The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1875-01-13
Scientific Association,

Scientific Association.
The Association met on Friday
evening the Sth, pursuant to the
last meeting, which was adjourned
over the Holidays.
I The President, DIR. Hubbard,
made AZ few remarks, wishing the
audience "a happy New Year. ,
He also intimated that he would
be happy himself, could he make
New Years presents to the audi
ence in the shape of bills for serv
ices rendered. q Horrible thought.
The minutes of the last meeting
were read and adopted.
The audience was then enter
tanned by tie reading of very
interesting paper by John c. Mac
pherson, entitled Mounds and
Their Builders The paper was
not discussed. It was great sub
iect Well handled The author
displayed a familiarity with n sub
ject that has been sadly neglected;
and the result has been an meal
culable loss to science.
The paper commenced with the
observation that there were many
earthworks scattered over the land
West of the Allegheny Mountains,
indicating for their constructors,
a degree of civilization higher than
that of the red man.
A great mound is found on the
Ohio, below Wheeling, and elabor-
ate earth works at Marietta. These
remains were described at length.
The State of Ohio has many thous
and works, some of them very ex
tensive and Of military character,
such as near Newark and Fort
Ancient i'll Warren county. Com
ng into Indiana. a fort is found at
Winchester, and many mounds in
Randolph county. Along White
river are many remains; and the
valley of the Wabash seems to have
been densely populated by this
ancient people. Extensive FORTH
cations are found at Merom. and
huge mounds at Vincennes; and
smaller works abound in Sullivan
and Knox counties in this State,
and opposite the mouth of the Wa
bash. From Cincinnati down the
Ohio to the falls, are signal mounds,
a fortified hill, shell banks, and old
burial places. The alluvial plains
along the Mississippi in Southern
Illinois was the center of the
Mound Builders Empire, which
extended to the Gulf on the South
and to Lake Superior on the North.
In this central region was trunc
ated pyramid covering six acres,
and two hundred smaller works
In the lower part of the Mississippi
valley. that form of earth works
was most numerous To the North
are mounds or platforms shaped
like animals, and the copper mines
shows signs of having been worked
The situations of these works
were shown on a map of the Mis-
sissippi valley; many of the local
tiles were also shown in plans.
The paper then proceeded to
classify the Enclosures and mounds,
and describe their forms, peculiar
tiles, and supposed uses. 81
The questions "Who were the
mound builders, and whence did
they come? and, where have they
gomez" were discussed, and reasons
shown for the theory, in substance
as follows: The mound builders
were an aboriginal race who came
from the tropical regions of the
continent, and developed to par
tial civilization here, while a kin
dred people attained higher
degree in Mexico and Central
America. The frontier of the
mound builders empire was north
OF the Ohio. where they were at
tack by Indians another
race who eventually
drove them into Mexico, or ex-
terminated them. ...,
The paper was closed by de-
scription of some remains found
within Wayne county.