Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1878-02-20
THE MAKERS OF THE
MOUNDS.

Discovery Of Remarkable Miu-Stones
IN Wdukeshd County, Wisconsin,
State Senator Rice's Theory as to the
Prehistoric Dcellers IN Americd.
Special Telegram.
MADISON, Wis, Feb. 8.-Dr. John
A. Rice, state senator from Wauke-
sha county, has deposited temporari-
ly in the room Of the State Historical
society, a couple of mill-stoncs found
in an ancient mound in the town Of
Hartford, Washington county
These stones arc regarded as among
the most remarkable archaeological
of discoveries in the mound system
Of the northwest. They are about
two feet across and pierced for the
bearings, which are said to be Of cop
per and were found near them, and
which will soon be added to this col
lection they are polished smooth on
the inner surface where they revolv-
ed against each other, except as these
surfaces were indented and clipped
out to produce a rough superficial
plane to act on the grain to be pulver-
lied. The researches into these
mounds have received fresh impet-
us from the labors Of DIR. Rice, and
the new elements in the scientific
problem of these mounds, of which
he proposes q solution. He insists
that these mounds are simply the
ruins of the dwellings of a race which
preceded the Indians found on the
soil by the first white men who occu-
pied the country, and that the antique
ty Of the mounds, for this reason, is
not remote. He reads from a work
of the late l. A. Lapham, of Milwau-
kee, in which Indian habits and char
acteristics are described, a case where
the Mandans build their dwellings Of
upright pieces of wood banked up
with earth, these dwellings being
from thirty to forty feet across, and
rising to twenty or thirty feet In
height. He says that if such dwell.
ing should be abandoned it would
rot by degrees and fall in the decay
ed wood and the earth forming a
mound similar in size and appearance
10 those throughout the mound re.
gions of this State. DR.. Rice enforces
his views on this subject by showing
that in many of the mounds hereto-
fore opened of which descriptions are
preserved traces of fire-places are in
the centers of the mounds and frag
ments Of pottery, evidently for house
hold uses, are to be found. These
mill-stones were certainly for use to
grind the grain not only of the family
but doubtless of the neig hborhood
and owing to their great weight
when the tribe to which this family
belonged were driven out by or has
tened away under the impulses of ,
restless spirit of migration, this pom
J derous property wasle Afterwart
, the habitation decayed and fell in, ant
buried this archaeological treasure
. Senator Rice says that there are NOR
of these mounds in Wakesha count,
/ than there are dwellings inhabited b,
: the race of to-day, thus showing tn
, density of the population of the an
, cicnt race and they had fixed habita
J tons. The mill-stones described
: were found by workmen who wer
| building cellar wall, and one of tn
stones was broken by the hammer o
the mason as he was about to imbe'
: it in the mortar. A neighborin
!, workman detected the peculiar shap
8 of the stone, and on his protest tn
d pieces were saved and the nethe
1 stone was afterward found in tn
Q stone heap which had been saved 70
9 the purpose Of building this WALL
i. These stones are Of the boulder gran
0 lite found on the surface Of the sol
q and they must have been dressed int
r shape by the use of tools of q yer
q perfect character. In mound at Fl
v waukee, some ten or fifteen mile
: south Of the point where these mil
;, stones were found, Mr.. g. P. Peft
n found short time ago portions of
4 skeleton, indicating man at lea
i eight feet high. Human bones al
!. frequently found in these mounds
n DR.. Rice insists that these are the r,
Il mains of the dead of race subs,
g quent to those who built the mound
: and that the mounds were opened an
used for burial purposes simply b,
cause the soil was easy to be disturb
!. ed for that purpose, and because til
u mounds were convenient landmark
and the tombs thus formed could b
turn Of the migratory tribes fro1
their journeys in hunting and Will
on the war path. DR.. Rice will els
borate these views in paper whic
, he is preparing for the State Histor
! cal society. These views have bee
I submitted to State Geologist Chan
0 berlain and other scientists, and the
express surprise that SO simple an
plausible theory had not been befol
: advanced.