Butler County, Ohio - Antiquity, 1879

Evidences - Period of the Villa gen^ - Garden Beds of the Northwest - A Probable Race - Forest Trees Upon the Works - Encroachments Made by Streams - Vegetable Aceuniulatiuns - Condition of the Skeleton - Local Position of Earthworks - Terraces - Facts Established - How Long Were They Here - Origin of the Race.

In considering the antiquity of the INIound Builders the preconceived opinions of the majority will be antagonized. There is a feeling of distrust pervading the public mind in reference to every discovery and every argument which carry back the origin of man to a period beyond the Historical Era. The true scholar, the true thinker, and the man of science do not share this feeling. We must believe upon evidence, however unwilling we may be to accept a new truth or discovery. The recent origin of man has already been sufficiently exploded, and ^\-e are warranted in ascribing to man a very groat antiipiity. This being the truth we need not be sur])rised should a higher antiquity be assigned to the Mound Jiuilders than was anticipated.

In order to ascertain the time Avhen the ^lound Builders occupied the valley of the Ohio, we have a variety of indisputable evidence. It is not claimed by any one of re])uted authority that the exact time can be named when this ])Cople ceased to live north of the Ohio, but there is abundant evidence tliat their works belong to a distant period. All the facts taken together give an array of evidence which should not only be thoroughly studied, but also form a very interesting part

1. The Period of the Villagers. - It is pretty well established that since the time of the Mound Builders, and ])ri()r to the advent of the Indian, a race known as the *' Villagers ^^ occupied certain districts of this country and made the ^^ garden beds'' found in northern Indiana, lower Missouri, and in the valleys of the Grand River and St. Joseph's, Michigan. These beds exist in the richest soil in that part of the country. Some of the lines of the plats are rectangular and parallel, others are semicircular and variously curved, forming avenues, differently grouped and disposed. The ridges are low, averaging four feet in Avidth, and the depth of the walk between them is about six inches. They cover from ten to one hundred acres, and sometimes embrace even three hundred acres. The beds are laid out with great order and symmetry, and have certain peculiar features that belong to no recognized system of horticulture. These beds are entirely different from the system of field culture as practiced by the Indians, and no similar remains are connected with the enclosures of Ohio.

It is evident that these beds do not belong to the epoch of the Mound Builders, for in some cases they extend over mounds, which certainly would not have been permitted by the builders. Nor is it to be presumed tliat these villagers immediately succeeded their predecessors, for these encroachments must have been long after the mounds had been abandoned and their purposes forgotten.

It is a singular fact that but few, if any, of the usual aboriginal relics are found within them. The beds are the only memorials of this race. But from them we readily draw the conclusion that they were a settled, peaceable people, of industrious habits and advanced tastes. Their implements and their dwellings must have been of wood.

Time must be allotted for them to take possession of the coLuitry; then growth and decadence would have required ages^ so that an almost incredible period must have elapsed from the time tliey took possession of the country until they retired. If it should be established that the animal mounds were made since the structures in Ohio were built, then another people lived between the time of the Villagers and the Mound Builders, which would give a still greater antiquity to the latter. There must have been a great lapse of time between the abandonment of these beds and the period when they were discovered by the white man. Schoolcraft tells us* that in 1827 an oak tree on one of the ^'garden beds'^ in Grand River Valley, INIichigan, was cut down, which measured thirty-eight inches in diameter, at the height of twenty-six inches above the ground, and which denoted three hundred and twenty-five annual rings of growth. The oak was not the first tree to grow on these beds after they had been deserted, for other trees must have preceded. This Avill be treated under the second head.

There is another consideration which appropriately comes under this head. Since the ])eriod of the Villagers and before the advent of the Indians, still another race may have existed. This belongs to the possibilities, and is not incredible. Suppose that the North American Indians had been destroyed by a pestilence or war before Pamphilo de Narvaez landed in Florida, what traces of them would have been left? They have left, in the States, no distinctive trace of their existence, unless it is in the little hillocks used for hills of corn, which are not yet entirely obliterated.

