USA > Tennessee > Williamson County > History of Tennessee, from the earliest time to the present; together with an historical and a biographical sketch of Maury, Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson, Bedford and Marshall counties, besides a valuable fund of notes, reminiscences, observations, etc., etc. Vol. 1 > Part 4
USA > Tennessee > Maury County > History of Tennessee, from the earliest time to the present; together with an historical and a biographical sketch of Maury, Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson, Bedford and Marshall counties, besides a valuable fund of notes, reminiscences, observations, etc., etc. Vol. 1 > Part 4
USA > Tennessee > Rutherford County > History of Tennessee, from the earliest time to the present; together with an historical and a biographical sketch of Maury, Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson, Bedford and Marshall counties, besides a valuable fund of notes, reminiscences, observations, etc., etc. Vol. 1 > Part 4
USA > Tennessee > Wilson County > History of Tennessee, from the earliest time to the present; together with an historical and a biographical sketch of Maury, Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson, Bedford and Marshall counties, besides a valuable fund of notes, reminiscences, observations, etc., etc. Vol. 1 > Part 4
USA > Tennessee > Bedford County > History of Tennessee, from the earliest time to the present; together with an historical and a biographical sketch of Maury, Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson, Bedford and Marshall counties, besides a valuable fund of notes, reminiscences, observations, etc., etc. Vol. 1 > Part 4
USA > Tennessee > Marshall County > History of Tennessee, from the earliest time to the present; together with an historical and a biographical sketch of Maury, Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson, Bedford and Marshall counties, besides a valuable fund of notes, reminiscences, observations, etc., etc. Vol. 1 > Part 4
USA > Tennessee > History of Tennessee from the earliest time to the present , together with an historical and a biographical sketch of from twenty-five to thirty counties of east Tennessee, besides a valuable fund of notes, original observations, reminiscences, etc., etc. V. 1 > Part 4
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HISTORY OF TENNESSEE.
ible. When railroads reach these valuable fields, future generations will receive the benefit. The coal of the Etna Mines contains 74.2 per cent of fixed carbon and 21.1 of volatile matter .* The Sewanee coal gives 62 per cent of fixed carbon and 25.41 of volatile matter. The present pro- duction of coke is very great.
Iron Ore .- The deposits of iron ore are of the greatest value. The outcrops where such deposits occur appear in three belts which have been named and described as follows: The eastern iron region which extends through the State with and in front of the Unaka Range; the Dye- stone region, which skirts the eastern base of Cumberland Table-land or Walden's Ridge from Virginia to Georgia, and extends laterally into the valley of East Tennessee from ten to twenty miles, and includes the Sequatchie and Elk Valleys; the western iron region, which occupies & belt of high lands contiguous to the western valley and a part of the valley itself, and extends from Kentucky to Alabama.
The eastern region includes the counties of Johnson, Carter, Sul- livan, Washington, Greene, Cocke, Sevier, Blount, Mouroe, Polk and the entire eastern part of MeMinn. In the valleys and coves of this vast region occur most of the iron ore deposits. The bottoms of the valleys are usually occupied by shales and slates and magnesian limestone of the Knox group, which have been so leached and weathered that ridges and knolls of clay, sand, chert and shaly debris or clay have been formed, and in these masses the iron ore has accumulated. Limonite, by far the most abundant ore of this region, contains, when pure, 59.92 per cent of metallic iron; 25.68 per cent of oxygen and 14.4 per cent of water. The source of limonite is the ferruginous chert of the lithostrotion bed. Practically the percentage of iron is less than 59.92 per cent owing to impurity. This ore occurs both as honey-comb and solid ore and some- times in ochreous and earthy combinations. It occurs in all sizes less than beds ten or fifteen feet in diameter. Generally the most important banks are on knolls, hills or ridges fifty to 200 feet high and often several miles long, and the deposits occur at intervals. The ores in Johnson, Carter and Washington Counties contain lead and zinc. These ores, in- cluding the iron, originated doubtless from the decomposed limestones which contain these elements. The iron ore is of excellent quality and the beds are so numerous that it is estimated that there is sufficient ore to supply an average of three or four extensive works to each of the counties named for a long period of years. Hematite contains 70 per cent of iron and 30 per cent of oxygen. Impurities reduce the amount of iron. The hard, solid ore of this division occurs only in a few places
*Analysis by Prof. Pohle, of New York City.
