History of Buffalo County Wisconsin 10847607, Part 6

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THE MOUND BUILDERS.

This is the name of a race, of which numerous traces remain, mostly in the shape of larger or smaller mounds, conjectured vari- ously to have been the ancestors of the Aztecs; the original immi- grants from Asia by way of Behring Strait; the descendants of the Welshmen, who crossed the ocean with a fleet under a Captain Madoc; some people saved by forethought or accident when the Atlantis, the supposed connection of Africa and America was sunk beneath the water of the ocean; the lost tribes of the Israel- ites; and so forth, as fancy or prejudice may lead people in their explanations of the indisputable relics of a race, of which its mysterious disappearance is not the least perplexing character- istic. To enter at length upon the subject and the different hypo- theses concerning that people and its monuments can not be my intention, so much the less, because we have no authenticated mo- numents of its presence in this county or its immediate neighbor- hood. One thing seems to be conceded: the Mound-builders were not the ancestors of that Indian race, which was in possession of the country at the time of its discovery by the Europeans. The reasons for this assertion or belief are two: 1. The Indians had no traditions of a race that was in possession of the land before their own race, and knew nothing of the purposes for which the monuments or mounds seem to have been constructed. 2. The mounds or monuments contain almost incontestable proofs of .a higher civilization than that of the Indians, to have been prevalent among the mysterious Mound-builders. It might be said that this civilization was lost in the lapse of a long time, as there are instances of whole nations receding from the high standard of a civilization once attained, but these instances are not very numer- ous nor the changes quite so marked and radical.

The French, the earliest pioneers in the northern and north- western part of this continent, seem to have taken no special notice of these mounds. Their missionaries had seen among the Hurons how such hills originated, and probably concluded that all of them had the same origin. To Captain Jonathan Carver the

THE MOUND BUILDERS.

credit seems to belong, to have first called the attention of civilized or educated men to the existence of the monuments in question. He had no propensity for rooting among them, nor was archaeo- logy at that time addicted to the use of the spade as it now is, or perhaps this science did not not form any part of his stock of in- formation. Among such monuments described by him one is within the horizon of our county, at Wabasha, Minnesota. For that reason I will transcribe his description, without, however, vouching for the perfect reliability of the source, from which, for want of a better, I had to take it. He says:

" One day I walked some miles below Lake Pepin to take a view of the adjacent country. I had not proceeded far, before I came to a fine, level, open plain, on which I perceived, at a little dis- tance, a partial elevation that had the appearance of an intrench- ment. On a nearer inspection I had greater reason to suppose that it had really been intended for this many centuries ago. Notwith- standing it was now covered with grass, I could plainly discern that it had once been a breast work about four feet in height, ex- tending the best part of a mile, and sufficiently capacious to cover five thousand men. In form it was somewhat circular, and its flanks reached to the river. Though much defaced by time, every angle was distinguishable and appeared as regular, and fashioned with as much military skill, as if planned by Vauban himself. The ditch was not visible, but I thought on examining more curi. ously, that I could perceive there certainly had been one. From its situation, also, I am convinced that it must have been designed for that purpose. It fronted the country, and the rear was covered by the river; nor was there any rising ground for a considerable way that commanded it; a few straggling oaks were alone to be seen near it. In many places small tracks were worn across it by the feet of the elks and deer, and from the depth of the bed of earth by which it was covered I was able to draw certain conclu. sions of its great antiquity. To show that this description is not the offspring of a heated imagination, or the chimerical tale of a mistaken traveler, I find on inquiry since my return, that Mons. St. Pierre and several traders have, at different times, taken notice of similar appearances on which they have formed the same con. jectures, but without examining them so minutely as I did."

The statement appears to be highly colored by the captain's

THE MOUND BUILDERS.

military enthusiasm, especially as to the extent of the supposed fortification, for which according to the Indian mode of warfare there seems to be no occasion whatever. It might also be asked, how far his knowledge of the system of fortification introduced by Vauban extended, since there is no probability that any extensive works after that model existed in America.

