The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1870-09-16
CRICKASAWBi.
Remains ofa Race Of Giants FOund I'm
Arkansas. Human Skeletons I'm.
earthed Eight Feet in Hight.
IErom the MemnhiS A nneal

. Remains OF q Race Of Giants EOund
a..sS.S E,~hs E.ss -, sHeistons U
: From the Memphis Appeall
e The statements which We make b
l low, and the facts detailed are
, strange and almost incredible, and :
like the many roorbacks and canart
that have from time to time appeare
in the press of Europe and Americ:
: that we premise them with the decl;
ration that they are strictly true, an
: that we have not exaggerated what "
have seen, one iota. With this muc
as preface, we will proceed with OF
story. Iu.
-,a-s..s CHICKASAwBA.
Twelve miles west of Barfield Point
in Mississippi county, Ark, on the eas
bank of the lovely stream called Penn
iscott bayou, atributary of the st. Fran
els river, stands an Indian Mound
some twenty-five feet high and abou
an acre in area at the top. This noun,
Is called Chickasawba, and from it tn
high and beautiful country surroundin,
it, some twelve square miles i'm ca
derives its name-Chickasawba. Tn,
mound derives its name from Chicka
sawba, chief ofthe Shawnee tribe wht
lived, died and was buried there. Thi
chief was one of the last of the race O
hunters who lived in that beautiful re
gion, and who once peOpled it quite
thickly-fOr Indians We mean. From
1870 to 1881 he and his hunters assem-.
bled annually at Barfeld point, then a.
now the principal shipping place oftht
surrounding country, and bartered of
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 twen-
ty gallons of pure honey in deerskin
bags sung to his back. He was always
firm friend of the whites, a man OF
gigantic stature and herculian strength.
In his ninetieth 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 the same year,
aged ninety-three or four years. Mr..
w. Fitzgerald, who moved to that
country in 1S22, said that up to the
time of his death, Chickasawba sup
piled him with game. He was buried
at the foot of the mound on which he
had lived, by his tribe, most of whom
departed for the Nation Immediately
after performing his funeral rites. A
few, however, fingered there up to q
late date, the last of them, we believe,
being John East, who, in 1860, at the
breaking out of the war, joined Captain
Charley Bowen's company of the late
so-called," and fought the war
through as gallant "reb" as any of
them, coming back home in '65 to re-
turn to the arts of peace. Chickasaw-
ba was perfectly honest, and the best
informed chief of his tribe. His CO.
temporary chiefs were Big Knife, Sum
shine, Corn Meal and MOonshine.
Mike Brennan and Quill buried him.
He left son named John Pemescott.
A number of years ago, in making an
excavation into or near the foot of
Chickasawba's mound, a portion of a
GIGANTIC HUMAN SKELETON
was found. The men who were dig
ging, becoming interested, unearthed
the entire skeleton, and from measure
ments given us by reliable parties, the
frame of the man to whom it belonged,
could not have been less than eight or
nine feet i'm hight. Under the skull,
which easily slipped over the head of
our informant, who, we will here state
is one of our best st'citiZens) was found a
peculiarly shaped earthen jar, resemb-
ling nothing i'm the way of Indian pot
terry which had before been seen by
them. 1t was exactly the shape of the
rOund-bOdied, lOng-necked cdrdtes or
water decanters, a specimen of which
may be seen on GastOn's dining tables.
The material of which this vase was
made was peculiar kind of clay, and
the workmanship was very fine. The
belly or body Ofit was Ornamented with
figures or hieroglyphics, consisting of a
correct delineatiOn of flour human hands
parallel to each other, open, palms
outward, and running up and down the
vase, the wrist toward the base, and
the fingers toward the neck. On either
bones, also correctly delineated, rum
ming around the vase. There were 9TH
er things found with the skeleton, but
this is all that our informant remem-
bers. Since that time wherever an ex-
cavatiOn has been made in the Chick
asawbia country in the neighbOrhOod
of the mound
SIMILAR SKELETONS
have been found, and under the skull
of every one were found similar funer-
al vases, almost exactly like the one
described. There are now i'm this city
several of the vases. The thigh and
shin bones, together with the bones of
the foot, stood up in proper position,
measure five feet in hight, and show
the body to which the leg belonged to
have been from nine to ten feet in hight.
At Beauforts Landing, near Barfield
in digging deep ditch, skeleton was
dug up, the leg of which measured be-
tween five and six feet in length, and
other bones i'm proportion. 1t is not
matter of doubt that these are
HUMAN REMAINS,
but of q long extinct race-a race which
lived and died many centu-
ries ago, in those days told of in the
Scripture. ("And there We're giants
i'm those days.") 1t was Sir Hans
Sloan, we believe, who first put forth
the theory that the gigantic bones
found in various parts of the old world
were not human remains. This, so
i'll according with the popular ideas
and superstitiOns about giants, was con-
sidered the rankest sort of heresy at
the time; but Cuyier, the great anatO-
mist, proved them, in almost every in
stance, to he portions of the fossils of
megatheriums, mastodons,
etc. The bones that he examined, how
ever, were those of such apocTyphal skel-
etOns as that found in Sicily in the ear
Iy part of the 18th century, three h,o,-
dred feet long, of "Bucart," found at
Valence in 1705, thirty feet high, of the
" chevalier Rinson,n found at ROuen in
1909. Within the past century there
have been numerous well-attested in
stances of giants over eight feet in hight
for instance, Cotter (O'Brien), who
was eight feet seven inches, Byrne,
eight feet six inches, and McGrath,
seven feet nine inches high--all of
whom were exhibited throughout Eu-
rope. AT the present time we recall |
but one living giant over eight feet !
in hight-Chang, the Chinese giant. |
There is a giantess who was exhibited |
through the South in 1S54-5, a Miss
if we remember rightly, who |
was seven feet nine inches, etc. With |,
these individual instances before us,
and knowing the enormous size of al
most the entire population of portions
Of Kentucky, We do not need to be des-
.iples of Henrion, the French acade-
n,ician (who believed Adam was one |
hundred and twenty-five feet high,
Noah twenty-seven feet, Moses twenty |
eet, and so OH down to the era of Christ |
when the decrease stopped) to be con-