Ohio History Journal

ADDRESSES BEFORE THE OHIO STATE

ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

The public meeting of the Ohio State Archaeological and

Historical Society was held in the House of Representatives, Co-

lumbus Ohio, at eight o'clock p. m., March 3, 1898, General

Brinkerhoff presiding.

 

 

ADDRESS OF GENERAL BRINKERHOFF.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:-Before introducing the speakers

of the evening it is proper for me, as chairman, perhaps, to say

a few words in regard to the origin and purpose of the Ohio State

Archaeological and Historical Society.

We all know, who live in Ohio, that Ohio is a great State; the

most of us believe that it is the greatest State in the Union, and

some of us who have traveled widely and visited all of the states

of this Union, and in all countries upon this continent-we know

there is no block of land on the earth the size of Ohio so admir-

ably fitted for the habitation of man.

Now, this fact is not of recent knowledge. It was known

doubtless thousands of years before Ohio was known to the white

man. Of all the states in the Union Ohio, judging from the

records that we have in the relics that were left, and memorials,

Ohio was appreciated as we now appreciate it by the peoples who

lived thousands of years ago.

There is no State in which there are so many memorials of

those ancient people as in the State of Ohio.

Now, twenty-three years ago a number of gentlemen-I think

there were fifty perhaps-assembled together at Mansfield, Ohio,

for the purpose of considering the subject of the preservation of

the memorials of those ancient people, and at that time we organ-

ized what was then known as the Archaeological Society of Ohio.

The next year, in 1876, the Ohio General Assembly gave us

twenty-five hundred dollars to make an exhibit of Ohio archae-

ology at the World's Fair in Philadelphia. Many of you, doubt-

less, saw this exhibit.

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Address of General Brinkerhoff.         431

 

There is no State in the United States, perhaps-none cer-

tainly that has a more magnificent record-that has given so little

attention to its own possessions as Ohio. There are collections

of Ohio archaeology sent to the great museums of Europe, greater

than we have in all of our Ohio collections. We find them at

Paris, Berlin, the British museum and in the little city of Salis-

bury, England. I went to Salisbury, as American tourists al-

ways do-to visit the cathedral. The next thing I did was to look

up the Blackmore Museum. The Blackmore Museum is a

fire-proof building, built for the express purpose of preserving and

showing the archaeology of the United States, and mainly it is

from the State of Ohio. It is the old Squier and Davis collection.

What this Society started to do, and what it has done to some

extent-was the preservation by the State itself of some of its an-

cient memorials. This has been the hunting ground of all the

nations. Our materials have been carried away to Europe and

across the sea, and we felt that it was high time that something

should be done, and so we organized the Ohio Archaeological So-

ciety, and made that quite a success. Then we had no place to

preserve our relics until recently the Ohio State University came

to our relief, and gave us room in that magnificent hall out there,

known as Orton Hall.

Later on we felt that another matter must be attended to at

some time, and could be connected with that Archaeological So-

ciety, and that was the historical collection.

A nation does not depend for its greatness upon its wealth, or

upon its antiquities so much as it does upon its men and women,

and there is no State in the Union that is the peer of Ohio in its

great men and women.

In this way we organized the Ohio State Archaeological and

Historical Society, and it is now a State institution in part. It

is governed by a board of twenty-one members, six of whom are

appointed by the Governor of the State.

Well, as time went on the State of Ohio first came to our

relief in a measure, and we have acquired Fort Ancient, which will

be described to you to-night. Fort Ancient is one of the capitals

of those ancient people, and it is a wonderful place, and Ohio now

owns it, and it is cared for by the Society. Now, this is what we

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432       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

are attempting to do-it is to preserve Ohio archaeology and care

for and preserve its history. It is important that we preserve the

memorials of our great men. Take our Governors, for example.

What do we know about them? Take the great men of history-

what do we know of them? It is within the past year that

my attention was called one time to this particular thing. I was

inquired of as to something in regard to Senator Morris. I didn't

know who Senator Morris was; I doubt if there is a dozen people

on this floor to-night that do know who Senator Morris was. I

tried to get on the skirmish line of information, for I felt that I

ought to know, and I went to the biographical dictionaries, but I

didn't find the name of Senator Morris, and at last I was told

he was from Clermont county, and Representative Ross, who is

on the floor, was the first man that I found that knew anything

about him. As he was from Clermont county, it occurred to

me that Howe's History would tell something about him. Howe

did more for the preservation of Ohio history than probably any

other man. I found that Senator Morris was one of the great

men of his century. There was a time when he was in the Senate

of the United States from 1833 to 1839, when he was the cham-

pion of liberty upon the floor of the Senate, and I read his speech

in reply to Calhoun, and there are few finer speeches that I know

of in our history. It is these things in history that we want pre-

served by the Historical Society.

I just want to call your attention to one fact. I might take

up a dozen, but I will only call your attention to one single one,

and that is in the State of Wisconsin, one of the youngest children

of the Northwest Territory, and with a population one-half less

than the State of Ohio, with advantages that do not compare with

Ohio, and yet what has she done? To-day in the capital of Wis-

consin, at Madison, there is a new building which is to be dedicated

this year. It is about two-thirds the size of this building. Its

archaeological demands are small compared with ours, but it has

three stories; its library now has 108,000 volumes. Its archae-

ological implements amount to 90,000.

Now, Ohio, with its vast opportunities, certainly ought not

to be second to Wisconsin. We are going to celebrate our cen-

tennial pretty soon, and there is some talk in the newspapers I

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Address of Professor Wright.          433

see of having a memorial building erected for that centennial, and

I noticed in one of them the proposition is to make the memorial

building basement the home of the Archaeological and Historical

Society. Why, my friends and fellow citizens, we have in sight

to-day, with the collections we have on hand, enough to fill not

only the basement but also a full one story of that building, and

if the State of Ohio will undertake to erect a fire-proof building

as large as Wisconsin's building, that is to be occupied and be the

property of the State in 1903, certainly we will fill two-thirds of it,

because there are thousands of collections in this State only waiting

to be properly cared for when the State of Ohio is ready to take

care of them.

Therefore, we do not ask for small things; it is not for our-

selves that we are asking these things of the State of Ohio; it is

for the generations that are to come after us. Now, the Ohio

State Archaeological and Historical Society as now organized is

prepared to control an arrangement of that kind; should the State,

of Ohio give us something of that kind we will care for it, and we

believe that we can do so with the experience that we have had.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, this in brief is the position which

we occupy. The gentlemen who are to speak to you to-night are

all members of our Society, and familiar with the work, and they

will tell you something of the magnitude of this work.

I have the honor to introduce to you as the first speaker one

who will present the importance of archaeology of Ohio. The gen-

tleman who will make this address does not require an introduction

to an Ohio audience. He is known all over this State, and in

his specialty he is known all over this world. I have the honor to

introduce to you Professor Wright, of Oberlin College. (Ap-

plause.)

ADDRESS OF PROFESSOR WRIGHT.

Situated midway between the Atlantic and the Mississippi

and between Lake Erie and the Ohio river, whose waters drain, on

the one hand, into the Gulf of Mexico, and on the other into the

Gulf of St. Lawrence, Ohio has always been, and still remains,

pre-eminent in its position upon the North American continent.

The remarkable diversity of attractions which give it such power

to-day in the Republic of the United States, made it also in pre-

Vol. VI-28

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historic times the arena of most significant movements among the

aboriginal inhabitants of America. In the mounds and earth-

works of the prehistoric races of our State we have archaeological

treasures, of highest value, which stand in great need of being

preserved, still further explored, and more effectively advertised.

Much has already been done in the way of preserving some of

the more important earthworks. With broad-minded foresight

the Legislature has purchased the site of Fort Ancient, the largest

and most complicated of the prehistoric works in our country.

