Washington County, Ohio - Prehistoric, 1902

Prehistoric

The Old West - Its Primeval Rivers, Forests and Animals - The Mound-Builders - Mounds of Marietta - The Great Battle-Ground of America - The Hunting- Grounds of the Iroquois - Weakening of the Iroquois Confederacy - The Story of the Delawares, Shawanese and Wyandots - Notes.

It must be next to imiiossihle for one in this day to realize what a tangled wilderness this West was a centurv an 1 a half ago. "The thing which puzzles us." writes W. H. H. Murray, "is not the past, but the future; not the door wliich has been shut, but the strange door which has never been opened. * =*= * For who, though knocking with reddened knuckles against it, may start even an echo?" True words, indeed ; yet were the task put to us, it is to be seriously doubted if we of untrained imagination could not draw a truer picture of this land as it will appear a century hence than we could conjure up of the land as it appeared a century ago. Suppose the latter picture could be true to the dense growth of bush and tree, the wallowings of the plunging buffalo, the ways of the wild animals tunneled through the tangled maze of bush and vine - true, in short, to the groundwork, would it faithfully picture the tangled tops of the giant trees, where a more intricate network of Nature's handiwork might have been seen than on the ground ? Who, but one acquainted with primeval forests, caiii picture the straggling branches of the giant trees reaching out into the ethereal battle ground to a last death grapple with its hoary rivals, both weighed down by luxuriant masses of moss and tangled vine ? Records of early pioneers afifirm that when this forest was first invaded by the woodman's ax it was found to be one thing to cut a tree's trunk, but quite another thing to dislodge its top from the net\vork of forest overgrowth, from' which giant trees have been known to hang suspended in mid air after their trunks were severed. Felling of trees often 'began at the top ; boys were sent up to strip the branches before the trunk was cut. Where are the trees the like of which- [Washington found on the Ohio near the Great Kanawha with a diameter of over 14 feet?

What a sight the woodland rivers must have been! Think of the plunder of the forests which the Waljash and Kentucky at floodtide must ha\e carried on their boiling bosomg. Picture the gigantic gorges of forest trees, lalocked in their wild course down the Alleohany and piled in monstrous and grotesque confusion from bank to bank, forcing even the river itself to tind a new course through the forests. And so the vistas seen on our rivers to-day could not have been so beautiful in the old days; perhaps thev were ne\'er \-isible on the lesser streams. For the continu'Xis falling of the solid walls of trees which lined both banks must have wellnight roofed our smaller streams completely <ner, and the venturous trapper in his canoe must have found the fear of falling trees added to his other fears. When Gen. Moses Cleaveland attempted to ascend the Cuyahoga in a boat from Lake Erie, the great quantity of fallen trees compelled him to desist from the undertaking. An early pioneer to Kentucky, in giving directions to prospective voyagers down the Ohio River, warns ihem against rowling at night, as the noise of the oars would prevent them hearing the '"ritfling" of the water alxiut the njcks and sunken logs which made river traveling, especially on swift streams, difficult and dangerous.

Nor have our rivers always held the position in respect to size which they relatively bold to-day. It is doubtful if one who knew the swift Monongahela would recognize the placid, turbid, faithful river which bears that name to-day. As though these streams of ours recognize in some way that they must needs conform to the state of civilization which they see about them, and may not run wild and free as when amenable only to the caprice of a savage aborigine! Of course the greater difference would be discoverable in such rivers as have been bound in locks and dams, and deepened by the dredge. Such was the rapidity of the current of many of our streams thnt the time now made by swift packets is mere than double the time taken by canoes in the days before slackwater navigation. With the damming of these streams local history, in all our States, has lost many landmarks well known in the earliest days of navigation. On the Alleghany River, as on the Susquehanna on the eastern side of the mountains, rocks upon which the Indians inscribed their hieroglyphics are now so embedded that these inscriptions are visible only at low tide, and indeed in some cases are never seen above the surface of the water. Of all streams the majestic Ohio, alone, mo\es on much as of old ; and, though many islands have passed from sight, there is hardly a mile in all her course which does not recall, in nan|e, the days when that river was the great highway through the hunting ground of the Iroquois and of the race of '"men who wore hats" who came "Upon its tides to found the empires \\diich today exist along its sweeping shores. And yet the Ohio is soon to undergo great changes which will materially alter its aspect. Surveys for dams are being made, which, when completed, will gi\e a minimum depth of six feet between locks.

The animal life of the forests one can fancy, perhaps, with more accuracy than any other characteristic, for the deer and turkey, the wolf and buffalo of that day have their antitypes in ours. And yet here one miglit fall short, for few recall the \'ast fl(jcks of pigeons which swarmed above the primeval forest, even darkening the heavens as though a cloud had passed, and blighting the trees in which they spent a night. An early traveler in the West has left record that from a single hollow tree several wagon-loads of feathers have been ex tracted.