In opposition to Carver's view we may be allowed to quote the opinion of a modern observer, Mr. Thos. E. Randall, in his " History of the Chippewa Valley." He says: " I have frequently passed over, and examined the "earthworks" spoken of by Carver and Featherstonehaugh as vast, ancient fortifications, situated on the west bank of the Mississippi between the village of Wabasha and what used to be known as the Grand Encampment, and must say a great stretch of the imagination is required to make any- thing more of them than the formations of nature's own handi- work. And until further excavations shall disclose more con- vincing evidence of human agency in their construction, I shall be slow to accept their conclusions."

This opinion of Mr. Randall's is entitled- to some considera- tion as he had, according to his statement, some previous experi- ence in the matter.

Judge Gale in his work entitled "The Upper Mississippi", after enumerating monuments of the Moundbuilders in different other states of the Union says : "Wisconsin can scarcely dignify any of her old earthworks into fortifications."

After describing the most important one at Aztalan, in Jeffer- son County, more extensively, he still comes to the following conclusion :

" But what destroys the probability that the Aztalan works were a fort, is the fact that it was commanded by a ridge on the west side, and the bank on the opposite side of the creek, both within an arrow-shot of the enclosure." The judge then discusses the other kinds of mounds, especially those supposed to have been used for religious purposes, and which in the main consist of trun- cated cones or pyramids, which he finds to be much less in size than in other states, and to have been noted only at three locali- ties; viz: at Aztalan, Ontonagon River and Trempealeau Village. The mound at Trempealeau is about seven feet high, with a level surface at the top about twenty five by fifty feet, with graded ways

76.

THE MOUND BUILDERS.

from each of the four sides, about twenty-five feet long, with the full width of the sides. Others may yet be discovered. This is the nearest authentical structure of the kind.

The works at Aztalan are mentioned and described in the work of I. A. Lapham on Wisconsin, printed 1846. He is not very positive in regard to the purposes for which they were erected, but seems inclined to the Aztek origin of it.

As the subject is too extensive, and as there is really no proof of any such structure existing or having existed within the terri- tory under consideration, we may dismiss all speculations on the subject.

While there are no mounds or hills of the kind we have hith- erto considered, there are still some others, quite numerous in some localities, especially along the lowlands of the Mississippi, yet but rarely on the prairies. The locations are frequently at the entrance of the valley of some creek or river from the main val- ley. Some of them are near the mouth of Beef River, or rather its junction with Beef Slough in clayey soil. The next collection is on the level space above Deer Creek, on the east side of the road branching off from the Alma and Durand road, near the school- house of Dist. No. 3 Town of Nelson. There these knolls are quite numerous, but partly obliterated. Another considerable group we find in the neighborhood of Misha Makwa, on the prai- rie plateau close to the foot of the bluff near the junction of the north side road of Little Bear Creek Valley with the Alma and Durand road. These latter mounds seem to distinguish them- selves from the other two groups, by being, even down to the surrounding level spots, composed of a very dark sandy loam, quite in contrast with the soil in the next vicinity, while in the others no other soil appears, but such as is similar to the next surrounding.

There is no order or arrangement among those knolls, and it seems evident, that, though they were erected within a short time of each other, and long ago, they were not erected at the same time, nor any of them for another purpose than the remainder. Their form tends somewhat to the elliptical cone, the slopes are moderate, and there is usually no level space on the top, and their depth is not often four feet, though, possibly, sometime that or more. It is very probable that small collections of such hills are

THE MOUND BUILDERS.

to be found at other places, and they are indeed to be looked for in locations similar to those described. Some knolls to be seen at different places along sloughs or along places reached by high water, one or two at a place may also occur.

These knolls I consider Indian graves. They occur in greater number where it is most probable that Indians would congregate for purposes connected with their mode of life,'as for hunting, fish- ing or fighting. Especially the latter seems to have given a cause to start up these grave-yards. As far as I have learned there has no evidence been found, which might controvert my opinion, but I think that all articles found in or about such grave-yards, as ar- rows, stone-hatchets, pipes and stone implements in general, have been such as are known to have been used by the Indians before their contact with civilization.

