Ohio History Journal

EDITORIALANA.

THE MOUND BUILDERS AND THE LOST TRIBES.   THE "HOLY STONES" OF NEWARK. [The following article from  The Daily Oklahoman, published at Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, of the date Sunday, May 3, 1908, was for- warded to us with the inquiry whether the statements therein contained concerning the "Holy Stones of Newark" or Jackstown were authentic. To this we reply that the statements as to the finding of such alleged relics are correct, but as to the genuineness of the relics, we are com- pelled to say that the evidence is overwhelming against it.-EDITOR.]   It is not improbable that information in the hands of an Oklahoma City man may throw light upon a problem that has for ages puzzled historians and ethnologists alike--the fate of the "Lost Tribes of Is- rael." In II Kings, xiv, 29, the Bible relates: "In the days of Pekah, king of Israel, came Tiglath-Pileser, king of Assyria, and took Ijon and Adel- beth-Maacah, and Janoah, and Kedesh and Hazor, and Gilead and Gali- lee, of the land of Naphtali, and carried them captive to Syria." No further record of these tribes is given in history save in un- confirmed traditional report to the effect that they were released from captivity and journeyed toward the northeast of Asia. Neither history nor tradition has satisfactorily explained their disappearance, and the mystery has appeared as unsolvable as the location of the Garden of Eden. Recently, however, ethnologists of repute have presented a theory no less interesting than that of Lemuria, the immersed continent of the Indian ocean, suggested as the location of the Garden of Eden and point of origin of the Aryan races. Though in seeming contradiction of every principle of ethnography, these latter-day philosophers assert that the tribes which disappeared at that time were the earliest inhabitants of America. Their wanderings toward the northeast were, if the supposition is given credence, contrary to the general direction of the movements of mankind from orient to occident. According to the new hypothesis, the tribes reached the western hemisphere by way of an isthmus believed to have existed where the (208)

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Editorialana.                       209

 

narrow waters of Behring strait now divide the continents. Giving color

of truth to this theory is the fact that ethnologists who have sojourned

among the natives inhabiting the great region south and east of Behring

strait assert that many Greek and Hebrew words are distinguishable in

the language employed by the natives of that region today.

They furthermore claim that the mound builders, the evidence of

whose existence in America at one time is presented by mounds, forti-

fications and architectural ruins discovered in parts of North, Central

and South America, were none other than the descendants of the lost

tribes.

The most convincing proof offered in support of the theory that

Hebrew tribes inhabited America before the Columbian era, was a dis-

covery made several years ago in the razing of a "prehistoric" mound

near Jackstown, Licking county, Ohio.

Judge B. M. Dilley, of Oklahoma City, formerly a regent of Mis-

souri University, being personally familiar with the incident, makes this

statement:

Near the town of Jackstown there was a mound about 80 feet in

height and 500 feet around the base. Trees of large size grew on its top

and sides.  Upon investigation it was found the mound was built

principally of stone. Repairs being needed on a nearby reservoir, the

stone in this mound was dug out for that purpose. I remember to have

heard persons state that 25,000 wagonloads of stone had been hauled

from the mound.

After the mound had been demolished until only the foundation re-

mained two of the laborers discovered and examined a pair of copper

rings found lying on what appeared to be a slab. Later they went to

the county recorder's office at Newark, Ohio, and were exhibiting the rings

and telling of their discovery.

The attention of Dr. Wilson was attracted and he took some men

with him to the scene of the discovery to make further investigations.

On removing the slab previously referred to, they found it to be the

covering of a trough-shaped box. This appeared to have been lined

with some kind of cloth, but no part of it could be preserved, for it

crumbled at the touch. In the box were human teeth, some tufts of hair

and several finger rings.

Underneath the box was a heavy deposit of fireclay. Digging in this

clay they found an oblong box containing something that gave forth a

rattling sound. In expectation of finding buried treasure, the work-

men were anxious to break it with their picks. But on examining the

box Dr. Wilson discovered that it was composed of two halves, joined

together, with a small opening in one end. He carried the box or cas-

ket back to Newark and, with the aid of a glass-blower, forced the two

halves apart.

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In the box was found a curious stone, in size about two or three

inches in width and perhaps six inches in length, with a tenant shape

and morticed hole at one end through which a strap could be passed.

On one side a depression was cut, and in that depression was an image

representing a man with a flowing beard, sandaled feet, with robe and

staff, and under the figure appeared an inscription.

On the sides of the stone around this image were characters unknown

to Dr. Wilson and the other scientific and learned men then residing in

Newark.

At that time the synod of the Presbyterian church was in session

at Zanesville, Ohio. Dr. Wilson went there with the relic, where it was

examined by the ministers there assembled. The Rev. Mathew Miller,

then a resident of Cumberland, Ohio, at once pronounced the relic a

Jewish teraphim. He declared the image thereon was Moses and that

the characters interpreted, were the ten commandments.

