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Yesterday was celebrated by the schools throughout the state as “Mound Day’ and contributions were made by many of the schools by a fund for the preservation of the higoric mound at Moundaville. The following description of the mound by Prof. Virgil A. Lewis, State Hstorian and Archivist, will be read with Interest. Among the most mysterious of the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys, are the ancent tumuli or mounds, the work of an intelligent but long forgotten peope—a vanished rac These Mound-Builderst Who were they? Alas, we shal never know, for when they were here the North American continent was as a sealed book to the hstorian. They were isolated from all the world besides, and they disappeared there from leaving no place In history, and not in blood, manners, speech, nor laws, have they set a trace behind them. That they did disappear is not re markable, for we know that other types and nations have done likes ise;hat there have been wars, migrave, absorptions, and extinc sinus of peoples whose pre-historic ire is yelled in the mysteries of Me jong distant Past. These Mound inllders may have perished at the barbarous hands of the warriors of the Trognois Confederacy, who Were the Romans of the Western World, or they may have been merg ed into the Natchez of the lower Misissippi Valley, or the Mayas of Yucatan, or the Aztecs of North ern Mexico. Volumes have been written t0 show how America was originally peopled and still no satin factory solution of the problem has been reached. On the contrary, these certain ttle else than a mass of contradictions. Certain it is, we may trace these people here, there, and everywhere by mounds they ‘ave reared and by the weapons utensils, implements and ornaments, found therein or scattered over the surace of the sand, or dug from the winds and gravel-beds of the rivers. On what was known as Grave Creek Plaza, in what is now Mar shall counily, West Virginia, they reared a Mammoth Mound. Tt haw aiVed a name—Moundsville—to the Modern city which surrounds it. It # how sixteente feet high, the top having been graded off somewhat lor platform, and in the shape of the frustum of a cone, having a circumference of three hundred yards at the base and a diameter of fity fom at the top. It was heaped up by a people destitute of knowledge of iron, and without do mestic animals to aid them. It sa ® vast Monument to the Industry of the ancient Inhabitanta of the Ohio valley, a masterpiece of the works of andiaulty; a tremendous memor al of the aborigial life of a by gone people. Standing there alone in Ht majesty It marks the site of An ancient metropolis of the Mound builders of the region and may eat upon Tuiia still more ancient than Itwell it was discover in 70, by Joseph Tomlinson, the fret pioneer settler who reared his cabin on the Grave Creek Flats. While hunting in the vicinity, he came suddenly to what seemed to be a hill Wilch reared is steep, cone shaped form before him with ite summit the treetops of the sure Tounding forest. Ascending it he stood that day upon America’s most hated artifial mound. from that tmne to the cown of the century, many pareens stood upon it and éazed It admration and wonder up on the surrounding scene, Henry Rows Schoolcraft, the historian, 2 cendet it im 1815, Joseph Dude Iridge author of the ''Settlement and Indian Ww of Western Vir, sit wid Pennsylvania,t wae on th io 1810; mod they, with many atte ves Ive deft io us their defor ma mt it. When wan it bust? What is te agot None know, for over whit now Towlinen stated Kt White discovered — it, the RFOWN of timber sheroun wax ay ire aid dense as any of the our Wandin Toreet, Nasnes and dates Wore Cut OOM some of these one of tie Tetler, On the bark of a large item, telng of 17 Ag nthe one fee which wtood you the summit, t *us felled some yearn afterward, rut iy COLLADINE the cortical layero of browehs, fie aha wan aacertained to be more than five hundred years, and thas xing the time when the re ireah to grow, at the begins ing of the thirteent century, of! worty two hundred snare before | Columbia discovered America Even THOME CAN got point out the Ome *hen the mould was erncted. | it may have been oh when the Viramide of Ravot were being built! ve when Cleopatra's Nevdie waete | WS Tweelened, it sotnatna far] fer Champolion to exer ove bit ngemihy [n. ascertaining Wn period of erection and tee of ‘heer monaitenta. This Mammoth ‘fount, the greatest monument of mouinty in ite Olle Valley, fe in Went Virgina—lands in the very hour of a Matewhing West Virginia ohe—aat it strayed. Witt 4 warvers, the three hundred and aft. [7Ao thowmadd boot children, f rom the one milion citizens of a weal thy State—representing ita scholar ship and Intelligence—see to it that this great Mound shall continue as an attraction for the admiration of the generations to come after us? So may it be, FROM THE CYCLOPEDIA AMERICANA. One of the most interesting mounds of North America is that known as the Grave Creek Mound located in Moundaville, West Ve sinta. The Mound is situated on an elevated tableland, and is an artificial truncated mound, some 70 feet hgh and 900 feet in circum ference at its bass The Mound was built by a race superior and previous to Indians, and a the most notable Wound in the Ohio Valley. Ni cable contents are equal to the tird pyramid of Mycerinus, but was woaped up by people destitute of the knowledge of Iran, and who had no domestic animals or machinery to aid them. They were evidently people lke the Egyptians, ruled by some one monarch, who was able to combine vast numbers in the erec tion of one structure, and at the same time, able to provide them with food in abundance. The mound-builders cultivated the soil like Egypt'ans, and had maize for their food, as the date and leek and onion supplied the wanta of the laborers on We Mile. No In dian was ever vaswa to tell In Lals manner. No government existed among the Indians that could bring them to such servitude. The authority of a chief or sachem is too alonder a thread for such people. It must be remembered that In Egypt to build one of the pyramids required the labor of 360, 000 men for 20 years. This Mound was visited by white men at a very early date, for, In 1818, one of the large trees growing on the Mound bore the date of 1734, and several names cut in the bark were yet distinguishable. Tomlinson, the owner of the Mound, was Induced by his neighbors and friends in Wheeling to open the Mound, which he did in 183%. From the north ,he he excavated toward the centre an adit ten feet high and 7 feet wide along the natural surta At the distance of 111 feet he came to a vault that had been excavated in the earth before the Mound waa commenced; 8 feet by 12 feet square and 7 feet depth. Along each side, and across the ends, up right timbers had been placed, which supported timbers thrown across the vault as a ceiling. These timbers were covered with loose and hewn stone, common in the neigh borhood. The timbers had rotted, and the stone tumble into the vault. In the vault were two hu man skeletons ,one of which had no ornaments. The other was sur rounded by 650 ivory beads and an ivory ornaments about six inche long. A shaft was also sunk from the top of the Mound to meet the other. At 34 feet above the first or bottom vault, was found another, similar to the fret. In this vault was found a akeleton which had been ornamented with copper rings, plates of tmlea, and bone beads. Over 2,000 discs cut from shella were found there. ‘The copper rings, or travelers found, weighed about 7 winean Top Picture is a snapshot of Lawrence J. Lewh and his riding we st was galnine momentum for a trial fight by being towed by a horse The picture was taken at the flat exhibition and tournament of the Ac« ronautie Society at Morria Park Mace Track. Lower picture shows first photograph of the Pieehor Railoon, with automobite attached to the bag in the place of the regulation basket ne Ut warted Ind a suc cessful fight at Indianapolis, recently.
Newspaper Details
Bluefield Daily Leader
Bluefield, West Virginia, US
Fri, Nov 06, 1908
Page 3
Full Page
Clipped by
Mark V.
USA 13 Jun 2026
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