Wayne County, Ohio - Chapter 3: Glaciation, Archaeology, Mound Builders, Etc, 1910 (part 2 of 2)

One and a half miles up Killbuck from this on the late Rose Ann Eicher farm, just below the Big Spring's, is a beautiful oval enclosure, the bank of which is still complete and four feet high, the point of the egg extending almost to the bank of the Killbuck, which is here twenty feet high with a gully to the south, affording protection from marauders coming up or down the stream, which was then a boating highway from the Muskingum up to the portage beween Burbank and Lodi on the Black river. The hill above the springs rises two hundred feet to a plateau, from which the Killbuck river could be scanned for many miles. The enclosure is still in the native woods and is undisturbed and the tract, including enclosure, springs, plateau and meadow adjoining the creek, should be preserved for a park, for, in the writer's opinion, it is the finest site for health and recreation in the county of Wayne or even the state of Ohio.

The next distinguished hill top is directly across the Killbuck valley from the above described and is popularly known as Fort Hill. It is situated on a promontory in the angle formed by tbe junction of Little and Big Killbuck. The bluff is six hundred feet in long diameter and one hundred and fifty in the short, top surface. The sides are thirty-five feet high from the roadlied on either side. On the northwest it is nearly cut from the mainland liy a ravine, only a narrow neck connecting, which was guarded by a ditch and bank, probably palisaded. On the top is a circle about one hundred by eighty feet and there are also two mounds, each twenty-five to thirty feet in diameter and two to three feet high. There is an available spring on tbe west side and I am convinced that here was erected (or .selected) a refuge and defense "fort." My opinion is strengthened bv the fact of its commanding a long and wide view of the Killbuck valley, but ])rimarily by the fact that out from its front at the distance an arrow would fly I have [)icked up in the last ten years over fifty warrior darts, the small triangular ones, so fashioned that if once driven into a body and the arrow shaft pulled out, the dart or point would remain and induce suppuration. Or may not the point have been poisoned?

The remains of an enclosure are still recognizable on the Bechtel hill near the Spring. This hill overlooks the fair grounds and the valley and across the Christmas run on a similar spur of hill is another well-marked enclosure, just above a fine spring.

There was a large enclosure on the hill southwest of Wooster that included twenty acres. It was situated between the two Killbuck bridges and was peculiar in being double terraced on the stream side of the hill - one trench and embankment low on the hill and in the shale where the implements were of very old type, and about sixty feet above a parallel embankment that was probablv palisaded. Here implements were of jasper and finely serrated on both sides. There was a fine spring in the enclosure and a deep ravine on the north side. The traces are now almost obliterated by plowing down hill, but sixty-five years ago when I first saw and played on the terraces it was plainly marked. A part was then in woodsi A large enclosure was noticed on Bald hill, above Shreve, where Doctor Pocock opened many single graves. This faced one across the valley, but I can describe no more.

The mounds of Wayne county are many, lint small, ranging from fifteen to fifty feet in diameter by two to six feet in height. A few fine gorgets, ceremonial stones and totems have been found in them, with arrow and spear heads. IMost of them were opened years ago and no record kept, as the openers were simply relic hunters. The finest, to my personal knowledge, was opened on the bank of the Muddy fork near New Pittsburgh. There was found but tine skeleton, on the breast of which was a large slate pendant, and around the thorax were laid thirty-five well worked leaf-shaped implements, four and one-half inches long by one and one-half wide at center, and one fine stemmed spear head six inches long, while at the hands lay two elegant, deep-grooved axes, with pointed poles, one of (juartz and the other a light blue stone, tbe texture not determined. Both are perfect ; I have all in cabinet.

There is a large mound on the Bob Snyder farm, a half mile up the hill from Kanke Station that is unicjue in construction and history. The hill top on which it is located commands the most extensive and, the writer thinks.

the finest pastoral view in Wayne county. The mound is fifty feet in diameter and was about nine feet high. It is in an unbroken woodland and covered with nature's forest trees, the roots of which greatly embarrassed digging and disturbed the strata. The bottom is formed like a low rimmed saucer, made of hard puddled clay, covered with three inches of sand, and scattered over this is a layer of charcoal, burned or charred bones and pieces of splintered flint ; over this is another layer of puddled clay, covered with -sand, and on this is more charcoal, incinerated bones and implements, broken up as by fire.