To make sure that his interpretation was correct, the Rev. Miller

took the relic to Cincinnati and there consulted Dr. Lillienthal, who was

then considered the most learned rabbi in the United States. He co-

incided in the opinion that it was a Jewish teraphim; that the ten com-

mandments were engraved thereon, and that the image was that of Moses.

They consulted seven Hebrew alphabets and found that the inscrip-

tion on the teraphim was written in the letters of the oldest of the seven.

About the year 1865 I heard the Rev. Miller lecture at Fifth Street

Presbyterian church in Zanesville. The relics were then in his possession,

and they were inspected by the audience after the lecture was given.

Among them was a wedge-shaped stone, with Hebrew inscriptions on its

four sides. The interpretations of some of these inscriptions were "Je-

hovah," "God," "Almighty," etc.

Another relic found was the image of an infant's skull. The in-

scription there, when interpreted, was: "May the Lord have mercy

on me, an untimely birth." In explanation of this infant skull, the Rev.

Miller said that it was a custom of the ancient Jews, whenever they had

violated a law or precept of their religion which they regarded a grievous

offense, to manifest their deep penitence by carving out of stone an

infant's skull and inscribing on the forehead in Hebrew the words

above quoted.

It has been a surprise to me that the story of the important dis-

covery has not found a place in the archives of the scientific investigations

of the age. The Rev. Miller was a modest man and, while he wrote and

preserved his writings with reference to this matter, he doubtless never

sought their publication, and, unless Dr. Wilson-whose first name I

do not now remember-has preserved the history, it may exist only in

the memory of myself and others who heard the lecture.

The Rev. Miller's theory was that the Jews inhabited this country

prior to the time of the North American Indians, and that this teraphim,

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according to the ancient law of the Jews, was buried with some important

Jewish rabbi, or other official, when he died, this theory being based

upon the fact that this teraphim was defaced, one corner of it being

chipped off. He said it was the custom to deposit in the grave any scroll

of the law or other ceremonial objects that became defaced.

In this connection it may be recalled that the Book of Mormon was

said to have been written by one Solomon Spaulding, living in 1812 in

Conneaut, Ashtabula county, Ohio, and that it was a historical romance

based upon the finding of certain Jewish relics in one of the prehistoric

mounds of Ohio. It recited that the Prophet Mormon had wandered

with the lost tribes to America. The manuscript got into the hands of

Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon church.

The finding of other Hebrew relics in another mound in the same

locality is here cited merely as a corroborative incident.

 

 

* * * * *

Such is the account in The Daily Oklahoman. As the account of

the discovery and dispute concerning the genuineness of the Newark

"Holy Stones" has never appeared in the publications of the Ohio State

Archaeological and Historical Society, we herewith make public such

matter concerning the same as we think worthy of publication. In Ben-

jamin J. Lossing's Pictorial Field-Book of the War of 1812, in the pages

touching upon his visit at Newark (Licking county, Ohio) in September,

1860, the author (Lossing) says (page 563) that one of the purposes of

his visit was to view in the neighborhood one of the most remarkable

of the tumuli or ancient mounds with which the Ohio country abounds.

He then says: "During the evening, in company with his son, I visited

Mr. David Wyrick, a resident of the village, an engineer by profession,

and an enthusiastic antiquarian, who had lately been made famous as

the discoverer of a stone, with Hebrew inscriptions, in a portion of the

ancient earthworks that abound in the neighborhood of Newark. I found

him a plain, earnest man and bearing among those who know him best,

a character above reproach for truth and sincerity. He showed me a

large number of curious things taken from mounds in the neighborhood.

* * * But the most curious of all the relics was the stone upon the

four sides of which are words in Hebrew letters. Mr. Wyrick found

them while searching for human remains in the centre of a small de-

pression of the earth connected with the system of ancient earthworks

in that region. The stone is in the form of a truncated cone, five inches

in length, with two sides broader than the other two sides, and a neck

and knob evidently formed for suspending it by a cord or chain. It has

the appearance, in texture and color, of a novaculite, or 'honestone,' and

is finely polished. The letters (said by those who are competent to

decide to be ancient Hebrew) are neatly made in intaglio upon each

of the four sides. How and when, and for what practical or symbolical

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212        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.   purpose that stone was deposited in the earth there, may forever remain a mystery." And in a foot-note to the same, Mr. Lossing says: "The cavity in which Mr. Wyrick found this stone was about twenty feet in circumference, and about two feet in depth at the centre. When he had excavated through dark and rich alluvium about fourteen inches, he came to a lighter soil of a clayey nature, in which were pebbles. One of these, of oblong form, composed of reddish quartz, first attracted his attention. Soon afterward he found the inscribed stone imbedded in the clay. Gentlemen of learning examined it, and proved the letters to be obsolete Hebrew. The Rev. J. W. McCarty, of Newark, a Hebrew scholar, translated the words on three of the four sides as follows: 'Holy of Holies;' 'The Word of the Law;' and 'The Word of the Lord'. At a meeting of some of the leading citizens of Newark, held at the