This is situated in Warren county, near a station, upon the Little

Miami railroad, bearing the name of the fortification. Here a

promontory of glacial debris, facing the Little Miami river for a

mile or more and rising from two hundred to two hundred and

thirty feet above it, and protected on the other side by the deep

gorge of a tributary stream, is completely surrounded along its

upper edge with an earthwork that even now would be well-nigh

impregnable from any force attacking it from the outside. Reck-

oning all its windings, this earthwork is about five miles long,

though inclosing no more than one hundred and fifty acres.

Several other earthworks of special value are being cared for

by private parties and local societies. The most important of

these is the Serpent Mound, in the northern part of Adams county.

This is situated on Brush creek, in Franklin township, about six

miles north of Peebles Station on the Cincinnati and Eastern rail-

road, and five miles south of Sinking Springs, in Highland county.

The head of the serpent rests on a rocky platform, which presents

a precipitous face to the west, towards this creek, of about one

hundred feet in height. The jaws of the serpent's mouth are

widely extended, in the act of trying to swallow an egg, repre-

sented by an oval inclosure about one hundred feet long. This

inclosure, as well as the body of the serpent, consists of a ridge

of fine earth about four feet high and from ten to fifteen feet broad.

The body of the serpent winds gracefully back towards higher

land, making four large folds before reaching the tail. The tall

tapers gracefully, and is twisted up into three complete and close

coils. The whole length of the mound from the end of the egg

on the precipice to the last coil of the tail on the higher land is

upwards of thirteen hundred feet, or a quarter of a mile.

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Address of Professor Wright.           435

 

What was formerly supposed to be two symmetrical limbs or

projections on either side of the neck prove to be, on the right a

small mound of stones, perhaps for sacrificial purposes, and on the

other a prominence produced by the partially rotten stump of a

tree. An extensive burial-place was discovered in the vicinity of

the serpent's tail. A conical mound about a hundred rods to the

southeast was carefully explored, revealing, in the center at the

bottom, a well-preserved skeleton with many ornaments, and two

intrusive burials at subsequent times and by parties evidently

ignorant of the original purpose of the mound.

A few years ago nearly six thousand dollars was raised by an

association of public-spirited ladies of Boston for the purchase and

repair of the Serpent Mound, and, under the personal superin-

tendence of Professor Putnam, this mound was restored to its ori-

ginal position. All the dirt which had been washed down and

plowed off from the summit and sides was thrown back again,

and the whole seeded over. A road was made leading up the

steep hill to the mound from Brush creek, and a spring-house con-

structed for the comfort of visitors. The park connected with the

mound has been set out with a variety of trees growing in the

county, and the whole has been turned over to a society for the

benefit of the State, with the proviso that no charge shall ever be

made for entrance to the grounds.

At Newark, also, a portion of the remarkable earthworks has

been purchased by an association which utilizes the ground for a

county fair, and thus is likely to protect the work from further in-

jury. The portion thus preserved consists of a circular inclosure

which is entered by a passageway one hundred and twenty feet

long and eighty wide, on each side of which the embankments are

fully thirty feet high, and are nowhere less than fifteen feet high.

Inside the embankment there is a continuous ditch five or six feet

in depth. The inclosed space is not an exact circle, but an ellipse,

its diameters being twelve hundred and fifty and eleven hundred

and fifty feet respectively. In the center of the area there is a low

mound about seven feet in height, having somewhat the shape

of a bird, with its head pointing towards the entrance of the inclos-

ure. The length of the body of this "Eagle Mound" is one hun-

dred and fifty-five feet; of each wing one hundred and ten feet,

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436      Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

and the distance between the tips of the wings in a right line, two

hundred feet. An excavation disclosed an altar, showing that

the mound, and probably the whole inclosure, had a religious sig-

nificance.

Aside from these, scarcely anything has been done in the

State to preserve its prehistoric monuments from destruction;

while in many most important cases the work of devastation has

already gone on past repair. Even at Newark the portion pre-

served is only a small part of the complicated works described by

the first settlers and explorers; while at Marietta and Martin's

Ferry the larger part of the earthwork has been destroyed, a con-

siderable portion of those at Marietta having been sold by the pub-

lic authorities to a brickmaker, who found the material profitable

for his uses. In the town of Circleville, also, the historic inclosure

which gave name to the town has been razed to the ground, and

the city readjusted according to modern notions of symmetry. The

last time I saw the Alligator Mound at Granville, horses and cattle

were stamping vigorously upon its sacred surface, and pawing up

the dust, for the temporary relief it would furnish from the flies.

But notwithstanding the work of destruction, so permanent

and numerous are these earthworks that the State still has great

archeological treasures in store. Among the most noteworthy of

these is Fort Hill, in Highland county. Fort Hill is in Brush

Creek township, about eight miles north from the Serpent Mound,

four or five from Sinking Spring, and nine or ten south of Bain-

bridge, on the Ohio Southern railroad. This region lies along the

western outcrop of the Waverly sandstone, corresponding to the

Berea sansdtone in the northern part of the State. These rocks

dip gently towards the east, and are underlaid by thick deposits

of rather soft shale. They formerly extended much farther to the

west than now, but have been undermined and removed by va-

rious eroding agencies, including the ice of the glacial period-

the terminal moraine passing about a mile to the northwest. These

outliers of the Waverly sandstones which remain as isolated caps

upon pedestals of shale, which the streams have not yet had time

to wear away, are from four hundred to five hundred feet above the

bed of Baker's Fork, which winds around the north and west sides

of Fort Hill.

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Address of Professor Wright.           437

 

In ascending the slope of Fort Hill, it is found to be gentle for

the first two hundred and fifty feet, then much steeper, until the

last one hundred feet is reached, which is so steep as to be almost

inaccessible. Its irregular flat top is completely isolated, and in-

cludes about forty acres of land which has been cleared and culti-

vated, having at one time been partly occupied by a peach orchard.

A heavy forest of first-growth timber covers the sides of the hill

in every direction, and their projecting leafy tops largely obstruct

the view in summer. But the glimpses of the scenery from every

side are among the most charming and extensive anywhere to be

found in the State; looking down to the south upon the valley of

Brush creek in the vicinity of the Serpent Mound.

This flat-topped summit of the hill is completely inclosed by

an ancient fortification of earthworks, penetrated by numerous

gateways at irregular intervals. The earthwork was formed by

digging the dirt from the inside just back from the rim of the hill,

and throwing it outside, so that its slope coincided with that of

the summit. The ridge of earth thus formed is from ten to twenty

feet high, and from twenty to forty feet broad, the ditch on the in-

side being everywhere visible. The minimum age of the work can

be inferred from the size of the trees growing upon it. One of

the stumps was certainly several hundred years old, as shown by

the rings of annual growth which could still be counted a few

years ago. Inside the fortification are two shallow hollow places

where water could be preserved for a long time.

The purpose of this wonderful inclosure is evident. It is a

fortification most admirably chosen for defense against the enemies

of that time. It commanded a most extensive view in every direc-

tion, and afforded opportunity to exchange signals with other ele-

vated points from twenty to thirty miles distant. In the fertile val-

ley of Baker's Fork there are numerous sites of Indian villages

where doubtless the people lived in times of peace, but upon proper

warning Fort Hill was a refuge easily accessible, easily provis-

ioned, and easily defended.

What signs of occupancy there may be in the inclosed area is

not known, as no excavations have ever been made. But in them-

selves both the fortification and the situation are among the most

interesting anywhere to be found in the world. The Legislature

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438       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

could render no greater service to the archaeological and historical

interests of the State than to rescue and preserve this remarkable

monument of the Mound Builders as the ladies of Boston have

rescued the Serpent Mound near by. The cost would be moder-

ate, and the expense of preserving little or nothing.