The Mound Builders And Representative Citizens

tory of war, from the earliest days e\'en to our own century. This territory between the Alleghenies and the Mississippi is one of the o;reatest battlefields in the world. It is certainly the oldest and most renowned in our America. The first of our race to enter it looked with wondering- eyes upon the monstrous earthen forts of a prehistoric race whom we have named from the relics they left behind the "Mound Builders." Of this race the Indians knew nothing, save what the legend.? handed down by their fathers told of a race of giants which was driven out of the Central ^^'est. and sent tlying clown the Ohio and [Nlissisippi to reappear no more in hun^an history. Anticjuarians find that these forts and mausoleums reveal little in addition to the bloody story told by crude implements of war, of

In certain instances great piles of human bones are found at strategic revetment angles where heaviest attack was made and stoutest resistance encountered. Here bones are sometimes found pierced l^y death-dealing arrowheads. What power hurled the flints of these warriors of prehistoric days? Tbe Indian legend, that they were giants in strength, is easily believed. Nowhere else on the continent are found such forts as were built by these ancient defenders of the Central West.

The ancient works at ^Marietta occupied the "plain" and were included within the territory north of Putnam street and east of Third (with the exception of the graded way, extending down to the lower river terrace, at a point between Second and Front streets).

These works consisted (iriginally of two enclosures (irregular squares, one of which contained about forty and the other twenty acres), together with se\-eral truncated pyramids or elevated platfortns of earth, the graded way, the great mound now enclosed in the cemetery, several emJ^ankments flanking it, and numerous lesser tumuli. Tiie portions of this interesting grouj) of works remaining on the two truncated pyramids known as Ouadranaou and Capitolium, and the mere bed or bottom of the graded way, Sacra J'ia.

\\'hen the settlement was made at ^Marietta these works were covered with a heavy forest. "When I arrived," says Dr. Cutler, "the ground was in part cleared, but many large trees remained on the walls and mounds. The only possible data for forming any proba'ble conjecture respecting the antiquity of these works, I concei\e(l. must be derived from the growth upon them. By the concentric circles, each of which denotes the annual growth, the age of the trees might be ascertained. For this purpose a number of trees were felled; and in the presence of Governor St. Clair and many other gentlemen, the number of circles was carefully counted. The trees of the greatest size were Iiollow. In the largest of those which were found there were from three to four lumdred circles. One tree, somewhat decayed at the center, was found to contam at least 463 circles. Its age was undoubtedly more than 463 years. Other trees in a growing state were, from their appearance, much older. There were likewise the strongest marks of a pre\'ious growth, as large as the present. Decayed stuinps could be traced at the surface of the ground, on different parts of the works, which measured from six to eight feet in diameter. In one of the angles of a square a decayed stump measured eight feet in diameter at the surface of the ground; and though the body of the tree was so mouldered as scarcely to be perceived above the surface of the earth, we were able to trace the decayed wood under the leaves and rubbish for nearly a hundred feet. A thrifty beech, containing 136 circles, appeared to have first vegetated within the space that had been occupied by an ancient predecessor of a different kind of wood."

had been preceded Ijy one of equal size and age, Dt. Cutler estimated that at least 900 years had elapsed since the works had been deserted by tlie people who constructed them.

We may remark in this connection that Clavigero, in his "History of lilexico," says that the emigration of the Toltecs commenced from their nati\-e country about the middle of the Sixth century.