Here the original mound, or place for cremation purposes, seems to have been completed or abandoned, for above this - about three feet high - comes a two-foot covering of yellow clay, in which I found - in the trench, two feet wide, which I drove from periphery to center - two bundles of "long bones'' and some loose bones, but no skulls. The long bones seemed to have been tied together, or thrown in piles as in communal burials and were so infiltrated with and cemented together by the tough clay, that 1 took them out entire and still have them as well as the charcoal, sand and contents from the bottom of the mound. In places the long bones had entirely decomposed in the clay, leaving only a hole - or cast - with a dark line to tell of the matrix. But this is not all of the mound, for over all of this had been heaped four or five feet of earth from the immediate surroundings, which completed a conical mound from the truncated ones of past ages. The late Dr. D. Pocock, of Shreve, opened this from the top in 1870, and secured two skeletons, two gorgets and a number of other relics. Of course the top layer represented late or intrusive burials, but the mound taken as a whole would indicate three different ages, with three distinct modes of interment.

Implements And Artifacts Of The Aborigines

With the word "savage" we instinctively couple the idea that the "flints" we find in the field are "arrow and spear heads." and all made to be used in the killing of something, man or liird or beast. But this is farthest from the truth, for not one chipped flint or pecked stone in twenty was specialized for war or the chase.

1 he great mass of stone relics found are implements of husliandry or for domestic use. The first lesson the aborigine had to learn was how to live, not how to fight, for that was a luxury to be added later. To live, he must have food for his stomach and clothes for his body and a bed to lie on. His first need was a knife, and this was sup])lied in the flake of a flint, the first artifact of man's ingenuity to supply a domestic want: with it the aborigine skinned his captured deer, fashioned its hide into clothing and bed quilts, cut up its carcass, shaped his defense club, and did so many other things with it, that I am prompted to ask you "What do you do with a knife?" In determining the use of the implements of primitive man, we must be as familiar with the management of thought as a painter is in the manipulation of colors; we can take cognizance of an object only in so far as we can come into relation with it, and in the contemplation of Indian implements we cannot place ourselves in such complete association, for environment and the needs of the user, together with the mental status of the maker, must be supplied. This can only be done by considering what is positively known of uses by existing barbarians, or those }^et in the stone age, or by tradition, or finally by the imagination.

So all positive knowledge is in a chaotic state, save that which has been or is gained by field work and collecting which associates the implement with its location. Its geologic horizon determining its age ; its connection with a mound showing it to be mortuary ; its association with a fortification proves defensive war.; while if rescued from an enclosure we reckon it the local fauna of a village site.

So in studying the character and mode of manufacture of primitive man's relics you must try to l^nt yourself in his place, as you should with Moses and his tablets of stone.

For these, and many other reasons, I have coupled Wayne county (where most of my thirty thousand specimens were collected - over three thousand with my own hand) with types of implements, for comparison and unison, - from the streams of adjacent counties representing the seven heads of the Muskingum river, viz. : the four forks of the Mohican, Killbuck, Chippewa creek and Sugar creek. In all of these the writer has personally noted the horizon of village sites, mounds and enclosures, and finds that both banks of the Killbuck present almost continuous village sites. At every spring that is surmounted by a knoll is found the chips or flakes and "wasters" that proclaim a work shop, and along many of the smaller streams the same evidences were found.

There are three principle types of relics. The first is the chipped or flaked implement of flint. Flint breaks when struck or firm pressed with a conchoidal - like a watch crystal - fracture, producing a sharp edge to core or implement as well as to the flake and this flake can be used as a knife, or if a larger spall, even as an ax. The second is the pecked and polished implement - polished at least at the cutting edge, such as the grooved axes, celts, tomahawks made of granite, greenstone, diabase, quartzite and argelite.

These must be first pecked into shape with a harder stone and then polished. The third comprises the class of beantifnl souvenirs done in slate; the gorgets, done in all imaginable artistic forms, to be worn on the breast as marks of distinction, or carried in any manner fancy, fashion, or cast would dictate, have been found in the county in great numbers.

The "bird stones," over which the marriageable maiden coiled and dressed her hair, are less numerous, but in the writer's cabinet there are half a dozen; but they do not all represent birds nor "saddles," for one has the head of a mountain lion and another the head and tail of a beaver, so 1 reckon they were totems as well as decorations.

'Fhe totems, of which several are represented, are usually in banded state and finely specialized and are evidently the insignia of a tribe. The tubes may be either pipes or "cupping tubes" used in legitimate medication or the necromancer's winch by which he catches the evil spirits infesting the ptient and sucks them through the skin, usually depositing a mass of foul tobacco on the reddened place, which he exhibits as the disintegrated spirit.

'Fhe butterfly stones are beautiful, as may be seen in the illustration. In addition to these, there are amulets, pendants, beads, ear rings (some of stone, averaging two and three ounces), hair pins and perforated pieces without number that were certainly made for a purpose and either used at religious ceremonials, or in the dance, or to ward off evil spirits or be tvorn as decorations. But you must give wild wings to your imagination and let fancy carry you to the wild man's home in the woods if you would learn all their uses and meanings.

