Ohio History Journal

326       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

main and spacious entrance to the campus of the Ohio State

University. A structure, imposing and attractive in architec-

tural form, it is therefore the first of the many handsome build-

ings, that dot and adorn the college grounds, to greet the view,

not only of the visitors to the university but to all those who

pass by on the chief thoroughfare of the capital city. Certainly

the trustees of the Ohio State University were generous when

they donated this choice site to the official board of The Ohio

State Archaeological and Historical Society, for it is to be re-

membered that while the Society has a sympathetic and co-oper-

ative relation in its aims and work with the university, it

is entirely distinct therefrom in its organization and official

management.

The exercises were held in the rotunda of the building.

The day seemed to be propitious and the incidents conducive to

a very happy occasion. The rotunda was filled with the members

of the Society, invited guests and those interested in its work

and welfare.

First Vice President George F. Bareis called the meeting to

order, and after a few fitting remarks asked Rev. I. F. King,

many years one of the trustees of the Society, to pronounce the

invocation.  Mr. Bareis then presented Prof. G. Frederick

Wright, President of the Society, as the chairman of the meeting.

President Wright made the following address:

 

 

ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT WRIGHT.

When the whites began to penetrate into the Mississippi Val-

ley, about the middle of the 16th century, Ohio was occupied by

contending tribes of Iroquois and Algonquin Indians. Not only

were these tribes continually at war with each other, but both

were engaged in driving back beyond the Ohio the tribes which

occupied the country south of that river. So successful were

these northern tribes in driving away from the hunting grounds

of Ohio their southern antagonists, that, according to General

William Henry Harrison, during the 18th century there was not

on the banks of the Ohio, a single wigwam or structure in the

nature of a permanent abode, "the curling smoke of whose chim-

neys would give the promise of comfort and refreshment to a

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Dedicatory Exercises May 30, 1914.      327   weary traveler." Through the opposition of these tribes even Kentucky was without permanent occupation, but was kept merely as a common hunting ground. But, long before the encroachments of these warlike north- ern tribes, Southern and Central Ohio had been occupied by a race which had made far greater advances in civilization than any of the people occupying the territory of the United States at the time of the discovery of America by the whites. From the numerous monuments left by these extinct people they have been aptly called the Mound Builders. From the abundance of

their remains in Ohio, the work of exploring and interpreting these remains and of ascertain- ing their date and the stage of civilization to which they had attained, has naturally devolved upon the citizens of our State, and for this purpose largely the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society has been or- ganized; while the erection of this noble building is designed to bring within reach of all our cit- izens, and indeed of the world, the facts on which just infer- ences can be based. It is, there-

fore, to be expected that in connection with the dedication of this building there should be put before the public not only the aims of our Society, but to some extent the progress which we have made in solving the problems set before us. It will not, however, be necessary on this occasion to go far into details. For the main facts it is sufficient to refer to the twenty-three volumes of our Quarterly, edited by Mr. Ran- dall, and which have become a storehouse of information for all who care to become informed upon the subject. Nor would we ignore the work which others from outside the State have generously done in exploring Ohio earthworks and preserving

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328       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

their contents for public inspection. During the first half of the

₁₉th century it was left to citizens of Ohio alone to study and re-

port upon these interesting ancient remains. William Henry Har-

rison, Caleb Atwater, Colonel Charles Whittlesey and Squier

and Davis faithfully gave the world the superficial facts con-

cerning the original distribution and condition of the various

mounds and earthworks of the state. Squier and Davis also

carried on to a limited extent the exploration of individual

mounds. The results of their investigations were published in

1848, in the "Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley,"

being the first volume of the Smithsonian Contributions to

Knowledge. This large quarto must ever remain our chief source

of information concerning the condition of our earthworks at

that period.

But later there came a sad lull of interest on the part of

our own citizens, and it fell to the lot of others from outside

the state to take up and carry on the work of investigation.

