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History of Ohio
Emilius Oviatt Randall, Daniel Joseph Ryan
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HISTORY OF OHIO
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ROBERT CAVALIER DE LA SALLE.
The Greatest Discoverer and Explorer of the French in America. It was he who first navigated the waters of the Ohio and so far as reliable records testify was the first white man to discover that river, wKich he did in his voyage of 1669-70.
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History of Ohio
The Rise and Progress of an American State
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Emiuus O. Randau and Daniei. Ji' Ryan
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EMILIUS O. RANDALL
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THE CENTUKY HISTORY COMPANY
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FOREWORD
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IN THE preparation of the two volumes covering the pre-8tate period of Ohio history, the writer has not only carefully consulted all publications of second-hand authority, extant and available, but has diligently examined the reprints of original documents, which might contribute to the purpose in hand, such as the colonial archives and state papers, oflBcial records, diaries, letters and personal memoirs. The writer, moreover, has visited almost every site in the state, touched upon in his narrative, that the local situation and tradition, if any exist, might be obtained to stimulate the writer's interest, to verify or correct, if possible, the descriptions and statements by others and thus by the "local coloring '* perhaps make more vivid and accurate the account herewith set forth. These volumes, be it understood, were written not for the technical scholar, seeking the bare data in elaborate and exhausting detail; such investi- gators may go direct to the original sources as the writer has done. These volumes were written, rather, with the purpose of concisely portraying the more important events in early Ohio history and presenting them in their relative and chronological order, in simple narrative form for the general reader. A history for the public should be first reliable, second readable. With that aim the writer confesses to have striven. To what extent he has succeeded, the reader must decide; "what's writ is writ — ^would it were worthier.*'
E. O. R.
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CONTENTS CHAPTER I.
PREHISTORIC; HILLTOP FORTS.
Man's Appearance in Ohio 3
Remains of the Mound Builders 5
Mystery of Their Identity 6
Territory Evidencing Their Habitation 7
Mound Builders in Ohio 8
Hilltop Enclosures 9
Spruce Hill Port lo
Fort Hill, Highland County I2
Glenford Stone Fort. : 15
"Miami Port, " on the Ohio 17
S]rstem of Hilltop Signals 20
Butler County Fort 21
Port Ancient 23
Old and New Ports*. . ..**'. 24
Walls of the Fort 25
Gateways of the Port 26
Cemetery of the Old Port 27
Classification of Skulls 28
Village of the Old Port 29
Port Ancient Hand-made 30
Age and Purpose of the Port 31
CHAPTER II.
PREHISTORIC; LOWLAND ENCLOSURES.
Varieties of Form and Purpose 35
The Newark Works 36
Result of Manual Labor 38
Effigy Mounds in Ohio 39
Flint Ridge 40
Works at Marietta 42
Portsmouth Works 43
Localities of Mound Builders 45
Mound City and Hopetown Group 46
Dunlap and Hopewell Groups 47
Scioto River and Paint Creek 48
Isolated Mounds 49
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Mounds the First Tombs 50
Mound Burials 51
Mound Explorations 52
Exploration of Adena Mound 53
Relics in Burials 55
CHAPTER III.
PREHISTORIC: VILLAGE SITES.
Gartner Mound Village 59
Primitive "Bill of Fare" 60
Baum Village Site 61
Construction of Tepees 62
Primitive Dog and Animals 63
Harness Mound and Contents 65
Mills' Investigations 66
Chamel Houses and Burials 67
Copper and Pearl Ornaments 68
Seip Group and Discoveries 69
Madisonv^ Cemetery 70
Extent of Exhumations 71
No Written Records 72
Archaeological Frauds 73
Serpent Mound 74
Putnam's Description 75
Antiquity of the Mound Builder 76
Origin of Mound Builders 78
Indian Theory 79
CHAPTER IV.
HISTORIC BEGINNINGS OF OHIO.
