Sullivan County IN Archives History - Books .....Chapter II 1884
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Book Title: History Of Greene And Sullivan Counties, Indiana

CHAPTER II.
BY PROF. JOHN W. SPENCER.

THE INDIAN OCCUPANCY—THE DUDLEY MACK MASSACRE—NARRATIVE OF MR. TURMAN—SAVED BY
PRAYER—LIEUT. FAIRBANK'S DEFEAT—LIEUT. MORRISON'S DEFEAT—CONFLICTING
ACCOUNTS—ADDITIONAL INCIDENTS —BLOCK-HOUSES—PRE-HISTORIC EARTHWORKS—SEPULCHRAL
MOUNDS —FORT AZATLAN—DETAILED DESCRIPTION—ADVANTAGE OF LOCATION —THE
DEPRESSIONS—CONTENTS OF THE MOUNDS—INTRUSIVE SKELETONS—OTHER EVIDENCES.

THE Indians that occupied Sullivan County previous to its settlement, were
nomadic parties from various tribes. The tribal district on the north was that
of the Miamis; on the east, the Delawares and Shawanese; on the south, the
Pecankees and Piankeshaws; and on the west, Mosquitans, in Illinois. There were
no permanent villages, as this locality was a common hunting ground for various
tribes. The early settlers found game in abundance for their subsistence, and so
much so that sometimes venison hams with other produce were taken from Busseron
Creek by flat-boats to New Orleans. There were various moving parties of other
tribes passing through this section on their way to the Indian Territory. The
war of 1812 and the early treaties with the Indians took place about the period
of the early settlement of this county. It is very difficult now to obtain the
full particulars and dates of noted events, incidents or encounters that took
place between the early pioneers and the red men of that period. What tribes
were engaged in those affrays in this county are not now certainly known.

THE DUDLEY MACK MASSACRE.*

   There was a block-house on Gill's Prairie, three or four miles from New
Lebanon, and nearly the same distance from Carlisle, built on the Webb farm;
north of that house, one day in 1813 or in 1814, two men, Dudley Mack and
Collins, were watching to kill wolves that would come to eat of a dead horse, a
quarter or a half mile north of that house. The Indians came upon them. Dudley
Mack was shot and killed, and was the first person buried in the Webb Cemetery.
There were two boys, Edwards and Campbell, that were also taken from Gill's
Prairie and never heard of more. Madison Collins was shot and fell from his
horse, badly wounded, but managed to get on again and make his escape. This
happened west of Carlisle, at the Lisman ford on Busseron Creek, about a mile
below the iron bridge. There are various legends or traditions in regard to
their encounters and contests with the Indians handed down to us from the early
pioneers, but lack in the particulars mentioned. Mr. James B. Mann, son of
Josiah Mann, says there was a fort or block-house in 1810, built on Section 26,
Township 8, Range 11, and this was the only fort till Fort Harrison, and that
Mr. Benjamin Turman was the first settler in this township, and the township was
named after him.

     *Accounts concerning this incident are somewhat conflicting. The one
usually accepted and probably correct is fully detailed in the chapter on Haddon
Township.

NARRATIVE OF MR. TURMAN.