Court House about two months after my visit there, to consider the character and the circumstances of the finding of the 'Holy Stone,' Gen- eral Dille presided, and Mr. McCarty gave an interesting account of the whole matter. It was stated that only four or five of the characters correspond to those now in use in the Hebrew books, but these furnish a key to the translation. It has already been stated by a gentleman familiar with the history and practice of the Freemasons, and who was a member of the fraternity, that the stone was of a kind used by masons of a certain grade in the East soon after the building of the first temple of Solomon. It has in their system, he said, a well-known meaning, its principal use in ancient times being for deposit beneath whatever struc- ture the master mason might superintend. This symbol, he said, was not necessarily furnished with inscriptions, but masons entitled to use it might put such sentences upon it as that one has. It would be placed in the northeastern part of the foundation, and if it stood on its point would indicate that something more was deposited beneath. If it lay on its broadest face, the point or small end would indicate the direc-

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tions where other deposits would be found. These, if found, would dis-

close the facts connected with the building. Was not the cavity in which

the stone was found the foundation of a structure never erected?

"A few weeks subsequent to my visit, Mr. Wyrick found, in one of

the mounds in that vicinity, a stone box, nearly egg-shaped, the two

halves fitting together by a joint which runs around the stone length-

wise. Within this box was a stone seven inches long and three wide,

on a smooth surface of which is a figure, in bas relief, well cut, and

surrounded by characters thus described by the Rev. Mr. McCarty: 'The

words over the head of the human figure contain three letters. Two

of them are Hebrew, Sheir and He (or Heth). The third I inferred

to be Mem-a conjecture most readily suggested by its form, it being

exactly that of the old Gaelic Muin (M), and afterward fully borne

out by its always answering thereto.  This gave the word Mosheh

(Moses) or Meschiach (Messiah).' Of the characters Mr. McCarty

said 'some looked like the Hebrew coin character, some like the Phoe-

nician alphabet, a few bore resemblance to those on the Grave Creekstone,

and some I could not identify with any known alphabet.' He at last

found that the language was really Hebrew, much like that found in the

Bibles of the German Jews, and, after great and patient labor, he dis-

covered that the whole constituted an abridged form of the Ten Com-

mandments.

"This is not the place, nor has the writer the knowledge requisite for

a discussion of the matter. I have simply stated the curious facts -facts

well worthy of the earnest investigation of archaeologists, for they

raise the ethnological and historical question whether the mound-builders

of this continent were of Asiatic origin, or were related to the Indian

tribes whose remnants still exist."

 

Thus much from    Lossing.  In a work entitled "Archaeology of

Ohio," by M. C. Read, one of the most reliable and studious investi-

gators of Ohio archaeology, formerly of the Geological Survey of Ohio;

Trustee of the Ohio Archaeological Society in charge of the Society's

exhibit at Philadelphia (1876); and Assistant Commissioner at the Expo-

sition at New Orleans in 1884-5, the author said:

"The controversy over the Hebrew inscriptions, claimed to have been

found by David Wyrick, near Newark, is now generally regarded as

closed. They were found when evidence was eagerly sought to connect

the aboriginal races with the house of Israel. Now that the idea of such

a connection is abandoned by all, the discovery of Hebrew inscribed

stones would be an anachronism, for such forgeries will always in some

way represent the ideas of the time of the forgery. As an example, the

greatest forgery of this century is the book of Mormon. A careful

reading of it will disclose to any competent critic very nearly the date of

the forgery. It was written during, or very soon after, the controversy

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214        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

between Masonry and Anti-Masonry, and is decidedly Anti-Masonic.

It was written during the theological controversy over popery, pedo-bap-

tism; the salvation of infants; a paid priesthood, election and free-will,

all of which question's it attempts to settle; when the 'falling power,'

as it was called, was regarded as the work of the Spirit, which it de-

scribes and approves; while the act of divination by looking into a

crystal was believed in by some; while it was believed that the

native races were Israelites; and, before contact with Europeans,

worshippers of the Great Spirit, and while it was popularly be-

lieved that the linguistic peculiarities of our Bible were wholly

characteristic of the languages in which it was originally written,

and not of the state of the English language at the time of its translation.

These internal evidences fix the date of its composition as about fifty

years ago.

"Mr. Wyrick's first find was the inscribed key-stone in the form of

a Masonic emblem on which was carved in Hebrew of the twelfth cen-

tury, 'The King of the Earth.' 'The World of the Lord.' 'The Laws of

Jehovah,' 'The Holy of Holies.' In the year following he 'found', en-

closed in a neat stone box with a closely fitting cover, a stone tablet

having on it an effigy of Moses in priestly robes and an epitome of the

ten commandments in Hebrew.     Surely no better evidence could be

secured of a Hebrew migration to this country. It is significant that

Mr. Wyrick's published accounts of the 'finds' were largely devoted to

an attempt to prove that they could not be forged, and that upon his death

there was found in his working-room a Hebrew Bible which doubtless

aided him much in finding Hebrew inscriptions.