The larger of the two square (or nearly square) fortifications, of which we have spoken, was commonly called by the early inhabitants of Marietta "The Town." The walls were, at the time when first observed and measured, from six to 10 feet in height, and from 25 to 35 feet broad at the bas'e. Through these walls ihere were, upon three sides, three openings or gateways, of which the central ones were the largest. The central one in the front, facing the Muskingum, was 150 feet wide. Immediately in front of this great gateway, and leading from it toward the river, its walls running at right angles to those of "The Town," was the immense graded way, sometimes called the covert, or covered way, and named Dy some pioneer, of classical education. Sacra Via. This was a broad avenue. excavated so as to descend by a perfect grade to the li:)wer or latest formed terrace of the ^Muskingum, at the foot of which it is suppc";ed the stream flowed when the work was constructed. The grade remains, but the walls thrown up at either side have long since been demolished. They began at a distance of 60 feet from the gateway, were exactly parallel, and 680 feet long. They were 150 feet apart at their bases. 230 feet at their summits, and the broad "way" between them was rounded and raised like -a modern city street. At the base of the grade the \Va.\h were 21 feet in perpendicular lieight, measuring from the inside, while at the same point upon the outside they were from eight to 10 feet high, and much less at the upper end of the a\enue. This portion of the Marietta works alone would be a stupendous piece of construction, even in this age; and in the era wlien it was executed ra\\>t have been a marvel of engineering and have required the patient, long-continued toil of a vast nunnber of men. Xot less remarkable were the four squares or truncated pyramids (of which the two principal ones have been preserved), enclosed within the walls of the ancient town. The largest of these, the Qiiadranaoii, the location of which is now best described by saying that it is upon the west side of Fourth street, north of Warren, was in the northwest corner of the great enclosure. It v.as descriljed by Squier and Davis in 1847 as being 188 feet long by 132 feet wide, and 10 feet high. Its apparent height is now a little less than this figure. It contains more than a quarter of a million cubic feet of earth. At the center of each of the four sides the earth projects, forming gradual and easy ascents to the top. The elevated square, next in importance, is the the Capitoliiiiii, which is situated upon the northwest corner of Washington and Fifth streets. The southern wall of "The Town" originally extended along Washington street, very near the Capitol iiim. This elevated square is 150 feet long by 120 feet wide, and is about eight feet high. Upon three sides are projections or inclined ways leading to the level platform, but upon the south side the graded ascent is a recess, the measurements of which are equal to those of the projections, or about 20 feet in width by 40 feet in length. East of this square tliere was originalv another and a smaller one, which was known in earlier days as St. Cecelia. It was a truncated pyramid, similar in general characteristics to the Ouadranaou and Capifoliuin. 120 feet long by 50 feet wide and five nr six feet high. It had graded ascents <mly at the ends. In the northern angle of the enclosure was another rectangular elevation, which was never of as great a height as t'ne others, and. unlike them, had no ascents.

The purpose for which these elevated squares and the great graded way leading down to the Muskingum can, of course, only be conjectured. The former, it has been generally tliDUght liy students of arch;e- ology_, were designed as the sites of temples, and were originally so occupied. Init with edifices which, ha^'ing lieen constructed of perishable material. long since crumbled into dust. The surface of the elevated squares which we have described is perfectly level, except where it has been uphea\'ed by the roots of falling tres, or animals. The squares bear a close resemblance to the Tcocalli of Mexico, upon which temples still stand. In Ohio there are but few of these peculiar formations in connection with the great groups of works, and, in fact, besides the ^larietta squares there are none, except at Portsmouth, Newark, and in the vicinity of Chilhcothe. At no one of these localities are the squares as large as those we have here described. Works of this kind occur more frequently in the South, and investigators, who ha\-e traveled down the Valley of the Alississippi and thence into Mexico, report that there is exh.ibited quite a uniform and constant increase in the size of the squares until the}- lead up to the mighty temple-crowned Tcocalli in the land of Alontezuma. Upon the other hand, as we journey southward we find a decrease in the size and in the number of enclosures of similar nature to those which abound in Ohio.

* We have so far said but little of the smaller of the two enclosures Avhich existed at Marietta. As we have said, its area was about 20 acres. This area is now alx)ut equally di- ^-ided north and south by Wooster street, and lies above Fourth street. This enclosure, which formed the connection in the great system of the [Marietta wurks, between the larger enclosure and the great mound, was many years ago obliterated. Its walls were never as high as those of the larger enclosure called "The Town." There were openings or gateways at the center of each side and at the corners, which were defended by mounds. It is conjectured that these two enclosures were not designed for defense, although they may of course have served that purpose. The ditch or fosse which often occurs in connection with the walls of similar enclosures was wanting here, but it is not improbable that palisades were planted upon the top of the eml>ankments.

The most reasonabe hypothesis to be adojited in accounting for the construction of the so-called "forts" is that they were simply enclosures designed to protect the temples and the sacred altars of the ancient people from the. profane gaze or touch of an alien race, or to guard them from desecration by animals. They may also have served as the place for great civic or religious assemjblages. or the practice of something analagous to the Olympian games. Very likely they contained the residences of the priests or rulers of the people.

]\Iost of the earth of which the so-called "forts" were constructed must have been taken evenly from the surface of the ground witliin and around them, although excavations commonly designated as "dug holes" were at an early day observable in several places not far from the works. Several of these have been supposed to be wells, funnel-shaped like those in eastern countries, so that the water carriers could go down into them.

The large mound now inclosed in the cemetery, the most interesting feature of the Marietta group of works, remains to be described. It is not larger than some others in Ohio, but is probably higher in proportion to its base measurement, and is unique in its accessories of embankment and fosse. It is 30 feet in heighth and its base is 1 15 feet in diameter. It is surrounded b/y a ditch about 15 feet wide and four feet deep, outside of which is a wall about four feet high, and twenty feet or more in breadth. There is an opening in this wall upon the north side and a filling in the fosse, each about 20 feet in width. The surrounding wall and ditch do not form a perfect circle, but an ellipse, the longer diameter of which is 230 feet, and the shorter 215 feet. Originally there were a number of fragmentary' walls of slight ele\-ation west and south of the great mound, forming an im]ierfect re-enclosure.

