Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1870-08-28
chIckAsAWBA.
Remains Of a Race lsf Giants Found In Ar
kansas.
Human Skeletons Uaearthed Eight and
Ten Feet In Hight.
Strange and UnknOwn Pottery:. Relics Of a
Former Age.

Strange and UnknOwn Pottery:. Relics Of 6
Former Age.
The statements which we make below,
/ and the facts detailed are SO strange and
| almost Incredible, and so like the MANY
roorbacks and canards that have from
time to time appeared in the press Of
Europe and America, that we premise
them with the declaration that they are
strictly true, and that we have not exag-
Grated what we have seen, one iota.
With this much as a preface, we will pro-
ceed to q story. ~
| cHICKAsAwBA.
Two miles west OF Barfield Point, in
Arkansas county, Ark, on the east bank
of the lovely stream called Pemiscott
bayou, a tributary of the st. Francis
river, stands an Indian Mound, some
twenty-five feet high and about an acre
in area at the top. This mound is called
Chickasawba, and from it the high and
| beautiful country surrounding it, some
twelve square miles in area, derives its
name-Chickasawbia. The mound de-
rives its name from Chickasawba, a chief
of the Shawnee tribe who lived, died and
was buried there. This chief was one of
the last of the race of hunters who lived
III Nh6t bC6hhAAoA AO6hOA 0ao hAN INV
peopled it quite thickly-for Indians We
mean. From 1920 to 1881 he and his hun
tiers assembled annually at Barfield point,
then as now the principal shipping place
of the surrounding country, and barJered
off their furs, peltries, buffalo robes and
honey to the white settlers and the trading
boats on the river, receiving in return
powder, shot, lead, blankets, money, etc.
Aunt Kitty Williams, who now resides
there, relates that Chickasawba would
frequently bring in for sale at one time as
much as twenty gallons of pure honey in
dserskin bags slung to his back. He was
ALWAYS a firm friend of the whites,
a man OF gigantic stature and
herculean strength. In his nineteenth
year he took a young wife and by her had
two children. In 1881, she died and the
old chief did not long survive her, dying
in the same year,, aged ninety-three or
four years. Mr.. w. Fitzgerald, who
moved to that country in 1872, says that
up to the time of his death, Chickasawba
supplied him with game. He was buried
at the foot of the mound on which he had
lived, by his tribe, most of whom de-
parted for the Nation Immediately after
performing his funeral rites. A few,
however, fingered there up to a late date,
the last of them, we believe, being John
East, who, in 1860, at the break
ing out of the war, joined Cap
tain Charley Bowen's company of
the late "so-called," and fought the
war through, as gallant a "reb." as any
of them, coming back home in '65 to re-
turn to the arts of peace. Chickasawba
was perfectly honest, and the best in
formed chief of his tribe. His cotempo
rary chiefs were Long Knife, Sunshine,
Corn Meal, Moonshine Mike Brennanl
etc. Mike Brennan and Quill buried
him. He left a son named John Peme-
scott. A number of years ago, in making
an excavation into or nea the foot of
Chickasawba's mound, a portion of a
GIGANTIC HUMAN SKELETON
was found. The men who were digging,
becoming interested, unearthed the en-
tire skeleton, and from measurements
given us by reliable parties, the frame of
the man to whom it belonged, could not
have been less han eight or nine feet in
hight. Under the skull, which easily
over The head of our informant
(who, we will here state, is one of our
best citizens), was found a peculiarly
shaped earthen jar, resembling nothing in
the way of indian pottery which had be-
fore been seen by them. 1t was exactly
the shspeofthe round-bodied, l~ong-necked
cGrGGsS or water ~decanters, a specimen
Of which may be seen on Gaston's dining
table. The material of which this vase
was made was a peculiar kind of clay,
andtbe workmanship was very fine. The
belly or body of it was ornamented with
figures or hieroglyphics consisting of a
delinetion of human hands, par
allel to each other, open, palms outward,
and running up and down the vase, the
wrists TO the base, and the fingers toward
the neck. On either side of these hands
were tibae or thigh bones, also correctly
running around the vase.
There were other things found with the
skeleton, but this is all that our infor-
remembers. Since that time where
ever an excavation has been made in the
country in the neighbor-
hood of the mound
IMILAR
have been found, and under the skull of
avery one were found similar funeral va
almost exactly like the one described.
There are now in this city several of the
vases and portions of the huge skeletons.
One of the editors of the APPEAL yester-
measured a thigh bone, which is fully
.hree feet long. The thigh and shin
bones, together with the bones of the foot,
up in a proper position, in a ply
iician's Office in this city, measure FIVE
in hight, and show the body to
which the leg belonged to nave been from
line to ten feet in hight. At Beautort's
Landing, near ::Barfield, in digging a deep
AAkChF a bh0AbkOA WA duE up Nu6 lCR VI !
which measured between five and six
eet in length, and other bones in proper
ion. In a very few days we hope to be
Ible to lay before our readers accurate
Measurement, and descriptions of the por-
ions of skeletons now in the city, and of
he articles found in the graves. 1t is not
matter of doubt that these are
HUMAN REMAINS,
of a long extinct race-a race which
'pnrlGhad liUad aud Aia1 MANY aanfnriaS
in those days told of in Scripture.
And there were giants in those days.'D
t was Sir Hans Sloan, we believe,
first put forth the theory that the
bones found in various parts of
old world were not human remains.
his, so ill according with the popular
ieas and superstitiOns about giants, was
Onsidered the rankest sort of heresy at
time. But Cuvier, the great ansto-
list, proved them, in almost every in
to be portions of the fossils of I
megatheriums, m~astodOns,
&c. The bones hat he examined, how
yer, were those of such a~pocryphal
as that found in Sicily in the ]
arly part of the eighteenth century,
iree hundred feet long, of "Bucart," I
,und at Valenoe in 100, thirty feet t
ign, of the "chevalier Rincon," 1
,und at Rouen in 1909, etc.
Iithin the past century there ave been
Well-attested instances of
over eight feet in hight-for in
.ancs, Cotter (0'Brienl, who was eight
seven inches, Byrne, eight feet six
lches, and McGrath seven feet nine
lches high-sll of whom were exhibited
lroughout Europe. at the present !
me we recall but one living giant over Z
ght feet in hight-Chang; the Chinese q
ant. There is a giantess who was ex- t
.bited through the South in 1876, a r
-iss Henrion, If we remember rightly, y
no was seven feet nine inches, etc. S
18th these individual instances before Y
J, and knowing the enormous size of
most the entire population Of portions
Kentucky, we do not need to be des-
pies OF Heron, the French academician
Tho believed Adam was one hundred and s
1enty-ive feet high, Noah ~twenty-seYen
Moses twenty feet, and so on down b
the era of Christ, when the decrease
opped) to be convinced that the race of s
men who built the large
ounds in various parts of the country
ere of gigantic frame and enormous
sture. p
GREAT bargaiussin Silks this week. B. T
owenstein a Bros. viii have their clear 9
z sale of Fancy Silks this week; they p
ii offer handsome stripped and checked
ks at IS, rs, IS and 81 per yard.
ldies wishing a handsome silk dreas for
present or future use, at half its
lue, would do well to avail themselves o
the opportunity now offered by B. n
,wenstein d Bros, commencing Mon f
", August 18th. u