Indiana County, Pennsylvania, her people, past and present, Volume I, Part 4

Author: Stewart, Joshua Thompson, 1862- comp
Publication date: 1913
Publisher: Chicago, J. H. Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 930

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HISTORY OF INDIANA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

day, no bird is heard to sing, and no flower ther. Even the faithful dog, the only stead- expands its leaves to the sun-as well as from their immense extent. In the steppes of Rus- sia, the oriental plain of Tartary, the traveler, did not his reason correct the illusion of his senses, at the rising and setting of the sun might imagine himself in the midst of a boundless ocean, so vast, so level and monoto- nous is the prospect around him. What must be the awful sublimity of the immense regions of polar solitude, where the distant sun re- fleets his dazzling rays from plains of snow and mountains of ice !

The valley of the Mississippi, whose eastern and western boundaries are the Allegheny and Rocky Mountains, the northern the chain of lakes which separate us from Canada, and the southern the Gulf of Mexico, in addition to the imposing grandeur of its vast extent, is an immense region of animal and vegetable life, in all its endless varieties. In all this vast extent of country no mountain rears its towering head to vary the scenery and afford a resting place for the clouds, no volcano vomits forth its smoke, flame and lava in sublime but destructive grandeur. Even those portions of this valley which in ages past were the beds of lakes, but have been drained by the sinking of the rivers, present a rich vegetable mould.

This great country seems to have been designed by Divine Providence for the last resort of oppressed humanity. A fruitful soil, under a variety of climates, supplies abundantly all the wants of life, while our geographical situation renders us unconquer- able. From this place of refuge we may hear, as harmless thunder, the military convulsions of other quarters of the globe, without feeling their concussions. Vice and folly may con- quer us; the world never can. Happy region ! large and fertile enough for the abode of many millions. Here the hungry may find bread, and conscience the full possession of its native rights.

fast companion of man among the brute crea- tion, partook of the silence of the desert; the discipline of his master forbade him to bark, or move, except in obedience to his command; his native sagacity soon taught him the pro- priety of obedience to this severe government. The day was, if possible, more solitary than the night. The noise of the wild turkey, the croaking of the raven, or "the woodpecker tapping the hollow beech tree," did not much enliven the dreary scene. The various tribes of singing birds are not inhabitants of the desert; they are not carnivorous and there- fore must be fed from the labors of man. At any rate, they did not exist in this country at its first settlement.

Let the imagination of the reader pursue the track of the adventurer into this solitary wilderness, bending his course towards the setting sun, over undulating hills, under the shade of large forest trees, and wading through the rank weeds and grass which then covered the earth. Now viewing from the top of a hill the winding course of the creek whose route he wishes to explore, doubtful of its course, and of his own, he ascertains the cardinal points of north and south by the thickness of the moss and bark on the north and south side of the ancient trees; now de- scending into a valley and presaging his approach to a river by seeing large ash, bass- wood, and sugar trees, beautifully festooned with wild grapevines. Watchful as Argus, his restless eye catches everything around him. In an unknown region, and surrounded with dangers, he is the sentinel of his own safety, and relies on himself alone for protec- tion. The toilsome march of the day being ended, at the fall of night he seeks for safety some narrow, sequestered hollow, and by the side of a large log builds a fire, and, after eating his coarse and scanty meal, wraps him- self up in his blanket and lays him down on his bed of leaves, with his feet to the little fire, for rest, hoping for favorable dreams dog and gun repose by his side.

One prominent feature of a wilderness is auguring future good luck, while his faithful its solitude. Those who plunged into the bosom of this forest left behind them not only But let not the reader suppose that the pilgrim of the wilderness could feast his imagination with the romantic beauties of nature without any drawback from conflict- ing passions. His situation did not afford him much time for contemplation. He was an exile from the warm clothing and plentiful mansions of society. His homely woodsman's dress soon became old and ragged; the crav- the busy hum of men, but domestic animal life generally. The departing rays of the setting sun did not receive the requiem of the feathered songsters of the grove, nor was the blushing aurora ushered in by the shrill clarion of the domestic fowls. The solitude of the night was interrupted only by the howl of the wolf, the melancholy moan of the ill- boding owl, or the frightful shriek of the pan- ings of hunger compelled him to sustain from