The mound \\-as described by Squier and Davis in 1847 as being truncated. It so appears at present and the memory of the oldest inhabitant cannot recall a time when it was otherwise. The writer, however, has reason to believe that the mound, as originally constructed, was a perfect mammalian. The Marietta mound is, doubtless, a sepulchral mound, and it is probable that it contains (or did once contain) two chambers like the great mound at the mouth of Grave Creek, in West \'irginia - one chamber being situated upon a level with the surrounding plain, and the other midway between the base and the apex of the mound. The flattening of the top may have been caused by the crushing in of one or both of these chambers (the chambers are in most cases constructed of timber), or by the uprooting of the great oak which Dr. Cutler's journal tells us stood upon the top in 1788. It is not generally knoAvn that the mound has been partially excavated, but such is the fact. Dr. Cutler, as quoted by Mr. Harris, says that "an opening being made at the summit of the great conic mound" (aijd it is worthy of note that he uses the word conic) "'there were found the bones of an adult in a horizontal position, covered with a flat stone. Beneath this skeleton w^ere three stones placed vertically at small and different distances, l)>it no bones were discovered. That this venerable monument might not be defaced, the opening was closed without further search." The skeleton found was doubtless not lower down than the middle of the mound, that is to say, 15 feet from the apex. In e\-ery one of the few large mounds excavated, which have a chamber near the top, there has been found another at the base, and hence there is presumptive evidence that the bones of some mighty personage of the ancient race lie as they were originally deposited in an unknow^i age, amidst the pomp and splaidor of strange and superstitious rites. While this mound is undoubtedly monumental in its character, its unique accessory formations - the fosse and wall - would suggest that the builders had in view sonie other purpose than the rearing of a massive sepulchre. It may have been utilized as a place for the observance of religious ceremonies.

Small mlounds are usually to he found upon the hills overlooking the larger works in the valleys. These are not wanting at Marietta. Harmar Hill and the other eminences in the vicinity of the great group we have described are crowned with them and thej^ occur at inter\'als along the whole length of the iNiuskingum Valley, and also those of the Tuscarawas and the Ohio. It is conjectured that these mounds serxed the purpose of coignes of vantage from which the approach of an enemy could be descried, and also that they were signal stations from whicli beacon lights ha\'e flashed forth at night and columns of smoke arisen in the daytime as warnings of impending danger, or the means of conveying quickly other information. It will be found that from one of these mounds upon the valley wall, another similar mound can nearly always he seen, and that the second commands a third, and so on. It is probable that these mounds formed systems extending along the valle\-s and across the country.

There are in Washington County many small works and mounds, the most interestingof which are mentioned in the histories of the localities in which they occur. It is scarcely necessary to say that there are none which approach in magnitude the ancient remains at Marietta.

The pioneers of Marietta exhibited a laudable disposition to preserve the strange monuments left by a prehistoric people, and although much has necessarily been swept from existence, the most interesting portions of the great SA'stem ha\-e been preserved, and nearly in the condition in which they were found. While the Goths and Vandals at Circleville were razing to the ground the wonderful works which gave their town its name, the citizens of Marietta were taking steps not only to guard against the immediate obliteration of the remains within the town plat, bnt to secnre their protection for all time. The names wiiich have been used in this chapter, Quadranaoii, Capitoliiiiii' and Sacra J'ia, were bestowed upon the several works during the year 1788. A little later the Ohio Company passed the following resolution, which was the first measure adopted looking toward the preservation of the ancient works :

Resolved. That Colonel Battclle, Colonel Crary, Major Sergeant be a committee to lease the public squares (to Samuel H. Parsons, Rufus Putnam and Griffin Greene, esqs.), the ones on which the great mounrl stands, the Quadranaoii and Capitolium, for so long a time as they are not wanted for the uses for which thcv were reserved. The committee are to point out the mode of improvement for ornament, and in what manner the ancient works shall be preserved, and also to ascertain the amount of what is to be given.

In ]\Iarch, 1791, the Company decided to lease Public Square No. i (^Slarie Antoinette), containing the great mound, to Rufus Putnam for 12 vears, on condition that he should set out trees and make other improvements. On similar terms it was proposed to lease Square Xo. 2 {Capitoliiiin), to Dudley Woodbridge for eight years, and Square No. 3 {Quadranaoii), to Baijamin Tupper for 10 years. It was resolved at the same time that Sacra Via be not leased, but that General Putnam should retain control of it, seed it down, plant trees upon it, etc. It was specified that the trees to be set out on the ancient works were to be of native growth. Subsequently Rufus Putnam, Paul Fearing, and Dr. Jabez True were appointed trustees to take charge of the public squares until the town should become incorporated, and lease them to proper persons, the avails of the rent to be applied to the education of indigent orphans.