Owing to this lack of interest in our own state, and indeed in

the whole country, the large collection of relics which Squier and

Davis had obtained from the mounds in their original explora-

tions was carried away from our shores and lodged in an English

museum.   Mr. Blackmore, an ardent archaeological explorer

from Salisbury, England, saw the value of the collection made

by Squier and Davis, which lay neglected in the basement of

one of the public buildings at Washington, and purchased it and

took it to his native town and erected for it a suitable resting

place, where it is opened to the inspection of all interested

students of American archaeology. And there it is today, in-

viting all Americans who visit the mother country to turn aside

and revel for awhile in facts concerning the prehistoric civiliza-

tion of their own land. All praise be given to Mr. Blackmore.

But shame on the people of Ohio and the United States that

they did not appreciate their own archaeological treasures!

Then, while interest in these invaluable monuments still

flagged in our own State, others from outside the state began to

shame us for our indifference. On the founding of the Peabody

Institute of American Archaeology in connection with Harvard

University, and the appointment of Professor F. W. Putnam as

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Dedicatory Exercises May 30, 1914.       329

 

Curator, a new era in the investigation of Ohio mounds began.

Exploration of individual mounds was undertaken with a care

that had not before been thought of. In the course of time

no less than $60,000.00 had been expended by the Peabody

Museum in the careful exploration of Ohio earthworks, and

nearly $10,000.00 in the purchase and preservation of the cele-

brated Serpent Mound of Adams county. Meanwhile agents of

the Smithsonian Institution of Washington were collecting speci-

mens obtained by various sporadic excavations in such earth-

works as seemed to give most promise of containing valuable

relics.

But it was in 1893 that one of the most fruitful raids

was carried on in Ohio from outside the state. In that year

the managers of the Colombian Exposition in Chicago appro-

priated several thousand dollars for the exploration of the

Hopewell group of mounds in the valley of Paint Creek, near

Chillicothe. The results of that exploration were astonishing.

On an altar in one of the mounds there were found a half

bushel of obsidian arrowheads and spearheads, the material of

which must have been brought from the Rocky Mountains. In

other portions of the group were found large numbers of copper

ornaments and implements from the Lake Superior region, also

large flakes and many ornaments of mica, which is found native

no nearer than the mountains of North Carolina. In another

part of the group there was found a cache of flint discs,

ready for reworking, sufficient in quantity to fill a four-horse

wagon. Among the ornaments were Swastika crosses, some of

them three inches in length, cut from mica and thin sheets of

hammered copper.   But all these treasures were taken to

Chicago, where they remain, but fortunately are open to in-

spection for any Ohio citizen who may visit the Field Museum

in that city. We should also add that the great quantity of

material obtained by Professor Putnam and his colaborers are

open to inspection to anyone who cares to visit the Peabody

Museum in Cambridge, Mass.

When our society began serious work in exploration of

the mounds in the last decade of the 19th century, the question

arose whether there was anything left for us to find in the

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330       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

mounds. It seemed to some that at least the cream had all

been taken off, and that little of value could accrue to our

efforts. Nevertheless the Legislature began to make appro-

priations for field work to be conducted by our curator. The

results are partially seen in the well-arranged cases in the ex-

hibition rooms of this building, which is now and is ever to

remain open to the inspection of the public. The results have

far exceeded the expectations of even the most sanguine. Our

excavations have been carried on so much more thoroughly than

previous excavations had been that they have already yielded

more valuable material than had been found by all the

earlier explorers.  In illustration we will refer only to the

discoveries in the Harness Mound (named after the owner),

in the Valley of the Scioto near Chillicothe. This mound had

been sporadically explored by Squier and Davis, Professor

Putnam  and Professor Moorehead. These parties had sunk

shafts from the top, and run tunnels from the sides and ends.

But the results had been disappointing. When, however, Pro-

fessor Mills excavated the whole mound from one end to the

other he was rewarded by a remarkable number of discoveries.

