped into form, and again partly flaked and polished. The celt, which is figured on plate has a trun- cated top. Others found have rounded and also pointed tops. They are found varying in length from two to nine inches, sometimes even longer. In section they approach an oval with sides more or less straight. The cutting edge is always broader than the top.

Interesting superstitious beliefs as to their na- ture and origin are attached to them. An Allen- tonian who owned a fine black polished imple- ment of this kind, or a thunderstone, as he called it, wished the writer to understand that it fell from the sky during a thunderstorm; that he picked it up at the foot of a tree which had been shattered by a lightning bolt during this same shower. He would have it no other way. This same belief is found current in many European countries, the greater part of Asia, western Af- rica, and parts of South America. Medicinal virtue has been assigned to them. Water in which a celt was boiled was believed by the peo-

ple of Cornwall, England, to be a specific for rheumatism. In Ireland a celt was lent among neighbors to place in the trough from which cattle drank on account of its healing powers. In Brittany it is often thrown into the well to purify the water, or for a continual supply. In Savoy this relic is often found wrapped in sheep's wool or hair of a goat for good luck or the pre- vention of rot or putrid decay.

They are kept in the home in Germany and Ireland to preserve it from lightning. They sweat when a storm approaches; they are good for diseases of man and beast; they increase the milk of cows; they assist the birth of children. Powder scraped from them may advantageously be taken for various childish disorders. It is usually nine days after their fall from the sky that they are found on the surface. In Bur- mah and Assam they are found where lightning has thrown them, provided they are dug for after three years.

The ancient Greeks attached a sacred im- portance to them; and attention has been called to the fact that the Egyptian hieroglyph for God is simply the figure of this implement. These beliefs suggest the idea that in nearly all, if not indeed in all parts of the globe which are now civilized, there was a period when the use of stone implements prevailed ; and secondly, that this period is so remote that what were then the common implements of every day life have now for centuries been regarded by the unlearned with superstitious awe, or as being in a certain sense of celestial origin, and not made by hu- man beings.

No. 14 is one of the finest polished and grooved greenstone axes ever found in this sec- tion. It is 714 inches long, 31/4 inches broad at its groove, and weighs 2 pounds and 61/2 ounces. When found on the surface, about a mile east of Cherryville, Northampton county, this state, it was perfect in every part. The lower part of the cutting edge, for the imple- ment is shown on the plate upside down, was marred by careless handling. They are found in abundance in this section, and a general use was made of them by the Indians. Many of them are found showing rough usage. Their edges were so often reground or sharpened at times that nearly the entire blade has been worn away. Cleverly hafted, they would, in stalwart hands, and at close quarters, consti- tute a formidable offensive weapon, whether the blow be delivered from the edge or the head. They vary greatly in size, the small- est being not more than a few inches long and weighing but a few ounces, while the largest often are more than a foot long and weigh as

INDIANS.

much as twenty-six pounds. An axe of this weight was recently found in this state. La- fitau, the French explorer, writes that "They are made of a kind of very hard and tough stone and it requires much labor to make them fit for use. They are prepared by the process of grind- ing on a sandstone, and finally assume, at the sacrifice of much time and labor, nearly the shape of our axes. The life of a savage is often insufficient for accomplishing the work, and hence such an implement, however rude and im- perfect it may be, is considered a precious heir- loom for the children. When the stone is fin- ished the difficulty of providing it with a handle arises. They select a young tree, of which they make a handle without cutting it by splitting one end and inserting the stone. The tree grows, tightens around it, and incloses it so firmly that it can hardly be torn out." Again, a withe of proper length perhaps two feet, was bent around the groove, or a forked sapling served the same purpose, which is firmly bound where both ends met with strings of rawhide or material of some other kind.

When they wished to cut down a tree they, with this implement, bruised the bark close to the ground so that fire placed there might more readily destroy the crushed fibre. In his ac- count of a journey which he took with a party of Algonkins in 1609, the explorer Champlain mentions several times that stone axes were used for felling trees, and the account shows that the cutting must have been done expeditiously. So well did they understand the felling of trees with their grooved stone tools that in a few hours a sufficient number of trees were leveled to form a barricade when necessary.

The medium and smaller sized specimens were no doubt used as battleaxes or tomahawks.

With reference to their grooves they may be classified as follows : I those in which the groove, which is invariably near one end, com- pletely encircles the implement: 2 in which the groove appears only on the two broad sides : 3 those which have three sides grooved like No. 14: 4 those having two parallel grooves sur- rounding the specimen, and 5 those simply notched, which are always rudely made. Some- times are here found axes coarsely made of cobblestones in which the groove is in almost every instance placed in the centre.

Smoking Pipes. The Indian was an inveter- ate smoker, and this habit he taught the Euro- pean. The tobacco plant which he used most in the function of smoking and for a long time before the advent of the whites, was, we are told by reliable writers, indigenous to the North American continent. The first reference to the

use of this plant, although not by name, was that reported to Columbus by two of his men while on his first voyage to the Coast of Cuba. The Genoese mariner believed he had landed on a part of the mainland of Asia. Assured of this he sent with two native guides two of his men, Rodrigo de Jerez of Agramonte, and a learned Jew named Luis de Torras, who spake Chal- dee, Hebrew and a little Arabic, one or other of which languages he thought must be known to the Oriental potentate then ruling. The am- bassadors penetrated twelve leagues into the in- terior when they came to a village of fifty houses and about one thousand inhabitants. Finding no traces of the city and court they ex- pected to see, they returned to their ships. On the way back they saw several of the natives going about with firebrands in their hands, and certain dried herbs which they rolled up in a leaf, and lighting one end, put the other in their mouths and continued inhaling and puffing out the smoke. A roll of this kind they called a "tobacos," which name changed to tobacco, has since been transferred to the weed.

