Ohio History Journal

EDITORIALANA.

TABLET ON SERPENT MOUND. It will be recalled that during the visit of Prof. F. W. Putnam, of Harvard University, to the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, held in Columbus August, 1899, that gentleman stated to the officers of our Society that if we would accept, repair and suitably preserve and guard the property known as Serpent Mound, then in the possession of the Peabody Museum, that the trustees of that in- stitution would transfer to us said property.  In December, 1899, in pursuance of this generous proposition, we began correspondence with Prof. Putnam as to the nature of the title we would receive, etc. After proper presentation of the matter to the Finance Committee, of the House of Representatives of the 74th General Assembly (March, 1900), that committee recommended, and the legislature gave us, in the appropria- tion bill, for the two ensuing years a suitable sum "For the repair and care of Serpent Mound." In view of this assurance of our ability to properly protect the property, Prof. Putnam brought the matter before the President and Fellows of Harvard College, and after the required deliberation and necessary proceedings, that institution forwarded us a deed to the property. This deed recites, "That this conveyance is upon the condition that the grantee corporation shall provide for the perpetual care of the Serpent Mound, and upon the further condition that the grantee corporation shall keep the Serpent Mound Park as a free public park forever, and the non-fulfillment or breach of said condition or either of them, shall work a forfeiture of the estate hereby conveyed and revest the same in the grantor and its successors. And upon the further con- ditions that the grantee Society shall place and maintain in the park a suitable monument or tablet upon which shall be inscribed the record of the preservation of the Serpent Mound and the transfer of the property to the State Society." The vote of transfer was made by the Harvard trustees in May, 1900, but the deed was acknowledged on the 8th day of October, 1900. It was recorded in the Recorder's Office, West Union, Adams county, November 22, 1900. On January 9 last, 1902, the Secretary of the Society journeyed to the Mound, and was present to witness the erection of the tablet in the Mound Park, in accordance with the provisions of the deed. The site selected for the monument was the summit of the circular prehistoric mound which is located on the highest elevation of the park, and is about (492)

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Editorialana.                        493

 

300 feet south of the coiled tail of the great serpent. The mound is

some ten feet high, conical in shape. The monument consists of a

granite base some five feet by two. The tablet, like the base, is of the

best quality of Barre Granite, a handsome grey granite from Vermont.

The tablet is about six feet high, two feet thick, and four feet bread.

The lettered side is polished like a marble surface, and the inscription

which is neatly cut into the surface in large Roman letters, reads as

follows:

THE SERPENT MOUND PARK.

 

The Serpent Mound was first described by Squier and Davis in "Ancient

Monuments of the Mississippi Valley," 1848,

Saved from destruction in 1885 by

 

FREDERICK WARD PUTNAM,

Professor of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard

University.

The Land included in the Park

was secured by subscription obtained by ladies of Boston in 1887,

when it was deeded to the Trustees of

The Peabody Museum, of Harvard University, Cambridge,

Massachusetts.

Exempted from taxation by Act of Legislature of Ohio in 1888. Trans-

ferred by Harvard University, May, 1900, to the Ohio State

Archaeological and Historical Society for perpetual

care as a Free Public Park.

 

 

It was a clear but bleak midwinter day, and standing upon the lofty

plateau we could see across the valley for miles to the hazy hills of

Highland county, one of the most picturesque scenes in southern Ohio.

There were no formal ceremonies. The workmen tugged at the great

granite slab while Mr. Daniel Wallace, the custodian of the Park, and

the Secretary of the Society, the writer herewith, "stood around" and

gazed at the landscape or the curious coils of the great earthen snake,

the most mysterious and interesting relic of the mound builders either in

the Ohio or the Mississippi Valley. Occasionally some visiting stranger or

passing traveller would drive into the Park, look attentively at the weird

and inexplicable serpentine structure with all the awe and amazement

with which one could contemplate the Sphinx of Sahara, ask a few

questions that nothing short of inspiration could answer, and then like

the Arab with folded tent, silently "move off.

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494        Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

It was some seventeen years ago that Prof. F. W. Putnam, of Har-

vard, visited the mound for the first time; observing the ravages age

and neglect were making with this most valuable archaeological relic,

he returned to Boston and wrote a letter to the Boston Herald, which was

widely copied by the press, setting forth the value and condition of the

serpent. Miss Alice Fletcher, a well known Indian enthusiast, brought

the matter before some leading ladies of Boston at a lunch party given

in Newport. The result was the issuing of a little circular, the assistance

of Mr. Francis Parkman, the great historian, and Mr. Martin Brimer,

the raising of some six thousand dollars and the purchase and presenta-

tion of the mound to, and its placement in the hands of the Trustees

of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology. Some

eight thousand dollars in all were expended upon the purchase and repair

of this mound before it passed into the hands of the Ohio State Archae-

ological and Historical Society, through the suggestion and influence of

Prof. F. W. Putnam. Since its acquisition by the Society, the Serpent

and Park have been thoroughly restored and placed in most excellent

and attractive condition. A custodian is employed who resides close by

and keeps constant watch over the property. It is quite needful that the

custodian have a domicile on the grounds, and as soon as the funds are

provided an inexpensive but suitable building will be erected for the

occupancy of this officer. Surely not only Ohio and the Historical

Society, but the students of Archaeology and Ethnology throughout the

country are to be congratulated that the great and unique remains of a

bygone race are to be carefully preserved to students of the present

and future. Hundreds of visitors resort to it each year, not alone from

neighboring localities, but from all over the country, and indeed from

countries beyond the seas. Scholars and curiosity seekers from  the

dominion of the "Old World" make pilgrimage to this wonderful struct-

ure, that was probably erected generations, perhaps centuries, before Co-

lumbus discovered the Western Continent.

 

 

BONAPARTE ALMOST A BUCKEYE.

"The French Five Hundred and Other People," is an attractive little

volume of some three hundred pages from the pen of William G. Sib-

ley, Editor of the Tribune, Gallipolis, Ohio. The first, and perhaps most

noteworthy essay of the series is devoted to the settlement and first

decade of the French colony at Gallipolis. That most romantic and

unique project of the Scioto Company, in which an American syndicate

sought to exploit what Mr. Sibley calls "An unholy enterprise," among the

Parisians just previous to the outbreak of the French Revolution. As the

writer says "the story of the deception of these people by American

land speculators, is of touching interest. The Bastile had been destroyed,

and the dark menace of the bloodiest revolution the world has ever

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