The large trees growing upon the Ouadranaou are all of second growth and were set out in accordance with the requirements of the Ohio Company. Tliis work, or rather the question of its preservation and the right of the lessee to obliterate or deface it, was the subject of a very warm controversy in iSjo. The square containing the Oiiadranaon had been leased to D. Hartshorn and he had transferred the right of possession to ReV. Joseph W'illard. He began plowing down the truncated pyramid and the citizens protested. Caleb Emerson, who was a member of the Council, was active in opposing Willard's action. Tlie Council removed the square from Willard's possession and leased it to C. D. G. Bonny, and a number of citizens turned out and repaired the damage done by the plowing. A discussion of the merits of the case was carried- on for some months in the newspapers between a writer who. signed himself "Fair Play," and Mr. Willard, and the case was carried into the court, where it was decided in favor of the town. The Council claimed the square as a reservation granted to the town for public works, or public buildings, and for the benefit o'f indigent orphan children.

The public squares had not been fenced, up to 1S37, and some damage had been caused to. the ancient works, 'but in the year mentioned the citizens raised a sufficient sum of moiley to repair the injuries effected and to btiild fences around the squares. Ichabod Nye and Thomas Vinton were appointed by the Council as a committee to make the needed impro\ements and restorations. Tlie large mound has, perhaps, been injured more than either of the other remains, the water having washed the sides where the earth was loosened by the feet of climbers. The uneven places were filled, the defective trees cut down, and the entire surface of the mound sown with grass. In order that the symmetry of the mound should not again be impaired by the displacement of earth consequent upon many persons climbing up its. steep sides, a Right of stone steps was constructed by which the summit could be easily gained. The mound has since been kept, by occasional slight labor bestowed upon it, in the laest possible condition, as have also the other remains.

The Great Battle-Grol'Xd Of America

\vas a continual battle-ground. To it both France and England, in turn, clung -with equal determination, and both tested the foolish experiment of attempting to win it back, when once it was lost, 'by means o-f the Indians who made it their lair.

The Hunting Grounds Of The Iroquois

When the first explorers entered the West, early hi the i8th century, it was found to be the princely hunting" ground of the Iroquois, better known as the Six Nations. Of all American Indians the Iroquois were ever preeminent, invincible. The proud races of the furthest South had felt the weight of their tomjahawks and the nations that camped about the shores of Lake St. John "kept their sentinels pushed well southward in dread of their fierce invasion." As conquerors of half a continent, the choicest hunting grounds were theirs, and so the forests, divided by the Oyo (Ohio), which took its rise in the Iroc|uois homeland south of Lake Ontario, was the nation's choice.

The hunting- grounds of an Indian nation were not, in the nature of the case, located ne^r the nation's homeland. The forests near Indian villages soon became devoid of game, and the hunters were compelled to seek it at an increasing greater distance from home. And so it became customary for the stronger nations and confederacies to obtain by conquest or unopposed occupation, great tracts of distant forests which should be their own peculiar property and into which vagrant hunters of other nations came only on peril of their lives. These hunting grounds were as stable and well defined as a nation's homeland itself, and, as among the Bedouin nations of the Levant, the degree of the conqueror's victory over his adversary w&s measured by the number of sheep and camel purloined, so the victory of one Indian nation over another was measured, in part, by the extent of new hunting grounds in which it might thereafter roam without challenge. The hunting grounds were an Indian nation's pride 'and came first in the nation's category. And so the "Happy Hunting Ground," ali\-e with game, whicii no ruthless conquerer could wrest away, was the red man's happiest concq^tion for a life everlasting.

Still, during Irocjuois so\-ereignty over the Central West, it is not probable that they alone knew of the treasures of buffalo and turkey and pike which the land and its streams contained. In the far West the Iroquois left the Miami's nation undisturbed in their old home between the Miami and the Wabash. Ottawas. "traders" from the North, who had never built a fire beside more splendid streams than the Central ^^'est contained, were at times vagrant, frightened, visitors to the lands be- , tween the Great Lakes and the Oyo. Other scattered remnants of Indian nations are rumored to have built fires in the huntinggrounds of the Iroquois; if so they hid their charred embers in the leaves, to obliterate all proofs of their sly incursions.

Ever and anon, from the Iroquois homeland, came great armies into the West in search of game. Launchin.g their painted canoes on the headwaters of the 0\o (now the Alleghany and Ohio), they can;e down wiith the flood tides of the spring and fall and scattered into all the rivers of the forest, - the Kanawha, Muskingum. Scioto. Kentucky. Miami and Wabash. Other canoes came up Lake Ontario to Lake Erie and passed up the Cuyahoga antl (lm\n the r\[uskingum. or up the Sandusky and down the Scioto, or up the ]Miami-of-the-Lakes and down the Wabash. Then were the forests filled with shouting, and a hundred great fires illuminated the primeval shadows. After the hunters came the warriors in brightly colored canoes, their paddles sweeping in perfect unison. And woe to the arrogant southern nation whose annual tribute had failed to come! Down to the South the warriors sped, to return with terrible proofs of their prowesi. leaving upon the rocks in the rivers haughty symbols of their victories.

