The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-01-18
LARGEST MOUND IN AMERICA
SOON TO BE DES4ROYED 1N WEST
 VIRGINIA.
Various Attempts to Have State As-
sumo Its Charge.

sume It's Charge.
 While West Virginians are erectint
 monument to Lewis Morgan, the In
 dian fighter, they are allowing to b.
 torn down greater monument to peo'
 pie antedating pioneer days by centur'
 les, for the mammoth mound a
 Moundsville will be graded and cartec
 away unless movement for it's preser'
 vation is started very shortly.
 The present owner, G. $. McFadden
 has owned the city square, upon whief
 it stands, for more than 30 years, and
 in that time has never derived one pen:
 ny of financial benefit from it. He has
 lent enthusiastic suppoht to various
 movements designed to transfer it to
 state control and have the property i'm
 proved and cared for in a fitting man
 her to preserve it to future genera tions,
 but now, since nothing has been accom-
 plished in 30 long years, he will trans- form the square into a building site.
 The prehistoric manaoth mound is un-
 doubtedly the handiwork of a race of
 human beings who inhabited America
 before the Indians came It was dis covered by white people in 1772.
 Tn the year TITO Joseph Tomlinson pushed his way through the wilderness until he came to the Ohio river, and, finding valley four miles long and two miles wide at one place, he laid land warrant on all northern portion of the valley and built cabin at a spring 400 yards north of the mound. But it was not until two years later that he dis covered that so near his home,' hidden in the tall, dense forest of the rich val ley, WAS the largest mound in America.
 One day in the year 1772 MT. Tomlin- son took down his flintlock rife and started southward through the woods to replenish his larder with venison. Good luck attended him, for soon he killed deer, and by that act found the mound. As was the custom in those days, he disemboweled the deer, skim ned the legs, tied the skin from the legs together and shouldered the game. On the homeward journey he came to what he supposed was a steep hill and climb ed it. Then he saw the smoke from his cabin chimney and realized that he was standing on the apex of a cone of earth which his path a few yards to the right or left would have avoided. He imme- diately laid a land warrant upon 200 acres more of the valley to include the mound.
 Originally the mound was 90 feet high and 240 feet in diameter at the base. It is composed of many varieties of earth apparently carried there is baskets or small conveyances. Seventeen varieties of forest trees grow upon it. Some of the trees are quite large, one being 19 feet in circumference.
 After the valley became thickly popu- lated a shaft was sunk down from the top of the mound to the bottom and tunnel dug out to the northern side, the apex leveled off and a three-story pagoda- shaped building erected for dancing, and museum established at the bottom of the shaft. The enterprise did not pay, and since then the place has been totally neglected, except that it is the mecca of pilgrims from all sec tions of the country every day.
 When the excavation was made three skeletons were found directly in the center but raised few feet from the level of the surrounding land. One of the skeletons had belonged to a male human being about eight feet in height one female and one q child. There was also in the rude chamber a tablet of stone, upon one side of which were hierog1yphics, wh oh is now in the Smithsonian institution at Washington, many heads of ivory and other articles.
 One of the movements exploited for giving to the mound the attention it de- serves was for the school children to acquire ownership of it by contribu- {, tion of five cents from each pupil in the state Marshall county children con- tributed about S400 on the day appoint ed by the state superintendent of schools for contributions to be made but not penny was given outside that Now that small nest egg seems to be lost somewhere about the state capital
 When MT. Carnegie began establish ng libraries the city of Moundsvil'e Z put under way plans to buy the spot z md erect a. library building there pro- ( yided MT. Carnegie would donate the 1suaV library The great philanthropist 'eturned to Scotland before he could be approached by the city's committee, r ,nd thus another movement failed. A 1lan for state control has been brought Q the front when the Legislature has ,een in session, but not enough states t nen could be enlisted in its support. a Four hundred feet east of the mound he West Virginia penitentiary is lo- ated. The recent plan for state con- r rol designed water reservoir to be To- N ,ated on top of the mound, to give a ' water supply and fire protection to the " jig state institution where more than N co state and United States convicts are onfined. The top of the mound is U igher than the prison buildings Con- jet labor could be utilized very advan- ageously in beautifying and caring for 5 he mound and the square surrounding Unless something is done before next p ummer, MT. McFadden will have the C mber removed, make use of the 85000 VI rick used in the tunnel and dispose of le le earth to whoever may want it for >; laking fills in lots, streets or along ailroads. the Pittsburg Tran m ,ript. re
 UNJUSTLY SUSPECTED. F. he Discontinue of a Store Detective eV
 Moi GhoplcaIS Sl,