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HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. 1620303
and in a regular, solid bed. The ore in more or less magnetic and ex- cellent. The Dyestone ore is a stratified fossiliferous iron rock and is composed of flattened oolitic or rounded grains and frequently contains crinoidal buttons. Magnetite, when pure, contains 72.4 per cent of iron and and 27.6 of oxygen. It is a very rare ore, one bed being in Cocke and another in Carter County. It is associated with Sahlite and decom- posing gneissoid rocks and occurs in irregular layers, patches and wedge- shaped masses in the metamorphic group.
On the west side of the valley of East Tennessee is the Dyestone iron . region, which includes a portion or all of the following counties: Han- cock, Claiborne, Grainger, Campbell, Anderson, Roane, Rhea, Meigs, Hamilton, Marion, Sequatchie and Bledsoe. The ore is a distinctly strati- fied red iron stone, a variety of hematite, generally soils the fingers, but is sometimes quarried in blocks. It is highly fossiliferous and upon ex- posure becomes brownish red, though almost scarlet when first mined. This is the main ore of this region and its impurities are sandy and ar- gillaceous matters and carbonate of lime. Numerous banks have been opened. Limonite to a limited extent is found in this region. The mountain ridge containing the Dyestone ore is 150 miles long and its average thickness is over 20 inches. Upon the Cumberland Table-land occur a few beds of clay ironstones. This ore is an impure carbonate of iron and contains 41.25 percent of metallic iron, 11.78 of oxygen, 35.17 carbonic acid and 11.8 of water, etc. Practically 30 to 33 per cent of iron is obtained. It occurs in nodules and balls and is limited in quan- tity. Black band ironstone and limonite are also found scattered over the table-land.
The western iron region includes part or all of the following coun- ties: Lawrence, Wayne, Hardin, Lewis, Perry, Decatur, Hickman. Humphreys, Benton, Dickson, Montgomery and Stewart. The belt is about fifty miles wide and over the entire extent more or less ore occurs. There appear centers where heavy deposits of great value and extent are found. These banks have a high position on the tops or edges of plateau ridges, and owe their origin very probably to the remains of decomposed sandstones before the Central Basin or the valley of West Tennessee was excavated. The banks are from a few feet to 100 feet. Limonite is al- most the only ore, though hematite occurs near Clifton, in Wayne County. Limonite occurs in irregular lumps or hollow concretions called "pots" scattered through the matrix of the debris of the strata of the siliceous group, consisting of angular fragments of half decomposed and often bleached chert and soft sandstones imbedded in clay. This is the bed of the ore. The varieties of this ore are called compact, honey-comb, pot
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HISTORY OF TENNESSEE.
and pipe ores and ocher, the first three being common. The pots vary in size from an orange to two feet in diameter. Pipe ore is worked in Stew- art County. It is estimated that the best banks furnish one-fourth to one-third of the mass removed in iron ore. Its occurrence in banks is irregular-sometimes in pockets, beds, veins, strata, columns, or isolated masses often ten to twenty feet through. Some masses furnish scores of tons of ore. The beds of Hickman are most extensive and valuable and more than twenty banks have been opened. Those of Dickson and Stew- art are next valuable. On the eastern rim of the basin in the counties of White, Warren, Putnam and Overton, corresponding with the deposits of the western belt, limonite of good quality is found. The percentage of pure iron varies from 44 to about 60.