Six Nations was challenged, and the territory over which they were masters began to grow smaller instead of greater. The white men came to America. Their "new" empires were being erected on the continent. "New Spain" arose to the south ; "Xew Sweden" was spoken of and "New Amsterdam," on Long Island Sound ; "New England" was heard of between the St. Lawrence and the Atlantic Ocean, and "New France" was founded amid the Canadian snows, with its capital on the tumbling ri\er of St. Laurant.

Though both, came from beytjnd the same ocean the Iroquois found that there was a great difference between the founders of "New England" and the founders of "New France." The former settled down quietly, bought land, cleared it and raised crops. They treated the Indian very respectfully - paying little attention to him or his la-nd. The French, however, were different. There was no end to their running about. Their arrival was scarcely noised abroad before -they were seen hurrving up the inland rivers on missions of various import.

And so the Iroquois came to hate the French, especially after their first encounter with them on the shores of Lake Champlain, -when the white captain fired off a horrid arquebuse which killed two chieftains and wounded another, and liked to have scared the whole Indian army to death. This hatred was augmented- as the French made friends with the Algonquin tribes of the lower St. Lawrence who, having fled from before the Iroquois v.-arriors like dust before the wind, now, in revenge, piloted the French up the Ottawa and showed them a way to enter the Great Lakes of the Iroquois by the back door, Georgian Bay! Once acquainted with the five Great Great Lakes, the French were even less satisfied than before, and down into the hunting grounds of the Iroquois they plunged in search of a great ri\er and a sea which would lead to China. .Mready they had named the portage around one of the St. Lawrence Rapids "La Chine," believing that the river led "to China"

As the iSth century grew older the Iroquois became too busy with affairs of war and diplomacy and trade to come each year to their western hunting grounds and guard them with the ancient jealousy. Situated as they were between the French and English settlements, they found a neutral role difficult to maintain and they became fitfully allied now with the Albany, now with the Quebec governments, as each struggled to gain possession of the great Northern fur trade which was under the dominating influence of the Si.x Nations, who controlled the Ottawa, St. Lawrence and all the New York ri\ers.

And Wvandots

The hunting grounds of the Iroquois were too delightful a land to remain long- unoccupied. Had Providence willed that these iorests in and west of the Appalachian mountsystem should have continued to be unoccupied until the white man came to possess it, many of the darkest pages of American history could never have been written. But the very reverse of this happened. Not only was it filled with Indians, but there came to it from far distant homes, as if chosen by fate, three of the most desperate Indian nations on the continent, each having been made ready, seemingly, by long years of oppression and tyranny, for the bloody work of holding this West from the white man. The three nations found by the first explorers in the abandoned hunting grounds of the Iroquois had been fugitives on the face of the earth for half a century, bandied about between the stronger confederacies like outcasts, denied refuge evei-ywhere, pursued, persecuted, half destroyed. The story of any one of them is the story of the other two - a sad. desperate tale at the best.

til in which they formed were on the Scioto. ]\hiskingum and Sandusky rivers, respectively. And, with the fierce Miamis and the remnants of the Iroquois, these tribes fought the longest and most successful war ever waged by the red race in the history of the continent. From their lairs on the Alleghany, Scioto and Muskingum, they defied the white man for half a century, triumphing terribly at Braddock's defeat and St. Clairs, the greatest victories over the white man e\er achieved by the red. The first of these nations to enter the old liunting ground of the Iroquois was the Wyandot. Tlieir home was about Sandusky I3ay, and along tlie shores of the Sandusky River. Originally the Wyandots dwelt on the u]3per St. Lawrence, and were neighbors of the Seneca tribe of the Six Nations. As the result of a quarrel over a maiden, as legend has it, but more likely as the result of Iroquiiis ci'iiquest, the Wyandots were driven froiii their hiin-^es. vanishing westward into the lan.l of the Hurons, who lived by the lake which bore tlitir name. Here the brave Jesuit nii^sj, ^naries f( v.nd them, where they were knov, n ri- tlie "Tobacco Xation." The confederation of the Iroquois as the Six Nations sounded the doom of the Hurons, and with the Senecas at the head I if tlie confederacy, only ruin staved the fugitixe Wxandots in the face. By the beginning of the 1 8th century they had again fied westward, hopelessly seeking a new refuge. Some of the nation continued journeying even beyond the Sioux and Dacotahs to the "Backbone of the World," as they called the Rocky ^Mountains. There, tradition states, they found wanderers like themselves, v.-Ikj spoke a familiar language - Wyandots w^ho had come hither long before to escape the revengeful Senecas I But the majority of the nation built great rafts and set afloat on the Detroit River. ,This was a reckless alternative tO' choose, but it brought the persecuted nation to their longsougl-it place of refuge. As they passeil the p.esent site of Detroit, they saw with amazement an array of white tents and soldiers diessed in white keeping watch. The Wyandots had found the French building De Troit, o.nd fear of the Senecas \-anished. On the shores of neighboring Sandusky Bay on Lake Erie the Wyandots built their fires, and the relations between them and the French were most cordial. The year of this memorable Wyandot hegira is given as 1701, which, fortunately, corresponds with the founding of Detroit.