It appeared as the work progressed that the mound marked the

site of a great charnel house where there had at first been an

enclosure, elliptical in shape, marked by large posts sunk in the

ground to a depth of two or three feet. Casts of the post-

holes still remained, the posts having been burned when the

charnel house had been filled and made ready for the mound

to be heaped over all. In Professor Putnam's exploration only

twelve graves had been hit upon. Professor Moorehead was

more fortunate, having hit upon twenty-seven burials. But in

Professor Mills' complete excavation, he found one hundred

and thirty-three burials. This was accounted for by the fact

that the burials were arranged all around the ellipse, near the

edge, and so escaped the earlier random efforts to find them.

The Harness Mound has yielded the highest evidences of

culture that have been found in the Ohio mounds. The excava-

tions show that a considerable number of the burials were of

cremated remains, and that great respect was paid to the dead.

The graves were carefully prepared, and contained a large

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Dedicatory Exercises May 30, 1914.        331   number of ornaments and implements showing a wide range of commerce among the people. There were large, hammered copper plates and delicately formed copper earrings in abun- dance, the material of which must have come from the Lake Superior mines. There were also numerous implements of copper and pearls set in copper; while numerous ornaments delicately cut from sheets of mica that must have been ob- tained in the mountains of North Carolina. There were also many fragments of pottery, though without decoration. Bones with artistic forms engraved upon them were found, showing that the occupants were not devoid of the art of sculpture.

Their artistic skill was also shown in numerous pipes carved from limestone, and in gorgets made of diorite, a material so hard that great patience must have been exercised in making them. Flint arrow heads of exquisite pat- terns also abounded, while there were implements of obsidian which must have been brought from the Rocky Mountains, and drinking cups ten inches long made from shells which came from the Atlantic Ocean or Gulf of Mexico.   Also remnants of coarse matting and of woven fab-

rics were encountered from time to time in the explorations and innumerable beads made from small ocean shells and from pearls were found. More than 3,000 of these shells were taken from one burial place, while in another a string of 2,100 pearl beads was found. But, most interesting of all, it appeared that the market for pearls exceeded the supply, hence resort was had to counterfeiting the genuine article. Beads were made of clay and covered with malleable mica so that they could with difficulty be distinguished from the real pearls. Thus, from this and other mounds explored by our society after the previous explorers had abandoned them, we have

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332       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

gathered a larger and more representative collection of relics

illustrating the civilization of the Mound Builders than can be

found in all other museums put together. This is the result

of our more thorough methods of exploration. All these facts

are admirably displayed in the various rooms of this build-

ing for the inspection of our citizens. But to get an adequate

impression of our field for archaeological exploration one must

visit the mounds and earthworks themselves.

The variety and extent of the Ohio mounds and earth-

works are noteworthy, especially when one takes into account

the rudeness of the implements with which their erection was

accomplished. In number the mounds amount to more than

ten thousand. But they are for the most part situated in the

southern portion of the State. In the words of Gerard Fowke,

our chosen historian of the Mound Builders, "There is scarcely

a point along the Scioto below Circleville, or in either Miami

in the lower half of its course, or in the valley of any tributary in

these streams, where one may not be within a few minutes' walk

of some permanent evidence of aboriginal habitation. The same

is true of the Cuyahoga and some other rivers belonging to the

Lake Erie basin. On the summits of steep hills; in bottom

lands subject to overflow; on every terrace bordering a stream;

on plateaus and uplands; wherever there is cultivable or nat-

urally drained land, a good point of observation, an ample supply

of water, a convenient topography for trails-the Mound

Builder has left his mark. ("Archaeological History of Ohio

p 299.")