In the vicinity of Portsmouth, at the mouth of the Scioto

river, there is a continuous line of earthworks for a distance of

eight miles up and down the Ohio valley. Two of the larger

works are upon the Kentucky side, eight miles apart; the other is

in Ohio, about midway between the Kentucky works, and con-

nected with them, except where the river intervenes, by parallel

lines of embankment. The width of the space between these par-

allel embankments is about one hundred and sixty feet, the em-

bankments themselves being about four feet high, and twenty feet

broad. Including the inclosure, there are in these works, alto-

gether, more than twenty miles of embankment.

The lower work upon the Kentucky side is on the second ter-

race of the Ohio, about fifty feet above the first bottom, and about

a quarter of a mile back from the river. The principal part is an

exact square of eight hundred feet, containing fifteen acres, the

embankment twelve feet high by thirty feet broad, rising at one

place to a height of fifty feet. From opposite sides of the main

square, and running parallel with the river, surrounded by em-

bankments, two oblong rectangles project a distance of two thou-

sand one hundred feet, and are about two hundred feet in width,

inclosing ten acres each. It is difficult to tell whether these works

were designed for military defense or for religious purposes.

The upper works upon the Kentucky side are, as we have

said, eight miles distant, and one and one-half miles from the river.

They consist of four circles, one within the other, though at irreg-

ular distance from each other, and cut at right angles by four broad

avenues, resembling somewhat the works long since destroyed

at Circleville, Ohio, and whose form gave name to that city. In

the center of the circles is a truncated mound, four hundred and

fifty feet in diameter, and twenty-two feet in height. The diameter

of the entire space occupied by the circles is about one thousand

three hundred feet; the height of the inclosing embankment is

two or three feet.

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Address of Professor Wright.          439

 

The works upon the Ohio side are very complicated, and can-

not well be described without a figure. They consist of an irregular

collection of circles, semi-circles, parallels, horseshoe-shaped em-

bankments and mounds, of which the principal one is twenty-five

feet in height. It seems very improbable that either of the last two

was constructed for military purposes.

Passing up the Scioto valley, which for about forty miles is,

like the Ohio, a valley of erosion from one to two miles wide (and

bounded by hills from three hundred to five hundred feet in

height), there are no earthworks worthy of remark until reaching

Piketon, twenty miles distant, where, upon a beautiful natural ter-

race, there is an interesting collection of mounds and squares and

circles and ellipses, and other irregular figures, among which is

a square within a circle, altogether covering a space about a mile

long and half a mile wide. About five miles farther up the river

occurs the graded way of Piketon, through which the turnpike

now runs. This graded way leads from the second terrace to the

third, is two hundred and fifteen feet wide, ten hundred and eighty

feet long, and ascends seventeen feet. At the beginning of the

grade the embankment thrown up is twenty-two feet high. After

reaching the level of the third terrace, a low embankment ex-

tends for a third of a mile toward a group of mounds, one of which

is thirty feet in height.

Passing up the Scioto twenty miles farther, to the vicinity of

Chillicothe, in Ross county, we find ourselves again, as at Newark,

upon the southern border of the extensive and fertile plains ex-

tending to the northwest for more than a thousand miles, and which

were ironed into shape during the glacial period by the irresistible

agency of the continental ice-sheet. Nothing can exceed the fer-

tility and beauty of the Pickaway plains through which the Scioto

river meanders as it flows southward from Circleville to Chilli-

cothe. These plains are bounded upon the south by precipitous

cliffs five hundred feet high, of subcarboniferous sandstone, the

line of whose outcrop crosses the valley at this point in a direction

northeast by southwest. Below Chillicothe the Scioto occupies

a gorge-like valley cut out of these rocks to a depth of about five

hundred feet, and to a width of about two miles. Above Chilli-

cothe it flows through the entire distance near the surface of a con-

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440       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

tinuous plain. But through all its course it is lined by two or

three terraces of coarse gravel, marking the height to which floods

rose when the ice of the glacial period was melting. Coming

down from the northwest, Paint creek joins the Scioto near Chil-

licothe. Both these streams, for a distance of twelve miles or

more above their junction, are characterized by extensive, im-

pressive, complicated, and curious prehistoric earthworks. To de-

scribe them would be little more than to repeat over and over

again the descriptions already given.

In Liberty township, a square and connected circle (situated

upon the third terrace about eighty feet above the river) incloses

upward of seventy acres. The embankments, however, are not

more than four feet in height. Two miles above are the so-called

High Bank works, likewise on the third terrace. These consist

of an octagon containing eighteen acres, joined to a large circle

containing twenty acres, with five neighboring circles each about

three hundred feet in diameter, and some of them connected to-

gether with extensive parallel embankments. Numerous circles

and mounds and pits likewise mark the neighborhood.

Two miles farther up, upon the opposite side of the river, is

another set of works of about the same size and general character

with those just described.

Five miles farther north, and four miles above Chillicothe,

on the east side of the Scioto, are the celebrated Hopeton works.

Here, too, is a circle inclosure of twenty acres and a square one

of twenty, with three or four smaller ones adjoining, and parallel

embankments one hundred and fifty feet apart extending for more

than half a mile toward the river. The embankments of the

square inclosure are not lined with a ditch, and are fifty feet broad

at the base, twelve feet high, and wide enough at the top for a car-

riage road. One mile further north, on the same side of the river,

are the Cedar Banks works, the main feature of which is a square

inclosure with broad gateways, containing thirty-two acres. The

embankments are low, and lined with ditches, and within them is

an elevated square a few feet in height, and two hundred and fifty

feet in length.

There are few mounds in the neighborhood of these last two

works, but upon the opposite side of the river occurs what is well

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Address of Professor Wright.           441

 

styled Mound City, which is a nearly square inclosure, with rounded

angles, containing thirteen acres, situated on the second terrace,

and whose embankment is between three and four feet high and

unaccompanied with a ditch. No less than twenty-four mounds

are situated within this inclosure, ranging from six to seventeen

feet in height. Nearly all these have been excavated, and were

found to contain altars or basins of burnt clay in the center at the

bottom. These altar-basins were several feet in diameter, nine

or ten inches deep, were very hard burned, were filled up even

with ashes intermixed with pottery and containing copper discs.

In one of the mounds there was a layer of mica and burned human

bones over the center of the altar. The mounds were built up of

alternate layers of sand and clayey soil, and covered with pebbles

and coarse gravel. About half a mile to the south is a circular in-

closure containing twenty-eight acres and an altar mound exactly

in the center.

Three miles farther up, on the west side of the river, are Dun-

lap's works, consisting of a rhomboidal inclosure, containing thir-

teen acres, with a circle attached, and an avenue stretching off from

the opposite corner more than a thousand feet. Near by is a clus-

ter of mounds so near the level of the river that they are some-

times surrounded by water, one of which is so large that one time

during a flood, a farmer with his family and cattle and horses,

numbering in all near a hundred, took refuge upon it.

Ascending Paint creek from Chillicothe, we find a series of

remarkable fortifications upon the summits of the hills lining the

creek, two of which are estimated each to have upward of two

miles of embankment, and to contain not far from one hundred

acres; and another, near Bourneville, to contain one hundred and

forty acres. Upon the North Fork of Paint, not far away, there

are also works of great magnitude, one of which incloses one hun-

dred and eleven acres, to which is attached a smaller square of

sixteen acres. With the larger area are numerous smaller inclos-

ures, one of which contains seven mounds joined together rising

to a height of thirty feet. Still further up the North Fork, at

Frankfort, are other extensive works.

Going back now to Chillicothe near the junction of Paint

creek and the Scioto river, the tourist will see, upon the east side

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442       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

of the valley and about three miles distant, the chain of sandstone

knobs to which we have already referred as facing the northwest.