   Mr. William H. Turman says that, "The Indians would sometimes come to the
house, and Grandmother Turman would give them bread and meat, or anything to
eat. One time they came and were very much dissatisfied, and this was just
before the war of 1812. Among them was one Indian that was distinguished in some
way, as he wore a silver band on his forehead. He was more impudent or saucy
than any of them. He stepped up to my Aunt Mary Bryant, and took her by her left
hand and raised it up over her head and brandished a war-club with his other
hand, doing this twice before Grandfather Benjamin Turman did anything. At the
second time he raised her hand, then Mr. Turman jerked the club out of the
Indian's hand, and struck him so hard over the head that he mashed the silver
band into his forehead, and the Indian fell down apparently dead. Grandfather
then took him up by one of his hands and feet, and pitched him out of the door,
and he was bleeding very much. The other Indians ran off to their camps and gave
the news to the rest, and in a short time a number of them, probably forty or
fifty, came with their faces painted red, and hallooing at the top of their
voices at every step they made. The old man then told the boys that they would
have to prepare to fight them. Besides grandfather, there were four boys, a
Methodist preacher, and grandmother. They set the table out in the middle of the
house, and each boy placed a pile or bullets on it and had his gun loaded also.
They gave the preacher a broadax, and grandmother took the foot-adz. Grandfather
stood at the door with a musket having a bayonet on it, and said that none of
them must shoot till he did. When they came up they came with a rush against the
door, but did not get it open. After a little while they pressed the door open
eight or ten inches; then grandfather put the muzzle of the musket almost
against an Indian's breast, and then they gave back a little; and at that time
the Indian that had been struck and was supposed to have been dead began to show
signs of life. The Indians then all turned their attention to him, and he soon
got revived so that he could sit up. Then they all got in a better humor, and
proposed as a compromise that if grandfather would give them a fat hog and
something else that was provisions, they would go away, which he did, and that
ended the difficulty at that time, without any more bloodshed."

SAVED BY PRAYER.

   A friendly Indian, a few years afterward, told the friends of Grandfather
Truman that on the night before the massacre of the Hutson family, the party
that killed them went close to the house in which the Turman family lived with
the intention of killing them, but when they had cautiously crept up to the
house, they listened and heard some one, as they thought, talking to the Good
Spirit! "Big medicine man talking heap big talk to Good Spirit!" They then went
away without disturbing them, and that night crossed the river, and the next day
killed the Hutson family and burned their house. The person they heard talking
to the Good Spirit was the Methodist preacher, who was related to Mr. Turman,
engaged in prayer, as is customary with that society, and no doubt they were
kept from harm that time by an All-wise Providence, who protects those that
trust in Him.

LIEUT. FAIRBANKS' DEFEAT.

   The traditions in regard to the massacre of Lieut. Fairbanks, from whom that
township and the village of Fairbanks is named, and also the stream named
Wagoner's Defeat, are substantially as follows: About the close of the siege of
Fort Harrison in 1812, Capt. Taylor sent two men to Vincennes for supplies, and
to inform Gen. Harrison of that eventful crisis. Lieut. Fairbanks, with a squad
of soldiers, was sent to guard a wagon drawn by a four-horse team, and loaded
with flour and meat, driven by a wagoner named John Black. On their way up, at a
place not far from the narrows of the Wabash River, and about three miles west
of the village of Fairbanks, in this county, they were suddenly attacked by the
Indians, and all killed but three, who managed to escape. One soldier by the
name of Ingram, who was detailed from Capt. Albright's company at Fort Knox,
fought bravely, and with desperation stood his ground and hallooed to his
companions to stand and fight, but could not rally them. At last, after having
killed two or three Indians, he fell a victim to savage fury, being overpowered
by numbers. Lieut. Fairbanks was killed, and he, too, is supposed to have fought
with desperation. His sword was found a few years ago, stuck in the ground by a
log. It was richly ornamented with silver mountings on the handle, and a fine
silver chain attached to it, but the wood was rotted off the handle. This relic
was sent to the State museum at the city of Indianapolis. Mr. Purdue, another
soldier, one of the guards when the fray began, shot at the Indians and ran off,
loading his gun as he was running. Three Indians started after him, and he shot
at them, and one less came after him every time he fired. At last there came
only one Indian, and running till he came to a bank, while he was loading his
gun or fixing to shoot, the Indian ran away and left him. Purdue was shot
several times, but only slightly wounded. He escaped, and the wounds healed
without the bullets being taken out. He came back and lived in this county
several years afterward. When the firing began, John Black, who was driving the
team, tried to stop the horses, but the leaders broke loose and ran off. He then
went to get his gun out of the wagon, and by the time he got it out the Indians
had unhitched the wheel-horses, and had mounted them and were riding off. He
shot at them, and then ran away and hid between two logs covered with grape
vines. The Indians came down to where he was concealed, and sat on the horses
and talked, but hearing squalling and hallooing, they went back to the wagon.
When they were gone a short time, they came back again, but did not find him,
and after talking a little while, they went away again. He afterward said he
thought he could hear his heart beat when they were looking for him. He laid
there till after dark, and then slipped out and disguised himself with mud, and
then started back, and reached Fort Knox in safety. There was another bloody
massacre in Sullivan County that was called Morrison's Defeat.