Village Sites

'Fhe most remarkable village site in Wayne county is on the old i\lc- Clelland farm in the angle formed by the union of Crawford's creek with the Killbuck near the coal chute. Here the writer has found three village sites superimposed one abctve the other. In the oldest you find implements of the rudest construction, made from the crudest material, as ])ebbles from the brook and cherty limestone from the Moorland hill and most of the chijiped relics deeply patined. 'Fhe next class are better s])ecialized and tbe flint mostly from the (piarries near Coshocton. 'Fhe top artifacts show great art in the ])attern and dexterity in the artisan, while finer flint is used, much being the heautiful chalcedony from Mint Ridge and another, black or blue grev that works elegantly; but the (piarry has not yet been located. I have o\er one thousand specimens from this site and among them is a cache of lift}' heautiful leaf shaped artifacts, made from clear white flint, with a jas])er lustre. On the headland abor-e this terrace is the remains of an enclosure and on the apex a small mound, from the base of which I took the emblem of Sun W^orship. representing the rising sun and the four points of the compass. This mound had lieen opened by John Rahm and many relics taken from the top, showing an intrusive burial.

An unique village site was found on the Meier farm, section 2, Franklin township, on the gravel kames surrounding an old silted-up lake. Here many of the implements were made in effigy, both flora and fauna represented, as buffalo skulls, head and ears of the wolf, fish, tadpoles, birds in flight, leaves of the trees, etc., brooches and beads in jasper together with digging implements of elegant pattern and utility.

But along with these were many crude knives and darts, some of which had been rechipped and showed deep patterning, evidently the remains of an old and vanished race whose relics were rejuvenated and utilized.

The last village site I will note is on the terraced bank of the Apple creek, southeast section, Wooster township. Here was the beautiful summer home of Beaver Hat, his Apple Chauquecake (Apple Orchard). Here a thousand fine relics were found of flint ancl slate and stone, unsurpassed if equaled in the state. Among them the rare and beautiful Indian head, illustrated imperfectly herein. The sculpture is done by chipping so fine that a glass has to be used to see it. The effigy shows the stately pose of the Indian, high cheek bones, partly shaven head and the two long locks of black hair parted and carried over the bared breast. So perfect is it that an eminent archaeologist said on seeing it, "had the maker been possessed of tools he would have been a Michael Angelo." The form is enlarged, which mars its fineness.

General Reliquia

The reliquia of \Vayne county I think was equal in amount to that of any county in the state, and for quality of material, elegance of workmanship, variety of expression and artistic design, was superior to most (excepting of course the effigy pipes and copper ornaments of the mound builders of southern Ohio), but many of the early surface finds when only the finest were picked and presen'ed liy the pioneers were destroyed mostly by fire. Doctor Pocock's collection at Shreve, consisting of many thousand relics, and the collection gathered l)y President Taylor for Wooster University, all went to flinders when the buildings went up in smoke, while the large collection of Mr. Reed, of Dalton, was removed from the county. But with all this, I still have thirty thousand perfect specimens, including over fifty different patterns of grooved axes and hatchets ( celts), and every known form of pestle known to Ohio; pipes of slate, sandstone and baked clay with others known as monitor and effigy; bird bunts, to stun, not penetrate; arrow points for larger game, finely specialized and long buffalo darts ; warrior darts, to poison or fester the flesh; flints, with polished bases; spear heads of every pattern, knives, scrapers, hide dressers, bark peelers, beads, ear rings and brooches, fish hooks in flint, crochet hooks for net making and net sinkers ; piercers and needles with polished slate pieces without number, including totems and religious ceremonials.

But to describe them here without illustration is impossible. I can only refer you to Squire and Davis, who opened the mounds of Ohio at an early date, and ask you to read and study the illustrations in Gerard Fowke's remarkable book, the "Archeological History of Ohio."

Pottery

The creation of utensils for domestic use by moulding clay and then burning it was one of the first expressions of man's inventive power. The eaily forms were crude : A straw basket was woven and the moist clay, mixed with pounded shells, was pressed into the meshes from the inside, and the semblance of a pot placed in the sun to bake.

In the world's development, life had been given to man, but the struggle to kee]) it uas hard and required all his energies. Life had been given to the troglodyte, but life had also been given to the saber-toothed tiger, the serpent, and the mammoth and they too loved and fought for life. The man must overcome them or perish. Intellectual comparison was yet in abeyance, the troglodyte's brain was yet boggy, and the time of waiting was long before God said, "Let life and thought together meet and mingle and man be a reasoning, as well as a living soul." But it came at last, and marked the first great crisis in the troglodyte's evolution - the age, or stage of inventive reasoning. Now he could lay traps, create implements of aggression, secure food, ]irotect his family, and rest secure in his cave at night.

Art necessitates leisure and leisure only comes after the bodv is well clothed and the stomach filled to satiety ; so the troglodyte was no artist, all his implements were of the crudest, and the rudest; but when reason was added to instinct and the tongues of the glacier had receded and left flower gardens in their wake, as they now do in Alaska, and the fiercer animals gave way to the reindeer, the bear and the buffalo, then his hours were more peaceful and not all occupied in securing food and shelter. He had leisure to contemplate and decorate.