Upon the highest and most commanding of these, and nearly six

hundred feet above the river valley, stands one of the relics of the

Mound Builders in which it was said that human remains

were found.  From  various places in the northeastern part

of the county, from the region of the prehistoric remains about

Circleville, twenty miles to the north, and from the region of all

the works upon both forks of Paint creek, this knob is a conspicu-

ous object in the landscape. Indeed from nearly all the works

that we have described in the Scioto valley one would be able to

see a beacon fire which should be built upon the mound that caps

this knob. Other mounds extending north from Circleville form

a continuous chain as far north as Columbus, suggesting their use

as signal stations.

While much has already been done in the exploration and

study of these remarkable prehistoric relics, much still remains to

be done, and a considerable portion of that already accomplished

is anything but satisfactory to the citizens of the State. The work

of Mr. Atwater and of Squier and Davis, and of Colonel Whittle-

sey have put us in possession of most important general facts re-

garding these works as they presented themselves to the public

in the first half of the present century. Squier and Davis made

excavations in many of the mounds, and, being practically the

first ones in the field, made an exceedingly valuable collection of

Mound Builders' relics. But so little was this collection appre-

ciated that there was no organization in Ohio to purchase it and

keep it here. For years it was boxed up and neglected in Wash-

ington, until finally a far-sighted and enterprising archaeologist

from England, Mr. Blackmore, purchased it. The citizen of Ohio,

therefore, if he would study the archaeological wealth of his own

State and understand the object of its prehistoric monuments,

must go to Salisbury, Eng., and avail himself of the courtesy of the

curator of the Blackmore Museum of that city.

At a later period the Smithsonian Institution of Washington

industriously sent agents throughout the State who have dug into

the mounds with little care and system and extracted from them

whatever relics they could find and taken them to the Museum at

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Address of Professor Wright.          443

 

Washington. At the same time, but in a far more systematic

way, the agents of the Peabody Museum of Harvard College have

been carefully exploring a few of the mounds and earthworks and

transporting the material to Cambridge, Mass., where one must

go to find the record of the most accurate explorations which have

yet been made. Of this work we can scarcely complain, because

of the thoroughness of its character and of the fullness of the re-

ports which are made in connection with them. Professor Put-

nam's explorations have been characterized by thoroughness

rather than extent, and constitute the model for similar work in

the future. Formerly mounds were said to have been explored

when trenches had been dug through them in two directions, and

the contents thus encountered removed and inspected. Now it is

considered essential to the exploration of a mound that it be sliced

off with great care, and every shovelful of earth examined, and

every section photographed. The skeletons are now handled

with much care, being first gently uncovered, and then moistened

so as to harden them, when ordinarily they can be removed with-

out fracture. The record of the excavation of the earthworks

where implements, ornaments, and skeletons are found is more

important than the possession of the objects themselves.

Among the most important explorations which have been

made are those conducted by Mr. Warren K. Moorehead in the

interests of the Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1893. His

work was chiefly limited to the "Hopewell Group," in the valley

of Paint creek, near Chillicothe, a region made famous by the

early explorations of Squier and Davis. That they did not ex-

haust the field is shown by the marvelous collection which Mr.

Moorehead was able, at the cost of a few thousand dollars, to

bring to Chicago, and which was placed in about the middle of the

Anthropological Building. In all the exploration of the mounds

heretofore, no other collection from a single group of mounds

can at all compare with this in the number, variety, and richness

of its objects. From this single group alone, one sees most im-

pressive evidence both of the extent of the commerce carried on

by the Mound Builders, and of the high degree of skill possessed

by them in the manufacture of implements and ornaments, to-

gether with the great respect which they paid to their dead.

• 14
 

444       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

On an altar in one of the mounds was found a large number

of obsidian arrowheads and spearheads, some of which were three

or four inches in length. Many of these had been cracked by the

heat of the altar fire. Altogether they would probably fill a half-

bushel measure. Yet the material from which these implements

were made must have come from the Rocky mountain region;

possibly from the Yellowstone Park: more probably from Arizona

or Mexico; in any case, a distance of some two thousand miles.

On another altar was found an immense number of perforated

teeth of various animals, and perforated pearls of all sizes. These,

too, had been charred by the altar fires, and the pearls alone would

well-nigh fill a peck measure. It is not easy to tell the source

from which the pearls were derived. Very likely they were ob-

tained in the neighborhood; but numerous large shells in the col-

lection must have come from the shores of the Gulf of Mexico.

There were, also, a number of large flakes of mica, a foot or more

in diameter, which could have been found no nearer than North

Carolina or Southern Virginia; while large numbers of copper

implements and ornaments are clearly traceable to the region

about Lake Superior; thus indicating a commerce as wide as the

continent.

Here, as elsewhere among the mounds, the copper was ham-

mered and not cast; but the skill of the artificers is shown in the

evenness with which thin plates were hammered out, and the regu-

larity with which circular holes had been made in them for orna-

mental purposes. So true are these that some experts have sup-

posed them to have been made by Europeans, and obtained by

commerce. But accurate measurements show that the circles and

curves are not made by machinery, but have those minute varia-

tions characteristic of work done by the eye. Thin flakes of

mica as well as the copper are carved into various ornamental

forms of considerable delicacy, suggesting the use of scissors;

but their manufacture is by no means impossible with the patience

and rude tools at the command of primitive man.

Among the forms of ornament into which the copper was

worked is what is called the Swastika cross-a form never before

discovered here and said to be characteristic of very early times.

It much resembles two "Z's" crossing each other at right angles,

• 15
 

Address of Professor Wright.          445

 

with their projections turning the same way. Some of these

crosses from the Hopewell Group were three inches in length,

made from sheets of copper no thicker than thin cardboard.

The mounds in this group scattered over an area of about one

hundred acres varied largely in the archaeological objects of in-

terest contained in them. In one of them there were eight thou-

sand flint disks, averaging about three inches in diameter, made

from the material of the immediate vicinity. These were not fin-

ished implements, but appeared to be partially wrought material

which had been cached ready for reworking, or perhaps for ex-

change in foreign trade. In this single mound the quantity of flint

disks was so great that they made a full four-horse wagonload.

In these discoveries while there is nothing to indicate what we

should call a high state of civilization among the primitive inhabi-

tants of America, there is certainly evidence of great perseverance

and geographical knowledge, enabling them to execute long jour-

neys for the purpose of obtaining the objects which they prized,

and of great skill, enabling them, with the rudest of tools, to fashion

ornaments and objects of considerable beauty, representing the

forms of animals quite creditably.

But all these treasures have gone to Chicago, and are now in

the possession of the Field Museum of that city. To the patriotic

citizen of Ohio all this must be exceedingly trying when it is fully

brought to his notice. But he may be partly consoled by the fact

that the field of exploration in his State is not by any means ex-

hausted. Probably there are still remaining treasures as great as

any which have already been obtained, and it is possible still to

build up here a museum of Mound Builders' relics as instructive

as would be that of all the other collections of such relics put to-

gether. But to accomplish this work, systematic, intelligent, and

persistent effort must be put forth. No line of effort would seem

to be more pertinent to the mission of the State University than

this. It would seem that through some organic connection of the

Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society with the Ohio State

University this work might be accomplished, and that appropria-

tions might be asked for from time to time to be expended through

the agents of the State who control the university for the prose-

cution of further exploration and the gradual enlargement of a

• 16
 

446       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

prehistoric museum which shall be the property of the State pre-

served at its political center and open to the ready inspection of all

its citizens. Were the collections of Ohio material which are

now scattered in the various museums at Salisbury, England, Cam-

bridge, Mass., Washington, D. C., and Chicago, Ill., collected into

one in Columbus, the attraction which it would furnish to anti-

quarians and tourists would draw to our State visitors enough to

reward us pecuniarily many times over for the expenditure which

would originally have been necessary. It is probably not too

late to build up such a museum from the treasures yet remaining

within our borders.

In France the observant traveler cannot fail to notice the

uses which are made of local history in arousing patriotic senti-

ment of young and old alike. Ohio possesses peculiar opportu-

nities for thus appealing to the higher sentiments of its citizens.