Fossils .- The paleontological features are characteristic and import- ant. Every formation considered in this chapter, except the Unaka. contains fossils, often large, finely preserved and beautiful. As every formation contains, in the main, its own fossils, they become an import- ant factor in identifying the strata. The most fruitful source of fossils in this State are the Trenton and Nashville groups. The following is a list of the genera: Buthotrephis, Stromatopora, Stenopora, Constellaria. Tetradium, Columnaria, Petraia, Cleiocrinus, Dendocrinus, Glyptocrinus, Palæocrinus, Petraster, Ptilodictia, Retepora, Graptolithus, Leptæna, Strophomena, Orthis, Skenidium, Rhynchonella, Triplesia, Avicula, Am- . bonychia, Crytodonta, Ctenodonta, Modiololopsis, Holopea, Cyclonema, Subulites, Eunema, Helicotoma, Maclurea, Trochonema, Pleurotomaria, Murchisonia, Crytolites, Bellerophon, Carinaropsis, Clioderma, Conularia. Salterella, Orthoceras, Cyrtoceras, Lituites, Trocholites, Asaphus, Caly- mene, Cheirurus, Encrinurus, Illaenus, Lichas, Phacops, Dalmanites and Leperditia. Many of these are represented by a half dozen or more species. In the Niagara group occur the following genera: Astylo- spongia, Palæomanon, Artræospongia, Stenopora, Thecostegites, Thecia, Heliolites, Plasmopora, Halysites, Favosites, Cyathophyllum, Petraia. Aulopora, Alveolites, Cladopora, Fenestella, Caryocrinus, Apiocystites, Pentatrematites, Saccocrinus, Platycrinus, Lampterocrinus, Cytocrinus, Eucatyptocrinus, Coccocrinus, Synbathocrinus, Posteriocrinus, Gysto- crinus, Haplocrinus, Calceola, Strophomena, Streptorhynchus, Orthis, Spirifer, Atrypa, Pentamerus, Athyris, Rhynchonella, Platyostoma, Platy- ceras, Cyclonema, Orthoceras, Ceraurus, Spherexochus, Dalmania, Caly- mene and Bumastus. In the Lower Helderberg formation the following are found: Anisophyllum, Favosites, Apiocystites, Leptana, Stropho- mena, Strophodonta, Orthis, Spirifer, Trematospira, Nucleospira, Rhynch- ospira, Leptocolia, Rhynchonella, Atrypa, Merista, Camarium, Eatonia,
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HISTORY OF TENNESSEE.
Pentamerus, Platyostoma, Platyceras, Phacops, Dolmania and Dalmania. In the Lower Carboniferous formation are found the following genera: Spirifer, Orthis, Platyceras, Granatocrinus, Agaricocrinus, Actinocrinus. Cyathocrinus, Icthiocrinus, Lithostrotion, Zaphrentis, Pentremites, Dic- chorinus, Melonites, Hemipronites, Retzia, Rhynchonella, Productus, Conularia, Astræa, Archimedes, Athyris, Terebratula, Aspidodus, Clay- dodus and a few others. The Green Sand of West Tennessee, famous for its beds of fossil shells, contains the following genera so far noticed and named: Platytrochus, Corbula, Crassatella, Astarte, Venilia, Car- dium, Trigonia, Arca, Nucula, Cuculloa, Ctenoides, Pacten, Neithea, Ostrea, Oxogyra, Graphæ, Anomia, Placunanomia, Scalaria, Natica, Volutilithes, Rapa, Auchura, Baculites, Enchodus, Sphyræna, Ischyrhiza. Teredo, Serpula, Rostellaria, Fusus, Turritella and Delphinula. In the Ripley group are the following: Corbula, Venus, Crassatella, Cardita. Leda, Modiola, Ostrea, Gryphæa, Turritella, Natica, Fasciolaria, Nep- tunea, Callianassa, Lamna and crocodilus. In the Bluff loam of West Tennessee are Helix, Planorbis, Cyclas, Amnicola, Lymnea, Succinea. In the Knox group are Crepicephalus. Lonchocephalus, Agnostus, Ling- ula and Pleurotomaria.
The fossil fauna of Tennessee are distinct and characteristic of the strata containing them. In the main Sewanee and Jackson coal horizon occur the following: Neuropteris, Hymenophyllites, Alethopteris, Aster- ophyllites, Calamities, Stigmaria, Sigillaria, Syrigodendron, Lepidoden- dron, Lepidostrobus, Trigonocarpum and Rhabdocarpus, and in the main Etna Sphenopteris, Hymenophyllites and Lepidodendron. and at the base of the coal measures on the Sewanee Railroad the fossil nut: Trigonocarpon. Wood and leaves are found in the Ripley group in West Tennessee. In the Orange sand appear the following genera: Quercus, Laurus, Prunus, Andromeda, Sapotacites, Elæagnus, Salix, Jug- laus, Fagus and Ceanothus. On the west side have been found bones of the extinct Mastodon, Megalonyx, Castor and Castoroides.