The largest mound in the State is situated near Miamisburg,

in Montgomery county, on a conspicuous elevation overlooking

the valley of the Great Miami River. It is sixty-eight feet high,

with a circular base measuring 850 feet, thus including more

than an acre of surface, and containing not far from 1,500,000

cubic feet of material. As there are no signs of any excavation

near, this material, consisting of fine earth, must have been

scraped off from the surface for a great distance. Thus the

labor of constructing such an immense mound with the con-

veniences at hand must have been enormous, and have called

for an organization of some sort which commands our highest

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Dedicatory Exercises May 30, 1914.         333

 

respect. Altogether it embodies an ideal wrought out in con-

crete form that does immense credit to its builders. As it has

never been thoroughly explored we can only surmise the object

for which it was constructed. But in all probability it is reared

over the remains of some distinguished chieftain who had won

the love and respect of a large tribe of devoted followers. The

intensity of their devotion and the extent of their organization

may be inferred from an estimate of the time and labor re-

quired for the erection of the tumulus. As the earth was

evidently brought from some distance, and the toilers had

nothing better than stone implements with which to move it

and wicker baskets in which to carry it on their shoulders it is

a moderate estimate that five years' labor of one thousand men

would be required to rear the monument.

Of the historic fortifications of the State that known as

Fort Ancient is the most imposing. Fort Ancient is in Warren

county, on the Little Miami River, about ten miles east of

Lebanon. It is on a promontory 270 feet above the river bot-

toms, and commands a magnificent prospect of the fertile valley

below. Two ravines head near each other on the table-land

to the east of the river. Along the margin of the summit of

the jagged outline eroded by these streams earth has been piled

all around to strengthen the natural fortification. So irregular

is the line, that though enclosing but one hundred and fifty

acres, it measures nearly four miles in length (18,712 feet, not

counting any detached works). A moderate estimate of the

amount of material removed to constitute this earth wall is

9,000,000 cubic feet. Its construction would require the con-

tinuous labor of several hundred men, with primitive tools, as

much as ten years. In the words of Professor Orton, "We can-

not be mistaken in seeing in the work of Fort Ancient striking

evidence of an organized society, of intelligent leadership, in a

word, of a strong government. A vast deal of labor was done

and it was done methodically, systematically and with continuity.

Here again we must think of the conditions under which the

work was accomplished. *   *  *  Not only were the Mound

Builders without the aid of domestic animals of any sort, but

they were without the service, of metals. They had no tools of

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334       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications. iron; all the picks, hoes and spades that they used were made from chipped flints, and mussel shells from the river must have done the duty of shovels and scrapers. In short, not only was the labor severe and vast, but 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?" But Fort Ancient is only one of many similar fortified hilltops scattered over the southern part of the State, and to some extent, though on a smaller scale, over the north- ern part. I need but mention Spruce Hill, in Ross county; Fort Hill in Highland county; Glenford  Fort   in  Perry county; Fort Miami in Ham- ilton county; Fortified Hill in Butler county; and Fortified Hill in Licking county, to heighten the impression made upon the casual observer of

the extent of the Mound Builders' work and organization in Ohio. Equally impressive, though fewer in number, are the sym- bolic mounds of Ohio. Most significant of these are the two Serpent Mounds, one in Adams, the other in Warren county. The Adams county Serpent was purchased, explored, and re- stored by Professor Putnam, aided by enterprising ladies of Boston, and later deeded, together with the farm containing it, to our society for preservation and perpetuation as a public park. This remarkable effigy, more than 1,300 feet in length, is stretched out on a rocky ridge bordered by cliffs about a hundred feet high, its head resting on the extreme end of the

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Dedicatory Exercises May 30, 1914.         335

 

promontory. From this point the folds of the monster wind

gently back toward the open country, ending in two or three

close circular coils. The mound consists of fine earth brought

from the near vicinity, and rises but a few feet above the

general surface. But viewed from the observation tower which

our society has erected for the convenience of visitors, the

winding form of the huge creature is extremely impressive.

Much additional interest and significance was added to this

symbolic work of the Mound Builders when another serpent,

of about the same length, was discovered on the Little Miami

River near Lebanon, in Warren county. This, too, was on

the bank of a stream, a tributary of the Little Miami, and was

stretched out with numerous coils into the open country beyond.

In both cases the effigies are near populous centers of the

Mound Builders, and are where large concourses of people

could be accommodated in full view of the object. This effigy

has not yet been procured by the State for preservation. But

its preservation is an object which our society should ever have

in view.