Ohio Belongs to Spain 84
Line of Demarcation Decree 85
Rights of Discovery 86
De Soto Lands at Tampa 87
Penetrates to the Mississippi 88
Cabots Make Landfalls 89
French and Spanish Rivalry 90
Cartier Enters St. Lawrence 91
Champlain Founds Quebec 92
Defeat of Spanish Armada 93
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OF AN AMERICAN STATE xi
En^^ish Discoveries in America 94
Plymouth and London Companies 95
Qiamplain Encounters Iroquois 96
Description of Iroquois 97
Hiawatha the Great Chief 98
The "Long House" Confederacy 99
The French Push to the Northwest 102
Coureurs de bois 103
The Recollets and Jesuits 104
Jean NicoUet 105
CHAPTER V.
LA SALLE DISCOVERS THE OHIO.
Iroquois Conquer Hurons 109
War Against the Eries no
S^e of Riqu6 1 12
Southern Conquest of Iroquois 1 14
Indian Gathering at St. Marie 115
Saint-Lusson Claims Northwest 1 16
Sieur de la Salle 117
Settles at La Chine 118
La SaUe Starts for the Ohio 119
Visits Seneca Village 120
Arrives at Otinawatawa 121
Meets Party of Joliet 122
Whereabouts of La Salle Unknown 123
Supposed to have been on Ohio 125
Theories as to His Route 126
Evidence of the Maps 128
CHAPTER VI.
THE IROQUOIAN CONQUESTS.
Journey of Joliet and Marquette 133
They Navigate the Mississippi 134
La Salle's Plan of Forts 135
He Reports to the King 136
Builds the GrifiBn 137
Sails Lakes Erie and Michigan 138
Erects Fort Creve-Coeur 139
Returns to Fort Frontenac 140
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Fate of Tonty 141
Iroquois Attack Illinois Tribes 142
Return of La Salle to Illinois 143
La Salle on the Mississippi 144
Reaches Gulf of Mexico 145
Tragic End of La Salle 146
Title to Land by Discovery 148
CHAPTER VII.
THE INDIAN TRIBES OP OfflO.
Topography of Ohio 155
The "Divide" 156
Ethnological Place of Indian 157
Varieties of Indian 158
Indian has no Written Language 159
Algonquin Group 160
Siouan and Sho&honean Groups 161
Miamis of Ohio 162
The Wyandots 163
The Ottawas 164
The Delawares 165
The Tuscarawas and Mingoes 166
The Shawnees 167
No Native Ohio Tribes 170
Ohio Supremacy of the Iroquois 172
Qinton-Harrison Controversy 173
Iroquois Valued Ohio 178
CHAPTER VIII.
INDLAN TITLES TO OHIO.
Albany-Iroquois Council of 1684 183
Albany Treaty of 1701 185
Error of Bancroft and Winsor 187
Mohawk Chiefs Visit London 188
Spotswood Visits Valley of Virginia 189
John Howard Voyages the Ohio 190
Indian Council of 1726 191
Lancaster Council of 1744 192
Speech of Canassatego 194
French Build Forts 195
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English Scheme for Territory 196
No Jesuit Missions in Ohio 197
Sandusky Mission 198
French and English Clash 199
Sandusky Bay Scene of Action 200
Rebellion of Chief Nicolas 201
Nicolas Abandons His Stockade 203
English Rebuild Fort Sandusky 204
Site of "Fort Sandoaki" 205
CHAPTER IX.
THE OHIO LAND COMPANY.
Embassy of Conrad Weiser 211
Stops at Shannopin's Town 213
Meets Montour at Logstown 214
The Montours 215
Organization of Ohio Company 216
Company Gets Land Grant 217
Lancaster Treaty of 1748 219
Celoron's Expedition 220
Celoron Buries Lead Plates 222
Expedition Enters Ohio River 224
Ascends Big Miami 225
Arrives at Pickawillany 226
Entertained by La Damoiselle 227
Celoron Proceeds to Detroit 228
Result of Celoron's Trip 229
Croghan and Montour Visit Miamis 230
CHAPTER X.
JOURNEY OF CHRISTOPHER GIST.