"These Holy relics were sold to David M. Johnson, of Coshocton,

Ohio, who in 1867 employed laborers for several days in exploring

a mound from which one of the inscribed stones, he obtained from

Wyrick was taken. His search was rewarded by finding inside of a human

skull a conical stone about three (3) inches long on which was also a

Hebrew inscription. No one seems to have been surprised by the pe-

culiarity of the place in which it was found, or to have doubted its gen-

uineness. It is probable that no archaeologist of fair standing can now

be found to advocate its genuineness or that of the Wyrick finds."

* * * * *

Professor Warren K. Moorehead in the preface to his work on "Prim-

itive Man in Ohio" has this to say concerning the Newark discovery:

"Some writers have misrepresented and distorted field testimony to

uphold theories previously formed. As an illustration of this, and of

the great damage that it has done, we need but call the attention of our

readers to the famous 'Holy Stone' of Newark. An enthusiastic ar-

chaeologist resided many years ago at Newark, Ohio. He was thor-

oughly in love with his work, and his life's ambition was to discover

the origin of man upon the American continent. He believed the lost

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Editorialana.                       215

 

ten tribes of Israel to be the ancestors of the mound-building tribes.

After opening mound after mound and finding no evidence whatever in

support of his hypothesis, he became desperate. He purchased a He-

brew Bible and primer, and shortly afterwards there was discovered in

a stone box, in a mound that he had investigated, a slab, on one side of

which was a likeness of Moses, and on the reverse an abridged form of

the ten commandments.  The stone attracted world-wide attention, and

many publications were issued describing it.  No one doubted the

genuineness of the affair until after the man's death. In cleaning up his

office the administrator found in a small rear room bits of slate with

attempts at carving Hebrew characters upon them. They also found a

fair copy of the wood-cut of Moses used as a frontispiece in the testa-

ment.

"The influence of this over-zealous deceiver has gone throughout the

length and breadth of our land, and one may still hear at lectures upon

American archaeology statements concerning the Indian's descent from the

Jew, basing such assertions upon the testimony of the supposed 'Holy

Stone of Newark,' which, as is above shown, was simply a counterfeit."

*     *      *     *      *

Col. Chas. Whittlesey, President of the Western Reserve and North-

ern Ohio Historical Society, in his pamphlet on "Archeological Frauds,"

has this to say about the Newark "Holy Stones":

"Near the close of the month of June, 1860, I was in Newark on

business having no connection with the old earth-works, for which this

place has now become celebrated.

"About 4 o'clock in the afternoon the late David Wyrick, an old

resident of the town, was seen in a very excited manner, hurrying along

the main street, from the direction of the canal. He was regarded there

as an eccentric character, an uneducated man, but on some subjects,

particularly mathematics, as possessed of decided ability. He had held

the office of county surveyor until long continued attacks of acute

rheumatism rendered him physically incompetent. With his limbs and

joints so swollen by elephantisis, attended by intense suffering, his feet

and hands so disfigured as scarcely to retain their human aspect, he

was everywhere regarded with commiseration. For some years he had

adopted the theory that the Hebrews were the builders of the earth-

works of the West, and when his physical condition would allow it,

sought diligently among them for proofs to sustain this hobby. He was

certainly an enthusiast, his mind somewhat distorted, in sympathy with

his body, but no one of his neighbors thought him capable of deliberate

deception.

"As he passed rapidly from shop to shop, and store to store, on

this hot afternoon of June, he exhibited with exultation the stone, after-

wards known as the 'Holy Stone,' as a triumphant proof and settlement

of his Jewish theory. General Israel Dille, who had known Wyrick

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216        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

since he was a young man and had full confidence in him, proposed

that we should take him in a buggy, and at once proceed to the spot where

it was found. A lad of his, about 14 years of age, helped to make the

excavation, and he was taken with us. We drove immediately to the spot,

about a mile southwest of the town, where the earth they had thrown

out was still fresh and moist. The hole they had made was near the

center of an artificial circular depression, common among the earth-

works, about twenty feet in diameter and three feet deep at the middle,

with a low rim or bank around it. He said he and his son were search-

ing for human bones, and, at a depth of 12 or 14 inches, about an hour

previous, had thrown out the inscribed stone. It had been only par-

tially cleaned, and the dirt being a fine yellow loam, which filled the

sunken spaces, corresponded fully with that of the pit. The lad con-

firmed what his father said, and added that as soon as the characters

on the stone were discovered he ran away to town with it like a crazy

man.

"The stone had not the appearance of great antiquity, but suggested

that it might have been buried fifty years. The Free Masons of Newark

at once recognized it as one of their emblems, representing the. 'Key

Stone' of an arch which Master Masons wore in early times as an insig-

nia of their rank. On these 'Key Stones' and on their modern substi-

tutes the owner was privileged to engrave mottoes according to

taste. There were modes enough to account for such a stone being found

in this depression, without giving it any connection with the Mound

Builders. It might have been dropped there since the advent of the

presence of white men and covered by the accumulations of loam and

vegetation continually washed towards the center of the cavity. It was

secured by the Ethnological Society of New York and commented upon

fully by the members, but with a general doubt of its genuineness.

