Northwestern Indiana from 1800 to 1900A regional history written by Timothy H. Ball . . . .
Source Citation:
Ball, Timothy H. 1900.
Northwestern
Indiana from 1800 to 1900 or A View of Our Region Through the Nineteenth Century.
Chicago, Illinois: Donohue and Henneberry. 570 p.
NORTHWESTERN INDIANA FROM 1800 TO 1900
485
CHAPTER XXXIII.
ARCHAEOLOGICAL SPECIMENS.
In addition to the facts given in Chapter IV, the following
from Lake County 1884, is added here.
"The finest collection of American antiquities in this county has been made by
W. W. Cheshire, an enthusiastic archaeologist and member of the
Indiana Archaeological Society. In the department
of arrow and spear heads Dr. Herbert S. Ball has a
fine collection, and in purely human remains he has probably the best in the
county. Of fossil shells the finest are probably in the possession of T. H.
Ball.
In the cabinet of W. W. Cheshire are some three hundred specimens of stone
implements collected in this county, some having been obtained in every
township. Among the stone axes are some very fine specimens, one weighing six
and three-fourth pounds, and one being only two inches long and an inch and a
half broad, a miniature or toy axe. Of the axes there are, collected in this
county, about two dozen. Of arrow heads there are about one hundred. Some of
these are remarkable for beauty and regularity. One is of chalcedony, of the
variety called agate, one and five-eighths of an inch wide and two and
six-eighths inches long. One of copper, apparently molded, four and
three-eighths inches long and one inch and one-fourth wide, with three small
notches on each side of
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the shaft. This was found in St. Johns township.
There is in this cabinet a piece of copper ore found near Lowell. One stone
arrow head is worked with a twist as though designed to give it a whirling
motion in the air. There is here also the breast bone of a wild goose, shot in
the Kankakee marsh some years ago through which is the arrow head which was then
in the breast of the living goose. This is of bone, nicely made, is considered
by some of us to be Esquimaux workmanship, and is nine inches long, a half inch
wide, slightly curved, and has four sides or faces. The shaft that was evidently
inserted in the arrow is about one inch long and is finely wrought to a point. *
* * There are also here specimens from near Hebron
* * * of mastodon or mammoth bones and teeth."
Some, believed to be genuine, Indian pipes have been found, one near Plum Grove;
and in the possession of Mr. George Doak, of South-East Grove, is a peculiar
stone, found near his home, about five and a half inches long, an inch wide,
three-fourths of an inch thick, "the sides slightly oval, smooth, neatly
wrought, with an orifice half an inch in diameter running through the entire
length."
How an Indian could have drilled this orifice and for what is a matter of
conjecture.
Of those antiquities and specimens of Indian art collected by W. W. Cheshire,
who is now a resident in Washington City, some are now, (1900) in the cabinet of
the Crown Point Public School, and some are in the hands of Julian H. Youche, an
enthusiastic and intelligent youth, son of Hon. J. W. Youche, and grandson of
Dr. J. Higgins, of Crown Point.
Two copper hatchets, two broken earthen vessels,
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and a pipe, were taken out
from those mounds south of
La Porte, before Dr. Higday explored them; and in one explored by him, Professor
Cox reports three human skeletons, two copper hatchets, two copper needles, some
galena, several pieces of mica, and a carved pipe, taken out a depth of thirteen
feet from the
surface. In the largest mound of the group, Professor Cox says in his report
(Survey of 1873), sixteen feet from
the surface, two full size human skeletons were found
and "a pipe, a copper needle, fragments of pottery, and part of a marine shell (Cardium
magnum)."
In some of these mounds earthen vessels were found containing black mold, which,
it has been conjectured, was once food buried with the dead, to sustain them
until they became settled in the "happy hunting ground" on the other side. And
this the learned geologist calls a reasonable inference, "around which," he
says, "clusters a world of interest, coming from
the dark, forgotten past, as a ray of light that has bridged centuries to tell
its wondrous story." And so this black mold is regarded as indicating firm
belief in a future existence, perhaps in immortality.
A beautiful specimen of wrought copper, taken from
a wolf hole in Hanover Township, is in the possession of Mrs. M. J. Cutler, of
Kankakee, Ill., who was a daughter of Judge Ball,
of Lake County. This instrument, for such it seems to have been, is about three
and a half inches long and one inch and a half broad at what may be called the
cutting end, which has a rounded but not a sharp edge. It is about one fourth of
an inch in thickness. It bears upon it what seem to be the marks of a hammer.
The owner of this piece of copper has also in her
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possession an instrument which appears to be steel, nearly two inches long, the
shaft round, the small end edged, not pointed, "the head on the top is flat and
very smooth, and besides this surface it has twelve small plane sides, each
smooth and well wrought," and this was found, not in the ground, but, about
1850, "was taken from
near the heart of a majestic oak" that grew on that
grand bluff on the northeast bank of the Lake of the Red Cedars. One hundred and
seventy layers of wood in that oak tree were counted outside of this piece of
well wrought steel, and taking that number in years
from 1850, will bring one
back to 1680, or to about the time when La Salle crossed these counties. Did he,
or some other French explorer, drive that into a sapling?
