Cass County, Illinois - Chapter 4: Mound Builders, 1915

Chapter 4: Mound Builders

CASS COUNTY ONCE THE ABODE OF AN UNKNOWN RACE - THE ILLINOIS VALLEY PERHAPS ATTRACTED AN AGRICULTURAL PEOPLE - A MYSTERY UNSOLVABLE - DIFFERENT TYPES OF MOUNDS FOUND - - CAHOKIA MOUND - NUMEROUS MOUNDS ONCE IN THE VICINITY OF BEARDSTOWN - A REMARKABLE HISTORIC RELIC OF THAT PLACE NOW DESTROYED - THE INDIANS MIGHT HAVE SUCCEEDED THE MOUND BUILDERS.

Abode Of An Unknown Race

No other evidence is required than that afforded by a look over the Illinois and Sangamon valleys, from the high bluff along the eastern and southern borders, to convince the beholder that whatever prehistoric people inhabited Illinois before the Indians, that people must surely have selected and occupied this particular part of Illinois as a more or less permanent abode. Ali human beings of intelligence are moved and actuated by Similar conditions. Were these prehistoric people agriculturally inclined, they found here everything suitable for the purpose. Excellent alluvial soil, a climate favorable to the growing of necessary cereals to support life of themselves and domestic animals; streams navigable for vessels of sufficient size to transport their surplus products; plenty of fuel on the uplands; abundance of fresh water below the earth's surface but a short distance, and cropping out in many springs along the bluffs. There is nothing certain, however, known as to who or what character of people they were who made this highly favored section their abiding place and called it home. <A race of people called the Mound Builders, certainly did occupy the Illinois Valley. They are called the Mound Builders, not because mound building was their principal occupation, but because

Much speculation has been indulged in by archaeologists, and many volumes written by scholars who have become deeply interested in the subject, but all to little purpose so far as solving the mystery is concerned. An article on the subject of the Mound Builders appears in the first volume of this work, and though differing materially in many respects from the writings of others on the subject, covers the main points and gives the reader a general idea of what the Mound Builders did and who they were supposed to have been.

The subject is referred to here at length because of the local interest the people of Cass County have therein, on account of the presence, until about 1853, of a splendid specimen of the mounds left by that departed race of people, on the left bank of the Illinois River, where the city of Beardstown now stands. Dr. J. F. Snyder of Virginia, ex-president of the Illinois State Historical Society, who has made a fruitful study of the subject, resulting in the accumulation of a vast amount of extremely interesting historical facts, writing of early Illinois, after alluding to the voyage of the French explorers up the Illinois River says: "But our state has a much older and unwritten history extending from the dim archaic past to that daring canoe voyage of Joliet and Marquette. Along its picturesque ranges of bluffs; on the shores of its beautiful lakes and streams; on its fertile prairies and alluvial bottoms, abound the curious relics of its earliest human occupant of a bygone age, evidences of the primitive arts as well as of the higher culture of a people of an unknown origin, who disappeared, leaving no other record of their history. In Illinois are the works of the Mound Builders, and numerous and varied in form and dimensions and of as facinating interest as any elsewhere found in the United States. In the Rock River Valley are seen the singular effigy mounds representing figures of the human form, birds, animals, and nondescript objects projected on a gigantic scale. The mounds of the Illinois River region are of a distinct and different type, corresponding with those of Ohio; while in the American bottom, opposite St. Louis, are the huge Tocali or truncated pyramids. identical in structure with those of the southern states, from Georgia to Arkansas, and very probably the product of the same people. Of that class is the Cahokia mound on Cahokia Creek, seven miles east of St. Louis, the largest of all the earthen monuments of the yanished race north of Mexico. It is almost a hundred feet in height, with level top of three acres, and square base measuring 700 feet by 500 feet in width. From it can be seen sixty-one other large mounds of various forms scattered through the bottom between the river and the bluffs."

At that day, and less than half a century ago, there stood near the river bank at Beardstown, one of the finest Indian mounds of Central Illinois. It was a sepulchral mound, conical in form, eighty feet in height, and about 5U0 feet in diameter at the base. It was evidently made from clay brought from the bluffs four miles distant. Those now living who saw the mounds before the work of destruction of them was begun, say that there were several mounds in close proximity to the large one; that about forty yards down the river stood the smallest of the groups, and still further down the river was a small mound about twelve feet high, and that all the mounds were made of similar clay. The base of the large mound extended from the verge of the river bank to Second street, and from Adams to Beard street. The second mound was west of Jackson street, between Second and Third streets, and the last one stood below Arenz street, between Main and Second streets. These mounds, together With the fact that for years the wigwams of the Indian village were clustered around them, gave the place the name of "Beautiful Mound Village," bestowed by the French missionaries. In Indian nomenclature it was known as "Tkickapoo Town."