The history of the pioneers of the present population is in every

respect interesting and thrilling. The movements which are now

going on with such marvelous rapidity in the development of our

vast and varied resources are among the most important in the

world. These movements are related most intimately, not only

to the natural provisions which a bountiful Providence has made,

whereby we possess a greater variety of natural resources than

any other State in the Union, nor wholly by the remarkable rela-

tion which our territory sustains to the foreordained routes of com-

merce which were established when the Ohio channeled its rocky

course along our southern border, and the ice of the glacial period

dammed up the outlets to Lake Erie, and prepared it to be the

highway between the East and the West, but also in the varied

character of the population which first sought our borders, and

laid the foundations of that remarkable variety of intellectual, in-

dustrial, social, and religious development which characterizes our

commonwealth, and makes the people of Ohio pre-eminent

both in producing and selecting the chief magistrates of the Na-

tion. It is not by chance that Ohio can now properly be styled

the "Mother of Presidents." The work of a State Historical So-

ciety which shall rake out the history of the State from the dust-

heaps that have already accumulated during the first century of

our present development, and shall keep it before the minds of the

• 17
 

Address of Professor Wright.          447

 

rising generation, performs a noble service which the Legislature

does well to recognize and to aid.

For these relics of prehistoric time in which our State so no-

tably abounds cannot be disregarded without great loss of oppor-

tunity. Man does not live by bread alone. There are subtle ties

of more than sentimental interest which bind us to the whole hu-

man race, and which make the simplest relics of man's past work

instructive and impressive. Through these most remarkable relics

of the Mound Builders to which our attention has been directed

we receive impressions concerning the significance of life and the

relative value of the ends which we choose as the mainspring of

our activity which we cannot afford to lose. Our children should

be more thoroughly instructed as to the character and importance

of the prehistoric remains which render their State attractive to

historians and men of science the world over. Instead of having

their thoughts turned to Egypt and Babylon as the only centers of

early civilization worth noticing, their attention may well be di-

rected first to the remarkable inclosures and symbolical monu-

ments of Ohio, which speak so eloquently of a departed and

long lost phase of human history enacted within our own borders.

The citizens of Ohio need in this respect to magnify their call-

ing. I know of nothing that could be of greater interst to our

citizens than to spend a due proportion of the time and money

usually devoted to recreation outside our bounds in visiting the

prehistoric relics of their own State. Excursions within our State

can be planned that will be comparatively inexpensive and that

will combine instruction, entertainment, and recreation to a re-

markable extent. Such a comprehensive excursion, setting out

from Columbus, might be about as follows: Going southward

down the valley of the Little Miami, Fort Ancient would be

reached in a two hours' ride; thence by two routes two or three

hours' ride to the eastward would bring the tourist to within easy

reach of the Serpent Mound and Fort Hill and to the remarkable

collections of mounds and earthworks in the valley of Paint creek

and the Scioto near Chillicothe. From here the ride to Piketon

and Portsmouth and the great variety of earthworks in their vicin-

ity is short and easy. From here, also, Circleville and Newark

and Granville are within easy reach. Thus within a radius of less

• 18
 

448       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

than a hundred miles the most remarkable combination of pre-

historic relics existing anywhere in the world can be brought

within reach of the inspection of any one who visits our capital

city. It is not too much to hope that through wise and persistent

effort these great historic and archaeological treasures may be

brought to the adequate notice both of our own citizens and of

the outside world and may prove, as they are able to do, an attrac-

tion to outside tourists and an inspiration to all who live and are

educated within our borders.

Gen. Brinkerhoff: We have with us to-night one who will

tell us of Fort Ancient-Prof. Orton, of the University of Ohio.

Professor Orton needs no introduction to this audience. (Ap-

plause.)

ADDRESS OF PROFESSOR ORTON.

Some years ago I stopped from a railroad train at Harper's

Ferry for a few hours. The colored porter who took me in hand

to pilot me to the hotel did not seem to make out my business

quite satisfactorily to himself. He was not altogether clear as to

what particular line of commercial activity I should be referred.

He skirmished around the subject for a time (I use a military

figure, you will observe, in harmony with the traditions of the

place), but after learning that I had no trunk nor even a sample

case to be brought over, that I was not a railroad man, that I did

not represent a coal company, that I did not need a "rig" from

the livery stable for the next day, he finally fired a question at

me point blank (this is another military figure, you will observe,

suggested also by the locality), I say he fired a question point

blank, but this statement should be qualified somewhat. At any

rate he asked me about as directly as the natural politeness of

his race and the standards of his profession would allow, what I

had come to Harper's Ferry for, anyhow.

I answered with equal directness, but not, I confess, with

equal brevity. I said to him that I had heard of Harper's Ferry

for a long time-that a great many things had happened there

that had gone into history, and that on this account I desired to

see the place for myself so as to get original and first-hand im-

pressions of its situation and natural features.

• 19
 

Address of Professor Orton.             449

 

As we walked on I felt conscious that by my frank confession

of so trivial a motive for visiting Harper's Ferry I had lost stand-

ing to some extent with my guide, which I might have maintained

by a wise and mysterious reticence. But after a little the porter's

pride in his own town and his professional interest in the stranger

that was within its gates, began to assert themselves, and he mag-

nanimously came to my relief. "Yes," he remarked with due de-

liberation, "a powerful sight of things have happened in Harper's

Ferry. Yes, sir," he continued, with rising enthusiasm, "Har-

per's Ferry is about as histerical a place as there is in the whole

country."

I feel certain that if my quondam friend had been familiar

with the facts in Ohio, he would have been willing to extend his

classification to Fort Ancient. He would have been willing to

style Fort Ancient a histerical place, and I suspect that he would

be well satisfied in finding that it belonged to the "Histerical So-

ciety."

Now, there are some particular events that have taken place

in Harper's Ferry, to which the porter's word or a severer one

could well enough be applied, and I should not strenuously insist

upon a different pronunciation of the word so far as certain specu-

lations and theories that I have frequently heard regarding Fort

Ancient are concerned. In this list I should include the "yarns"

about underground passages beneath the fort, the "traditions,"

as they were euphemistically called, of stores of precious metals

hidden within the walls, the claim of tablets discovered "there or

thereabouts," containing written though still undeciphered records

as to its past, the notion that the two forts were intended as a map

of the land masses of the western continent, namely, of North and

South America, also the view that the long walls contracting at the

gateway were meant to represent two great serpents in mortal

conflict. No injustice, I think, is done to these and similar views

in calling them hysterical.

But there is after all a historical side, and to this I ask your

attention for a few minutes at this time. The history that is to be

found at Fort Ancient is not of the conventional sort; it is not

based on written records of any kind; no traditions of the builders

of the fort, of the purposes that led to its construction, of the uses

Vol. VI-29*

• 20
 

450       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

to which it was put, nor of the events that led to its complete and

final abandonment, have come down to us by word of mouth

from father to son through successive generations. In this last

way much has been learned as to the early fortunes of the race.

Our hold upon the past has been kept alive in many parts of the

world by tradition alone. Of course there is always danger that

tradition will become blended with myth and so lose its historical

character, but after all it has proved one of our main sources of

information as to the past. But in regard to Fort Ancient, his-

tory, in the ordinary signification of the term, is as silent as the

grave. We have absolutely no clues of the usual kind. We are

thrown back entirely on conclusions and deductions of another

sort. The latter do not give us as minute and circumstantial ac-

counts as the usual order of historical records; but they are not

less certain than such records; on the contrary they are far more

trustworthy. When we build on what men say of themselves and

their friends, and particularly on what they say of their enemies,

we can never be entirely sure that we are getting the plain unvar-

nished truth. The commandment, "Thou shalt not bear false wit-

ness," was given to the world a long while ago, but it was not

given until it was needed. The fact of bearing false witness goes

back, according to the account in Genesis, to the second man,

while even the first one seems to have come pretty near the line.