HISTORY OF INDIANA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

day to day the fatigues of the chase. Often had he to eat his vension, bear meat or wild turkey without bread or salt. Nor was this all; at every step the strong passions of hope and fear were in full exercise. Eager in the pursuit of his game, his too much excited imagination sometimes presented to him the phantom object of his chase in a bush, a log, or mossy bank, and occasioned him to waste a load of his ammunition, more precious than gold, on a creature of his own brain, and he repaid himself the expense by making a joke of his mistake. His situation was not without its dangers. He did not know at what tread his foot might be stung by a serpent, at what moment he might meet with the formidable bear, or, if in the evening, he knew not on what limb of a tree, over his head, the mur- derous panther might be perched, in a squat- ting attitude, ready to drop down upon him and tear him to pieces in a moment. When watching a deer licking from his blind at night the formidable panther was often his rival in the same business, and if, by his growl, or otherwise, the man discovered the presence of his rival, the lord of the world always retired as speedily and secretly as pos- sible, leaving him the undisturbed possession of the chance of game for the night.

The wilderness was a region of supersti- tion. The adventurous hunter sought for prophecies of his future good or bad luck in everything about him. Much of his success depended on the state of the weather; snow and rain were favorable, because in the former he could track his game, and the latter prevented them from hearing the rustling of the leaves beneath his feet. The appearance of the sky, morning and evening, gave him the signs of the times with regard to the weather. So far he was a philosopher. Per- haps he was aided in his prognostics on this subject by some old rheumatic pain, which he called his weather clock. Say what you please about this, doctors, the first settlers of this country were seldom mistaken in this latter indication of the weather. The croaking of a raven, the howling of a dog, and the screech of an owl, were as prophetic of future mis- fortunes among the first adventurers into this country as they were amongst the ancient pagans; but above all, their dreams were re- garded as ominous of good or ill fortune. Often when a boy I heard them relate their dreams, and the events which bore out their indications. With some of the woodsmen there were two girls of their acquaintance who were regarded as the goddesses of their

good or bad lack. If they dreamed of the one, they were sure of good fortune; if of the other, they were equally sure of the bad. How much love or aversion might have had to do in this case I cannot say, but such was the fact.

Let not the reader be surprised at the superstition which existed among the first adventurers into the western wilderness. Superstition in all those who occupy perilous situations in life is universally associated with ignorance. The comets used to be con- sidered harbingers of war. The sea captain nails an old horseshoe to the foot of the mast of his ship to prevent storms. The Germans used to nail the horseshoe on the doorsill to prevent the intrusion of witches. The Ger- man soldier recites a charm at the rising of the sun, when in the course of the day he expects to be engaged in battle, by the means of which he fancies that he fortifies himself against the contact of balls of every descrip- tion. Charms, incantations and amulets have constituted a part of the superstition of all ages and nations. Philosophy alone can banish their use.

The passion of fear excited by danger, the parent of superstitution, operated power- fully on the first adventurers into this coun- try. Exiled from society and the comforts of life, their situation was perilous in the extreme. The bite of a serpent, a broken limb, a wound of any kind, or a fit of sickness in the wilderness, without those accommoda- tions which wounds and sickness require, was a dreadful calamity. The bed of sickness without medical aid, and, above all, to be destitute of the kind attention of mother, sister, wife, or other female friends, those ministering angels in the wants and afflictions of man, was a situation which could not be anticipated by the tenant of the forest with other sentiments than those of the deepest horror.

