USA > Wisconsin > Buffalo County > History of Buffalo County, Wisconsin > Part 7
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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, Prætorian 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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that his ears had betrayed their duty: 'What were you speaking about?' 'About this bit bourock, your honor,' answered the un- daunted Edie; 'I mind the bigging o't.'
"The devil you do! Why, you old fool, it was here before you were born, and will be after you are hanged, man!'
'Hanged or drowned, here or awa, dead or alive, I mind the bigging o't."' Antiquary Chapt. IV.
Well, we can not exactly say that we mind the "bigging o't" but we dare say that we find that great enthusiasm is often very much mistaken, and though we would not feel like disputing the views of others in this matter, we would hesitate to credit all the stories, inferences, theories and speculations connected with anti- quarian researches of this and of every other kind.
I cannot omit a laughable fraud committed by a man entirely unprepared, as most people must have thought, to have produced the results of it, but who, owing to the ignorance of his neighbors, was considered to have actually made his pretended discoveries.
OPERATIONS OF DAVID WYRICK.
David Wyrick, of Newark, Ohio, was an uneducated man, but on the subject of mathematics he possessed decided ability. He had held the office of county surveyor until he was forced to retire on account of long continued attacks of rheumatism. He was regarded as an eccentric character and incapable of deliberate deception. He had adopted the idea, that the Hebrews were the builders of the earthworks of the West, and as often as his disease would permit, he sought diligently for proofs of his theory. His first discovery was made during the month of June 1860. This dis- covery consisted in what is known as the "Newark Holy Stone," and was found about a mile southwest of the town, near the center of an artificial depression common among earthworks, As soon as he found it, he ran away to the town, and there with exultation exhibited it as a triumphant proof of his Hebrew Theory.
Upon examination it proved to be a Masonic emblem, repre- senting "the Key Stone," of an arch, formerly worn by Master Ma- sons. The Hebrew inscription has been thus rendered into Eng- lish: " The law of God, the word of God, the King of the Earth, is most holy." The stone did not have the appearance of antiq- qity, and probably was accidentally dropped into the depression
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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 inade 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 inentioned 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
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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
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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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them to cause such a belief, but how about the dissimilarities? Do we really know enough of either Mound Builders or Toltecs to decide upon the point? The possibility can not be disputed, there are even some foundations of probability, but whether it is a fact, we may doubt. This involves the necessary supposition that the Indians drove the Toltecs out of this country, but if so, why did they not follow them into the one which must have appeared to them decidedly the better one? The Toltecs could not have pre- vented it. It is true that the Aztecs might intervene, but who drove the latter out?
The theory that the Mound Builders were the descendants of the " Lost tribes of Israel" is met by the objection, that there never were any tribes of Israel lost. That the Israelites were scattered among the nations of Asia and Europe we know, but that they were lost, whole tribes of them, across any ocean, is not only impos- sible, but there is not the slightest evidence for it. When the Israelites were scattered among other nations they had a knowl- edge of Iron and other metals, and probably know how to work and procure them. Nothing beyond copper, known to have been found pure, even up to the time of European discovery and after- wards, has been found of metals in mounds and monuments of this departed race. This theory rested on the crude and fanciful interpretation of some verses in the New Testament, upon which a system was built up, that was not only erroneous, but very often intentionally fraudulent, as we see from the operations of David Wyrick related above.
The theory of these prehistoric remains belonging to the de- scendants of an almost mythological prince or captain of Welsh origin, Modoc, and his followers, has not so much as a shadow of demonstrability, even admitting their legendary existence.
It may not be very flattering to our pride, and archaeologists and enthusiasts of that ilk may be offended at the conclusion, but I mean to be honest, and with special application to the case on hand, I say :
" All that we know is, nothing can be known." (Childe Har- old, Canto II, VII.) If now, in apparent contradiction with the above, I continue speculation on the origin of the Mound Build- ers, the reader will excuse it, because where there is no cer- tainty, not, perhaps, even sufficient ground to build a consistent
+
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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
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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 Crevecœur de Perthes, which' gave the first impulse to prehis- toric investigations in Europe.
Note :- The river Somme, from which a department of France has its name, rises in one of the northern valleys of the Ardennes, north of the Oise, and flows in a northwesterly direction into the English Channel southwest of Dover Strait.
ADDENDA.
The reader may already have noticed that I am inclined to consider the Indians, or some of them, as the originators of the monuments usually ascribed to the so-called Mound Builders, and will excuse addition of some new proofs that others, and quite respectable authorities, sustain this view of the matter.
Dr. P. R. Hoy of Racine in a paper read before the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters, and contained in Vol. IV of the Transactions, after giving numerous proofs to sustain his statement, says :
"Then the mode of burial is still the same, mostly in a sitting
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posture, surrounded by their worldly wealth, and supplied with a sufficiency of food to feed the hungry soul on the long road to the happy hunting ground. I should like to see that anatomist who can distinguish the crania (skulls) taken from mounds from those procured from Indian graves. The skulls from mounds differ just as much and just as little as do those of the present tribes of Ind- ians. I obtained a skull of a Pottawatomie chief (it is now in the U. S. A. medical museum at Washington) which is one of the largest known. It is very symmetrical also, the capacity being 1785 cubic centimeters (about I14 cubic inches); maximum length, 188:9 (millimeters), maximum breadth 163.9 mm., circumference 555.6 mm., facial angle 75 degrees; measured and photographed by order of the Surgeon General. I had a second Pottawatomie cran- ium that is as unlike the above as possible, the capacity being 40 cubic inches less, facial angle 70 degrees. In view of the foregoing evidence, the legitimate conclusion must follow, that the "Mound Builders " were Indians, and nothing but Indians, the immediate ancestors of the present tribes as well as many other Indians that formerly were scattered over this country.