But what we learn from incidental facts, for example from the

work done by the founders of Fort Ancient, wholly free from any

accounts of their own, we can rely upon with the same confidence

with which we accept the conclusions of science. This is the kind

of foundation upon which solid conclusions are based.

What we learn thus in regard to Fort Ancient may not go

very far toward answering the questions that our human curiosity

raises and urges, but all that we do get we are sure of.

1. The first point that I make is that the builders of Fort

Ancient selected the site for their work with a wide and accurate

knowledge of this part of the country.

You all know of the picturesque location, in the beautiful

and fertile valley of the Little Miami, on the table-land that bounds

and in places almost overhangs the river, and which is from two

hundred to two hundred and fifty feet above the river level.

• 21
 

Address of Professor Orion.             451

Availing themselves of spurs of the old table-land which were al-

most entirely cut off by gorges tributary to the river, they ran

their earth walls with infinite toil in a tortuous, crenulated line

along the margins of the declivities. Where the latter were sharp

and precipitous the earth walls were left lighter. Where it became

necessary to cross the table-land, or where the slopes were grad-

ual, the walls were made especially high and strong. The eye

and brain of a military engineer, a Vauban of the olden time, is

clearly seen in all this. We cannot be mistaken in regard to it

when we thus find the weak places made strong, and the strong

places left as far as possible to their own natural defences. The

openings from the fort, also, lead out in every case to points easily

made defensible and that command views from several directions.

The location itself cannot be duplicated along this beautiful

valley. I do not assert this with full enough knowledge of the

facts to make my statement authoritative, but this is my firm belief,

based on a considerable knowledge of the topography of the entire

region.

Now, think for a moment of what such knowledge stands for.

America is the forest continent, and until three or four hundred

years ago all its surface from the Atlantic to the Mississippi was

covered with a dense and tangled growth of trees and underbrush.

Roosevelt says of it in his "Winning of the West" "There were

no openings to break the continuity of the forest, nothing but end-

less league on league of shadowy, wolf-haunted woodland. The

great trees towered aloft till their separate heads were lost in the

mass of the foliage above, and rank underbrush choked the spaces

between the trunks. The sunlight could not penetrate the roofed

archway, and through the gray aisles of the forest, men walked in

a kind of midday gloaming. All the land was shrouded in one

vast forest. It covered the mountain (and the upland) from crest

to river bed; filled the plains and stretched in sombre and mel-

ancholy wastes away on every side."

The roads were in the main buffalo trails worn deep and wide

into the soil. Occasionally the sunlight was let into little plots of

cleared and cultivated land or of natural glades, and footpaths

doubtless followed many of the river courses.

• 22
 

452       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

This must have been the condition of things when the Mound

Builders studied the country with reference to the selection and

construction of a great stronghold. It was a remarkable thing for

them to find in this forest-covered land the most natural and

easily-defended spot along the valley which was their home, but

they got just this, and they proceeded to fortify it with the best

of judgment and with all available skill. No one can withhold his

admiration at the present day as he marks on every hand the signs

of wise forethought and design on the part of the builders of Fort

Ancient.

2. In the second place we cannot be mistaken in seeing in the

work of Fort Ancient striking evidences of an organized society,

of intelligent leadership, in a word, of a strong government. A

vast deal of labor was done here and it was done methodically, sys-

tematically and with continuity. Here again you must think of

the conditions under which the work was accomplished. There

were no beasts of burden to share the labors of their owners; the

work was all done by human muscles. Baskets full of earth, each

containing from a peck to a half bushel, borne on the backs of

men or women, slowly built up these walls, which are about five

miles in length and which have a maximum height of not less

than twenty feet. Reduced to more familiar measurements the

earth used in the walls was about 172,000,000 cubic feet.

But not only were the Mound Builders without the aid of

domestic animals of any sort, but they were also without the

service of metals. They had no tools of iron; all the picks, hoes

and spades that they used were made from chipped flints, and mus-

sel shells from the river must have done the duty of shovels and

scrapers. In short, not only was the labor severe and vast, but

it was all done in the hardest way.

Can we be wrong in further concluding that this work was

done under a strong and efficient government? Men have always

shown that they do not love hard work, and yet hard work was

done persistently here. Are there not evidences on the face of the

facts that they were held to their tasks by some strong control?

Certainly there are no signs of change of administration dur-

ing the progress of the work. I have heard that the "cheese box",

as it is sometimes profanely called, that crowns the noble building

• 23
 

Address of Professor Orton.            453

in which we are now assembled, was not a part of the original de-

sign of the architect that drew the plans of the Capitol; he had

something else in mind, and possibly something more congruous

with the Doric style which he had adopted in the main structure;

but with a change of administration a new architect was appointed

and the old plans were withdrawn by their author and owner, and

the present state of things resulted.

At any rate it seems to me that the solid walls of Fort Ancient

stand for "municipal ownership", or for something equally good.

They have not any of the earmarks of work done by a syndicate

that spends as little as the law will demand upon its contracts.

3. In the third place you will expect a word as to the date of

Fort Ancient. When was it built? How long was it occupied?

When was it finally abandoned? It is built on a noble outcrop of

Lower Silurian limestone. Nowhere in the world, so far as geol-

ogists know, is there a finer showing of the life of the seas of this

early age than in southwestern Ohio, and nowhere in southwestern

Ohio is there a better exhibition of this wonderful creation than

in the immediate vicinity of Fort Ancient. These hills are class-

ical ground for the geologists of all lands. Now, compared with

the time used in building up the successive sheets of limestone from

the waste of paleozoic life, Fort Ancient does not in reality deserve

its name. It is but of yesterday, and its specific name is ridicu-

lously inappropriate; but leaving this point of view, and consider-

ing how men count time in the new world, where a town of a hun-

dred years is an old one, where a great State like Ohio is just be-

ginning to make preparations for its first centennial, where four

hundred years carry us back to the very beginning of the present

order, we need not make special complaint as to the designation

of the fort. It was undoubtedly built a few hundred years ago;

a thousand years was suggested by General Brinkerhoff in his

introductory remarks, and a thousand years is an estimate accepted

by many. Two or three thousand years, which have been as-

signed by others, seem to be "hysterical" rather than historical.

The first President Harrison, who was a keen observer and a

sagacious woodsman as well, noted the fact that the mounds of

Ohio gave clear indications of a change in the character of the

tree vegetation since they were built. A certain growth of forest

• 24
 

454       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

trees covered these mounds originally; these trees attained full

size and great age, but at last they died and their places were taken

by a forest growth of different character. These, too, have passed

away. A history like this could easily use up three or four, or

half a dozen centuries.

There is also a freshness in the earth walls that does not seem

consistent with periods like millenniums, though it must be con-

fessed that when a surface is grass-covered it is fairly protected

from waste by superficial erosion, and the ages may come and

go without leaving any clear trace behind.

One thing is, however, clear. The word prehistoric does not

stand for the same thing in different parts of the world. Fort

Ancient is certainly prehistoric for us, but archaeologists have re-

cently found in the ruins of the ancient city of Nippur reason to be-

lieve that its historical records go back to at least 7,000 years be-

fore the Christian era. Prehistoric events at Nippur would neces-

sarily be long antecedent to the beginnings of its history. Pre-

historic is one thing in America and another thing in the old

world, so far as measurements of intervals are concerned.

I have endeavored to show you how little I know about Fort

Ancient. Our honorable Secretary has obliged me to use two

occasions for this purpose during the present year. "Insatiate

archer, would not one suffice?"

Before closing, I desire to congratulate the State and the

Society on the public ownership of Fort Ancient. The two most

interesting and important prehistoric earthworks of Ohio and the

Mississippi valley, are now happily safe from neglect and vandal-

like destruction. These works are the Great Serpent Mound of

Adams county, and Fort Ancient, of Warren county. The Ser-

pent Mound is owned by an eastern archaeological society; but

Fort Ancient, by far the most interesting and impressive of the

two, is owned by the State, and is fortunately under the control of

this Society. There are a few other works of the same general

character that ought to belong to the public, but perhaps county

and local organizations can do what is necessary to protect most

of these.