Metals .- Copper ore is found at Ducktown. The surface of the coun- try is rolling, and is about 2,000 feet above the sea. Ocoee River crosses this area. The rocks are talcose, chlorite and mica slates, and dip at high angles to the southeast. The ore deposits are great lenticular masses of metal and gangue material, occurring in long ranges or belts, which have been improperly termed veins. These dip at high angles, and upon the surface is gossan, and below it about ten feet are the black copper ores, and further down are other zones containing more or less copper. Numerous mines have been opened since the discovery of copper in 1843. The ores and minerals found are as follows: Copper pyrites, iron pyrites,
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. HISTORY OF TENNESSEE.
magnetic pyrites, copper glauce, zinc blende, galena, orthoclase, albite, tremolite, actinolite, diallage, zoisite, calcite, quartz, rutile, garnet, allo- phane, alisonite, bornite, red copper, malachite, azurite, copperas, blue- stone, black oxide (very valuable), native copper, harrisite, rahtite, limo- nite (gossan). Millions of dollars worth of copper ore have been taken out and shipped away.
Nearly every county in East Tennessee contains galenite in small quantities. In Claiborne and Union Counties it occurs particularly abundant. In the latter county, on Powell's River, between Tazewell and Jacksborough, about sixteen miles from Tazewell, is one of the richest mines. The vein fills a nearly vertical fissure about twenty inches wide, in nearly horizontal rocks, and can be traced nearly a mile. The galenite . is associated with zinc blende and pyrite, and occurs in sheets, two or more, having an aggregated thickness of five to ten inches. This mine is typical of the others. Near Charleston galenite was mined by the earlier races, probably Mound-Builders. Veins of galenite occur also in Middle Tennessee, but are of little importance. An important one occurs in Davidson County, near Haysborough, occurring in a gangue of barite. Galenite has also been found among the limestones of West Tennessee. Smithsonite and calamite, two zinc ores, occur in deposits and irregular veins in the dolomites of the Knox group, the most important being in Union, Claiborne and Jefferson Counties. The Steiner locality in Union County is important. The ore outcrops in a belt fifty or sixty feet wide, and runs across a low ridge. Through this ore small veins of Smithsonite and calamite ramify. Gold occurs in East Tennessee in the sands and gravels of creeks which flow over the metamorphic slates of the Ocoee group, and could doubtless be found in the quartz veins of the same group. .It has been found in Blount, Monroe and Polk Counties. The most has been found on Coca Creek and vicinity, in Polk County, in a tract eight or ten miles long by two or three wide. Gold was first discovered in 1831. Soon afterward the field was thoroughly explored, and up to 1853 $46,023 in gold of this locality was deposited in the United States Mint. This gold is derived from the decomposed quartz veins, and has been washed into creek valleys. A quartz bearing gold has lately been found in Whip-poor-will Creek, the metal appearing in grains or scales in the quartz.
Lignite is found in beds in the Mississippi bluffs, and is a mass of dark grayish, laminated, micaceous sand, with lignitic, woody fragments, *sticks, leaves, etc. It is also found in Carter County and a few other places. Crude petroleum and allied substances have been worked with profit in various places in Tennessee. Maury, Jackson, Overton, Dickson, Wilson, Montgomery, Hickman and other counties furnish it.
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HISTORY OF TENNESSEE.
The black shale is a great source of these oils, the richest producing from thirty to forty gallons of oil to the ton. The Spring Creek, Over- ton County, wells have yielded most. Thousands of barrels of crude petroleum have been pumped, salt mines have been worked on Calfkiller Creek, and in Anderson, Warren, Van Buren, Overton, Jackson and else- where. Sulphur springs occur in some localities. Nitre is found in the numerous caves of the limestones of the table-land. Alum is obtained from the black shale. Epsom salts is found in the caves. Gypsum ap- pears in several caves. Barite is found. Copperas was formerly exten- sively made from the protoxide of iron (pyrites) thrown out at the Duck- worth copper mines, also sulphate of copper. Iron pyrites is often found. Black manganese is often found associated with limonite.
