Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1858-01-22
From the Evansville tudiana) Journal
A HOUSE EIGHTEEN FEET UNDEI
GROUND

GhOi y ID.
Some workmcl, while making some oxca-
yations on the streets of Evansville, last Tues
day. came to the remains of a cabin. I8 feet
below the present surface of the ground. and
100 feet from the present bank of the river
The journal says
1t had evidently been human habitation,
and that of European. The cabin was ~
feet or more in length, formed by upright
posts set in the ground, and the sides board
el mp with split oak puncheons. fastened on
with inch wooden pins. The posts. punch
cons and pins were but partly decayed, and
still adhered together the posts had to be
cut off with an axe to remove them In the
interior were found the parts of an old-fash-
ioned European spinnng-wheel, undecayed
4 wooden MALL that perhaps had served to
split the puncheons that covered the cabin
the fire stick, with its charred end, and that
had reused the slumbering embers of the fire
pieces Of cane had been notched and cut
apparently for a blow-and, up near where
the roof had apparently rested, were found
pairs of European made boots and shoes,
which had been placed in that position appa-
rcntly on shelf As the grade of the cu-
vert did not go to the floor of the cabin by
several feet. the workmen took out only these
things which had been placed on the shelves
or hung up on the walls of the cabin near the
roof. What might have been found on the
floor beneath we are left to surmse, as the
contractor refused to disturb the earth below
the grade, for fear of iniuring the foundations
of the brckwork of the culvert though his
curiosity strongly prompted him to explore
the matter to the bottom. The earth that
surrounded and filled the cabin, was the solid.
compact body of sandy loan that composes
the whole substratum ofthe city. There was
no perceptible differences in the strata around
the cabin, than in those that extend the length
of the culvert; it is apparently all one CO.
temporaneous deposit
The discovery suggests numerous interest
ing questions It does not appear possible
that deposit of 20 or 25 feet of earth can
have been made on the present site of the city
since the first civilized foot trod upon tho
banks Of the Ohio at this point The age of
some of the trees that formerly stood on its
present surface would almost preclude such
supposition. That the builders and occupants
of the cabin were civilized men is proved by
the auger holes and pins-by the pegged soes,
seams Of the boots, and by the spinning wheel
and absence of Indian implements Who are
they, aud when did they erect their habta-
tion there The date of the first settlement
of Vincennes by Europeans is in doubt; it is
known to have been made before the year
l7OO-one hundred and sixty years ago. It
is possible that the spinning-wheel, that now
lies in our sanctum, twirled to the moving
feet Of the busy housewife, and its hum was
heard among the trees before the bees made
their first music in the primeval forests here
and these old boots, perhaps, made the first
of civilization along the levee,
now busy with the operations of an extensive
commerce.
Entering the precincts of this old cabin is
like walking the exhumed streets of Pompei
and Herculaneum, and carries the mind thro'
changes in the history Of the locality greater
than those that have ntervened between the
Roman Empire and the dynasty of King Bonn
bay in Italy.
1t has boon suggested that perhaps the cab
in was a French :" cacha," built in an excava-
ton covered over, as hiding place for grain
to conceal it from the Indians, as was he-
quently done by the carly settlers. But they
would not have gone twenty or twenty-five
feet below the surface, and there was no break
in the strata above it, and the post ofth cab
in were too small and too few to have sus-
iained a roof with large body of earth on
It. Nor would the builders of such store
house have used fire in it, OF placed their worn
out boots and Shoes in it, or hung up spin
ming wheel in it. IL is one of those discove-
-ies that open a pleasant field of speculation
or the curious and lovers Of the wonderful.