The mounds did not long survive the encroachments of the whites. who began soon after 1829, to settle upon the adjacent lots. The surface of these lots was almost pure sand and would hardly sprout grass; and the occupants, finding the mounds were composed of Clay soil thought it would serve a much better purpose as a top dressing for their sand lots than it was then. Consequently the mounds were soon deyvastated and the contents spread about to increase the beauty of the lawns. and the fertility of the gardens of the newcomers who were wholly indifferent to historic values.

Remarkable Relic Destroyed

The large mound was one of the finest specimens, and the second largest in the state. Its removal was an irreparable loss to archaeological science, and robbed Beardstown of an unique and beautiful relic of a bygone race, of inestimable antiquarian value. Another. cause of regret to scholars of the present day is that while the mounds were being torn away n0 record was kept of their construction, of the constituent material, or description or relative position of objects found imbedded in them. From old settlers it is learned that at the top and sides were discovered many superficial burials, of recent Indians very probably, accompanied as usual with their implements of stone, and ornaments of shell and copper. Among them was found the bones evidently of a Jesuit missionary, who had long ago penetrated the wilderness, there laying down his life in defense of his faith. He was entombed no doubt by his converts in that majestic sepulcher of a long vanished race. Around his skull was a thin silver band an inch in width, while on his skeleton breast lay a silver cross, while nearby were the jet and silver beads of his rosary. At the outer edge of the base of the mound was uncovered the much decayed skeletons of a few Indians, enclosed with their primitive weapons, implements and ornaments, in a rude vault of rough flagstone. These were the remains, no doubt, of distinguished chieftains to whose memory their tribe erected that splendid and enduring monument. Before the mounds had entirely disappeared, one evening ten or a dozen Indian canoes were seen floating down the river. A number of the citizens of Beardstown followed along the shure until they came to the big mound, when the Indians disembarked. After viewing the grounds and talking with some of the citizens, one of the Indians pointing to the mounds said: "There is where my great-grandfather is buried."

"The decaying bones of the red warriors, as they lay in their quiet and lovely resting place, with implements of war around them; the silver and flint crosses of the missionaries, even the beautiful mound itself, which, as an ornament and historical feature of the town and river should have been held sacred, could not restrain the money-making white man from destroying it, and it is now recollected only by the old settlers who used to sit upon its summit and watch the passing away of the last of two races - the Indian in his canoe, and the French voyageur in his pirogue."

The large mound, however, was put to a practical purpose before being carted away. Horace Billings, an energetic, enterprising citizen of Beardstown, built a large flouring mill and warehouse on the side of the mound next the river, and undertook the manufacture of a kind of flour bolted from cornmeal. It was his intention to ship the product to foreign markets, but it is said a certain drying process made it useless as a food product, and after sustaining some considerable loss in the enterprise, it was abandoned. A sawmill and planing mill were added to the plant, and the machinery used for the purpose of manufacturing lumber. This project was more successful as there was an abundance of board timber along the bottoms, and it could easily be brought by water to the mill. After a few years Mr. Billings sold the machinery to John Fred Nolte, and Stephen Elam, who moved it to block 83, original town. The big warehouse by the mound was later used for storing corn, which was hulled and packed in two bushel sacks, for shipping to the river freight boats. The arrangement of the building was a convenient forerunner of our present day elevators; the roads up the mound being so graded that the farmers hauling grain could drive to the third and fourth story of the building, unload, turn and drive down after dumping their loads. Grain and such other commodities as were there stored, could be sent down an incline to the boats on the river. At one time the house was so loaded with grain that the north walls bulged out and let a great quantity of grain fall into the river, causing a total loss. After that accident, the building was abandoned, and the mound being gradually removed, it stood there a dilapidated old landmark until one morning in May, 1867, it took fire from some unknown cause and burned to the ground.

There is little or no evidence anywhere else in Cass County of the pre-existence of the race of so-called Mound Builders. Whether the race known as the American Indian, was the immediate successor of the Mound Builders, as some think they were, or not, it is certain that the Indians took possession of the mounds wherever

Sylvester 7. Bartlett

Northeast of Arenzville there remained for a long time evidentes of a large Indian burying ground, and Mr. Frank Bridgeman, giving items for a biographical sketch says:>

"In 1833 there was a large temporary encampment of Indians on the cemetery hill east of Arenzville. The chief was a tall man, over six feet in height, dressed in fine style.' Mr. Bridgeman continues that he made a visit to this encampment, taking along as presents some whisky and tobacco, which he delivered to the chief who shared them with a select few of his braves. In honor of the visitor who had brought the most acceptable presents, they formed a circle about him and danced and went through other ceremonial motions, much to his delight and amusement. He thought that these red men were gathering to go to some point across the Mississippi River. Mr. Bridgeman is certainly mistaken in his date, as the Black Hawk war had closed before that time, and no Indians were in or near Arenzville, or the western part of Cass County as late as 1833. It is more probable that the incident occurred about 1823, in which year the last large bodies of Indians were moving from Cass County to the lands west of the Mississippi River.