Nor is it to be supposed that these knolls are so very ancient. It is less than three hundred years since the first permanent set- tlements along the Atlantic and almost to a year but two hundred since the first explorers entered upper part of the Mississippi Val- ley. This seems more then time enough to efface almost any knoll of so small a size. Hence, we are not justified in ascribing these monuments to any race anterior to the Indians.

The possibility of their having remained as perceptible eleva- tions is due to their situation, almost always a dry one, not swept by occasional surface currents of any considerable force, with a dry and solid substratum. They also indicate the Indian mode of burial, which was not by digging a grave, but by heaping earth upon and around the body until it was not only covered or hid from sight, but also from the scent of beasts of prey. This seems to have been a good deal of work, yet it was much easier for a people without spades, mattocks and shovels, than to dig a ditch. Many of these burial spots were probably intended to be but temporary, and knolls would assist in the finding of the place, and earth heaped up would be drier and less difficult to remove for the recovery of the remains. About implements and other objects obtained from any of these graves or burial-knolls, we shall speak in the chapter on Indians.

The foregoing was written down a short time ago and laid aside for future consideration, experience having taught me, as well as others, that it is sometimes necessary to change our opini-

THE MOUND BUILDERS.

ons. I have also, in the meantime, procured a book on the sub- jcet, entitled, " The Mound-Builders, being an account of a re- markable people that once inhabited the valleys of Ohio and Mis- sissippi, etc., by J. P. MacLean." This book is, like all books on such subjects, rather enthusiastic, though on the whole fair and candid. In the chapter on Preliminary Observations the author says of the

" Distribution of the Works :

These works are very irregularly distributed, being found principally along the river valleys. They are only occasionally met with in the hill or broken country, and when thus found are always of small size.

Their number is very great; in Ohio alone there are not less than thirteen thousand, including both mounds and enclosures. Within a radius of fifty miles from the mouth of the Illinois River in the State of Illinois, there are about five thousand mounds. All the mounds located in the territory occupied by the Mound-Builders do not belong to that ancient people, for many of them have been constructed by the Indians, and doubtless many in Ohio have been assigned to the epoch of the former, when in reality they belonged to the latter."

This has always been my opinion, although, to tell the truth, I have not made this a special study either theoretically or prac- tically.

Mr. Maclean, in his book above named, has also discussed at length a number of frauds which have from time to time come to light in such investigations.

It reminds me so forcibly - of the following scene from the "Antiquary" of Sir Walter Scott, that I cannot resist the tempta- tion to transcribe the latter or at least part of it. We find Monk- barns or Oldbuck explaining to his young friend Lovel the situa- tion of the whole and of the different parts of. what he chose to believe, and to declare to be, a camp of Julius Agricola and he had come to say:

" And from this very Prætorium-

A voice from behind interrupted his ecstatic description- 'Prætorian here, Pratorian there, I mind the bigging o't.'

(It was Edie Ochiltree, the beggar, or Blue-gown.)

' What is that you say, Edie?' said Oldbuck hoping, perhaps,

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THE MOUND BUILDERS.

and then covered over by the accumulation of loam and vegetable matter continually washed into the center of the cavity.

Wyrick continued his researches and soon made a startling discovery. During the summer of 1860, with three other persons, he repaired to the spot where the stone mound had stood, and there dug up the trough, which had been re-entombed by the farmers in 1850. In the following November Wyrick, with five other men, met at this spot and made still further examinations. They found several articles of stone, among which was a stone box, enclosing an engraved tablet. Upon one side of the tablet there is a savage and pugnacious likeness of Moses, with this name in Hebrew over his head. Upon the other side of this stone is an abridgment in Hebrew of the ten commandments. Archaeologists never had much faith in the Holy Stone, and the discovery of Moses and the Ten Commandments soon established Wyrick's character as an impostor. Not long after he died, and in his priv- ate room, among the valuable relics he had so zealously collected, a Hebrew Bible was found which fully cleared up the mystery of Hebrew inscriptions " even in Ohio." This had been the secret and study of years, by a poverty stricken and suffering man, who in some respects, was almost a genius. His case presents the human mind in one of its most mysterious phases, partly aberra- tion, partly fraud.