When "Mad Anthony" \\'ayne was waging his last campaign against the Western Indians in 1794, he once summoned to him a knowing frontiersman and asked him if he coiUd not capture an Indian in order to get some information concerning the enemy.

The story is typical of the ^^^-an(lots throughout all their histoiy for a century - for it lacked but five years of a century when they signed the treaty at Greenville after General Wayne's campaign. Allied in the beginning, as we have seen, to the French, the Wyandots fought sturdily for their cause until New France was abandoned. Under Pontiac they joined in the plot to drive out the English from the West and win back the land for France. In turn they became attached to British interests at the l>reaking out of the Revolutionary War, and they were as true to the \-ery last to them as they had beein formerly to the French. Through their aid England managed to retain forts Sandusky, Miami and Detroit for 20 years after the close of the Revolution, despite the solemn pledges given in the treaty of Paris.

The Wyandots came from the far North. The second nation to enter the Alleghany forests w^as the Shawanese, who came from the far South. The Shawanese were the onlv

American Indians who liad even so much as a tradition of ha\ ing come to this continent from across the ocean. Like that of the savage Wyandots, the history of the Shawanege before they settled do\\in on the swift SciotO' is a cheerless tale. Too proud to join one of the great Southern confederacies, if, indeed the opportunity was ever extended to them, they sifted northward through the fore.'^ts from Florida until they settled between the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers. Here the earliest geographers found them and classified them as the connecting branch between the Algonc^uins of New England and the far Northwest, so different were they from their Southern neighbors. They remained but a short time by the Cumberland, fur the Irociuois s\vept down upon them wUh a fury ne\'er exceerier" by the Cherokees or jMobilians. and the fugitives scattered like leaves eastward tuward the Alleghanies. By permission of the government of Pennsylvania, 70 families, perhaps 300 souls, settled down upon the Susquehanna at the beginning of the i8th century. By 1730 the number of Indian warriors in Pennsylvania was placed at 700. one-half of whom were said to be Shawanese. This would indicate a total population of perhaps 1.500 Shawanese. With the approach of the settlements of the white man and the opening" of the .bloody French and Indian War. they left the Susquehanna and pushed straight westward to the Scioto River valley beyond the Ohio.

The Shawanese have well -been called the '"Bedouins of the American Indians." The main body of the nation migrated from Florida to the Cumberland and Susquehanna and Scioto rivers. Fragmentary portions of the nation wandered elsewhere. Cadwallader Cobden said in 1745 that one tribe of the Shawanese "had gone quite down to New' Spain." When La Salle wished guides from Lake Ontario to the Gulf of ^lexico in 1684, Shawanese were supplied him, it being as remarkable that they were Shawanese so far north (though they may have heen prisoners among the Iroquois) as it was that they were acquainted with the Gulf of ^Icxico. In the Black Forest the Shawanese gained another and a well-earned reputation - of Ijeing the fiercest, most uncompromising Indian nation with which the white man ever dealt. Tbey were for the half century which the Black- Forest was their home and the Wyandots their allies, ever first for war and last, for peace. Under their two terrible well-known chieftains. Cornstalk and Tecumseh, they were allied both with the French and w'ith the British in the vain attempt to hold back the tide of civilization from the river valleys of the Central \\"est. Missionary work among them proved a failure. They made treaties but to break them. Not an acre of all the land which lay south of them, Kentucky, but \\-as drenched by blood they spilt. Incited by such hellhounds as the Girty boys, there was no limit to which the Shawanese could not be pushed, and for it all they had been trained by instinct and tradition through n.umljerless _\-ears of desperate ill-fortune.

The Wyandots and the Shawanese came from the North and South. The third nation which made the hunting grounds of the Iroquois its homeland came from the Eastern seaboard. The legendary history of the Lenni- Lenapes cannot be equaled, in point of romance in Indian history. Tradition states that the\- li\ed at a very early period west of the Mississippi River. Uniting with their neighbors, the Iroquois, the two nations began an eastward conquest which ended in driving the giant Alleghans, the ]\I(ound-Builders. from the alluvial valleys of the Scioto, Miami, ;Muskingum, Wabash, Kaskaskia, Cahokia and Illi-- nois, where their mounds and ring forts were found, and dividing between them the Atlantic sealx>ard, the Iroquois taking the north and the Lenni-Lenapes settling in the valley of the Delaware, where they took the name of Delawares. But not long after this division had been effected, the spirit of jealousy arose. The Iroquois receiving arms from the Dutch who founded New Amsterdam ('New York), became expert in the accomplishments of war.

