The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1941-03-13
History Of Early
Indian Inhabitants
Of Potomac Valley
By LEONORA w. WOOD
Keyser, W. Va.)

Excerpt from history of Mineral
county, being written under the spon-
sorship of the West Virginia Board of
Education, the West Virginia Writer'S
Project, the Mineral County Board of
Education, and Mineral County His
torical Society. From ancient manu-
scripts, missionaries and explorers
journals, reports of archaeological
surveys, many interesting and not
generally known facts regarding the
inhabitants of this region during the
fifteenth and early sixteenth centu-
ries are brought to light.)
The Mound Builders, those early
aborigines of the wilderness, whose
history lies buried beneath the ruins
of an ancient civilization, left tanta-
lizing traces of their habitation
throughout the north and south
branches of the Potomac river val
legs. Conical mounds, the distinctive
landmark of this enigmatic race, are
found in Mineral, Hampshire and
Grant counties The largest mound
discovered in Mineral county is in the
northeastern section, on the historic
Washington bottom farm, now owned
by j. Paul Blundon. There are at least
five mounds in the vicinity Of Rom
ney in Hampshire county; three 9TH
ers are situated in the river bottom,
near the town of Petersburg, the seat
of Grant county.
According to Frank B. Valentine, of
Ridgeley, who was a veteran author
ity on Indian lore of this region, the
mound on the Blundon farm covers
one-sixth of an acre, and is about ten
feet high. The soil in this field is
tough yellow clay, while the mound is
built of sand and stone. 1t remains
uneXplored.
The largest of the mounds in
Hampshire county is in Indian Mound
cemetery, at Romney. 1t measures 35
by 40 feet, and is nearly five feet
high, is made of stone and earth in
about equal proportions.
There are two mounds on the Par
sons farm, one mile north of Romney,
one 35 feet in diameter and 21a feet
high; the other somewhat smaller.
Two mounds, mostly of gravel and
earth, are located on the farm of Jo-
seph Wirgman, mile south of ROM
ney. In one, which was about Is feet
in diameter, small pot of clay and
shells was found entire. The other is
% by Sd feet and three feet high, con-
structed of hard-packed disintegrated
shale, and topped with large stones.
Up to comparatively recent years
there was relic hunting, but no scien-
tific explorations were undertaken, or
any attempt made to determine the
racial background of the prehistoric
inhabitants of this section. Numerous
mounds throughout the region had
been opened, but by individuals who
were interested primarily in obtaining
specimens; hatchets, stone pipes, pot
terry and beads being the principal at
fractions. Not until $50 years after
settlements had been made along
these water courses was any scientific
archaeological research begun, with
the intention of uncovering for us the
true prehistory of the Allegheny
mountain area. If, however, valuable
items had been lost through unscien-
tific explorations, enough had been
recovered and reported to the Bureau
of American Ethnology, Washington,
D. c., to make it apparent that an
examination of the Piedmont-Appa-
lachian highlands of Virginia, Mary
land and West Virginia was neces-
sary for any satisfactory study of the
first human occupants of this terri
tory.
During the summer Of 1892, Gerard
Fawke, formerly associated with DR..
Cyrus Thomas in the exploration Of
the great mound region of the Missis-
sippi valley, was directed to take up
the survey of this section; land to
seek means of identifying the tribes
formerly occupying the region and of
demonstrating their relation to the
tidewater peoples on the one hand and
to the inhabitants of the Ohio valley
on the other"
Data obtained by this archaeological
investigation throughout the James,
Ohio and Potomac river valleys, sub
stimulates the theory upon which sci
entists and historians are now gener-
ally agreed: that the sedentary agri-
cultural tribes of Indians inhabiting
the country east of the Allegheny and
Blue Ridge mountains, at the coming
of the first English explorers, in 1884,
were descendants of the Mound Build
ers. What Indian tribes made up this
populous nation, which had, for I'M
known centuries, occupied the terri
tory from the Great Lakes to the Gulf
of Mexico, and westward from New
York to Nebraska, over-spreading
most of what is now West Virginia,
may always remain a matter of con-
lecture and tradition. The fact that
mound huildinU for whatpvar nTrnoSp