"Mr. Wyrick's account, which he published soon after in pamphlet,

reads thus:

"'The following is a representation of the four sides of the supposed

keystone that was found on the 29th of June, 1860, in a sink or depres-

sion commonly called a "well hole", whilst looking for bones that said

holes were said to contain. The object of looking for human bones was

to ascertain the truth of such assertion. This stone is in the size and

shape represented by the cuts, and has upon each of the four sides a

Hebrew inscription, in the Hebrew character, which, when translated,

reads, "The King of the Earth," "The Word of the Lord," "The Laws

of Jehovah," "The Holy of Holies."'

"The letters are nearly an inch long, and well sunk into the stone.

Taken in the same order as Mr. Wyrick has recited them, the Hebrew

sentences are 'Torah Adonai,' 'Dabbah Adonai,' 'Kadosh Kadosheem,'

'Malach Aratz,' and with a free reading give a consecutive sentence thus,

according to three Hebrew scholars acting independently: 'The law of

God. the word of God, the King of the earth is most holy.' While

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Editorialania.                      217

 

this stone was being discussed Wyrick went on digging, and his discov-

eries were much more startling and doubtful than those already given,

but much more apropos of Moses and the Jews. On page 8 of his illus-

trated pamphlet, the results are thus described:

"'The following four cuts are those of four sides of a very singular

stone, found enclosed in a stone box buried twenty feet in the earth of

a tremendous stone mound. This stone was found on the first of No-

vember, 1861, in company with five others (persons). In the first place,

on removing this stone pile (several years before), which was said

(truly) to have been forty feet high, rising from a base 182 feet in

diameter, some of the workhands came to a mound of pure clay, of which

they say there was or is quite a number within the periphery of this

stone base, entirely around it, but covered by this enormous stone stack.'

* * * 'In one of these, in the clay, they found the shell of an old

log, on which lay seven copper rings, with the appearance of some ex-

tremely coarse cloth. * * * Removing the old shell they found it

to be the cover to another piece of timber, resembling a trough, in

which was coarse cloth (very rotten), human bones, hair, and ten cop-

per rings, which they took, and covered up the trough and its contents.

"'In July, 1860, I happened to see a piece of the wood and four of

the rings (now in possession of Dr. Wilson, of Newark), and repaired

to the place--(two miles east of Jackstown and south of the National

Road)- with some work hands, and sacrilegiously took it up.' In No-

vember, 1861, Wyrick and three others, one of whom is said to have

been Dr. Nichols, again attacked the wooden sarcophagus which had

by that time been so much covered by falling earth, that they labored

from morning till three P. M. uncovering the pile of clay. It was the

usual fire clay of the coal series, about two feet thick, evidently

brought there. In this the wooden trough was firmly imbedded, and in

this manner it had been preserved.

"'Near the under surface, imbedded in the clay, was taken the stone

box (engraved size of nature in the pamphlet) whilst digging in the

hole in the clay, in which (the box) was enclosed a black stone, as is

shown by the four following cuts of it, with the characters on each side,

the English of which appears to be an abridgment of the Ten Com-

mandments.'

"On one of the sides of the blackstone, is a likeness of Moses with

his name in Hebrew over his head. He is represented as a very savage

and pugnacious individual. The Hebrew letters were like those of the

Holy Stone readily translated by Hebrew scholars. Wyrick closes his

pamphlet in these words: 'Would it not require a very profound

scholar in Hebrew to make such an abridgement of the Hebrew decalogue

with foreign characters as is made above.'  * *  *  'Bacon's arrant

school boy borrowing a Hebrew Bible even in Ohio of some minister and

whittling hone stones into gin bottles (Bacon's Life Elixir) forever

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218        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

with all the jack knives in Christendom could (not) produce even in

Ohio such an outrage or piece of scholarship.'

"This somewhat blind and sarcastic allusion was intended for those

who questioned the genuineness of these inscribed stones. Experienced

archaeologists had never much faith in the Holy stone. When Moses and

the ten commandments appeared, Wyrick's character as an impostor was

soon established.

"Not long after this he died, and in his private room among the

valuable relics he had so zealously collected, a Hebrew Bible was found,

which fully cleared up the mystery of Hebrew inscriptions 'even in Ohio.'

This had been the secret and study of years, by a poverty stricken and

suffering man, who in some respects was almost a genius. His case

presents the human mind in one of its most mysterious phases, partly

aberration and partly fraud. When the Arabs who are employed to ex-

plore the ruins on the Nile and the Euphrates, discover what relics their

employers are in pursuit of, they generally produce them. Here the mo-

tive is plain, it is money. Perhaps this was the case with the 'sinister'

individual, who presented himself to Professors Locke and Kirtland with

the Cincinnati stone."