For myself I hope the time will soon come when the foreign

society will transfer the control of the Great Serpent Mound to

• 25
 

Address of President Canfield.          455

 

the Archaeological Society of Ohio, and I believe that the care

and thrift now displayed in the case of Fort Ancient will help to

bring about such a desirable result.

Gen. Brinkerhoff: One of the best friends of the Society,

who has been helpful to us in many ways, is the gentleman who

will address you to-night on the historical part of our Associa-

tion, and I take pleasure in introducing to you President Canfield,

of the Ohio State University. (Applause.)

 

ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT CANFIELD.*

MR. PRESIDENT, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:-The natural at-

titude of man is in close contact with his fellow man. The normal

condition is that which is sometimes called gregarious. We

hardly know, perhaps, just what we mean by that term. It is

susceptible of more than one definition, and certainly of more than

one form of application. It marks the constant tendency of man to

come into closer and more intimate relations with his fellow man.

Every rail that is set, every tie that is placed, every hammer that

is rung upon every spike, every wheel that is turned, every sail

that is filled with favoring breeze, accomplishes this result. All

the great inventions of the last part of the greatest century of in-

vention, have been out along this line. Nearly everything that

we have striven to accomplish, nearly everything that is even yet

novel and strange to us along the line of organizing the forces of

earth and air, seems to have been started and quickened into life,

and to have been more successful, because of the determination of

man to reach his fellow man as he has never reached him before,

and to touch his fellow man as he has never touched him before.

Seclusiveness, like exclusiveness, is not the natural, normal, intel-

ligent condition of human existence. He who stands absolutely

alone, isolated, is weak in every sense of the word. His horizon

is limited, his outlook is narrow. No matter how large or im-

portant his own particular business or occupation may seem, still

it is an exceedingly narrow form of life, and hardly worth the liv-

ing. If he extends this contact and this relationship, and passes

entirely outside of that which is really isolation, he must extend

*Stenographer's report.

• 26
 

456       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

it considerably before we will admit that he is living as man ought

to live, and as man desires to live. Many of us are not willing to

believe that this circle should be limited even to the number of

four hundred; asserting that he who would do the most good must

go far beyond that exclusive circle before he can know and appre-

ciate and look out upon the world as it was intended that man

should look out upon the world.

That which man seeks in his contact with his fellow man is

the strength and helpful inspiration which comes from that con-

tact. Man moves forward more r pidly, more surely, to a more

definite to a more helpful and satisfactory conclusion of all his

efforts, of all his purposes and aims, when he moves side by side,

elbow to elbow, with his fellow man.

Now, the object of all sound training, of all education-and

I use the term as inclusive of all that has reference to man outside

of his individual self, and that gives him this larger outlook-the

object of all this sound training is to bring man into this wise and

helpful contact with his fellow man. If a man is not so educated

that in a certain sense he can stand outside of himself, and see him-

self in his proper relations to his fellows, he is not well educated

at all-education has fallen far short of its very purpose; and man

does not come to a clear understanding of where he is in the world.

If he has not perceptive sense keen enough to see the weakness

of this isolation, if he does not come to recognize himself the im-

portance of a more general outlook upon the world, then educa-

tion has failed very largely of its purpose. If education is some-

thing that he is to take simply to himself, to feed upon for his own

gratification, if education is to make him more a recluse than be-

fore, if it is something that he has to take with him to the closet,

if it is something which tempts him to withdraw from the world,

education is sadly deficient. There was a time when education was

in the closet, when education was in cap and gown, and "kept

itself unspotted from the world," and that was thought to be the

cleanest, whitest soul that kept himself remote from his brothers;

but to-day, in our day, education has come out of the seclusion of

the cloister, it is without cap or gown; to-day it is in its shirt sleeves

in the mart, it stands at the bench and at the forge and anvil, it is

where it may be most helpful and encouraging to man. That is

• 27
 

Address of President Canfield.         457

 

exactly the result of wise and sound training; to bring all men

into this knowledge of the higher life; that is, the life of all, the

common life. This expands men by taking them out of them-

selves, and so widens their horizon and so deepens their interest

in their fellow men that they may fairly and wisely meet the con-

ditions under which they exist.

Therefore it happens that we turn in more than one direction.

We are not content to stop with our locality; we look north, south,

east and west. We are anxious to know something of the past

as well as of the present. Experience will not be very much of a

guide to us without more or less of the somewhat remote past

mingled with our own history. We are not looking upon history

with mere curiosity; neither from mere inquisitiveness, nor with

simply a spirit of selfish acquisitiveness. There is an innate rec-

ognition on our part that there is something in this larger outlook

and in this more complete and higher contact, that is to give us

inspiration and power. So we are not willing to stop here-with

to-day; we are not willing to stop with yesterday; we desire to go

just as far back as we can in order that out of even the most re-

mote past we may gather wisdom and strength that may be of

assistance to us in the present. We are not willing to be confined

to the limits of the community in which we live. We desire to

reach out upon either side; we desire to understand the lives and

languages of communities, of peoples, far different from those

which we have immediately about us. We go about this when

we study history, as we call it, because of the interest that we feel

in our fellow man-as being of far more interest to us than things.

It is a little strange that even in this age of scientific inquiry,

that which we seem to gather from the investigation of things

after all comes around on its highest and better side, on its stronger

side, to things which affect man. We are not willing to stop with

the consideration of geological specimens, of the strata of rock,

or that history which lies back of it; we are anxious to understand

in some way what, if anything, these meant to those who preceded

us, and what they mean for us to-day. We find ourselves driven

continually and irresistibly toward the consideration of what

geology may tell us that is most helpful in modern life. So in

nearly every science-I will not stop to dwell upon this-so in

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458       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

nearly every science, no matter what it may be, we come around

continually from the facts or principles which we started to find,

to this question of relationship again. It seems almost inevitable;

it seems to be imperative. This it is which gives us the deepest

interest in history. I think it is Bacon who says the study of his-

tory makes us wise. It makes us wise because of the depth and

breadth of it. We cannot take hold of it without strengthening

ourselves; without having developed in us insight and power and

philosophic temper; without being compelled continually to deal

in comparisons, and through comparisons to seek results which

again we continually apply to ourselves and our lives, communally,

individually, to-day.

The true object of all study of history is to develop a broad and

intelligent human sympathy. I cannot believe that it is simply to

acquire a fund of information. It does not seem possible that the

object of history is to know certain things that are already in the

past, certain experiences that may be quite remotely in the past-

to master them simply in chronological order and in classified re-

lations. I know that in years past we have considered history as

pretty largely a matter of dates; but something besides this is de-

sirable. We are not Arabs, and therefore a diet of dates is neither

comforting nor satisfying. We are not made that way-we are

not of that people. We want something more than this skeleton,

this series of pegs upon which certain events are hung. We are

not quite satisfied with history unless it is a part of a chain the end

of which is within our grasp, part of a line of action the results of

which are felt to-day. A history of the past which does not come

down to the present seems dead. If in developing one we come in

touch with the other, then we feel that we have touched a part of

that which though past is of infinite value to us.

