Morgan County Democrat. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1886-1943, 1939-03-30

.-l
the one and half year old daugh-
ter of Mr.. and Mrs. Willis Welch,
who has been dangerously i'll of in
fuenza, is some better at this writ
ing Robt Sherlock, Warren, was a
casual village visitor Saturday and
Sunday, when enroute to and from
the home of his parents, Mr.. and
Mrs. John Sherlock, of Center town
ship His sister, Mrs. Louise For
kin resides at Warren.--We under
stand that Carl Rohrbaugh, now a
rented the Mrs. Estella Foster farm,
vacated by Delmar Ray.--Recent
guests of Mr.. and Mrs. T. C. Wilson
were Lewis Rowland and family,
Marion Hupp and family and Fred
Hupp and Rachel Rowland of Dex-
ter City; also visiting them were
Herbert Dewitt and family Eldon
Drummond and friend Douglas Will
liams of Cleveland were Saturday
and Sunday guests Of Mr.. and Mrs.
E f. Drummond.
Editors Note: Because of i'll
health V. B. Walters, our very eff
cient Reinersville correspondent is
quitting, at least for the present Mr..
Walters is one of the Democrats
very best correspondents, and his
writings have been keenly enjoyed
by the Democrats big family OF
readers. We hope that his health
will be speedily restored.
Old Mound-OId Teeth
! John Henry knight, retired
member of that strong charactered
group of old-time school-masters
with a record of residence and teach
ing in this community when the
writer's chief claim to being a stu
dent was the companionship of q
slate, few books, and the tooth
weeks Caldwell Journal of the mys-
terry mound on the "William Foster
farm, near Reinersville.' Reminis-
cent Of Mr. Knights tutorship here
and DEPRESSING from the interest OF
his writing, we remark by the way
that his ability to grasp school text
book knowledge was ably seconded
by his ability to grasp irreconcila-
hle tooth with a huge pair of for
ceps, as the writer can testify from
experience With John, ably assist
ed by the forceps, it was very sim
pie operation to go either from
square or cube root to the root Gi
that aching tooth and fellow only
had to make one point for John III
the latter operation.
Of that former mound on the
civilian Foster" farm, two miles
away, he says: 'In mound on the
William Foster place, near Reiners-
vile, was skeleton, the jaw-bone
Of which would slip over Mr.. Fos-
ter's face and the tibia bone would
A peculiar thing in the Baughman
mound "a mound in Muskingum
county which he previously describ-
ed) no teeth We're found, while in
the Foster mound you could have
scratched up hatfull from the
ashes and charred wood"
Perhaps like many another long
time resident of this community we
had heard rather indistinctly OF this
mound for yeafs-eVen heard within
cur generation that the seal of mys-
terry which heretofore had covered it
as thickly as the summer grass, had
been broken and this hillock of the
pasture field had been scraped away
tc the level of surrounding turf.
Since that exploration in our time
was apparently barren of discoveries
common TO such ancient formations,
we in our ignorance of this former
fruitful exploration described by Mr..
Knight, had disregarded its authen-
tie value as establishing the presence
in Manchester township of those
DIlHlG2dl lIlUGo OI AOuHuDullQtIS VI
Indians. The history Of this tu-
mulus or small mound on the Mrs.
Essie Foster farm near Otho, now
occupied by Delmar Ray is given i'm
portant credence by the Writings of
Mr Knight as it shows this mound
TO have been the last resting place
Of some big chieftain or other mem
ber of the Moundbuilders or Indians.
This quotation from Mr.. Knight
which is substantiated by William
Cannon of Otho, who recalls it in
toto as the account current among
the witnessing fathers of the neigh
borhood when he was yet a lad,
marks Mr. knights contribution as
the only one of significance, we
have known in the mound history of
this section.
Mr.. knight prefaces his interest
ing disclosures on local mounds by
saying that he does not want to en-
ter into a discussion of who the
Moundbuilders were, where they
came from or where they went.
But" says he, nevertheless they
were here and they went as the
mounds testify" For all we know,
Mr.. knight may be mighty right as
to the existence of a race of Mound
builders; at least he is backed up by
some school historians. But with no
desire and with no attempt at dis
agreeing with Mr.. Knight there is a
somewhat popular belief today, dis
crediting the Moundbuilders as a
mythical race. An authority, DR..
Frank Thorne, says that anthropolo-
gists and archaeologists claim that
the "Moundbuilders' were a legend
ary race and "that only people who
have never seen q mound taken to
pieces cling to the myth; or believe
that the mounds were built by any
people except the Indians" For, :"
says he, 1.-The bones found under all
burial mounds are Indian bones COM
parable in all respects to the bones
inside the living Indian of today"
The burial gifts found with them
weapons and tools of stone, bone,
horn and shell; ornaments and GER
emonial objects of these materials
and of copper as well; vast quanti-
ties of pottery; occasional great
boards of pearls-all these things
are distinctly Indian in pattern and
workmanship" Furthermore, he
continues, "at least some Indians
were still building mounds when
white men first contacted them, as
is proved by European trade OBJ
jects, found during the past few
years in several parts of the coun-
try" cone mound in Illinois yield
ed China beads, spoons stamped,
with the mark of Canadian silver
smith, brass pot, WoOdman's
compass still in good working order.
and a silver crucifiX." When an at
tempt is made to establish the age
of these mounds they are all stump