 

*      *     *      *     *

 

We have thus given at some length most of the material worth re-

producing, hitherto published, concerning the so-called "Holy Stones of

Newark." The testimony thus produced we believe is sufficient to con-

vince any reader that these alleged religious relics of a prehistoric

people were frauds. They cannot therefore be reckoned as of any

value in establishing the theory that the Mound Builders were descended

from the lost tribes of Israel. Upon this latter theory, however, scores

of volumes have been published. It is not the purpose of this article

to discuss the various presumptions upon which that theory is based.

There are many, and some of them not without plausibility. It is one

of many interesting theories concerning the origin of that mysterious

people which for want of a better name we designate as the Mound

Builders. It might be added in closing that many other stones have

been found in various mounds bearing alleged inscriptions which the

respective finders claim are evidences that the Mound Builders, whoever

they were, had a written language. But in almost every instance these

so-called findings are proven to have been unauthentic or of such a

dubious environment as to have no value as proof. It is undoubtedly the

unanimous consensus of the most authoritative archaeologists that thus

far no reliable evidence has ever been discovered that the Mound Builders

had a written language even of the crudest form.

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Editorialana.                       219

 

 

AVERY'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES.

The Fourth Volume of "A History of the United States and its

People," by Elroy McKendree Avery, has been issued by its publishers,

The Burrows Brothers Company, Cleveland, Ohio, and has all the con-

spicuous merits of the preceding three volumes. As the author himself

states in his preface, in the third volume, he traced "the continued and

intensifying conflict between prerogative and popular rights in the English

colonies in America." In the Fourth Volume he tells "how the shackles

of an ever-present menace were broken and the colonists were schooled

and nerved for the coming grapple." This volume covers the Colonial

period from 1745 to 1764. This epoch includes the romantic and dra-

matic events known as the French and Indian War. Events, the bare

recital of which is always interesting to the student and also the general

reader of history, while in the clear and graphic portrayal of Mr. Avery

they are doubly entertaining and readable. The French and Indian War,

in many of its phases, touches closely upon the pre-state history

of Ohio. Many of its more important incidents occurred upon the banks

of the Ohio, especially upon its parent streams, the Allegheny and Monon-

gahela. In 1749, the new Governor-General of Canada, Galissonierre,

sent the famous expedition under Celeron de Bienville to make friends

with the Indians and to warn the English traders who were beginning

to swarm over the Alleghenies. Celeron proceeded by portage from

Lake Erie to Lake Chautauqua; thence down the Allegheny and the Ohio

to the mouth of the Great Miami, up which he rowed; thence by portage

to the Maumee; thence by the Lakes back to Quebec, planting at various

points along the Ohio, his lead plates, upon which were engraved the

claims of France to the Ohio Valley. This expedition was followed in

1750 by Christopher Gist, George Croghan and Andrew   Montour, the

party sent out by the first Ohio Company "to look out and observe the

most convenient road you can find from the Company's store at Wills

creek to a landing at Monongahela." This party proceeded across Ohio to

the Indian village (Pickawillany) on the big Miami. These two expe-

ditions in behalf of France and England respectively were the open-

ing preludes to the coming contest between the Anglo Saxon and

the Gaul for the possession of the Ohio Valley. In the immediate

subsequent events the young George Washington, not yet of age, took

a conspicuous part as the representative of Virginia and the British

claims. Mr. Avery tersely and accurately recites the diplomatic meet-

ings between Washington and the French representatives at Logs-

town, Venango and Le Boeuf. The forks of the Ohio was the objec-

tive point of this contest, it being regarded as the gateway to the

west. It was in his expedition at the head of the Virginia militia, in

1754, to the site of Fort Duquesne that Washington won his first victory,

met his first defeat, and experienced the only surrender of his life. The

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220        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

latter occurred at Fort Necessity, which significant name Washington

gave to the rude backwoods intrenchments which he threw  up on the

Great Meadows, at the base of Laurel Hill, the western slope of which

faced the Monongahela. Then came Braddock's pompous expedition and

its tragic defeat within sight of the walls of Fort Duquesne. Logically

and clearly Mr. Avery then follows through the various campaigns of the

French and Indian War. The campaigns of Crown Point and Niagara,

the removal of the Acadians, and the campaigns of Oswego, Fort William

Henry, Louisburg, Ticonderoga and Fort Frontenac, the fall of Fort

Duquesne; the siege of Quebec and the marvelously interesting battle on

the plains of Abraham, in which decisive contest both leaders, the in-

trepid Montcalm and the invincible Wolfe lost their lives. The gauge of

war was to the Saxon, and the dominion of New France in America

was ended. The Peace of Paris concluded the Seven Years' War which

was being waged between the conflicting nations, with greater cost and ex-

tent in Europe than it had been in America. Mr. Avery, with true historic

perspective, keeps before the reader the logical relationship of the same

contest on the two continents-America and Europe. The last chapters of

the book are devoted to the Cherokee and Pontiac wars. The proceed-

ings of Pontiac's conspiracy especially interest the Ohio reader, as many

of its most important incidents occurred within the territory of the

present Buckeye state. By the Quebec proclamation of 1763, "the region

between the Alleghenies and the Mississippi and south of the Great Lakes

was temporarily closed to settlement by a provision prohibiting the gov-

ernors of any of the colonies from granting lands therein, prohibiting the

purchase of lands from the Indians, and requiring a license from Indian

traders. Apparently, the intention was to hold the Ohio country as a

vast Indian reservation, subject to white settlement only by direct per-

mission of the King in council. Practically, the proclamation set aside

the claims (most of them shadowy) of the coast colonies to this western

country and fixed their western limits at the Allegheny watershed."