MORRISON'S DEFEAT.

   This took place  about  four miles north of Sullivan, and about two miles
southwest of Shelburn, on a point of land about seventy rods south of the corner
of Sections 3 and 4, Township 8 north, Range 9 west. Lieut. Morrison and a squad
of men were marching on foot on their way to Fort Knox from the battle of
Tippecanoe,* guided by a friendly Indian, whose name was Little Eyes. Some one
of the party had shot a deer that day, in the evening, a little before sundown,
and the guide told them they would be attacked by Indians, and when they camped
he would not stop with them, but hid in a hollow log awhile, and then went on
that night to Fort Knox, getting into the fort a little before sunrise. When the
Indians came to them that night, they came making a grunting noise, in imitation
of hogs, and when they got close enough to Morrison's men, they fired upon them,
and four men fell instantly dead, and one who was also shot ran some distance
and fell dead in a hazel thicket, and was found shortly afterward.

   An old man by the name of Ledgerwood came to this county in the year 1860,
and visited that place where this incident mentioned occurred, and as he came
out into the county road he met Mr. Lewis Grigsby, and told him he was one of
the survivors of that massacre, and had just been looking at the place where
that disastrous affray took place, and gave him the above account of the attack.
Mr. Levi Maxwell says he remembers when he was a boy of seeing two of the men
who escaped from this bloody affray, late in the afternoon the next day after it
took place. Busseron Creek was very high, and they had swum it and came to their
house very wet. They were given something to eat, and after drying awhile they
went on to Fort Knox, and the next day two or three wagons came, and they all
moved into or near the block-house at John Ingles, about half a mile east of the
old Fort Ledgerwood, near where Carlisle is now. He says the Indians that
attacked Morrison's camp were Pottawatomies. When his folks first came to
Sullivan County, they forted at the block-house, not far from Carlisle, at the
Ledgerwood Mill, which was then Morgan Eaton's mill; after they had stayed there
a few months, they moved onto land that George Boon entered, and after the
Morrison defeat his father hired two men to help in his clearing, and also to
help guard his family. Among the early pioneers to this county were Richard
Davidson, Christian Canary and John Bobbins.

     * There are conflicting accounts as to the date when this incident
occurred. The most reliable fixes it in May, 1815.

OTHER INCIDENTS.

   Richard Davidson says that he and old man Corban once saw a camp of Delaware
and Pottawatomie Indians about where the court house now stands in Sullivan; he
smoked the pipe with them, but Corban was afraid of them. There were other
block-houses built at different places in the county. Those houses were built of
heavy logs, with the top rounds built three or four feet out from the rest, so
that an opening would be left to shoot down upon an enemy coming to enter them.
Mr. William Crow, in Turman Township, says there was a block-house built on his
land in the fall of 1813, and the parties that wintered in it were the families
of Johnson, John White, McGill and Henderson and Thorny Lester.

   The ground where Morrison's camp was made is now inside a cultivated field,
and should be bought by the State, and properly fenced, and a monument erected
thereon, and also the ground where the Fairbanks massacre took place should be
carefully designated in the same way.

   In a few more years, if nothing is done, these places as well as these
circumstances will only be preserved in conflicting traditions, and the names of
those heroes of that eventful period will become unknown, and they will be
unhonored, unwept and unsung. The early pioneers and heroes of those times
deserve the Grateful remembrance of succeeding: generations for their arduous
toils and self-denying sacrifices. May it ever be awarded to them! Peace to
their ashes.

PRE-HISTORIC EARTHWORKS.

   The following is an extract from Indiana Geological Survey. 1870, page 237:

   "When first explored by the white race, this county was occupied by savage
Indians, without fixed habitations, averse to labor, and delighting only in war
and the chase. Their misty traditions did not reach back to a previous people or
age. But numerous earthworks are found in this region o£ such extent as to
require for their construction time and the persistent labor of many people.
Situated on the river bluffs, their location combines picturesque scenery,
susceptibility for defense, and convenience to transportation, water and
productive lands. These are not requisites in the nomadic life of the red men,
and identifies the Mound-Builders as a partially civilized, agricultural people.