Marble .- The marbles are very valuable, and are already a great source of wealth. They have been divided as follows: 1, reddish varic- gated fossiliferous marble; 2, whitish variegated fossiliferous marble; 3, dull, variegated magnesian marble; 4, black and dark-blue marbles; 5, breccia and conglomerate marbles. The first is the most important and occurs in East, Middle and West Tennessee. Beds have been opened in Henry County, also in Benton and Decatur. In Franklin County are ex- tensive beds. In White County a clouded white marble is obtained. In the valley of East Tennessee the reddish marble occurs in Hawkins, Han- cock, Grainger, Jefferson, Knox, Roane, Blount, Monroe, McMinn and Bradley, and to a more limited extent in Meigs, Anderson, Union and Campbell. It has been extensively quarried, and is a variegated crin- oidal and coralline limestone colored grayish-white or brownish-red and sometimes pinkish or greenish-red. The most common color is brownish- red more or less mottled with white or gray clouds or spots, due to corals. Large quantites are mined and shipped. It possesses great properties of weather durability and resistance to pressure. The whitish marble is a coralline, sparry gray-whitish rock, much of the white ground being mottled with pink or reddish spots. There is no superior building stone in the State than this variety. The other varieties are rarer, but all are good. From the gneiss and white quartz stones of the metamorphic group excellent mill-stones are obtained. The chert of the Knox dolo- mite furnishes fine mill-stones. The Ocoee group produces the best roofing slates. Hydraulic limestone and fire-clay abound. Sulphur, chalybeate, Epsom and alum springs abound. Sulphur springs originate in the black shale.
Temperature .-- It has been found, through many years' observation. that the mean annual temperature of the Valley of East Tennessee is about 57 degrees, of the Central Basin 58. and of West Tennessee 593 to 60 de-
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HISTORY OF TENNESSEE.
grees, through the central part of the State, east and west. The average annual minimum temperature of Middle Tennessee is 2 degrees, and the average maximum temperature about 94 degrees. The average length of the growing season, between the last killing frost of spring and the first of autumn, is about 194 days. In East Tennessee it is a few days less. Southerly winds are most prevalent, then northerly, and easterly and westerly about the same. The quantity of rain and melted snow varies annually from 43 to 55 inches. These estimates are the best that can be given from the limited observations made in the past.
Elevations .- The principal elevations above the sea are as follows, in feet: Stone Mountain range -- Cat Face Mountain, 4,913; State Gap, 3,400; Taylorsville, 2,395; State line in Watauga Valley, 2,131; Yellow and Roane range-Yellow Mountain, 5,158; Little Yellow, 5, 196; Roane-Cold Spring, 6,132; Grassy Ridge Bald, 6,230; High Knob, 6,306; High Bluff, 6,296; Bald Mountain range-Bald Mountain, 5,550; Jonesborough. 1734; Big Butt range-highest points over 5,000 feet; Greenville depot, 1,581; Great Smoky range-Warm Springs, N. C., 1,335; piazza of hotel, Tennessee line on French Broad, 1,264; Indian Grove Gap, 4,288; Man Patch Gap, 4,392; Bear Wallow Mountain, 4,659; Luftee Knob, 6,238; Thermometer Knob, 6,157; Raven's Knob, 6,230; Tricorner Knob. 6,188; Mount Guyot, 6,636; Mount Henry, 6,373; Mount Alexander, 6,447; South Peak, 6,299; highest peak of Three Brothers, 5,907; Thun- der Knob, 5,682; Laurel Peak, 5,922; Reinhardt Gap, 5,220; top of Richland Ridge, 5,492; Indian Gap, 5,317; Peck's Peak, 6,232; Mount Ocona, 6,135; New Gap, 5,096; Mount Mingus, 5,694; Bullhead group -Mount Le Conte (central peak), 6.612; Mount Curtis (west peak), 6,568; Mount Safford, 6,535; Cross Knob, 5,931; Neighbor, 5,771: Master Knob, 6,013; Tomahawk Gap, 5,450; Alum Cave, 4,971; Rood Gap, 5,271; Mount Collins, 6,188; Collins' Gap, 5,720; Mount Love, 6,443; Clingman's Dome, 6,660; Mount Buckley, 6,599; Chimzey Knob, 5,588; Big Stone Mountain, 5,614; Big Cherry Gap, 4,838; Corner Knob, 5,246; Forney Ridge Peak, 5,087; Snaky Mountain, 5,195; Thun- derhead Mountain, 5,520; Eagletop, 5,433; Spence Cabin, 4,910; Turkey Knob, 4,740; Opossum Gap, 3,840; North Bald, 4,711; Central Peak of Great Bald, 4,922; South Peak, 4,708; Tennessee River at Hardin's, 899; Chilhowee Mountain, 2,452: Montvale Springs, 1,293; between Little Tennessee and Hiwassee-Hangover Knob, over 5,300; Haw Knob, over 5,300; Beaver Dam or Tellico Bald, 4,266; south of the Hiwassee the elevation of the chain is reduced to 3,000 to 3,400 feet; Frog Mountain is about 4,226 feet; the Ducktown copper region is about 2,000 feet high.