Journey for Ohio Company 235
Reaches Tuscarawas 236
Holds First Sunday S«vices 237
Montour and Croghan join Gist 237
Maps of Ohio 239
Story of Mary Harris 240
Gist Reaches Hock-Hockin 243
Arrives at PickawiUany 244
Plays for Favor of "Old Britain" 246
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xiv THE RISE AND PROGRESS
Gist Returns by Kentucky 247
Croghan and Montour at Logstown 248
Logstown Treaty of 1752 249
Langlade Attacks Pickawillany 252
The Siege and Destruction 253
Journey of Captain William Trent 255
Visits Desolate Site of Pickawillany 256
French Build Fort La Boeuf 257
Mission of Half King Tanacharison 258
CHAPTER XL
GEORGE WASHINGTON'S MISSION,
The Boy Washington 264
Becomes a Surveyor 265
Surveys Lands of Lord Fairfax 267
Work in Shenandoah Valley 268
Mission for Governor Dinwiddie 269
Arrives at Village of Shingiss 270
With Joncaire at Venango 271
Meets Saint Pierre at La Boeuf 272
Shot at by Indian Guide 273
Washington the International Hero 274
CHAPTER Xn.
THE OPENING SKIRMISH.
Futile Expedition of Trent 278
Contrecoeur Captures Ohio Forks 279
Washington Reaches Great Meadows 280
Encounter with La Force 281
Washington's Baptism of Fire 283
Siege of Fort Necessity 285
Surrender of the Fort 286
Contest for the Ohio Country 287
Sir William Johnson 288
Albany Council of 1754 289
General Braddock Arrives 291
Advance on Fort Duquesne 293
Defeat of Braddock 294
Washington's Bravery 296
Braddock's Death and Burial 298
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CHAPTER XIII.
THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR.
Attitude of the Ohio Tribes 301
The Tribes Distrust the French 302
Message of Scruniyatha 303
The French Build Forts 304
Inactivity of the Colonies 305
Attitude of the Delawares 307
French-Indian Forces 308
Position of the Six Nations 309
England Declares War Against France 310
Delawares Attack the English 311
Attacks by Tedyuskung 312
Dilemma of the Ohio Tribes 313
Speech of Ackowanothio 314
Story of Mary (Draper) Ingles 317
CHAPTER XIV.
CAPTURE OF FORT DUQUESNE.
Shawnees go on the War Path 327
Captivity of Captain James Smith 328
Smith's Joumeyings in Ohio 330
Ohio Tribes Raid the Frontiers 332
Views of De Vaudreuil 333
Long House Becomes Divided 334
British Cabinet Reorganized. 335
Dinwiddle Resigns as Governor 336
Forbes' Expedition against Fort Duquesne 337
Embassy of Christian Post 338
Post's Opinion of the Indians 339
Peace Convention at Easton 340
Forbes' Campaign Force 341
Henry Bouquet Aide to Forbes 342
Washington Commands a Regiment 343
Dispute Over the Route 344
Major James Grant Repulsed 345
Fort Duquesne Deserted 346
Forics of the Ohio Fall to the British 347
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CHAPTER XV.
EXPEDITION OP ROGER'S RANGERS.
French Surrender Montreal 353
Robert Rogers' Rangers 354
The Rangers Start West 355
Reach Mouth of Cuyahoga 356
Meeting with Pontiac 357
Truth as to the Meeting 360
Rangers Reach Detroit 361
French Yield the Fort 362
Rogers* Subsequent Career 363
Fort Still Held by French 364
English Treatment of Indians 365
William Johnson visits Detroit 366
Hold Council with Indians 367
Peace Treaty of Paris 368
War Not Over in America 369
British Dominate the Tribesmen 370
Quebec Act of 1763 371
Provincial Governments Established 372
Settlers Excluded from Northwest 373
CHAPTER XVI.
CONSPIRACY OF PONTIAC.
