Editorialana. 109
Marietta could not have been surpassed.
The place and time of the
next annual meeting was left in the
hands of the Executive Committee.
The proceedings in full of the meetings
above, including addresses, etc.,
will be published either in a later
number of The Ohio State Archaeo-
logical and Historical Society Quarterly
or in a separate publication by
the same Society.
PALEOLITHIC MAN IN THE WESTERN RESERVE.
[The following article was written by P.
P. Cherry and published
in the Wadsworth Banner, February
9, 1908. We deem it of sufficient
interest and importance to reproduce in
this Quarterly.-EDITOR.]
Near the highest land in the state of
Ohio, near the great water-
shed, has been found evidences of the
existence of human life during the
ice age in America.
Southern Western Reserve in itself is a
veritable wonderland to
the scientific man, the antiquarian, the
geologist and the student. Here is
to be found the inland lake region of
Ohio with its some 60 odd fresh-
water, inland, glacial lakes whose
bottoms are far below the level of
Lake Erie's deepest depths. These lakes
were ground out by immense
glaciers from one-half to a mile in
depth. The wash of thousands of
years, from neighboring hillsides, have
but served partly to fill up these
ice-plowed grooves.
Commencing at the present site of Akron
and extending to within
14 miles of Lake Erie, was a large
glacial lake containing an area of 55
miles. From the southwest end of this
lake a wide river ran south-
wardly through Summit lake, and entered
the Tuscarawas river on its
way to the gulf. Summit lake today lies
396 feet above Lake Erie and
empties its waters therein.
The rock bottom of the old Cuyahoga
channel lies 200 feet below
its present muddy bottom.
When we consider that Lake Erie's
average depth is not over 200
feet we realize that that body of water
did not, could not exist in those
days. It was probably at that time a
wide and fertile valley with a
stream running through it which emptied
into the Tuscarawas.
With the recent discoveries of Dr. Metz
at Madisonville, W. C.
Mills in the Tuscarawas valley, and
Prof. G Frederick Wright in Wads-
worth, it has been fully established
that man did exist in Ohio during
the ice age; not only in the southern
part of the state, but in the Western
Reserve as well.
For several years, Capt. T. D. Wolbach
had in his collection what
he believed to be a paleolith from the
ice age. Placing himself in com-
munication with Prof. G. Frederick
Wright, who occupies the chair of
Geology in Oberlin College, member of
the U. S. Geological survey, and
author of the "Ice Age in
America," who is probably the greatest living
110 Ohio Arch. and Hist.
Society Publications.
authority in the world, he induced that
gentleman who is now over 70
years old to visit Wadsworth. The
venerable president of the Ohio
State Archaeological and Historical
Society came and was convinced that
he held in his hand the finest paleolith
that had ever been discovered.
The professor wanted to see the place
where the stone was found. Here
he and Professor Bronson of Oberlin
College found the finest specimen
of a kame or an eschar terrace that
either had ever examined.
In the spring, Professor Wright who has
but recently returned from
Siberia, in the interest of the
government, will send a force of some
half dozen geologists to Wadsworth to
complete further investigations.
The surrounding country has given up
freely, upon investigation,
the bones of the walrus, musk ox and
mastodon, animals contemporan-
eous with the ice age in America.
In the early 70's of the last century,
the writer found, three miles
south of Wadsworth, on a terrace on the
Chippewa, a paleolith, but in a
bad state of preservation. It was found
at the bottom of an immense
prehistoric stone tumuli, the largest in
the state. The neighboring road-
ways had needed repairing, so, this
magnificent monument of a mighty
race long since passed away, was leveled
for modern purposes. On a
short haul it took two teams 36 days to
level this lordly work of a dead
race. The ground under this work had
been burned hard, and among
the burned roots of a still live tree
was found this paleolith.
Thus has been established the fact that
man lived in northern Ohio
some eight or ten thousand years ago.
Rock shelters abound in Medina, Lorain
and Summit counties, some
of which have been scientifically
examined and under many feet of kitchen
midden, charcoal and bones of various
animals were found human re-
mains, thus agreeing with the finds of
France.
Professor Denton in his book "Our
Planet," relates of pre-Adamic
man that "his long arms are in
front of his hairy body, and hands are
between his knees, while his legs are
dangling down. His complexion
is darker than an Indian's, his beard
short and like the hair of his body;
the unkempt hair of his head bushy
thick; his eyebrows are short and
thick; and with his sloping forehead and
brutal countenance, he seems
like a caricature of a man, rather than
that of an actual man."
One of the oldest Vedic odes, older than
any of the sacred scrip-
tures, asks:
"Nature below, and power and will
above.
Who knows the secret? Who proclaimed it
here?
Whence, whence? this manifold creation
spring?"
Some cheap papers throughout the country
have endeavored to be-
little the Wadsworth "find"
even going so far as to suggest "a plant."
On Thanksgiving day, 1907, I had a talk
with Captain Wolbach about
this stone, and he was anxious to have
it passed upon by the greatest
Editorialana. 111
living authorities. He informed me at
that time that he had been trying
to induce Professor Wright to visit
Wadsworth, for that purpose. Every
one who is acquainted with Capt. T. D.
Wolbach knows that it is utterly
impossible for him to deceive. Habit
makes character, and his word
alone is worth most men's bond.
WERE THE MOUNDS USED FOR DWELLINGS.
[As a sample of the various curious
theories advanced by dif-
ferent writers concerning the purposes
of the mounds, we give the fol-
lowing, written by Dr. I. N. Smith,
Westerville, Ohio, and published
some time ago in The Ohio State
Journal. - EDITOR.]
Were the earthworks which the
Mound-Builders left built for dwell-
ing places? Dr. I. N. Smith of
Westerville is urging this theory. He
says:
The unknown has a certain fascination
for many who will work
away for years, or until the mystery
will be in certain degree solved.
We, as a people, have been planted on
this American continent, where
we found a people scattered over its
entire extent, who knew nothing
of the people who preceded them. They
knew nothing as to who built
these ancient works, nor what became of
them. The people we found
here-The American Indians-or native
Americans-showed different
physical build, according to the tribes
to which they belonged.
Not so the Mound-builders. So far as can
be ascertained, they
presented a certain fixed type of
manhood, that was alike over the whole
extent of the North American continent.
Their works were alike. How
came this similarity over so vast an
extent, where the only communi-
cation was by footpaths and trails?
A theory to be of any value must account
for existing known facts,
or a greater percentage of the known
facts than some other theory.
The theory I wish to advance now is that
these people came from the
south, gradually working farther north
along our system of rivers,
going south each year with birds and
returning to their northern haunts
the next spring. This ebb and flow of a
people who gradually increased
until they became millions were the
means by which we find the simi-
larity of physical constitution and the
sameness of all their works.
NOT JUDGED BY PRESENT CONDITIONS
Now let us look at the enigma--the
mound. There has been too
much judging by our own mode of
living-by our own civilization-
by what might be termed "extreme
poetic license," if I may be allowed
such an expression. Let us again
theorize. Suppose that after these people
had grown in numbers to such an extent
that the locality where they
spent the greater part of the year began
to be of some value. Well, sup-