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HISTORY OF TENNESSEE.
Along the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railway the eleva- tions are as follows: Bristol, 1,678; Union, 1,457; Carter, 1,474; John- son's, 1,643; summit between Chucky and Watauga, 1,841; Jones- borough, 1,736; Limestone, 1,419; Fullens, 1,489; Greeneville, 1,581; Bull's Gap, 1,214; Russellville, 1,260; Morristown, 1,283; Strawberry Plains, 906; Knoxville, 89S; Loudon, 819; Athens, 993; Hiwassee River at low water, 684; Cleveland, 878; State line between Tennessee and Georgia, S37; also Clinton, 847; Chattanooga, railroad grade, 675; Tennessee River at Chattanooga, 642; Cumberland Gap, 1,636; Pinna- cle (near gap), 2,680; Elk Gap (surface), 1,702; Cross Mountain Point, 3,370; Gap, 2,875; Cove Creek, 1,041; average bottom of Elk Fork Valley, 1,200; Pine Mountain, 2,200 to 2,400; Tellico Mountain, 2,000 to 2,700; Crab Orchard Mountain, about 3,000; flat summit of Lookout Mountain, 2,154; Raccoon Mountain, back of Whiteside depot, 1,900; Tracy City, 1,847; highest ridges near Tracy City, 2,161; summit of Ben. Lomond, 1,910; Tullahoma (grade), 1,070; creek at Manchester, 996; McMinville (depot), 912; Sparta, station, 945; Livingston, station, 966; Hickory Nut Mountain, about 1,400; Murfreesboro depot, 583; Nashville depot grade, 435. Nashville, low water in Cumberland, 365; Springfield grade, 659; Gallatin surface, 528; Franklin depot, 642; Columbia depot, 657; Mount Pleasant (creek), 625; Palo Alto, 1,025; Pulaski, 648; Kingston Station, 506; highest point on the railroad west from Nashville to the Tennessee River, 915; lowest point on the grade at the Tennessee River, 368; Grand Junction on the west side, 575; Middle- ton, 407; Moscow, 351; Germantown, 378, Memphis, 245; low water of the Mississippi at Memphis, 170; Obion River on the Ohio & Mississippi Railroad (grade), 287; Bolivar, 430; Medon, 420; Jackson, 459.
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HISTORY OF TENNESSEE.
CHAPTER II.
THE MOUND-BUILDERS-EVIDENCES OF PRE-HISTORIC OCCUPATION -- ARGUMENTS OF BANCROFT AND HILDRETH -- DEDUCTIONS OF JUDGE HAYWOOD-COM- PARISON OF ANCIENT RACES AND CUSTOMS-THE SUN WORSHIPERS -- THE NATCHEZ TRIBE - CLASSIFICATION OF EARTHWORKS - REPRESENTATIVE MOUNDS OF TENNESSEE-THE "STONE FORT"-CONTENTS OF THE WORKS -- THEIR GREAT AGE.