There are numerous other instances of fraud and several of doubts and contentions as to the genuineness of certain relics also mentioned in Mr. MacLean's book. In consideration of these, and in the absence of any specific object to disagree about I am wil- ling to assent temporarily, to any plausible theories about the mounds in Buffalo County. I do not, however, wish to have it understood, that I deny the existence of mounds of the ancient race prior to the Indians, but that I am inclined to be cautious in my own assertions about them. Mr. MacLean says: "It is a fact that a person may start out with a theory, and soon he will be overwhelmed with proof". Relics of Mound-Builders and relics of Indians, that is arte-facts ascribed to either of the two races, do not to unpracticed eyes present such differences as to distinguish them very easily from each other, although experts assert that they can do so very readily. Pipes, supposed to be of Mound_ builder origin the reader will find described under the head of

THE MOUND BUILDERS.

Indians, where I mention the use of tobacco among them; at the same time some remarks as to those pipes which are claimed to belong to the one or the other of the two consecutive races that have preceded the white race upon this continent. Other ,imple- ments found in prehistoric mounds and in the neighborhood of such are:

Arrow-Heads, of which Mr. MacLean mentions eight sorts, each different in shape.

Spear-Heads, of three different kinds according to their uses and purposes.

Rimmers, that is instruments for perforating stone implements. They are of flint or quartz.

Knives, instruments for cutting by hand, in combat or ordinary. employment.

Axes or Hatchets, cutting by blows, employing weight to exert force. Not abundant in the mounds, and mostly found along paths in the valleys. The best specimen ever seen by me was the one dug up in running the deep cut on the sandprairie, near Fred Richter's place. It was large, well-shaped, and sharp, of a greenish glassy stone. Some of the axes were adze-shaped and used in digging out troughs, canoes and similar things.

Hammers or Mauls. They were furnished with an indented rim at or near the middle for fastening the handle in the manner described under the head of Indians.

Pestles or Mullers. The only specimen I saw is in possession of Wm. Finkelnburg, Esq., of Winona, Minn. They were used for disintegrating corn and other grain more or less minutely.

Wedges or Fleshers. They are mostly of a hard, close-grained and almost polished black stone, sharpened at one end, from one to two inches in diameter, the body cylindrical but rounded off on top. They were probably used for separat- ing the hides from the carcasses, and bark from the trees. They may also be called chisels, and are from two to six or more inches in length.

Sinkers. They are usually triangular, with rounded points, and may have served as weights for sinking fishing nets, also for stretching yarn in' making nets and mats. Mr. MacLean

THE MOUND BUILDERS.

considers them as badges of authority, worn in a conspicu- ous place, possibly on string around the neck as they are nicely perforated near the smaller end.

Pottery. Pots used for cooking and other purposes, made of a darkish clay, sometimes mixed with fragments of small shells. Probably formed inside a basket which was burnt in the baking.

Pipes were the objects upon which the Mound-Builders expended the greatest skill and labor, and I am inclined to say the same for Indians. As pipes and smoking naturally relate to tobacco, I have said as much about them in speaking of that weed, as I thought proper.

Sculptures with the exception of pipes have not, as far as I am aware, been discovered of that origin in this county. Be- sides the attempt at an exact representation of natural ob- jects according to their understanding, nothing seems to have been attempted, and the most wonderful thing about it is, that they succeeded so well without any proper tools and arrangements for their work.

After having, as I may say, re-opened this subject I suppose the reader wants to know the opinions as to who these Mound- Builders were, what became of them, and why they did not re- main in the countries, where the testimonies of their former exist- ence are yet found.