"Major Rogers was sent by General Amherst, the English commander,

to take possession in the name of King George of the western posts in-

cluded in the late capitulation, Detroit, Michillimackinac, etc. With two

hundred rangers in whaleboats, Rogers left Montreal on the thirteenth

of September, 1760. They ascended the Saint Lawrence, skirted the

northern shore of Lake Ontario, and were at Fort Niagara on the second

of October. They carried their boats around the great cataract, launched

them in the river, and slowly worked their way along the southern shore

of Lake Erie. On the seventh of November they were at the mouth

of a river that Rogers called the Chogage (Cuyahoga) where they de-

cided to camp until the weather became better. No troops had ever be-

fore borne the British flag so far beyond the mountains. Soon after

their arrival, a party of Indians appeared as an embassy from the ruler

of that country; before night, Pontiac was there in person haughtily de-

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Editorialana.                       221

 

manding why Rogers and his men had come thither without his per-

mission and what was their errand. Up to this time, the shrewd and

ambitious chieftain had been the firm ally of the French, but when Rogers

informed him that Canada had been surrendered to the English and that

he was on his way to take possession of Detroit; the calumet was smoked

and harmony seemed established." Then follow the details of the Pontiac

conspiracy. Pontiac, the great Ottawa Chief, may be regarded as an Ohio

Indian. It is claimed with good authority, and so far as we can learn

without contradiction, that he was born at the mouth of the Ottawa river,

now Auglaize, where it empties into the Maumee, the present site of

Defiance. Thus Ohio history begins. Mr. Avery's Fourth Volume, like all the

others, is profusely illustrated with portraits of the personages of whom it

treats, with diagrams of the geography of the respective events, and fac-

similes of the historic documents pertaining thereto. No work to our

knowledge has been so lavishly adorned with valuable and illuminating

illustrations. Many of them in colors are works of art. We continue

to commend this work to the readers of American history.

 

 

 

 

DIARY   OF MANASSEH        CUTLER.

In a recent publication, William E. Curtis, the distinguished

journalist and author, gives excerpts from  the journal and letters

of Manasseh Cutler. Much of his article deserves a place in the pages

of the Quarterly. Mr. Curtis says:

Charles Gates Dawes of Chicago has the diary of his ancestor,

Manasseh Cutler, the founder of Ohio, the real author of the Ordinance

of '87, a member of Congress for many years from     Massachusetts,

clergyman, merchant, teacher, scientist, surveyor, explorer and pa-

triot-one of the ablest and most versatile characters in American

history.

In his journal and his letters to his family and friends at home

Mr. Cutler wrote many interesting accounts of his experiences in

Washington, as a member of Congress during the administration of

Thomas Jefferson. On January 1, 1802, he tells of the ceremonies at

the White House:

"Although the President has no levees, a number of federalists

agreed to go from the Capitol in coaches to the President's house and

wait upon him with the compliments of the season. We were received

with politeness, entertained with cake and wine. The mammoth cheese

having been presented this morning, the President invited us to go,

as he expressed it to the mammoth room to see the mammoth cheese.

There we viewed this monument of human weakness and folly as long

as we pleased and then returned."

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THE GREAT DEMOCRATIC CHEESE.

It is explained in a footnote that, "When Jefferson was chosen

President, Elder John Leland, a Massachusetts clergyman of strong

Democratic proclivities, proposed that his flock celebrate the victory

by making for the new Chief Magistrate the biggest cheese the world

had even seen. Every man and woman who owned a cow was to

give for this cheese all the milk she yielded on a certain day--only

no federal cow must contribute a drop. A huge cider press was fitted

up to make it in and on the appointed day the whole country turned

out with pails and tubs of curd, the girls and women in their best

gowns and ribbons, and the men in their Sunday coats and clean

shirt collars. The cheese was put to press with prayer, hymn singing

and great solemnity. When it was well dried it weighed 1600 pounds,

and Rev. John Leland drove with it all the way to Washington. It

was a journey of three weeks. All the country had heard of the big

cheese and came out to look at it as the elder drove along."

A few days later Mr. Cutler writes again: "Last Sunday, Le-

land, the cheese-monger, a poor, ignorant, illiterate clownish preacher,

who was the conductor of this monument of human weakness and

folly to its place of destination, was introduced as preacher to both

houses of Congress. The President, contrary to all former practice,

made one of the audience, and a great number of ladies and gentle-

men from   I know  not where.  Such a performance I never heard

before and hope never shall again. The text was: 'And behold, a

greater than Solomon is here.' The design of the preacher was prin-

cipally to apply the allusion, not to the person intended in the text,

but to him  (Jefferson), who was then present. Such a farrago,

bawled with stunning voice, horrid tone, frightful grimaces and ex-

travagant gestures I believe was never heard by any decent auditory

before. Shame or laughter appeared in every countenance.  Such an

outrage upon religion, the Sabbath, and common decency was ex-

tremely painful to every sober, thinking person present."

