Cuyahoga County, Ohio - Chapter 2: Pre-Historic Speculations, 1870

Relics in Northern Obio - The Mound-Builders - Old Fortifications of this Negion - Works in Cleveland - In Newburg - In Independence - At the Forks of Rocky River - Outside the County - In Western New

York - Absence of Large Mounds - Coffins at Chagrin Falls - Evidence ,of Moderate Sized Ancients - The Jaw-Bone Theory - Indian Palisades - Their Superiority to Breastworks - Absence of Metal Instruments - Conelusion in Favor of Ancient Indian Occupancy.

So PAR as is actually known, the Zries might have been here ten years, or a hundred years, or a thousand years, before they were heard of by the French. Yet the restless and belligerent character of the American Indians makes it improbable that any tribe would remain. many centuries in the same locality, and doubtless the Hries gained their title to this region by the good old process of driving away or exterminating the.preceding lords of the land, whose rights were similarly grounded upon slaughter and conquest,

But, aside from the probable occupancy of the country by successive tribes of red men, there are works and relies still extant in Cuyahoga county, as well as in other parts of northern Ohio, in Pennsylvania and in New York, which have led many to believe that a race of « much higher grade of civilization than the Indians once inhabited these regions. "Those old inhabitants are supposed to have been akin to the celebrated though somewhat mythical ''Mound-Builders" of the Ohio valley. But the works attributed to the latter people are of a far different character from those of their northern neighbors, including not only extensive fortifications capable of sheltering ten, fifteen or even twenty thousand mien, but enormous mounds, sometimes seven or eight hundred feet in cireumference at the base and seventy feet high, and sup- - posed to have been devoted to religious sacrifices. Without entering into any discussion on the character or origin of the '' Mound-Builders," which would be entirely forcign to the purpose of this volume, it is safe to say that the works extant in Cuyahoga county and the rest of the lake region bear no indications of having been erected by a race superior to the American Indians. Nay, they show strong affirmative evidence that their architects were not superior to the red men discovered here by the Europeans. The works in question are mostly fortifications of moderate extent, the enclosed space rarely exceeding five acres. In a majority of cases advantage has been taken of a strong natural position, where only a small amount of labor was necessary to fortify it. Such is the case at one of the best preserved of these embankments in Cuyahoga county. It is within the limits of Cleveland city, but in what was formerly the town of Newburg; being between Broadway and the Cnyahoga river, and only a short distance from that stream. The natural position consisted of a peninsula surrounded on three sides by ravines nearly sixty feet deep, with steep, clayey sides, and joined to the main land on the south by a narrow isthmus. On.this isthmus, at the narrowest point, the occupants of the situation built two embankments, the outer one extending completely across the neck, the inner one reaching nearly but not quite across the isthmus, leaving a narrow entrance-way on the west side. The hight of both embankments is about two feet, and each has a ditch on its outer side, now very shallow, but apparently at one time some three feet deep.

The space thus enclosed contains about five acres, and, although the Jand outside the ravines is of the same hight as that within the ''fort," yet foemen would have found it difficult to send their arrows to the center of the enclosed space through the natural growth of trees, even supposing that the defenders knew nothing of the art of building palisades, on which point there is no evidence.

Most of the other fortifications are of a similar character, the object in each case being to fortify an isthmus, and thus hold a kind of peninsula or promontory, nearly surrounded by ravines.

Just outside the city limits, in the present township of Newburg and close to the Cuyahoga, is another of these labor-saving fortifications, the enclosed space being about the size of the one above described, and the protecting ravines being even deeper, though not so steep.

Two miles farther up the river, in the township of Independence, is still another of these enclosures, the area in this case being nearly ten acres. There are two embankments across the isthmus, with a ditch between them and another outside of the outermost breastwork.

In the same township, a short distance north of Tinker's creek, is another fortification by which a promontory among the bluffs is defended from the approach of an enemy.

At the forks of Rocky river, close to the line between the townships of Middleburg and Olmstead, was one of the most remarkable of these primitive fortresses. It is a lofty cliff, almost surrounded by the waters of the west branch of the river, with no method of reaching the top save by an oblique and difficult path cut in the almost perpendicular side. In front of. this path were three lines of breastworks, from two to three feet high cach, with ditches in front of them, as in the case of the others before mentioned. This was one of the most formidable of these peculiar fortifications to be found in this county.

Outside of the county there are, in northern Ohio, many other works more elaborate and important than those above mentioned, but all evidently constructed for the same purpose - that of fortifying with a little labor a strong natural position. Among these strongholds there is one in Northfield, Summit county, where a promontory of about four acres, two hundred feet above the Cuyahoga, is fortified by intrenchments across a very narrow ridge connecting it with the back country; one at Weymouth, Medina county, where a peninsula of less than an acre, formed by a bend of Rocky river, is defended by three lines of intrench- ment, from four to six feet high, counting from the bottom of the ditch to the top of the bank; one near Painesville, Lake county, where a narrow peninsula is fortified by two embankments, the tops of which are not less than nine feet from the bottom of the ditches outside. There is also one near Conneaut, Ashtabula county, but this is on a somewhat different plan; a space of five acres on the top of a detached mound, seventy feet high, being entirely surrounded by a circular intrenchment.