Many circumstances concurred to awaken in the mind of the early adventurer into this country the most serious and even melancholy reflections. He saw everywhere around him indubitable evidences of the former existence of a large population of barbarians, which had long ago perished from the earth. Their arrowheads furnished him with guu flints; stone hatchets, pipes, and fragments of earth- enware, were found in every place. The re- mains of their rude fortifications were met with in many places, some of them of con- siderable extent and magnitude. Seated on the summit of some sepulchral mound con-

HISTORY OF INDIANA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

taining the ashes of tens of thousands of the plete an overthrow, and made the whole of this country an immense Golgotha."

dead, he said to himself: "This is the grave, and this, no doubt, the temple of worship of Such was the aspect of this country at its first discovery, and such the poor and haz- ardous lot of the first adventurers into the bosoms of the forests. How widely different is the aspect of things now, and how changed for the better the conditions of its inhab- itants! If such important changes have taken place in so few years, and with such a long succession of generations long since molded into dust; these surrounding valleys were once animated by their labors, hunting and wars, their songs and dances; but obliv- ion has drawn her impenetrable veil over their whole history. No lettered page, no sculptured monument, informs who they were, whence they came, the period of their exist- slender means, what immense improvements ence, or by what fearful catastrophe the may we not reasonably anticipate for the iron hand of death has given them so com- future !

CHAPTER II

REMAINS OF AN EXTINCT PEOPLE

The western country, in common with al- rudely made, but many of them of very most every other region of the earth, exhibits fanciful shapes. The existence of these pipes shows very clearly that the practice of smok- ing acrid substances is of great antiquity. Before the use of tobacco the Indians smoked the inner bark of the red willow mixed with sumac leaves. They do so still, when they cannot procure tobacco. evidences of a numerous population which must have existed and perished long anterior to the period of history. The evidences of the most remote population of our country are found only in the few and rude remains of their works which have escaped the ravages of time. Such of these antiquities as have come under the notice of the author shall be described, with some remarks upon them.

Arrowheads, at the first settlement of the

country, were found everywhere. These were made of flint stone, of various sizes and colors, and shaped with great skill and neat- ness. Their fabrication required more skill and labor than that of making our ordinary gun flints. From the great numbers of these arrow points, found all over the country, it is presumable that they must have been in general use by a large population, and for a great length of time. The author has never been informed whether, at the discovery and settlement of America by the Europeans, the Indians were in the habit of using them. Some of these arrow points were of great size and weight, so that those who used them must have been gigantic fellows, and of great muscular strength. For a long time after the settlement of the country the Indian arrow- heads furnished the main supply of gun flints for our hunters and warriors, many of whom preferred them to imported flints. The ar- row points have nearly vanished from the country.

Some fragments of a rude kind of earthen- ware were found in some places. It was made of potter's earth mixed with calcined shells, and burnt to a proper hardness. This ware was no doubt used for cooking.

Some rude trinkets of copper have been found in some of the Indian graves. These, however, were but few in number, and ex- hibited no skill in the art of working metals. Many years ago I procured ten copper beads, which were found in one of the smaller graves. The whole number found at the time was about sixty. They appeared to have been made of hammered wire, cut off at unequal lengths, and in some of them the ends were not more than half their surface in contact, and so soldered.

The ancient forts, as they are called, are generally found in the neighborhood of the large graves along the river, and mostly on the first alluvion of their bottoms. They are of all shapes and various dimensions. They have been so often described by various authors that a deseription of them is not necessary here. Whether they were really fortifications, or ordinary inclosures of their towns, is not so certain. It is said to have been a common practice among the Indians

Stone pipes and hatchets were frequently found here in early times. The pipes were of Missouri to inclose a piece of ground,

HISTORY OF INDIANA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

which they intended for a town, with stock- same kind, but wholly of stone. Peru and ades on each side of which they threw up a Mexico contain a vast number of those mound of earth, and that when one of their mounds, of all shapes and of large dimensions. Lastly, the famous pyramids of Egypt have been ascertained to be sepulchral edifices. In all probability they are coeval with the sepulchral monuments of other quarters of the globe already mentioned. They were de- signed for the last and permanent exhibition of the regal grandeur of those monarchs by whom they were successively erected. towns has been so long deserted that the stockading has rotted down, the remaining mound of earth has precisely the same ap- pearance as one of the ancient forts. If this was their origin, and most probably it was, they were fortifications in the same degree that the walls of all ancient towns and cities were, and not otherwise.

The sepulchral mounds make by far the greatest figure among the antiquities of our country. In point of magnitude some of them are truly sublime and imposing monuments of human labor, providing for the burial of the dead.