2. Forest Trees V pan the Worki^. - Tlie great age of the works is indicated by the growth of forest trees upon them. It is evident that the ni(unuls aud the walls of tlie enclosures were kept free from the iutrusious of the forest so long as they were occupied for sacred or secular use. Yet when this country was first visited by the Europeans they were covered with forest trees of great dimensions. On one of the embankments of ^^Fort Hill/' Highland County, E. G. Squier noticed a chestnut measuring twenty-one feet in circumference ; also an oak, Avhich stood on the wall, though fallen and much decayed, then (1846) measuring twenty-three feet in circumference; and all around were scattered the trunks of immense trees, in every stage of decay. Actual examination of the chestnut tree showed the existence of nearly two hundred annual rings to the foot, which would give nearly six hundred years as the age of the tree. Upon one of the mounds at Marietta stood a tree of eight hundred rings of annual growth. On the Ontonagon River Captain Peck observed some stone mauls and other implements, at a depth of twenty-five feet, and in contact w^ith a vein of copper. Above these was the trunk of a large cedar, and over all grew a large hemlock indicating a growth of three hundred years. To this must be added tlie cedar, which showed even a greater age, and then the protracted period during which the trench was slowly filled up, wdiich would require many more centuries.

After these works had been abandoned many ages must have elapsed before the trees began to grow upon them. In speaking upon this subject President Harrison, who was well skilled in woodcraft, observed in an address delivered before the Historical Society of Ohio, ^^that several generations of trees must have lived and died before the mounds could have been overspread with that variety which they supported when the white man first beheld them, for the number and kinds of trees were precisely the same as those which distinguish the surrounding forest. We may be sure that no trees were allowed to grow so long as the earth-works w^ere in use ; and when they were forsaken, the ground, like all newlycleared land in Ohio, would for a time be monopolized by one or two species of trees, such as the yellow locust and the black and white walnut. When the individuals which were the first to get possession of the ground had died out one after the other, they would in many cases, instead of being replaced by the same species, be sue- ceeded (by virtue of the law which makes a rotation of crops profitable in agriculture) by other kinds, till at last, after a great number of centuries (several thousand years, perhaps), that reniarkal)le diversity of species characteristic of North America, and far exceeding what is seen in European forests, would be established.'^

I have my doubts about the little hillocks, formed by uprooted trees, having any particular bearing upon this subject. I have noticed the hillocks upon the very top of the wall. The hillocks must sooner or later be worked to a level with the surrounding surface. In some woods I have not noticed any, while in other places they are abundant. Their endurance is owing to their particular positions and the kind of earth composing* them.

3. Encroach mcnts Mcide by Streams. - There are several instances of the streams encroaching ujion the works and carrying portions away. In order to get an approximate length of time, from these encroachments, it must first be observed how many inches the streams advance per year, and even then it would be impossible to tell how far the works were originally placed from the stream. Something definite could be reached in a careful study of the fort near Carlisle, elsewhere described, (see p. 25). It was stated that at the northeast of this structure is a graded Avay leading to Twin Creek. A portion of this grade is still from two to three feet high along the terrace. There must have been a necessity for this grade. The necessity, primarily, may have been ^ swamp, and, secondarily, to protect their field. The questions for computation are, how long has it taken Twin Creek to cut the thirty-one feet (of depth) ; what relation has that to the drainage of the swamp, and the time required?

These streams have not only encroached upon the works, but afterwards receded, in one instance (High Bank Works, Ross County), to a distance of three-fourths of a mile. The intervening s])ace, when first observed by the white man, was covered with a dense forest. This recession and subsequent growth of the forest must have taken place since the river encroached upon the works.

4. Tlic Vegetable Accumukdlons in the Ancient Excavations. - One of the ]iits at "jNIound City'' is eighteen feet deep, by one hundred and twenty feet in width, and over two hundred feet in length. The accumulation of vegetable deposit at the bottom is thirty inches. In the ditch, accompanying the wall of the fort, four miles below Hamilton, is a deposit of three feet and eight inches of vegetable and other matter. The trenches of Lake Superior have already been spoken of, and the filling of them must have been very slow and the work of untold ages.