After this brain storm that cleared his perception and added purpose to his conception, primitive man's first thought was to better and beautify his game-killing implements, and, second, to create more useful and artistic furnishings for his household. Hides must be tanned to preserve and render them supple, and the rude and fragile drinking and cooking ntensils must be made more durable and attractive, and in this inspiration is to be found the nucleus of pottery making and of pottery decoration.

The remains of primitive pottery in Wayne county are very meager in comparison with those of southern Ohio and are mostly confined to separate fragments or pot sherds, and these seem to be largely mortuary, as but few fragments are found on the surface or in the kitchen refuse.

The writer knows of but one complete vessel found in the county. This was encountered while workmen were grading a hill of undisturbed glacial gravel south of Wooster for an addition to the Wooster cemetery. The relic was about three feet from the surface when struck and shattered by the plough. It was a large and well formed bowd with unic|ue decorations on the sides and an artistically fashioned rim ; it was shaped like an old-fashioned boiling pot. with bulging sides. The depth was nine inches, the diameter at bulge fifteen inches and at the rim twelve inches. The bottom was very thin, one-fourth inch, but very compact, while the rim showed a band one-half inch thick and one inch wide around the top and this embellished and strengthened by graceful elevations at intervals. In the bowl was only a few handfuls of dark oily mould, and the wudter's opinion is that the vessel was a mortuary bowl.

Burial

Except the cemeteries of the late, white contaminated Indians and intrusive burials in mounds, I have found but two sepulchres worthy of record. The first is a "stone grave" on the farm of the late John Culbertson. It is located on a terrace of the Little Killbuck just opposite "Fort Hill," above described. It was made of shale fiagging, from the brook. A layer of slabs for bottom, sides and top; was about three feet deep, but the skeleton was so decayed that nothing was left but a line of dark mould and a few undistinguishable bones that went to powder when exposed to the air.

The second was found on a promontory of shale, capped hy forty feet of glacial gravel abutting on the Pittslmrg, Fort Wayne & Chicago railroad in section 29, Wooster township, and above the terrace on which the threeply village site is located. Workmen, in cutting a new road through the hill, came across a unicjue grave. As soon as discovered, the writer was sent for

Errata

After this brain storm that cleared his perception and added purpose to his conception, primitive man's first thought was to better and beautify his game-killing implements, and, second, to create more useful and artistic furnishings for his household. Hides must be tanned to preserve and render them supple, and the rude and fragile drinking and cooking utensils must be made more durable and attractive, and in this inspiration is to be found the nucleus of pottery making and of pottery decoration.

The remains of primitive pottery in Wayne county are very meager in comparison with those of southern Ohio and are mostly confined to separate fragments or pot sherds, and these seem to be largely mortuary, as but few fragments are found on the surface or in the kitchen refuse.

The writer knows of but one complete vessel found in the county. This was encountered while workmen were grading a hill of undisturbed glacial gravel south of Wooster for an addition to the Wooster cemetery. The relic was about three feet from the surface when struck and shattered by the plough. It was a large and well formed bowl with unic|ue decorations on the sides and an artistically fashioned rim ; it was shaped like an old-fashioned boiling pot, with bulging sides. The depth was nine inches, the diameter at bulge fifteen inches and at the rim twelve inches. The bottom was very thin, one- fourth inch, but very compact, while the rim showed a band one-half inch thick and one inch wide around the top and this embellished and strength- and found a skeleton in a sitting position, facing the south ; the knees were drawn up and arms extended over them or to the side. The grave was elaborately prepared, the bottom being seven feet from the surface. The enclosure resembled a large old-fashioned store box, three by four by three feet in size. The sides, back and front were formed of a double thickness of heavy bark, with bottom and top of split puncheon, three and four inches thick and six to ten inches wide. At the right hand of the pelvis was the half of a huge mussel shell, four by seven inches, in which was two ounces of red paint, and on the left was a duplicate shell containing white paint. Bark and puncheon, shells and skeleton went to pieces when exposed to the air, only the paint remaining. Burials of this kind are very rare. Gerard Fowke, the most experienced archaeologist and field worker in Ohio, says in his "Archaeological History of Ohio:'' "I have never found a skeleton which had been placed in a sitting posture," yet I have found one other in a similar gravel hill near Captain Pipe's cabin at old Jerome Town. The prime fact in these burials w'as that the skeletons were without their skulls, the heads had evidently been removed before burial; whether to retain the vigor of the chief, or other noted personage, - as the medicine man - to the tribe, or on account of the superstition that the spirit of the dead should not be given to the worms, is all conjecture - exercise your imagination.