Its antiquity is not very great compared, probably, with the instrument of
copper; but it must have been made in some, probably, European workshop, more
than two hundred and twenty years ago.
HUMAN REMAINS.
About ten years ago some of the inhabitants of Brunswick discovered a large bed
of sand on section 19, the southwest quarter, township 34, range 9, on the bluff
along the west side of West Creek, and from this
sand were taken out several human skeletons, supposed to be Indian remains.
The largest "find" of human remains in Lake County was in October, 1880, of
which a lengthy account may be found in "Lake County, 1884," pages 327 to 330. A
good many copies of this book are probably yet in Lake County. A few statements
from that full account are here given:
Two young men, Orlando Russell and Frank Rus-
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sell, commenced, October 1, 1880, to prepare a foundation for a saw-mill at the
exact "head," as the settlers in early times called it, of the Red Cedar Lake.
The spot selected was a little mound on the lake shore, sloping eastward,
westward, and southward, and with a very gradual slope northward. "It was a
beautiful and sunny knoll, raised but a few feet above the wave-washed beach of
pure, white sand, and had been the camping ground the summer before, for many a
day and night, of a large pleasure party."
A scrubby burr oak tree was standing a few feet from
the water line. The plow share, "the white man's plowshare," passed over
the green, beautiful surface, and five skeletons were struck, all in one mass,
at a depth of about one foot. Six more were reached before the plow had gone two
feet in depth. With these were some rodent bones and some large shells. A few
days afterward, hearing of this discovery, for, for forty-five years no spot
around that lake had been supposed to be more free from
human remains, T. H. Ball and his son,
Herbert S. Ball, made a visit to the spot. It was
near what had been for many years the home of the one and the birth-place of the
other.
The son had then but lately returned from the
great plains of Northwestern Texas, where, on
Blanco Canyon, he had examined human remains supposed to be three hundred years
old. He soon commenced a search under the burr oak. He found a piece of lead
ore, then an arrow head, and then an entire skeleton. One large root of the tree
pressed hard upon the skull, which was towards the east. Soon the tree was
removed and another skeleton was there with the head toward the west. In all,
twenty skeletons were found near the surface of that
little mound, one of the most sunny spots anywhere around that lake.
About two hundred rings of what is called annual growth were counted on that oak
tree. The tree had evidently grown since the burial. And these remains were all
of men in the prime of life.
NAVIGATION OF
NORTHWESTERN INDIANA FROM 1800 TO 1900
FRONT MATTER AND DEDICATION
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 1
- GENERAL OUTLINES
CHAPTER 2
- THE INDIANS
CHAPTER 3
- THE EARLY SETTLERS
CHAPTER 4
- WHAT THE EARLY SETTLERS FOUND
CHAPTER 5
- PIONEER LIFE
CHAPTER 6
- COUNTY ORGANIZATIONS
CHAPTER 7
- OUR LAKES AND STREAMS
CHAPTER 8
- LAKE MICHIGAN WATER SHED
CHAPTER 9
- TOWNSHIP AND STATISTICS
CHAPTER
10 - RAILROAD LIFE
CHAPTER
11 - POLITICAL HISTORY
CHAPTER
12 - THE WAR RECORD
CHAPTER
13 - RELIGIOUS HISTORY
CHAPTER
14 - RELIGIOUS HISTORY
CHAPTER
15 - RELIGIOUS HISTORY
CHAPTER
16 - SUNDAY SCHOOLS
CHAPTER
17 - TOWNS AND VILLAGES OF NEWTON AND JASPER
CHAPTER
18 - TOWNS AND VILLAGES OF WHITE, PULASKI AND STARKE
CHAPTER
19 - VILLAGES, TOWNS AND CITIES OF LAKE
CHAPTER
20 - VILLAGES AND TOWNS OF PORTER
CHAPTER
21 - VILLAGES, TOWNS AND CITIES OF LA PORTE
CHAPTER
22 - EARLY TRAVELS
CHAPTER
23 - PUBLIC SCHOOLS
CHAPTER
24 - PRIVATE AND PAROCHIAL SCHOOLS
CHAPTER
25 - LIBRARIES
CHAPTER
26 - OTHER INDUSTRIES
CHAPTER
27 - SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS
CHAPTER
28 - THE KANKAKEE REGION
CHAPTER
29 - DRAINING MARSHES
CHAPTER
30 - ANIMALS AND PLANTS
CHAPTER
31 - MISCELLANEOUS RECORDS
CHAPTER
32 - COURT HOUSES
CHAPTER
33 - ARCHAEOLOGICAL SPECIMENS
CHAPTER
34 - BIRTH PLACES OF PIONEERS
CHAPTER
35 - McCARTY
CHAPTER
36 - ATTEMPTS TO CHANGE
CHAPTER
37 - ALTITUDES
CHAPTER
38 - MISCELLANEOUS RECORDS
CHAPTER
39 - SOME STATISTICS
CHAPTER
40 - WEATHER RECORD
CONCLUSION
Transcribed by Steven R. Shook, April 2012