Mixed with tobacco were an almost endless variety of barks, twigs, leaves and roots of plants having narcotic properties. Red sumac leaves and willow bark were used to almost as great an extent as was tobacco. The above mentioned herbs often mixed were at times smoked in pre- ference to tobacco as a prerequisite to the intro- duction of some ceremonial dance or other func- tion. However, when wishing to become stupe- fied or intoxicated they smoked only tobacco. The narcotic influences of this plant gave a cer- tain amount of solace to the smoker when rest- ing in his home. He even carried it with him when on the chase or at war. The Indian be- lieved that tobacco was of divine origin, which came as a direct gift for his especial benefit from the Great Spirit, who also was addicted to the habit of smoking. The pipe therefore came to be regarded as a sacred object, and smoking par- took of the character of a moral, if not of a religious, act. The incense of tobacco was deemed pleasing to the Father of Life, and the ascending smoke was selected as the most suit- able medium of communication with the world of spirits. Without the presence of the pipe, filled with lighted tobacco, there was made no declaration of war nor a treaty of peace. We are told by Catlin, who spent much of his time with the Red people, that "There is no custom more uniformly in constant use among the poor Indians than that of smoking. Nor any other more highly valued. His pipe is his constant companion through life-his messenger of peace ; he pledges his friends through its stem and its

HISTORY OF LEHIGH COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

bowl, and when its care-drowning fumes cease to flow, it takes a place with him in his solitary grave, with his other implements, companions to his long-fancied mild and beautiful hunting- grounds."

Originating somewhere in the torrid zone, near the equator, its cultivation was carried on as far north as the St. Lawrence river. To so change its form that it can no longer be identi- fied with the wild species must have taken ages. Still more protracted must be the artificial pro- pagation causing it to lose its power of independ- ent life, and to rely wholly on man to preserve it from extinction. What numberless ages does this suggest. When and how did the Aborigine first discover its narcotic properties, and then be- gin to cultivate it? How many centuries passed away before it spread over the great extent of territory, nearly a hundred degrees of latitude, and lost all resemblance to its original form ? Who can answer these questions?

The Delawares made their pipes out of dif- ferent kinds of stone and of clay, which they shaped into various forms. They seem however to be rare in this section, which rarity is com- mented upon by Dr. Abbott, who says: "The comparative rarity of Aboriginal smoking pipes is easily explained by the fact that they were not discarded as were weapons, when those by whom they were fashioned entered upon the iron age. The advances of the whites in no way lessened the demand for pipes, nor did the whites sub- stitute a better made implement, therefore the pipes were retained and used until worn out or broken, excepting such as were buried with their deceased owners." Others believe that on account of the scarcity of these smoking imple- ments smoking here was only practiced to a limited extent.

The pipe of the Indians of New Sweden, otherwise Pennsylvania, says Holm, appears to have had a stem equal in length to any on the Continent. They make tobacco pipes out of reeds about a man's length; the bowl is made of horn, and to contain a great quantity of tobacco; they generally present these pipes to their good friends when they come to visit them at their houses and wish them to stay sometime longer ; then the friend can not go away without having a smoke out of the pipe. They make them of red, yellow and blue clay, of which there is great quantity in the country; also of white, gray, green, brown and black and blue stone, which material is so soft that it can be cut with a knife. The long stem stone pipes, a few of which have been picked up in the country inhabited by the Lenapé were drilled by being continually rolled with the right hand on the thigh of the maker,

the left hand holding a piece of shell until drilled through, a tedious bit of work.

Our knowledge of the making of the tools of stone by the American Indians is very limited. The historian Lawson remarks: "Tis a great misfortune that most of our travellers who go to this vast continent of America are persons of the meaner sort and generally of a very slender education, who, being hired by the merchants to trade amongst the Indians, in which voyages they often spend several years, are yet at their return incapable of giving any reasonable ac- count of what they met withal in those remote parts; though the country abounds with curiosi- ties worthy of a nice observation."

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History of Lehigh county, Pennsylvania and a genealogical and biographical record of its families, Vol. I, Part 7

Author: Roberts, Charles Rhoads; Stoudt, John Baer, 1878- joint comp; Krick, Thomas H., 1868- joint comp; Dietrich, William Joseph, 1875- joint comp; Lehigh County Historical Society Publication date: 1914 Publisher: Allentown, Pa. : Lehigh Valley Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 1158

Author: Roberts, Charles Rhoads; Stoudt, John Baer, 1878- joint comp; Krick, Thomas H., 1868- joint comp; Dietrich, William Joseph, 1875- joint comp; Lehigh County Historical Society
Publication date: 1914
Publisher: Allentown, Pa. : Lehigh Valley Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1158