# Miscellaneous Papers Relating to Anthropology/Mounds in the Southern Part of Pike County, Missouri

MOUNDS IN THE SOUTHERN PART OF PIKE COUNTY, MISSOURI.
By Joseph C. Watkins, of Ashley, Mo.
There are mounds in this section known as "Indian graves." The time of their construction antedates the settlement of this section by the whites. Some of the oldest citizens suppose that the mounds were the burial places of the Sacs and Foxes, but they say the mounds appeared as old when they first came here, sixty years ago, as they do now. I have found no one who ever saw or heard of the construction of one of these mounds. There are no other indications of a former occupation of this region by the aborigines that I have ever seen. The mounds visited by me are located in the southern part of Pike County, Missouri, as follows:
One mound on the land of L. M. Wells, southwest corner of the north-west quarter section 34, township 52, range 3 west, about 1½ miles southwest of Ashley; one on what is known as the "House Land," about the center of the southwest quarter section 28, township 52, range 3 west, about 2 miles west-southwest of Ashley; one on the land of James Farquar, northwest corner of the northeast quarter of the northwest quarter section 10, township 51, range 3 west; three on the land of E. G. Collins, near the southwest corner of section 16, and about 1 mile southeast of New Hartford; two on the land of Benjamin Young, northwest corner of the northwest quarter section 24, township 51, range 3 west; three on the land of John Motley, near the southeast corner of section 24, township 51, range 3 west, and near the junction of the creeks North Cuivre and Indian, and nearest the post-office of Louisville, Lincoln County, Missouri; two on the Coperhaver farm (now occupied by Nunc Estis), about 2½ miles south of Louisville, Lincoln County, Missouri.
All the mounds in question are situated on high points of land, forming bluffs to the creeks Cuivre and Indian. At the foot of the bluffs are good springs. Back from the bluffs the surface is undulating and tillable.
Three of the mounds are isolated, six in groups of threes, and four in groups of twos. All the mounds are circular. They are composed of soil and rock, some with the dirt and rock alternating, some of clay, with vaults of rock in the center. In the center of some there are rectangular vaults containing remains and soil. The material was probably obtained near by—the rock from the ravines and the soil from the banks of the same. Eight of the mounds have been partially explored—all of the Collins group, both of the Benjamin Young group, and Nos. 1 and 2 of the Motley group; also one of the isolated mounds on L. M. Wells' land.
In No. 1 of the Collins group the remains of two skeletons were found, with some fragments of pottery. In No. 2 of same, in a rectangular ​vault, 4 by 5 feet, were found the remains of eight skeletons, with a few pieces of pottery. In No. 3 of same, a vault made of flat rocks, in the shape of a coffin, containing a few pieces of cranial bones, very much decayed. In No. 2 of the Young group nothing was found. In No. 1 of same, a large vault, the dimensions of which we did not have time to determine, contained human remains, much decayed, among which were found three flint arrow heads, a small vessel molded of clay and burnt, and a pipe carved out of steatite, having upon its front a figure-head. In No. 1 of the Motley group bones were found, and among them a piece of pottery which shows some attempt at ornamentation, and a peculiar rock, oblate-ellipsoidal in form, with depressions (central) on its opposite sides. Around these depressions are 36 marks, arranged in groups of threes. All seem to have been diminished in altitude by continued exposure to the elements.
Trees were growing upon all the mounds, but some of them have been cleared. On the apex of No. 1 of the Motley group an oak tree had grown 22 inches in diameter, but was blown down, and now lies in the last stages of decay. Large oak and hickory trees have grown upon the other mounds.