SEPULCHRAL MOUNDS.

   "On the Hunt farm, Sections 6 and 7, Township 9, Range 10, conical knolls of
loess have been artificially rounded, and used for sepulchral purposes. One of
these contained at the summit, seventy feet above its base, a burial vault
'three stories high;' on each floor from five to seven human skeletons were
found. On M. Drake's land. Section 19, same township, are two large mounds, one
200 feet in diameter, and eighteen feet high; the other twenty-eight feet high,
covering an elliptic base 180 feet wide, and 350 feet long. The contents of the
two mounds amount to nearly 30.000 cubic yards, and at present contract prices
for earth work, their erection would cost $5,000. Another group on Turman's
farm, Section 15, Township 8, Range 11, has been partially explored, exposing
human and animal remains, pottery variously ornamented, flints, and stone
implements. The 'pit-holes' accompanying these mounds and a rectangular
excavation will reward future explorers.

FORT AZATLAN.

   "The ancient works near Merom, I have, with the citizens of that town,
christened 'Fort Azatlan,' in honor of the kind memories with which the people
of Montezuma reverted to their old home in 'the valley of great lakes and
rivers.' On three sides, the fort is defended by the precipitous banks of the
river and of ravines, in front by an earth (or adobe) wall, and incloses an area
of about three acres. Explorations made by a cut traversing the largest mound
from northeast to southwest, discovered relics of stone and Hint, shells of the
Unio, Helix and Paludina, and of the river turtle, bones of many other animals,
and twelve human skeletons. These last present anomalous forms of high interest
to the anthropologist, and the section across the mound developed the following
arrangement: At the base, ashes and mineralized bones of the Mound-Builders;
near the surface, remains of the savage Indians; and, between these two,
intrusive graves of an intermediate race—fishermen, who prepared vaults for
their dead. The degree of civilization attained by the latter may be inferred
from the faith in immortality exhibited by the deposit of food for the departed;
from the careful preparation of their sepulchers, and especially from the
respectful burial of children— not the habit of Mound-Builders. In illustration
of the last fact, a small stone vault near the brow of the hill was opened. It
contained the bones of two babes who had been tenderly laid to rest, ornamented
with a child's treasure of shell beads. All the mounds which have come under my
notice are located so as to secure an outlook toward sunrise, confirming the
belief that the fires of the sun-worshipers have blazed upon every mound-capped
eminence in the great valley of the continent." The following sketch was written
by Prof. F. W. Putnam in 1871:

PARTICULAR DESCRIPTION.

   "The 'fort' is situated on a plateau of loess, about 170 feet in height above
low water, on the east bank of the river. On the river side, the bank, which
principally consists of an outcrop of sandstone, is very steep, and forms the
western line of the fortification, while deep ravines add to its strength on the
other sides; the weak points being strengthened by earthworks. The general
course of the work is from the north, where it is very narrow (not over fifty
feet), owing to the formation of the plateau, south along the river bank about
725 feet to its widest portion, which is here about 375 feet east and west From
this point it follows a deep ravine southerly about 460 feet to the entrance end
of the fort. The bank traversed by the entrance road is here much wider than at
other portions, and along its outer wall, running eastward, are the remains of
what was evidently once a deep ditch. The outer wall is about thirty feet wide,
and is now about a foot and a half high; a depressed portion of the bank, or
walk way, then runs parallel with the outer wall, and the bank is then continued
for about twenty feet further into the fort, but of slightly less height than
the front. Through the center of these banks there are the remains of a distinct
roadway about ten feet in width.