5. The Decoyed Condition of the Skeleton. - In nearly every case the skeleton has been found in such a state of decay as to forbid an intelligent examination. Probably not over a half dozen have been recovered in a condition suitable for restoration. This is all the more remarkable from the fact that the earth around them has invariably been found wonderfully compact and dry. The locality, the method of burial, the earth impervious to water, all tend to the preservation of the body. Well-preserved skeletons have been taken from the tumuli of Europe, known to have been deposited there not less than two thousand years ago. The mode of burial was not better adapted for the preservation of the body than that of the Mound Builders. Yet the latter when exhumed is in a decomposed and crumbling condition. From this consideration alone a greater antiquity must be assigned than that ascribed to the barrows in Europe.

6. Local Position of the Earth-works. - None of the mounds and enclosures occur on the lowest-formed of the river-terraces. There is no good reason why builders should have avoided erecting these structures on the lowest terraces, unless the terrace was formed since, or was being formed about the time the Mound Builders took their dejiarture. Jn some instances avenues running ujion the lowest terrace would seem to indicate the beginning of the formation of the terrace about the time the works were abandoned.

last, upon Avhicli these works do ijot occur, must have been the longest in forming, because the excavating poAver necessarily diminishes as the channels grow deeper. This geological change proves, for the mounds, a very great antiquity; how long, we could only approximate.

On the Lower Mississi})pi the ancient monuments are invaded by water. In this case, the fact must be borne in mind that the bed of the stream is rising from the deposition of materials brought down from the upper tributaries, where the excavating ])rocess is going on.

7. Efyy of the3[asfodo}i. - The discovery of the "Big Elephant Mound'' in Wisconsin establishes the fact that the Mound Builders were acquainted with the form of the Mastodon. Instead of helping the antiquarian out of difficulties, this discovery increases them. No bones of any of the elephant family have been found in the ancient monuments of the Mississippi Valley. The striking form of this family is not delineated on their pottery. In all the Mound Builder relics from the valley of the Ohio, no trace of the elephant family has been found. The remains of the Mastodon and Mammoth have been found in the gravel and other deposits. These animals must have ceased to exist in the United States long before the Mound Builders began to flourish. Still the Mastodon must have existed somewhere. The mound of AVisconsin is no ideal structure. If the "Report of the I)aven|X)rt Academy of Sciences'' is to be accci)tcd, then this effigy is not an isolated case. It states that a member of the association has found a carved pii)e in the form of an elephant. This, however, is not incredible, on account of the discovery of the Winconsin mound. It is evident that in order to have delineated the form of this animal, it must have been seen. If, however, the builders of the mound saw the Mastodon in the valley of the Ohio or ]\rKssissi])pi, then to the Mound Builders must be assigned an antiquity which otiier evidences would not warrant. It nuist be that during their intercourse with the Mexicans the animal was there seen.* As Mexico was probably the last retreat of the proboscideans on this continent, and as they became extinct a great many centuries ago (several thousand years, perhaps), we have it definitely settled then that a great antiquity must be assigned to the Mound Builders.

The great antiquity thus given to the Mound Builders, instead of making more obscure the subject, in reality throws more light upon it. It gives the student of anthropology a starting point in his investigations as to the relative position this lost race occupied to the most ancient Mexicans. It does away with a vast amount of speculation, which has been indulged in by those who desire to establish an Asiatic origin. It declares- an original civilization, and an antiquity that surrounds itself with considerations which are not presented in the history of any other race. When these facts are clearly understood or recognized, certain difficulties which now beset the antiquarian will be done away with, and the investigation freed from so much unnecessary encumbrance.

How Long Were They Here f - That the Mound Builders occupied their principal seats in the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys for a long time there is nbundant proof. On the Ohio and its tributaries these settlements were very numerous and populous. From the Ohio they spread in all directions. Time must be allowed for this increase of population, the spread elsewhere, and the development of their civilization. Each settlement must have been old and populous before a new colony was sent forth. The construction of these stupendous works must have been a growth - one made by the toil of years. Each settlement experienced the same labor and the same growth. They must have dwelt here a long time before they discovered the copper of Lake Superior. How long after its discovery before they became acquainted with its value no one can tell. For a great length of time they worked these mines. The progress of their work in these mines must have been very slow. These mines cover the entire region, even where tlie white man has not yet begun to operate. The time occupied, then, can only be left to conjecture. Probably thousands of years elapsed from the time they entered the valley until they took their departure, and other thousands to the present.