A T the time of the discovery of the present State of Tennessee by white people, the larger part of it, as well as the larger part of the State of Kentucky, was unoccupied by any Indian tribe. The reason of this state of things will appear as the reader proceeds. But although then unoccupied there were found abundant evidences not only of the former presence of Indian tribes but of a still more dense and ancient population, possessing a higher degree of civilization, a more highly de- veloped condition of art, agriculture, warfare and religion, than anything of the kind pertaining to any of the aboriginal or Indian tribes, as they are called. These evidences consist of mounds of various shapes and kinds. of fortifications and of burying-grounds, of their contents, relics and re- mains still to be found throughout the valley of the Mississippi, and of the valleys of its tributaries from the Alleghany to the Rocky Mountains. and from the Gulf of Mexico to the great lakes, all of which relics and re- mains will be appropriately noticed in the proper connection. But from the existence and frequency of the occurrence of these mounds, the origin and history of which were at least as inexplicable to the aboriginal Indian tribes, as to their more intelligent and inductive successors, their erectors and constructors for want of a better name, have been by American histor- ians generally called the " Mound Builders."
The most conspicuous exception to this rule is the venerable Bancroft. whose opinions, even if occasionally erronous, are eminently worthy of profound respect. To the historian and especially to the antiquarian. even if in less degree to the general student and reader, is the inquiry pertinent as to the origin of the first inhabitants of America. Bancroft many years ago wrote: "To aid this inquiry the country east of the Missis- sippi has no monuments. The numerous mounds which have been discov- ered in the alluvial valleys of the West, have by some been regarded as the works of an earlier and more cultivated race of men, whose cities have been laid waste, whose language and institutions have been destroyed, or driven
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HISTORY OF TENNESSEE.
nway; but the study of the structure of the earth strips this imposing theory of its marvels. Where imagination fashions relics of artificial walls, geol- ogy sees but crumbs of decaying sandstone, clinging like the remains of mortar to blocks of green stone that rested on it; it discovers in parallel in- trenchments, a trough that subsiding waters have ploughed through the center of a ridge; it explains the tessellated pavement to be but a layer of pebbles aptly joined by water; and, on examining the mounds, and finding. them composed of different strata of earth, arranged horizontally to the very edge, it ascribes their creation to the Power that shaped the globe into vales and hillocks. When the waters had gently deposited their al- luvial burden on the bosom of the earth it is not strange that of the fan- tastic forms shaped by the eddies, some should resemble the ruins of a fortress; that the channel of a torrent should seem even like walls that connected a town with its harbor; that natural cones should be esteemed monuments of inexplicable toil. But the elements as they crumble the mountain, and scatter the decomposed rocks, do not measure their action as men measure the labor of their hands. The hunters of old, as more recently the monks of La Trappe, may have selected a mound as the site of their dwellings, the aid to their rude fortifications, their watch-towers for gaining a vision of God, or more frequently than all as their burying places. Most of the northern tribes, perhaps all, preserved the bones of their fathers; and the festival of the dead was the greatest ceremony of Western faith. When Nature has taken to herself her share in the con- struction of the symmetrical hillocks, nothing will remain to warrant the inference of a high civilization that has left its abodes or died away-of an earlier acquaintance with the arts of the Old World. That there have been successive irruptions of rude tribes may be inferred from the insulated fragments of nations which are clearly distinguished by their language. The mounds in the valley of the Mississippi have also been used; the smal- Jer ones perhaps, have been constructed as burial places of a race, of which the peculiar organization, as seen in the broader forehead, the larger fac- ial angle, the less angular figure of the orbits of the eye, the more narrow nose, the less evident projection of the jaws, the smaller dimensions of the palatine fossa, the flattened occiput, bears a surprisingly exact resem- blance to that of the race of nobles who sleep in the ancient tombs of Peru. Retaining the general characteristics of the red race, they differ obviously from the present tribes of Miamis and Wyandots. These moldering bones from hillocks which are crowned by trees that have de- fied the storms of many centuries, raise bewildering visions of migrations of which no tangible traditions exist; but the graves of earth from which they are dug, and the feeble fortifications that are sometimes found in
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