Ashland County, Ohio - Chapter 1: Pre-Histofic History, 1880

! ii story is defined to be a narration of past and present events in relation to peoples, nations and empires. It is of two classes - speculative and proper. By speculative history is meant such theories as are derived from deduction or inference. For instance, there was what is denominated the "Stone age or period," in the history of the human race. We infer this from the fragments of their rude arts found in almost every country on the globe. We have no means of learning from whence that people came, how long they existed, and under what circumstances they disappeared, and by whom they were succeeded.

.'-"tin, by deduction, we may trace the occupation and < r of extinct races by their monuments, their military defences, and their systems of internal improvements,

! lie historian is largely dependent upon this species oi conjecture for an outline of the pre-historic periods of this country. The monuments found in South America, in \!< xico, and along the valleys of the Mississippi, the Ohm, and other rivers of the United States, throw much light upon, the character and occupations of the early 1 '-ms that inhabited those regions.

In North America, the Mound Builders, so called, seem to have had possession of a number of very strong I'osiiions, from which their settlements radiated in all directions. The most prominent establishment of that race was undoubtedly in the vaileys of Mexico, from "hu h they gradually diffused themselves over Texas, New M xico, and the valleys of the Mississippi, the Missouri, the Red river, the Ohio, the Muskingum, and their tributaries, as well as the Susquehanna, the Potomac, the < hesapeake bay and the Hudson, forming, at all strong ! p<iints, vast settlements and cities defended by earthworks.

In Mexico, Central and South America, the Mound builders must have shown a wonderful degree of pron< ietii y in the arts of civilization. Orenc cities, contain ln-< perhaps, hundreds of thousands of people, existed; ami when the Spanish conquered that region over three hundred years ago, the population of those countries was j quite dense; and the ancient sites of their cities are still to be seen. Their monuments, military' defences, and temples erected t.o the "Sun;" and their culture of the soil, and researches in the finer metals,' evince the fact,

A distinguished and reliable Spanish historian, who accompanied the expedition cf Cortez, named Bernard de Sahagua, says at that time a tradition existed among the natives of Florida, that a foreign colony had arrived on their shores more than two thousand years before, and proceeded across the Gulf of Mexico and landed in Yucatan, where they founded cities, now in ruins, the greatest of which had been destroyed ovet a thousand years before the arrival of the Spanish expedition. When the Spanish subdued' Mexico, Montezuma re-asserted | that tradition by assuring Cortez, the Spanish general, j that the ancestors of the Mexican race came from the | rising sun.

' the remains of civilization are Egyptian and Assyrian in j character, and seem to have been erected prior to the | arrival of the Incas and the Aztecs of the line of the Montezumas. The principal deity of Peru was said to have been called Chon, the same in name as the deity : of the ancient Phoenicians, who was called Baal-Chon,

J or Saturn. Query : Were the Mound Builders the act- | ual descendants of the ancient Phoenicians, or was the similarity in the names of their deities accidental? Traveling further north into the Valley of Mexico, the j temples and pyramids are more strikingly Egyptian and j Assyrian. The groat pyramid at Choi u la was evidently i a copy of those along the Nile, and dedicated to the same deity worshipped in the East. Can it be said, also, that the pyramidal system of both hemispheres is accidental, like the name of the deities worshipped in both? Or, have we here evidence that at some period in the history of the world, intercourse between the eastern and western continent? must have been frequent 3

The next stronghold of the Mound Builders in un imarch northward, was opposite St. Louis, V where a group of pyramids was erected and which '. cans to have been the capita! of a great empire, like the city of Mexico. From this point they slowly advanced up the Mississippi, the Ohio, the Muskingum, the Scioto and the Wabash, continuing their settlements and constructing mounds and immense earthworks for defence. In the valleys of the Scioto, the Muskingum and the Licking the most of these ancient intrenchments are found, within tire limits of Ohio. West of Newark, in Licking cojinty, are found two circular entrenchments of considerable extent. Half a mile west of that city is found the most curious, enclosing thirty acres of ground, and surrounded by another entrenchment, which has been almost obliterated by plowing. Some three miles west of that point is another system of earthworks enclosing three times as much ground, in circular form, and having a number of gateways. These works must have been the seat of a large population ; for their construction would require the united efforts of a great number of people for many years.

From that point their settlements seem to have radiated northward through Knox, into the river portions of Holme;, to Richland, up the lilack fork to the south parts of Wayne and Ashland counties, and thence to the lake shore.

The migration of that strange people was undoubtedly resisted by another powerful race, composed of nomadic tribes having some sort cf government; for the erection of the earthwork defences, found all along their course from Mexico northward, conclusively show that they were met at every point by a warlike people, who had prior claims to the soil. This would furnish occasion for the erection of the earthworks as a place of retreat and safety from the incursions of an enemy, as well as a place to pay their devotions to their deities. The small mounds found in the neighborhood of these extended entrenchments may have been used as so many signal sites to announce the approach of an enemy.

These grand central points must have held for a long series of years, and been cultivated by the inhabitants with great success, for the lands are composed of the richest soils, and by culture, yield large crops.

Many of the rude implements of warfare used by that people have been found scattered all over northern Ohio; and are exhibited in the cabinets of the antiquarians and are really curious and ingenious in workmanship. Evidence of the existence of a race somewhat advance! in the arts of military defence, anterior to the appearance of the Caucasian, is found in almost every part of this county. Mounds and intrenchments at all the great valleys and commanding points are very numerous. The principal streams along which the earthworks are found are the Muddy, the Jerome, the Black and Clear forks of the Mohican.