There were, at the time of the first 'settlement, a large number of similar rude fortifications in western New York, but there was less attention paid there to the defense of peninsulas and promontories; a majority of the works being complete redoubts, each enclosed by a single wall, a few feet high, with a ditch ontside. Some were on detached hills or mounds, but many were in the valleys or on the open plains, and haye consequentiy been obliterated by cultivation. One of the largest fortresses of that section, known as Fort Hill, and situated in the town of Le Roy, Genesee county, contained, when first discovered, great piles of round stones, evidently intended to be used against assailing foes.

Nowhere in the lake region are there found any of those immense mounds, so prominent in the Ohio valley, from which the name of '' Mound-Builders " has been derived, and applied to an unknown race of men. Some small mounds, a few feet high, have, however, been discovered, generally in the vicinity of the fortifications before described, and probably intended as burial-places. One of these mounds, situated near Chagrin Falls, was opened in 1840, and found to contain four rude, stone coftins,-without lids; three of them being of the proper size for an ordinary man, and one suitable for a half:grown boy.

These coffins are the strongest evidences with which we are acquainted of the existence of an early race, more advanced than the Indians. So far as known the Indians never made stone coffins. On the other hand those articles negative most decidedly the opinion frequently advanced, that the ancient inhabitants of this region, be they of what race tlicy might, were superior in hight. to the people of modern times. It 'is very certain that in numerous instances the thighbone of a big Indian has, by an imaginative process of reconstruction, been developed into a whole race of pre-historic giants. A commonly quoted evidence on bone, taken from an ancicnt mound, will 'fit right on over"' the jaw of an ordinary, adult white man; the easy reasoner forgetting that any concave body will "fit right on over " a convex one as large as itself, and that a score of bowls or kettles of the same size will "fit" each other to perfection.

So far as the fortifications are concerned there is absolutely nothing to show that their builders were superior to the inhabitants discovered by the white men. True, the Indians, when first discovered, did not build earthen breastworks, but they did build palisades, requiring more labor and ingenuity than the much vaunted earthworks. The palisaded castles of the Five Nations were almost impregnable to any foe not provided with fire-arms, and doubtless the kindred, though hostile, Hries had provided themselves with similar defenses. The first Frenchman

Such a fortress shows a much greater progress in architectural skill than do the rude earthworks previously described. Moreover, considering that wooden arrows and stone tomahawks were the most effective weapons of the Indians, it is plain that the palisades were a great improvement on the breastworks as a protection against an enemy. Since artillery has come into use among the whites, wooden and even stone defenses have been abandoned in favor of earthen ones, into which the balls of an enemy sink without destructive results. But there was no danger of either wooden or earthen walls being destroyed by arrows or stone tomahawks; the problem was to prevent the foe from shooting or climbing over the barrier. For this purpose it is evident that the palisade thirty feet high was immensely superior to the low breastwork, which could only with immense labor be raised five or six feet above the surrounding country.

Moreover, while the intrenchment could hardly be employed to advantage except on some strong natural position, where its slight hight was eked out by the ascent from lower ground, the palisade could be built on the very bank of a stream, or in the midst of a maize field, and afford almost perfect protection to the cabins placed inside. While, therefore, among a people who use artillery, earthen fortifications are an advance on wooden or stone ones, yet the palisades of the Jroquois and Fries show them to have advanced in defensive skill beyond the men who erected the earthworks of northern Ohio and western New York, though very probably the former were descended from the latter.

The coffins at Chagrin Falls are far stronger evidences of ancient superiority to the Indians than are the breastworks, but while it is true that Indians generally did not make stone coffins, yet they did miake weapons and utensils of stone, such as tomahawks, etc., and the existence of the larger articles in this vicinity may be due to the fact that northern Ohio is much more prolific than other sections in stone which is easily shaped into any required form.

Another circumstance, showing that the pre-historic inhabitants of this region were of the same race as the Indians, or an inferior one, is the fact that no metal instruments, not even of copper, have come down to us from the pre-historic era, Flint arrowheads, flint knives, stone hatchets, there are in abundance - all of. the same kind as those used by the

Between the borders of Lake Erie and the valleys of southern Ohio, there isa tract which has been well designated by Colonel Whittlesey as a neutral ground between the inhabitants of those localities. Without attempting to cross this open space and risk ourselves among the shades of the mythical '* Mound-Builders,"' but looking only at the region of the great lakes, we may consider ourselyes on tolerably firm ground. he Indians were here when the white men first came; the relics of ancient times generally show not superiority over, but inferiority to, the works of the red men, and the very strong probability is that some of the numerous tribes of Indians, in a more or less advanced state,, were the masters of this region from the time it first had human occupants until they gave way to the insatiate invaders from Europe.