The Ottawa Confederacy 379
Birthplace of Pontiac 380
Pontiac's Appearance 381
His Cunning v • 382
Indian Hostility to the British 383
Ohio Tribes in the Conspiracy 384
Pontiac Addresses His People 385
Siege of Fort Detroit 387
Pontiac's Treachery Foiled 3^
Pontiac's Promissory Notes 390
Indians Attack French Reserve 391
Enumeration of Pontiac's Force 392
Pontiac Asks Aid of French 393
Ambuscade of Dalzell's Troops 394
Wilkin's Relief Expedition 395
Pontiac Raises the Si^:e 39^
Destruction of Fort Sandusky 397
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Capture of Port Michilimaddnac 400
Indians Take Port Miami 402
Seixure of Presque Isle and La Boeuf 403
Result of Pontiac's Conspiracy 404
Port Pitt Remains Impregnable 405
Bouquet's Battle of Bushy Run 407
CHAPTER XVII.
BRADSTREET'S EXPEDITION.
Report of Johnson to Lords of Trade 411
Israel Putnam to Accompany Bradstreet 412
Putnam's Military Experience 413
James Montresor to be Engineer 414
Bradstreet Readies Niagara 416
Pontiac Still Hostile 417
Indian Council at Presque Isle 418
Bradstreet Proceeds West 419
Arrives at Sandusky Bay 420
Indian Council at Detroit 421
Embassy of Morris 423
Morris Meets Pontiac 424
Experiences of Morris 425
Bradstreet Starts on Return 426
Encamps on Sandusky River 427
Wyandot Refugee Site 428
Indian Chiefs Visit Bradstreet 429
Putnam's Report 430
Bradstreet Returns to Albany 431
CHAPTER XVIIL
BOUQUET'S EXPEDITION.
Bouquet Starts for Ohio Interior 435
Indian Council at Fort Pitt 436
Order of March and Route 437
Bouquet's Camps 12 and 13 438
Imposing Council with Indians 439
Bouquet's Address to the Indians 440
Bouquet's Camp No. 16 441
Bouquet D^x>ses Netawatwees 442
Indians Surrender White Captives 443
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End of Bouquet's Bxpedition 444
Indian Deputies Visit Fort Pitt 445
Speech of Shawnee Orator Kask^ 446
Alexander Eraser ^sits Ohio Country 447
George Croghan's Embassy 448
Croghan's Party Attacked 449
Croghan Reaches Vincennes 450
Pontiac Meets Croghan 451
Croghan Reaches Detroit 452
Pontiac Repairs to Oswego 453
Received by Sir Johnson 454
Cloae of Pontiac's Career 455
Character of Pontiac 457
CHAPTER XIX.
OHIO SETTLEMENT SCHEMES.
Indian Gathering at German Plats 461
Cherokee-Iroquois Reconciliation 463
Fort Stanwix Treaty 464
Iroquois Deed Territory to English 465
Ohio Land Company 466
The Mississippi Company 467
Walpole Grant Company 468
Franklin Lobbies for the Colonies 469
Ohio Company Merged in Walpole Grant 470
Franklin's Views on Situation 471
Settlers Crossing the Mountains 472
Daniel Boone 473
Penetrates Wilds of Kentucky 474
Byron's poem on Boone 475
CHAPTER XX.
WASHINGTON'S OHIO JOURNEY.
