Ohio History Journal

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Big Bottom and Its History

Big Bottom and Its History.             21

 

the rocky fortresses of the Appalachians, Puritan and Cavalier

looked down together upon the fair valley of the Ohio. To them

it was as the revelation to the prophet on Pisgah - the Promised

Land. They were permitted to enter. But to hold it they fought

with stubborn tenacity. Every foot was contested. But forward

went this army across the prairies of Indiana and Illinois until

the smoke curled from the settler's cabin on the banks of the

Father of Waters. Then pressing on it swept across the western

plains. The Rocky Mountains were no barrier and on their west-

ern slopes and in the valleys of sunny California and where "rolls

the Oregon" went the pathfinders of civilization. And now

through the portals of the Golden Gate we send forth our ships

to that new old land in which the world seeking Genoese dreamed

lay his El Dorado.

To this hero of the forest - hunter, scout, pathfinder, trail-

maker, home-maker - we dedicate to-day this monument as a

memorial to his sacrifices and services and bravery, with the firm

and confident hope that the new generations now reaping the

fruition of that toil will husband the splendid inheritance left us

by such men as fell beneath the tomahawk of the ruthless savage

on the banks of the Muskingum on that winter evening over a

century ago.

ADDRESS OF E. O. RANDALL.

This is a red letter day for the Ohio State Archaeological

and Historical Society. For many years it has been the custodian

of Fort Ancient, the most extensive and

majestic earth enclosure of the Mound

Builders in this country and for a somewhat

less time has been the owner of Serpent

Mound, the most mysterious religious relic

left by that vanished and wonder-exciting

race. Through the praiseworthy sentiment

and generous disposition of Mr. Brokaw the

Society becomes the proud possessor of this

historic ground, the site of one of the most

memorable events in the pioneer period of

our state. The story of the birth of the

American Republic and its sturdy strife for independent exis-