These two mounds can hardly have had any other signifi-

cance than as symbols of religious ideas current among the

people. Taken in connection with the symbolic significance of

the serpent the world over, they show either that there is a

connection between the serpent worshippers of Ohio and those

of the Old World, or that they represent the working of a

common religious instinct characteristic of the human race, and

distinguishing it from all the lower animals,-thus justifying

the definition of man as "a religious animal."

But the Mound Builders occupied the fair places of our

State at a comparative recent date. So far as the evidence

goes none of the relics of the Mound Builders need be more

than 1,000 years old. President Wm. Henry Harrison was the

first to make chronological calculations from the evidences of

successive growths of forest trees over the areas containing the

mounds and earthworks. From the variety of trees that existed

on their first discovery by whites, Harrison inferred the lapse

of a very great length of time since their occupation by the

Mound Builders. But in no case, probably, can any single tree

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336       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

found on the mounds be more than 400 or 500 years old. More-

over the state of preservation of such earthworks as Fort Ancient,

where eroding agencies have been ever active, clearly shows

that they could not have been in existence much more than a

thousand years, even if they could have preserved their present

condition as long as that.

Whatever be the date of the Mound Builders, however, their

career teaches us many important lessons. In every respect they

were worthy of being called "our brethren." The relics which

they have left impress us with the great natural powers with

which they were endowed. In estimating their work we must

remember that it was all accomplished with implements of

stone. They belonged essentially to the Stone Age, before iron

or bronze had found their way to the New World. But with

these primitive implements they accomplished wonders. They

cleared large areas of heavy forests and prepared the ground

for the cultivation of maize and other grains and vegetables

native to America. Agriculture was a necessity for the support

of the large population indicated by the size and extent of the

various mounds and earthworks. The commercial instincts of

the Mound Builders compared well with those of the nations

that dominate the trade of the world at the present time. With-

out any of the labor-saving inventions which are the common

property of the present industrial world, they yet compassed

a continent in which to extend their trade. They purchased

obsidian from Yellow Stone Park; dug copper from the ledges

of Northern Michigan; mined mica from the mountains of

North Carolina; gathered shells from the shores of the Gulf

of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean and excavated flint in

enormous quantities from Flint Ridge in Ohio and from quarries

in Southern Illinois and Indiana. They showed their reverence

for the dead and for the unseen powers which created and rule

the universe, by funeral mounds and symbolical monuments re-

quiring the oversight of extensive and powerful social and

religious organizations, and the prevalence of high spiritual

aspirations.

Everything which can shed light on the history and attain-

ments of these remarkable people who have left their impress

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Dedicatory Exercises May 30, 1914.         337

 

in so many village sites and fortified centers of our State is

highly prized by students of history, sociology, art and religion

the world over. It is with peculiar interest that representative

archaeologists and anthropologists from the O1d World ask the

guidance of our society to the most instructive places where

we have conducted excavations and preserved ancient monu-

ments, and come from these places to study the collections in

our growing museum. It cannot be long till our own citizens

shall equally prize these archaeological treasures of our Com-

monwealth and will organize excursions which shall systemat-

ically take them over the State, helping them and their members

to appreciate the rich archaeological treasures which are being

gathered in this building and which still remain in abundance

in our wide open fields. Our citizens may well be urged to

know their own possessions before going to the Old World to

get the smattering of knowledge which a hasty excursion at

great expense can give during a short vacation time.

But Ohio can lay credit to having evidence of man's exist-

ence here at a far more distant age than that of the Mound

Builders or their immediate progenitors. Indeed, some of the

most ancient relics of man anywhere in the world have been

found within the borders of our State. As far back as 1885

Dr. C. L. Metz, of Madisonville, near Cincinnati, while carrying

on excavations for the Peabody Museum of Cambridge, Mass.,

came across chipped flint implements of the most ancient type,

in undisturbed gravel of glacial age, in the valley of the Little

Miami River.    Still another implement of similar pattern

(palaeolithic) was found in the gravel of the same stream at

Loveland. Full description of these discoveries may be found

in the reports to the Peabody Museum, and the implements may

be seen duly catalogued in its collections.