John Leland, the mammoth cheese man, was born at Grafton,

Mass., May 14, 1754, and died at North Adams, Mass., January

14, 1841. From 1792 until his death, forty-nine years, he was pastor

of the Baptist Church at Cheshire, Mass. He is described as a man

of great eccentricity and shrewdness, but without culture, and a zeal-

ous Democrat.

DINNER WITH THE PRESIDENT.

Saturday, February 6, 1802, Mr. Cutler was invited to dine with

President Jefferson, in company with six other members of the House

of Representatives and three members of the Senate, and he confided

to his journal that the dinner was not so elegant as when he was en-

tertained at the White House a year previous. But the food appears

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Editorialana.                       223

 

to have been abundant-"Rice soup, round of beef, turkey, mutton,

ham, loin of veal, cutlets of mutton or veal, fried eggs, fried beef,

a pie called macaroni, which appears to be a rich crust filled with

the strillions of onions or shallots, which I took it to be, tasted very

strong and not agreeable. Mr. Lewis told me there was none in it;

it was an Italian dish, and what appeared like onions was made of

flour and butter, with a particularly strong liquor mixed with them.

Ice cream very good, crust wholly dried, crumbled into thin flakes;

a dish somewhat like a pudding-inside white as milk or curd, very

porous and light, covered with cream sauce; very fine. Many other

jimcracks, a great variety of fruit, plenty of wines and good. Presi-

dent social. We drank tea and viewed again the great cheese."

 

 

THE DANDIFIED DIPLOMAT.

In the diary of his daily life as a member of Congress from

1801 to 1805, Mr. Cutler gives us charming glimpses of Washington

society and official entertainments in those days. He tells a good deal

about the French minister, Gen. Taureau, who had occupied a con-

spicuous position in France for several years before coming to Wash-

ington in 1804: "Of obscure birth, but handsome and clever, he made

his way up and became an aid to Napoleon Bonaparte. In the rapid

changes of popular favor, he was condemned to death-his door

marked with the fatal guide to the bloody guillotiners. A servant girl

employed about the jail rubbed out the mark and so saved his life,

in return for which he married her. The alliance, of course, proved

to be a most unhappy one, ending in a separation at the time he was

representing his country in Washington."

While calling at the White House on New       Year day, 1805,

Mr. Cutler saw Gen. Taureau for the first time, and in his diary says:

"We met him at the door covered with lace almost from head to foot,

and very much powdered. Walked with his hat off, though it was

rather misty. His secretary and one aid and one other with him."

Later Mr. Cutler called at the legation in Georgetown and says: "We

proposed in our family (as he always refers to his fellow-congressmen

at the boarding house on Capitol Hill) to call on Mr. Taureau, French

minister, who had left his card for us. Six of us went in a coach

to his house. As he was at home we went in and were conducted to

a large hall up one pair of stairs. Found him disposed to be quite

social, though he speaks very little English.  One of his aides-de-

camp assisted in the conversation. We tarried about an hour and re-

tired. We then went to the English minister's, and left our cards

without getting out of our coaches."

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224        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

 

PARTY AT THE BRITISH LEGATION.

Tuesday, February 12, Mr. Cutler dined at the British legation

and makes this record in his diary: "This day, in compliance with

card received eight or ten days ago, dined with his excellency, Mr.

Merry, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to his Britannic

majesty. Company, twenty-eight; thirteen members of Congress. Table

superb with plate in center, and in the last service the knives, forks

and spoons were gold. Six double-branch candlesticks with candles

lighted. Very pleasing entertainment.  Coffee in drawing room  im-

mediately after dining. Retired about nine. Six from our family went

in a coach and returned upon foot."

Mr. Cutler seems to have become quite intimate at the British

legation, for he dined there again the following week, and attended

a card party there a few days later. His diary for February 26 con-

tains this entry: "This evening at British minister's by invitation to

tea and cards. The company very large. About thirty-five members

of both houses of Congress, all the heads of departments, their ladies

and daughters, many gentlemen and ladies of the city of Georgetown,

and many strangers. I presume the number 150 or 200." And again,

March 2, he writes: "Walked fifteen miles. Dined at Mr. Merry's by

Mrs. Merry's invitation. She came twice to invite me. Presented me

with 'Darwin.'" There are frequent references in his diary after that

date to the British minister and Mrs. Merry, and their common interest

in botany.

Sunday, February 17, 1805, he described the religious services

which were held each Sabbath in the Hall of Representatives, where

"two pieces of Psalmody were performed by the band of the Marine

Corps in uniform; about 80 or 100."

So that it would seem that more than a hundred years ago the

Marine Band was even larger than it is now.

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