Washington's Schooling Days 479
Promotes "Ohio Movement" 480
Washington Surveys for Lord Fairfax 481
Washington's First Journal 482
Washington Marries Mrs. Custis 483
Member of House of Burgesses 484
Meets William Crawford 485
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Washington-Crawford Letters 486
Washington Buys Lands 487
Washington StarU for the Ohio 488
Journal of the Journey 489
Stop at Mingo Town 491
Reaches Mouth of Muskingum 499
Visits Camp of Kiashuta 493
Walks Across Ohio Neck 494
Washington's Observations 495
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ILLUSTRATIONS
Robert CavaHer De La Salle Frontispiece
Arduedogical Map of Ohio Pacing page 8
Spruce Hin Port « « lo
Fort Hill, Highland County, • • 13
Glenford Stone Port • • 15
Miami Fort • • l8
Butler County Port • • 21
Fort Ancient 1 • • 34
Walls of Port Ancient • * 27
Great Gateway and Stone Grave • • 31
Newark Earth Works • • 36
Marietta Works • • 42
The Scioto Valley « « 45
Paint Creek « « 47
Adena and Gartner Mound • • 53
Gartner Mound Grave • • 59
Edwin Harness Mound Grave • • 65
Serpent Mound • • 74
Toscanelli's Map • • 83
Samuel de Chaxnplain * ^ 92
Iroquois Long House * * 99
Nic(det*s Tending • • 105
Discovery of the Mississippi • • 133
Jacques Marquette • • 136
Louis JoKet • • 140
Cdoron's Lead Plate « * 222
Evan's Ohio Map • • 235
Mitchell's Ohio Map • • 240
Hutchin's Ohio Map • * 245
Washington a Surveyor • • 268
Sir William Johnson « * 288
Braddock's Battlefield • « 292
Braddock's Defeat • • 294
Robert Rogers • • 354
Pontiac and Major Rogers • • 357
The Louisiana Territory * • 368
Pcmtiac « • 381
Bouquet's Map • • 435
Bouquet's Ohio Route • • 438
Bouquet's Indian Conference • ** 445
Bouquet Receiving the Captives • • 450
Daniel Boone • • 473
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Chapter I. PREHISTORIC; HILLTOP FORTS
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THE initial appearance of man upon the stage of life in North America was an event the date of which is in great dispute, for if the original American left any record of his advent it has not withstood "the tooth of time and the razure of oblivion/'
Some two score years or more ago, the owner of a gold drift, near Angelos, California, claimed to have found in the shaft of a mine, a human skull, embedded in the bowels of the earth, one hundred and fifty feet deep, beneath beds of lava, volcanic tufa and strata of "auriferous gravel, " in a deposit which the geologists state belongs to the Tertiary Age.
Admitting that this relic of ancient humanity was really found in the lodgment as claimed and that it came there through no modern artifice or accidental placement, then, says a distinguished scientist, "it far antedates anything human which has been discovered in Europe,*' and therefore plausibly accords America the precedence in the origin of the race.
This "primal pioneer of pliocene formation" was the famous Calavaras skull, which "broke up'* Bret Harte's "Society upon the Stanislow," and the genu- ineness of which has been the subject of much contro- versy among savants.
Ohio, too, has its primordial man. There was a time, scientists assert, when the northern and western portion of the state was submerged beneath great fields of ice that slid slowly down from the north. Later nature shook off the chill; her heart grew warm; there was a great melt,
" The loosened ice-ridge breaks away — The smitten waters flash;"
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and the hills peeped forth and the valleys grew green and the streams sparkled on the mountain side, rippled in the valleys and ran their way through the glad earth.
In the beds of the drift gravel, which the frozen flood caught in its journey and brought from the far north and left in its wide wake, have been found alleged evidences of the glacial, paleolithic man — the man of the early stone age, the man who was made "when nature was but an apprentice" and whose fate was to "reside in thrilling regions of thick-ribbed ice."
Science sometimes, apparently to the unacademic mind, hangs its conclusions upon slender threads. The proof of the arrival and sojourn of the original ice-man in Ohio rests chiefly upon the discovery, within recent years, of three paleoliths, found respectively in Hamilton, Clermont and Tuscarawas counties. These paleoliths are flint implements, less than the size of a man's hand and undoubtedly chipped into shape by the crudest artisan. In each case the paleolith was found many feet beneath the surface in a gravel deposit, "brought down by the turbulent floods from the north." These paleoliths, argue the scientists, must have been in use, in the localities where found, by primitive man in the glacial period, prior to the final disappearance of the ice sheet. Those who care to enter upon details of these discoveries and the arguments resulting there- from, are referred to the numerous scientific works among which may be suggested, "The Ice Age in North America," by Dr. G. Frederick Wright; "Prim- itive Man in Ohio," by Warren K. Moorehead, and the "Archaeological History of Ohio," by Gerard
Fowke.
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None of these paleoliths, all of which are undoubtedly of a type indicative of the most primitive man, bears any resemblance to the artifacts — of the Mound Builder or the Indian — ^found by the thousands in the mounds and graves and on the surface in all parts of the state. But the credibility of the evidence, offered by these flint implements, is the great question. From a legal point of view, this paleolithic testimony, as to the local presence of the glacial man, is purely circum- stantial, and in the absence of further corroborative witnesses, we are not certain that the Ohio "ice-man** could not establish an alibi.