Most of the writers on the antiquities of our country represent the sepulchral mounds under consideration as peculiar to America. Were such the fact, they would be objects of great curiosity indeed, as their belonging ex- clusively to this quarter of the globe would go to show that the aborigines of America were different from all other nations of the earth, at least in their manner of disposing of their dead. But the fact is not so. The his- tory of these ancient sepulchers of the dead embraces Europe, Asia and Africa, as well as North and South America. Large groups of these mounds are met with in many places between St. Petersburg and Moscow in Rus- sia. When the people of that country are asked if they have any tradition concerning them, they answer in the negative. They suppose that they are the graves of men slain in battle; but when or by whom constructed, they have no knowledge. Near the mouth of the river Don there is a group of five mounds which from time immemorial have been denominated The Five Brothers. Similar mounds are very numerous along the shores of the Black Sea, and those of the Sea of Azof, and throughout the whole country of Crimea. They are found throughout ancient Greece. In the neighborhood of ancient Troy there are several of them nearly as large as any in America. The mound described by Robbins, in the vicinity of Wadinoon in Africa, is certainly an ancient sepulchral mound although he calls it a natural one. This is the more probable as the remains of fortifications or town walls, similar to those in our country, exist in abundance in the neighborhood of Wadinoon. On the hills near Cambridge in England are shown two large barrows as the tombs of Gog and Magog. The cairns of Scotland are structures of the

The great number and magnitude of the sepulchral monuments of antiquity serve to show that, during the time of their erection over so large a portion of the earth, mankind generally must have been actuated by a strong desire to preserve the remains of the dead from dissolution, and their names and re- nown as far as possible from oblivion. The extensive catacombs of Egypt, Syracuse and Palestine are fully illustrative of the general wish for the preservation of the body after death. and posthumous fame. What must have been the labor and expense of excavating limestone or marble rocks to such vast extent and with such exquisite workmanship for the purpose of furnishing elegant and imperish- able recesses for the dead !

The ancient Egyptians held the first rank among the nations of antiquity, for their care and skill in preserving the remains of their dead. To the most splendid and extensive catacombs, they added the practice of em- balming their bodies. many of which have so far escaped the ravages of time. These em- balmed bodies, preserved from putrefaction by cerates and bandages of linen, are still found, sometimes in solitary cells, and some- times in large numbers. in newly discovered catacombs ; but for want of letters, their early history has vanished forever.

While the ancient Egyptians skillfully pre- served the individual bodies of their dead, other nations were in the practice of collect- ing the bones of their people and depositing them in sepulchral monuments of a national character. Nearly all the sepulchral mounds which have been thoroughly opened, in Asia and America, contain, about the center of the bottom, a coffin, or vault of stone, con- taining but one skeleton. This, we may rea- sonably suppose, was the sarcophagus of the patriarch, or first monarch of the tribe or nation to which the sepulcher belonged. Thenceforward all his people were deposited in the grave of the founder of the nation. In process of time, the steadily increasing mound became the national history. Its age

HISTORY OF INDIANA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

was the age of the nation, and its magnitude lower bottoms of our rivers, but always on gave the census of their relative numbers, the second or highest alluvion; and such is and military force, with regard to other na- * tions about them. What a sublime spectacle to the people to whom it belonged must one of those large sepulchers have been! The remains of the first chief of the nation, with his people, and their successors, through many generations, reposing together in the same tomb !

It is a well-known fact that some nations of Indians, ever since the settlement of America by the Europeans, have been in the habit of collecting the bones of their dead, from every quarter, for the purpose of de- positing them, with those of their people, at their chief towns. This must have been the general practice during the time of the erec- tion of the large ancient graves of our coun- try; for the bones found in those of them which have been opened have been thrown promiscuously together in large collections, as if emptied out of baskets or bags.

Besides the large graves, smaller ones are found in many remote places, far from the large mounds and all traces of ancient forts. Most of these are made wholly of stone, and for the most part contain but a single skele- ton. Were these solitary mounds erected to the memory of the individual whose remains they cover? Such appears to have been the fact. That a similar custom prevailed among the ancient Hebrews we have evidence in the burial of Absalom, the rebellious son of David, who although unworthy of a place in the royal sepulcher, was nevertheless honored with such a rude monument of stones as we often meet with in our country. After he was slain by Joab, the commander in chief of his father's army, "They took Absalom and cast him into a great pit in the wood, and cast a very great heap of stones upon him."