In 1889, some time before he became the Curator and ex-

plorer of our society, but when his methodical and careful

methods of observation were well established and recognized,

Mr. W. C. Mills discovered a most beautiful implement of

palaeolithic type in the undisturbed glacial gravels of the Tus-

carawas River at New Comerstown. The account of this may

Vol. XXIII-- 22.

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338       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

be found duly inscribed in its proper place in the diary which

Professor Mills kept at that early date, and a detailed discus-

sion of the situation in which the implement was found was

made by myself and a committee of the Western Reserve His-

torical Society, and published in the Popular Science Monthly.

(See vol xliii pp. 29-39.) The evidence of the genuineness of

the discovery is as complete as it is possible to make any such

discovery depending on human testimony. An interesting point

respecting this New Comerstown implement is that it is in shape

a perfect replica of some which are found in the glacial gravels

of Amiens, France. At the same time it is also in point to

mention that the late Professor N. H. Winchell, who made a

specialty of determining the relative age of flint implements by

the thickness of the patina accumulated on the surface, pro-

nounces this equally old with those from the oldest specimens

from France. Moreover the implement is so like the pattern

of the French implement that it is a reasonable supposition that

American fashions at that time came from Paris as they do

at the present time. This implement, with one of my own

collection brought from France, are on exhibition in the

Museum of the Western Reserve Historical Society in Cleve-

land.

Another discovery of an implement equally old was made

by Mr. Sam Houston, an experienced surveyor and collector of

Steubenville, Ohio. This implement, too, is clearly of an early

type, and was found in cross-bedded sand and gravel deposits

eight feet below the surface of the terrace, which is between

seventy and eighty feet above low water. This implement has

just been presented to our Society by the children of Mr. Hous-

ton and will be found properly displayed in one of our cases.

These four discoveries of relics of glacial man in Ohio are

of extreme interest and importance. They carry us back to a

period long before the oldest historical 'dates in the valleys of

the Nile and Euphrates. They tell us that man was here with

various now extinct animals like the mammoth, the musk ox,

and the megalonyx, whose bones have been found in the same

deposits. They reveal to our mental vision a state of conditions

such as now prevails in Greenland, and a race of hardy hunters

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Dedicatory Exercises May 30, 1914.       339   who were following us in the retreating continental Ice Sheet in Ohio as the Eskimo are still doing in Alaska and Greenland. Thus geology and archaeology join hands in our state to shed light on the earliest conditions under which man struggled to maintain his existence in this world of thorns and thistles, of earthquakes and volcanoes, and of waxing and waning ice sheets. The contrast between those conditions and those in which we live is such as to make us pause and give thanks that our lines have fallen in such pleasant places and that we have so goodly an heritage. REMARKS OF SECRETARY RANDALL. Following President Wright's address, Mr. Randall, Secre- tary of the Society, spoke impromptu, giving, in brief, some of the main facts and incidents connected with the origin and

history of the Society. He related how in the early months of the year 1875, Isaac Smucker, Stephen D. Peet, Roeliff Brinkerhoff and perhaps one or two others, met at the home of General Brinkerhoff and organ- ized the Ohio Archaeological Asso- ciation. Professor John T. Short, of the Ohio State University, and author of "Prehistoric Man in America," was made Secretary of the Society. The origin of this organization arose from the impulse given to archaeological and historical study by

the then approaching American Centennial Exposition to be held at Philadelphia in the year 1876. It was proposed by the new Ohio Society that an exhibit of Ohio Archaeology be made at the coming exhibition. In the prosecution of this purpose appear the names of R. B. Hayes, then governor, Dr. N. S. Townshend, professor O. S. U., Gen. R. Brinkerhoff, M. C. Read, distin- guished writer on Archaeology, John H. Klippert, State Geolo- gist, C. C. Baldwin and Charles Whittlesey, respectively president and secretary of Western Reserve Historical Society. These

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