But leaving the fate of the "Buckeye*' glacial man to the forum of geological and ethnological science, we pass to the consideration of another early Ohioan, hardly less mysterious, but more evidential as to his existence and character. That man for want of a better descriptive name we designate as the Mound Builder.
To enter upon the domain of the Mound Builder, wonderful and enigmatical in his works, is like seeking to grope one's way through the fabled labyrinths of Egypt and Crete, for one is soon lost in a maze of al- luring speculation, from which the guiding hand of knowledge is withheld. The Mound Builder is the riddle of the American race and the countless mani- festations of his handiwork defy explanation while they ever excite our admiration and amazement. The earliest European explorers in their voyages through the unbroken wilds of North America, found these earthen structures of a prehistoric people intact and perfect but solitary and tenantless, with no living being
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6 THE RISE AND PROGRESS
to tell aught of their origin, age or purpose. Who were these people that came, wrought and disappeared into the impenetrable mists of the past?
" Let the mighty mounds That overlook the rivers, or that rise In the dim forest crowded with old oaks, Answer. A race, that long has passed away, Btiilt them; — a disciplined and populous race Heaped, with long toil, the earth, while yet the Greek Was hewing the Pentelicus to forms Of symmetry, and rearing on its rock The glittering Parthenon."
Just what relation, ethnological and archaeological, the builders of the mounds bore to the Mississippi Valley and its branch basins will probably never be fully known. So far as the vestiges, discovered by the early European intruder, can testify, the portion of the United States embraced within the central valley named and its tributaries, was the chief domain and center of those peculiar people. Whether this territory was the land of his origin; a great way-station in the pilgrimage of his race through its earthly existence; or was the terminus of prolonged peregrinations, has not been determined.
Concerning the inscrutable Mound Builder and his monuments, the accumulated literature, by official authorities, voluntary scientists, amateur investigators, poetic romancers and irresponsible, irrepressible and illiterate dreamers, is appalling in quantity, discursive and contradictory in statement and theory, conflicting in conclusions and often amusing and absurd. Being without the pale of definite knowledge the Mound
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OF AN AMERICAN STATE
Builder and his achievements afford untrammeled scope for the imagination. He literally left "foot- prints on the sands of time," but their trail leads only to oblivion. He bequeathed to the succeeding ages no written records, and his temples tell no tales as to their time or purpose. His only answer to every conceivable guess concerning his origin, age and destiny is his unbroken silence. The Mound Builder is the race with the Iron Mask; nor is there likelihood that his racial features will ever be revealed.
But whoever he was, the Mound Builder displayed his activities in a spacious arena, and if the whole North American continent was not his, a large part of it was, for his habitations extended from the Allegheny River to the Rocky Mountain range, and in some instances on to the Pacific slope. He is almost unknown in New England. He is found in lower Canada, but he evi- dently avoided the colder climates and in the south he was much in evidence, for his works dot the shores of the Mexican gulf, from Texas to Florida, and are found in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, the Carolinas, Tennessee and Kentucky. The Northwest Territory, however, produces evidences of his densest population; at least there his achievements were the most numerous and important. In Wisconsin his character apparently took on a " religious turn, '' for along its river courses, and about the shores of its lakes, he adorned the sides and summits of the hills with innumerable effigies of animals, birds, reptiles and even human beings — presumptively tributes to his superstitious belief, symbols of his crude worship or possibly emblematic totems of his various tribes. Michigan did not greatly
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8 THE RISE AND PROGRESS
merit his attention, but his mounds are frequently found in Indiana and are numerous in Illinois.