I cannot understand that there is any live history that does

not come down to us in that way. A history of the past which is

absolutely cut off from us, which does not reach or touch us in

any way whatever, seems to me to be dry and dead, covered with

the dust of antiquity which it is not wise to disturb. There is no

sign of fertility in any such soil as that, under any circumstances

whatever. We must bring ourselves in such relations to the re-

mote past, as well as to the history that is immediately prior to

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Address of President Canfield.           459

 

our own time, that we can understand all the conditions of to-day

as the outgrowth of yesterday. And to understand wisely and

well, accurately and thoroughly, the conditions of to-day, we must

understand the conditions of a hundred years ago-upon precisely

the same principle that Dr. Holmes said, "If you wish to know

about a boy, turn back to his great-grandfather." We must rec-

ognize that the roots of the present are all in the past. When we

can bring ourselves into this state of mind, and into intelligent

comprehension of the inner and outer relations of all history to

the present, then all history becomes illuminated, filled with light,

filled with interest, filled with philanthropy in the very best sense

of the word.

He who runs the race of life simply upon the best of his casual

understanding, simply upon what he thinks that he happens to

know, will surely come to grief. He needs to have recourse to an

armory that is filled to overflowing with weapons that have been

forged in the experiences of the past. He needs the comfort and

the consolation and the strength that will only come from being

reasonably sure of success because he is reasonably assured of all

that the past has accomplished in this same line, and reasonably

positive that there still remains something to be gained, something

to be taken to himself from that which was only begun in the long

ago. The student, therefore, must touch the past, and he must

touch it directly. It is that which has led us in these later years

to the laboratory methods in history. We are not content, to-day,

to take history second-hand any further than we are positively

obliged to do so. We do not care very much, if at all, what A, B

or C may tell us of the results, for instance, of what was done on

such a day in Congress. We go back to the Congressional Rec-

ord, we read as long as time will permit, we live over again that

part of the past, that little scene in history. If we thus touch it

ourselves we feel that it lives in a new light, with a new life.

So in our schools we are endeavoring to turn the student back

to original documents, to original papers, correspondence, reports,

products of the age in which the subject was new, was touched for

the first time; speeches, reports of the action of the government, of

public and private matters, as recorded in their own day. We

understand, of course, the difficulty that comes in connection with

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460       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

such work as this. There is necessarily a vast deal of indefinite

hearsay and of uncertainty of result when we undertake to go to

the source, to the very source, of history, and to determine exactly

what history is. If we go back to the days of some public excite-

ment, say to the days of the anti-slavery conflict, we find that in

the heat of that strife the words of men, their passionate denuncia-

tions, are far from satisfactory. All that was written or printed

was tinged by the heat and fervor of the day. But if you wait

until after years for action, how will you do better, how will you

be more accurate? Really, you will be less sure as you drift away

from the day of the conflict. That is true of almost any epoch.

Whether it be a great question like the question of slavery, or

whether it be a minor matter, political, social or economic; we

hold it is infinitely wiser that we go back, and in calm judgment

weigh well the evidence, and undertake to determine each for him-

self, as far as possible, exactly what was accomplished then; how

much of it necessarily tarried with that time; how much of it may

come down to us to-day; what there is in it stimulating and nour-

ishing for us. In all matters, therefore, it is wise and it is safe,

for the young people of our colleges, under proper guidance, to go

as far back as possible in order to get that wide outlook, to deter-

mine exactly what history means for us.

The historical spirit is that spirit which is able to weigh care-

fully; to test carefully; to examine thoroughly and patiently; to

gather up much evidence about even a comparatively small matter.

I recollect very well indeed that a careful, accurate man, one of the

best of modern historians, said to me once, "There is a sentence

that contains exactly twenty-three words. I was exactly twenty-

one days in looking up, with the utmost care and patience, the

matter which I have stated in that single sentence." The histor-

ical spirit is the spirit which is judicial, and the judicial temper and

the judicial spirit is a temper and spirit very wise to entertain.

The historical spirit is the spirit that is accurate in its investiga-

tion; that is patient; that is judicial and fair. It is the spirit which

leads a man not to be satisfied with "more or less", but always

stating how much more or how much less-which makes him will-

ing to wait, it may be even for years, until there is a final disclosure

that settles and confirms the judgment-willing to abide patiently,

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Address of President Canfield.          461

most patiently; to turn page after page of the manuscript which

seems to hold nothing, if only in the end to find in a flash of light,

illuminating every letter and word, that for which he has been

struggling.

Now the relation which a society like this Historical Society

bears to such work is an important one. Here is this great State,

following close upon the heels of a greater territory; the first State

to be carved out of this great Northwest Territory; full of magni-

ficent material; crowned from the start with wonderful enthusiasm;

with a people carefully selected from the very best of New Eng-

land and the Old Dominion; the gateway to all that has since come

to us in all this Northwest Territory-the beginnings of some of

the most superb history that has been written on this continent.

Here is this great State of ours, standing at the doorway of the

great West; holding within its grasp a record that is probably

more complete, more intense in its interest, more fruitful in the

results which would follow a careful study of its history, than the

record of almost any other State in the Union; and the only defi-

nitely recognized and definitely organized association that is taking

hold of these materials and undertaking to preserve them in proper

form, and place them within reach of those who know how to study

them, is the Historical and Archaeological Association. What or-

ganization, then, can more readily demand or more easily win

the interest and confidence of the people of the State? What or-

ganization can more readily acquit itself under any form of recog-

nition by the Legislature of the State? What organization can

come before the people of the State and show better results of wise

investment by them than can this organization, for every penny

that has been granted to it?

I rejoiced to-night, when I heard mention made of the work

done in Madison, Wisconsin. I remember that the greatest re-

sults of that work came when the State Historical Society joined

hands with the State University; which there as here is not simply

a place for instruction, but is the habitation of men specially

trained along all the lines of intelligent, helpful life, and brought

together for the purpose of research and investigation. When the

Historical Society of Wisconsin finally touched hands with the

University of Wisconsin, then was planned this wonderful build-

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462       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

ing to which reference was made, and then it was the Legislature

granted more than $400,000 to begin the work-and no one knows

exactly where it will end. The Wisconsin people are satisfied that

the results will be commensurate, and absolutely commensurate,

with the appropriations.

The historical spirit in this State ought to center at the Univer-

sity. This ought to be recognized as the Mecca to which should

turn all those who are possessed of the desire to know something

more, and more accurately and intelligently, of our own past.

There should be the great collections of archaeology and history;

there should be the great libraries which you will collect from time

to time; all of which would be more helpfully and more intelligently

used there than they could possibly be used elsewhere in the State.

There are a thousand young men and women there to-day; there

will be two thousand in a few years; by the time we celebrate the

centennial of Ohio there will be three thousand. There are thou-

sands of most intelligent visitors every year; we have just the body

of men to wisely use such collections; and what more favorable

site could there be for the proper development and use of the col-

lections that may be made by this organization that is here rep-

resented to-night?

I do not ask that this union shall take place in the interest of

the University. I know full well that the work of the organiza-

tion will go on, and will go on successfully, whether this union

takes place or not. I am not suggesting union from the stand-

point of the university. As clearly as I understand the value of all

this to the University as a university, I am simply trying to bring

to your minds if I may, in these few moments to-night, the broader

and more intelligent thought of what we might do if we should

recognize the power, the united power, of two such institutions

working along this common line.

If this State is to have the future that I believe lies within its

easy grasp, it will only come to us because we shall have a wise and

true and full and intelligent knowledge of our own past. It is

impossible that there shall be a just and necessary interest in car-

rying out successfully the earlier aims and purposes of the fathers,

if we do not know or understand the earlier life and work of the

fathers. They came into Ohio when privation was the rule; they

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Address of President Canfield.        463

 

endured that which to-day would seem to us discouraging, abso-

lutely unbearable. But each one of them, men and women,

worked on without being conscious perhaps of all the work that

was being done; each built his own part of the wall in front of his

own door, and hardly knew when the work was done, when the

city was safe from all its enemies.

That work cannot be carried on, all that we hope for cannot

be secured, unless we manage in some way to take new heart and

courage from a large and definite knowledge of all that was hoped

for in the past. With a definite understanding of the length and

breadth and depth and strength of the foundations-then we will

be enabled to build upon them better even than the fathers knew

or dreamed.

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