Differing in habits of life and language, just as the Indians of the several tribes did before the white man changed them, they continued to build mounds after they had communication with Europeans, since which time mound building, together with many many of the arts of the red man, such as making wampum, flint, stone and copper implements, pottery, etc., have declined and finally nearly or quite ceased.
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ON INDIAN HISTORY.
ON INDIAN HISTORY.
Mankind in general have an irresistible desire to pry into the past and into the future, and it is only sensible, slow, prosaic and unimaginative people that can sometimes suppress this morbid curiosity. The historian, being obliged to narrate what is usually called history, that is past events, things gone by, having been enacted in times more or less remote, feels it his duty to descend into the sepulcher of the past, and look after the peoples and com- munities, tribes and nations, generations and centuries that are buried there. Some of these have left marks and monuments, or writings and documents, from which themselves and their actions, their accomplishments, their fate and destiny may be known. I do not mean to speak of these here, although the common accept- ance is, that we have marks and monuments of a race, of which even the long-lived, much cherished, and greatly coveted tra- ditions of the Indians do not tell us a single word. Within this county, or within the visible horizon of the highest bluff in this county, we have an acknowledged mark or monument of this race and if the Mound Builders find any place in this history, it is rather to explain the significance of their name, than the traces discovered of them here. But I want to speak of the Indian, of that species of the genus "Homo," of which we have seen numer- ous individuals in times yet scarcely past, and of which we even now sometimes meet the stragglers and laggards of an army, which, as far as our own neighborhood is concerned, has disap- peared, has vanished, never to return. I cannot mention this fact without admitting and deploring that this annihilation of a whole race, so to speak, is largely. if not exclusively due to the aggres- sions and encroachments, open and secret, of another race, the one to which we ourselves belong. According to the laws and customs of our own race the Indian was the rightful owner and possessor of the whole of the American continent no matter whether any one, or none, of the several tribes or nations had a title or estab-
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lished right to the precise spot upon which they were met by the intruders. It cannot be my intention, nor is it possible in this book, to discuss the Indian question.
Although the Indian has scarcely disappeared from our im- mediate view and although even long ago white men, the more or less acceptable or reputable representatives of a civilization, of which the nations to which they belonged were unquestionably proud, have been among the Red men, yet we have comparatively few books or documents relating to this intercourse, and of these only a small portion possess any authority or deserve credence. Not that there is not a multiplicity of works on early explorations, on life among the Indians, on their character and circumstances, their habitat and history (supposed), but the great majority of these works are simply copies, real or pretended, of the few origi- nal ones, interspersed with anecdotes and adventures very often totally irrelative of the subject pretended to be discussed in the work. Hence it is uncommonly difficult to give something on the interesting subject of the "Indians" deserving the name of history. As an example of the way history is sometimes treated or mal- treated I need only refer to the history attached to the "Atlas of. the State of Minnesota" published in 1874, in which there is per- haps sufficient information of the Dakotas or Sioux, but not a word of the Chippewas. It is true that Hole-in-the-day (Jr.) did fortunately, not make such an extraordinary disturbance, as his treacherous and bloody contemporary, Little Crow, but why it should be forgotten, that the former remained the steadfast friend. of his white neighbors, while the latter carried murder, rapine and destruction among those on his side of the line, I do not un- derstand. This is only one instance.
" We might go to our own state atlas, issued in 1876 by Wal- ling, and find that all of the history given relates to Green Bay and Prairie du Chien, and to the Langlades and Grignons.
The historian, who is honestly and diligently exploring the fountains of his narrative, must therefore be excused, if he grows cautious even to the verge of scepticism.
DIFFICULTIES IN THE HISTORY OF INDIANS OF NORTHWEST.
We can not know anything about the Indians, except from early explorers; hence the questions arise:
1. Who were these early explorers ?
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2. What capacity and preparation for the work did they possess?
3. What reliance may be put in their reports ?
4. What reasons may be alleged for or against their cred- ibility ?
In answer to the first question, we must say that they were, first and last, Frenchmen, and that they must be divided into two classes: Traders and Missionaries. Each of these classes had many peculiarities, of capacity, education, opportunity and pur- pose of investigation, and of rendering a full or a more partisan reports. I think it is well to consider them under separate heads.
TRADERS.
As the name implies they came to trade with the Indians, that is to exchange commodities for which the Indians might show a desire for the productions of Indian industry. The trader had to look to two essential conditions, profit and security. The ven- ture was great, the profit might be enormous, but that depended on the security of life and property. The trader was usually a man of considerable means, of corresponding influence, and neces- sarily surrounded by a crowd of adventurous dependents, who traveled into remote parts to procure the desirable articles. The principal articles for which the trade was undertaken were the furs of different animals, especially the beaver. From this fact the trade was called the fur-trade. Other articles were incidental aggregations, but the trade in Beaver-skins was for a long time of such importance, that these skins became the standard of value for every thing bought, sold, or exchanged. In order to procure the articles of trade, to conclude bargains, gain possession of ad- vantageous posts and for intercourse in general, it was necessary to learn something, at least enough for the purposes of trade, of the language of every tribe. On this knowledge depended much more than the mere traffic, and it may be imagined that every possessor of a trading post had at least one person about him, who was a competent interpreter. The necessity of remaining sometimes for years at the same post, as well as amorous propen- sities, soon led to family relations between the trading people and the Indians, that is, most traders and dependents married Indian women. We may differ in our opinions about the morals involved in such marriages, but we must all agree, that they afforded op-
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