The Delawares adapted themselves to peaceful modes of living, and their laden maize fields brought them rich returns for their labors. With the confederation of the Iroquois tribes into the Six Nations, the doom of the Dela- \\ares was sealed. By treachery or by main force the upstart "uncles" from the North fell to c|uarreling with their Southern '"nephews.'" Seeing that nothing but ruin stared them in the face the Delawares began selling their land to the Dutch, the friends of their "Good Mignon" Penn. "How came you to take upon - yourselves to sell land?" was the infuriated cry of the Iroquois, who sent by their orator, Cawassatiego, their ultimatum to the weakened Delawares. "You sell land in the dark. Did you ever tell us you sold land to them? * * * -\\'e fij-ifi yQ^^ 2.\-e. none of our blood. Therefore we charge you to remove instantly. We assign you two places to go, either to Ugoman or Shamokin : Go!"

Dismayed, disgraced, the Delawares retired from the green maize fields Avhich thev loved and fell back, a crowd of disordered fugitives, into the Alleghany forests. Sifting through the forests, crowding the Shawanese before them, they at last crossed the Alleghany and settled down on the upper }kluskingum about 1740. Here they lived for half a century, fighting with \^illiers and Pontiac and Little Turtle. Here they were visited by armies and by missionaries who did noble work among them. The Delawares later fought against the armies of Harmar. St. Clair and \Vayne, after they abandoned the valley which was first their home, and then sank hopelessly into the general rout of the broken tribes moving westward after the battles of Fallen Timhers and Tippecanoe. On the Kansas River and its tributaries the remnant of the once powerful Lenni-Lenapes range today over a territory of a million acres, still dreaming, it is said, of a time when they will again assume their historic position at the head of the Indian family. A great mass of tradition li\es with them of their eastern conquest, the homes on the Delaware, Alleghany and Muskingum, where the poet had Evangeline visit them in her search for Gabriel. And still the massacre of Gnadenbrutten is told to wondering children in Delaware wigwams which dot the Ozark ^Mountains as they once dotted the Alleghany valleys.

-The total number of Indians in the hunting ground of the Iroquois would be difficult to estimate. During the Revolutionary \\a.v, when the Central West was filled with an hundred fugitive tribes, a United States Commissioner reported the number of Indian warriors affiliated with the Irocjuois as 3,100, divided as follows: Wyandots 300, M'ingoes 600, Senecas 650, I\Iohawks 100, Cuyahogas 220, Onondagas 230, Oneidas and Tuscarawas 400, Ottawas 600 ; the other nations were given as follows : Chippewas 5,000, Pottawatomies 400 ; scattering, 800. Considering the Indian family as consisting of four persons, the total Indian population of the Central W'est would lie 40,000, probably a very liberal estimate.

General Putnam has left very explicit notes about the plan of the ancient works as he found them in 1788. He says, "There are at least three kinds of works at Marietta as described on the plan, and designed for very diiTerent purposes. The walls A B C D and E F G H (the two large quadrangles covering the greater part of .the high ground and lying between Putnam and Montgomery streets) were evidently erected for defense, and whoever views the figures i, 2, &c., which are as level on top as a mosaic pavement, will not he'sitate to pronounce that on them once stood some spacious buildings, and whoever considers the other figures, although he may be at a loss with respect to their use, he will have no difficulty in believing they were for purposes very different from either of the other kinds of work. Thus far, everyone who has viewed them, and, I will ^-enture to say, whoever shall view them, will be of one opinion, but with re-

"The chasms or openings in the walls by many are supposed to be intended for gateways, and no doubt but that they served partly for that purpose; but I think it highly probable that both these and the openings at the angles were supplied with wooden works, probably with something like bastions or projecting towers for the lodgment of the troops assigned for the defense of the place as well as the better to flank the curtains. It is observable in the square A B C D that from one opening to another the distance is no more than from 1-4 to 20 perches, the half of which distance must be the necessary flight of an arrow in order for a complete flank fire.

"A B C D is the remains of an ancient wall or rampart of earth whose base is from 25 to 36 feet, and its height from four to eight feet. Figs. 5 and 6 are two parallel walls of earth distant from each other, from center to center, 14 perches, at e and / their perpendicular height is 21 feet and base 42 feet ; at g and }i their height is eight feet. This height was taken on the inside or between the twio walls. On the outside they are nowhere more than five feet high.

"E F G H are walls or banks of earth. Their height and base were not taken by measure but they appear to be about 20 feet base and from three to five feet high."