I have above remarked that it is usually conceded that the Indians were not their descendants and I gave the reasons above for this concession. But it must also be conceded that the habit of smoking tobacco, and providing implements for this process, is common to both Mound Builders and Indians. The other similar- ity is that of their tools and instruments for different purposes .. It is true that experts say that there is a difference, but I can not believe that anyone, however enthusiastic, will insist on this dif- ference being generic. I do not mean to say that the Indians are the descendants, or otherwise near relations, of the Mound Build- ers, but there is a remarkable similarity in some essential points.

Mr. Mac Lean, like many others, leans to the opinion that the Toltecs of Mexico, the predecessors of the Aztec population found by the Spaniards in that country, were the descendants of the Mound Builders. There are perhaps enough similarities between

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THE MOUND BUILDERS.

hypothesis upon, there is naturally so much more room, and an irresistible inclination to speculate, that is to find some plausible explanation for existing facts, and because I have not yet said anything concerning another theory of the origin of that mysteri- ous race, which I have already alluded to at the beginning, viz: Their descent from some people or race that once inhabited the supposed Atlantis, the great island or group of islands, some are inclined to call it a continent, located in the north central part of

the great Atlantic Ocean.

Ancient writings mention this land

complex, some even indicate that the Carthageniens, the greatest maritime explorers of ancient times, had made commercial voy- ages to these happy islands, and the existence of this Atlantis had a great influence pro and contra, in the discussions connected with the propositions maintained by Columbus at the Spanish Court before his first voyage. It was then supposed to have sunk below the water, as it certainly had passed from the actual knowl- edge of the civilized nations of that period. Some theorists main- tained that there was a strong probability of a remnant of the in- habitants having escaped westwards, as they certainly must have possessed such knowledge of navigation as was common to their supposed age, and probably also were acquainted with the exist- ence of a western continent. Admitting for the sake of argument all I have stated of this departed race, it is nevertheless entirely improbable, that they were the Mound Builders or their ancestors. Their civilization, if they had any, was most probably, similar to the European or at least to the Carthagenian of their time, includ- ing a knowledge of iron and other metals, and also of such grains as were cultivated around the basin of the Mediterranean Sea during the time when the power of the Carthagenian Republic or Kingdom was at its undisputed height. But we find nothing of the kind among the mounds, nor among the Indians, and it is al- most impossible that no such traces should have been preserved. The universal custom of smoking tobacco, which must be attri- buted to Mound Builders as well as to Indians, was entirely un- known to the nations of antiquity; so also was maize and its use and culture. This seems to be decisive against that theory or hypothesis, and the reader may take his choice, in doubting either the existence of Atlantis, or the transmigration of its inhabitants to the Western Continent. Tradition, indeed, does not favor the

THE MOUND BUILDERS.

transmigration, insisting that the land or islands had been sud- denly swallowed up by the ocean, even maintaining that the sea by this engulfing of land had become so thick with mud as to be unnavigable; a superstition prevalent at the time of Columbus and only dispelled by the discoveries of the Portuguese and Span- iards shortly before and after his own discoveries, probably finally by the voyages of Vasco de Gama to the East Indies and that of Magellan around the world.

I think I have now exhausted the subject as much as could be expected in a book not specially devoted to that purpose, and after recurring to it so often, might close. But the matter would hardly be properly disposed of without mentioning the fact that the weapons, implements and pottery found in ancient monuments of prehistoric races in the Old World, that is, in Europe, Asia and Africa, bear a close resemblance to those found in mounds here. This, however, cannot be construed into any connection of the.two worlds, or their inhabitants in prehistoric times, but may easily be accounted for by the common necessity of all mankind of making the best of circumstances, and using for tools of any kind such materials as were to be found, and could be shaped for certain pur- poses. In fact it was the discovery of stone implements, especi- ally axes, in the valley of the river Somme in France by Boucher de Crevecoeur de Perthes, which gave the first impulse to prehis- toric investigations in Europe.

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History of Buffalo County Wisconsin 10847607, Part 6

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