From all these facts, it appears that the strong desire of posthumous fame induced those nations amongst whom the art of writ- ing was unknown to preserve the remem- brances of their chiefs, or friends, by ereet- ing over their dead bodies a heap of earth, or a pile of stones, as well as to make the con- gregated dead of many generations a national monument and a national record.

The great antiquity of the monuments in question may be ascertained by many facts which cannot fail to strike the notice of an attentive observer of the relics of antiquity. In America, so far as the author knows, none of the large mounds is found on the first or

their situation in Europe and Asia. * * Their locations, mainly along the large rivers and on the shores of lakes, betoken the primeval state of nations. As the spoils of the water are more easily obtained than those of the forest, and these last more easily than the productions of the earth, the first em- ployment of man must have been that of fish- ing, and his first food the production of the waters.

These mounds and forts are not found in any great numbers along the shores of the main oceans. This circumstance goes to show that those by whom they were made were not in the practice of navigating the great seas. That their existence is of higher antiquity than the commencement of the period of his- tory is evident from the fact that none of them contains a single inscription of any kind.

Another evidence of the great age of these rude remains of antiquity is this: There ex- ists nowhere even a traditionary account of their origin. At the earliest period of the Grecian history they were supposed to be the graves of giants. After what lapse of time does tradition degenerate into fable! At what period of time does fable itself wear out, and consign all antiquity to a total and acknowl- edged oblivion! All this has happened with regard to the antiquities under consideration.

From all these considerations, it appears that any inquiry concerning the history of the antiquities of our country would be a fruitless research. "Close shut those graves, nor tell a single tale," concerning the numer- ous population whose relics they inclose.

The antiquities of our country do not pre- sent to the mind of the author the slightest evidence that this quarter of the world was ever inhabited by a civilized people before it was discovered by the Europeans. They present no traces of the art of building, sculp- ture or painting; not a stone marked with a hammer is anywhere to be found. It is sup- posed by some that the aborigines of this country were in the habit of using iron tools and implements of war; that such was the fact appears very doubtful. There can exist no specimens of iron coeval with the antiq- uities of this country, as iron, in almost any situation, is liable to rust and pass to its primitive state of ore. At the discovery of America the Indians knew nothing of the use of iron. Any people who have ever been in the habit of using iron will be sure to leave

HISTORY OF INDIANA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

some indelible traces of its use behind them; are they only varnished like the whited but the aborigines of this country have left sepulcher and placed under concealment, so none.

Barbarians, in many instances, have pos- sessed, and do still possess, the art of writing; but it is not to be presumed that a civilized people ever were destitute of that art. The original inhabitants of this country pos- sessed it not, or they would certainly have left some traces of it behind them.

* * *

After having passed in review the antiqui- ties of our country, particularly the melan- choly monuments of the ancient dead, what have we gained ? Simply this, that the gen- erations of remote antiquity were everywhere the same, at least in their reverence for the dead, whose monuments constitute almost the only history which they have left behind them ; and that, for want of letters, and other testimonials of arts and sciences, we are war- ranted in saying that their state of society must have been that which we denominate the barbarous; yet their history, rude as it is, is entitled to respect. They were no doubt the antediluvian race; they were the primeval fathers of mankind, the immediate progen- itors of our race, to whom the munificent Creator gave dominion over the "fish of the sea, the fowl of the air, and every living thing that moveth upon the earth." From them we have inherited our existence and our charter to this possession of the world. Even the barbarous state of society is entitled to re- spect ; for barbarism has its virtues.

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Indiana County, Pennsylvania, her people, past and present, Volume I, Part 4

Author: Stewart, Joshua Thompson, 1862- comp Publication date: 1913 Publisher: Chicago, J. H. Beers & co. Number of Pages: 930

Author: Stewart, Joshua Thompson, 1862- comp
Publication date: 1913
Publisher: Chicago, J. H. Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 930