Ohio, however, was a region for which he displayed most remarkable partiality. The banks of "La Belle Riviere,*' as the early French called the majestic Ohio, and the picturesque and fertile valleys of the Miamis, the Scioto, the Muskingum, the Cuyahoga, and lesser tributary streams were the scenes of his most numerous, most extensive and most "continuous performances. " It has been asserted that the localities in Ohio, which testify to the Mound Builders' presence far outnumber the total localities of his evidential habitation in any other state, indeed almost equal those in all the rest of the country. Ohio was the great "State" in prehistoric times, for over twelve thousand places in the present state-limits have been found and noted, where the Mound Builder left his testimonial. Those having the form of enclosures, located on the hill tops and in the plain or river bottoms, the walled-in areas, each embracing, respectively, from one to three hundred acres in area, exceed fifteen hundred in number, while thousands of single mounds of varying circumference and height were scattered over the central and southwestern part of the state. One thing is clearly demonstrated by this tremendous "showing," viz., that these people either continued in more or less sparse numbers through a long space of time or they prevailed in vast numbers during a more or less brief, contemporaneous period, for it has been estimated that the "earthly productions " of their labor, yet standing in Ohio, if placed side by side in a continuous line, would exceed over three hundred miles.
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ARCHiBOLOGICAL MAP OF OHIO.
Showing the location of the more important mounds and endosuies of the Prehistoric People in Ohio. This map was made by Cyrus Thomas from the reports of the
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TI^E N'iW YORK
P'oBLlCLliaAHY
ASTyR, LENOX AND
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OF AN AMERICAN STATE 9
or farther than from Lake Erie to the Ohio, and that they contain at least thirty million cubic yards of earth or stone, and that it would require one thousand laborers, each one working three hundred days in the year, a century to complete these earthen edifices; or it would take three hundred thousand laborers one year to accomplish the same result. Supposing, in the latter case, the laborers were exclusively men and allowing the conventional average family to each man, there would have been — in Ohio — a population far exceeding a million people. But whether these dif- ferent structures were built synchronously or near the same period, we have no means of knowing. The structures were almost without exception completed before being abandoned, for these industrious and energetic people left no unfinished work, from which it might be inferred that they did not depart under compulsion or in haste. Their works after their aban- donment were not disturbed, except that the single mounds were occasionally utilized by the Indians for intrusive burials. The conqueror of the Mound Build- er, if he had one, had respect for the permanent spoils of war and left the monuments of the defeated foe in- violate and intact; pity it is the same cannot be said for his pale faced successors.
It is not the purpose of this study to attempt any exhaustive or minute account or detailed enumeration of the vestiges left by this people. Rather it is the intention to mention, with brief portrayal, the master- pieces of the different classes of their exploits. We will classify these works and note their features in the following order: (i) Walled enclosures, (2) Single
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10 THE RISE AND PROGRESS
mounds, (3) Village sites and burial grounds, and (4) Theories respecting the identity of the Mound Builders.
The so-called "enclosures" which cap the hill-tops are usually regarded as "forts'' or military defenses. These are built of stone or earth and in rare instances of both. The hill-top defenses are not relatively numerous but exhibit in their construction great en- gineering sagacity and skill and almost inconceivable labor. The enclosures on the plains or river bottoms are almost exclusively of earthen material and are either walled towns or structures for refuge or safety; possibly some were religious temples. They are of all dimensions and forms, many of them presenting com- binations of circles, and squares and geometrical figures of great variety.
The most pronounced, because of its size and location, hill-top stone fort, indeed the largest stone edifice of the Mound Builders in this country, was erected on Spruce Hill, in the southern part of Ross county. This work occupies the level summit of a hill some four hundred feet in height; the elevation is a long triangular shaped spur, terminating a range of hills with which it is connected by a narrow neck or isthmus, which affords the only accessible approach to the "fort," for the hillsides at all other points are remarkably steep and in places practically perpendicular. Spruce Hill was admirably chosen for the purpose of defense and obser- vation for its summit commands a panoramic view of the encircling valley through which runs Paint Creek. Within a radius of two or three miles on the plain beneath, were located many groups of aboriginal works, including isolated mounds and extensive enclosures.
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SPRUCE HILL FORT.
The largest stone fort of the Mound Builders in Ohio or in the United States, located on Spruce Hill, east of Paint Creek in Ross County. The walls were two and one-quarter miles in length and enclosed an area of one hundred and forty acres.
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