   "From the northeastern corner of this wide wall the line continues
northwesterly about 350 feet along the western ravine to a point where there is
a spring, and the ravine makes an indenture of nearly 100 feet to the southwest.
The mouth of the indenture is about seventy-five feet in width, and the work is
here strengthened by a double embankment. The natural line of the work follows
this indenture, and then continues in about the same northerly course along the
banks of the ravine, to the narrow portion of the plateau, about 550 feet to the
starting point. There is thus a continued line, in part natural and in part
artificial, which, if measured in all its little ins and outs, would not be far
from 2,450 feet. Besides the spring mentioned as in the indenture of the eastern
ravine, there is another spring in the same ravine about 175 feet to the north
of the first, and a third in the southwestern ravine about 125 feet to the west
of the southwestern corner of the work.

ADVANTAGE OF LOCATION.

   "Looking at all the natural advantages offered by this location, it is the
one spot of the region, for several miles along the river, that would be
selected to-day for the erection of a fortification in the vicinity, with the
addition of the possession of a small eminence to the north, which in these days
of artillery would command this fort. Having this view in mind, a careful
examination was made of the eminence mentioned, to see if there had ever been an
opposing or protective work there, but not the slightest indication of earthwork
fortification or of mounds of habitation was discovered, though some five or six
miles up the river on the Illinois side, at Hutsonville, a large group of some
fifty-nine mounds of habitation were investigated. The interior of this
fortification contains much of interest, and its history may yet be in part made
out by a more extended examination than it was possible to make during the few
days given to its exploration. On crossing the outer wall, a few low mounds are
at once noticed, and all around are seen large circular depressions. At the
southern portion of the fort, these depressions, of which there are forty-five
in all, are most numerous, thirty-seven of them being located near together.

   "These depressions vary in width from ten to twenty-five or thirty feet, and
are irregularly arranged. One of the six depressions opposite the indenture of
the eastern ravine is oval in shape, and is the only one that is not nearly
circular; the others vary but a foot or two in their diameters.

THE DEPRESSIONS.

   "Two of these depressions were dug into, and it was found that they were
evidently once large pits that had gradually been filled by the hand of time
with the accumulation of vegetable matter and soil, which had been deposited by
natural action alone. In some instances, large trees are now growing in the
pits, and their many roots make digging difficult. A trench was dug across one
pit, throwing out the soil carefully until the former bottom of the pit was
reached at a depth of about five feet. On this bottom, ashes and burnt clay gave
evidence of an ancient fire, and at a few feet on one side several pieces of
pottery, a few bones of animals and one stone arrow-head were found. A spot had
evidently been struck where food had been cooked and eaten, and though there was
not time to open other pits, there is no doubt but that they would tell a
similar story, and the legitmate conclusion to be drawn from the facts is that
these pits were the houses of the inhabitants or defenders of the fort, who were
probably further protected from the elements and the arrows of assailants by a
roof of logs and bark or boughs. The great number of the pits will show that
they were for a definite and general purpose, and their irregular arrangement
would indicate that they were not laid out with the sole idea of acting as
places of defense, though those near the walls might answer as covers from which
to fire on an opposing force beyond, and the sis pits near the eastern
indenture, in front of three of which there are traces of two small earth walls,
and the two commanding the entrance of the fort, would strengthen this view of
the use of those near the embankment.

   "In many of the ancient fortifications that have been described by Mr. Squier
and others, pits have been noticed, but they have been only very few in number,
and have been considered as places for the storage of food or water. The great
number in this small earthwork, with the finding that one at least was used for
the purpose of cooking and eating food, is evidence that they were for some
other purpose here, though some of the smaller ones may have answered for
storehouses.

CONTENTS OF THE MOUNDS.

   "The five small mounds were situated in various parts of the inclosure. The
largest was nearly fifty feet in diameter, and was probably originally not over
ten feet in height. It had been very nearly dug away in places, but about
one-fifth of the lower portion had not been disturbed. From this was exhumed one
nearly perfect human skeleton, and parts of several others that had been left by
former excavators. This mound also contained several bones of animals,
principally of deer, bear, opossum and turtles; fragments of pottery, one
arrow-head, a few flint chips and a number of thick shells of unios, two of
which had been bored near the hinge. From this mound a number of human bones
have been taken by Dr. H. Frank Harper.

   "The second mound, which was partly opened, was some twenty-five feet in
diameter and a few feet in height, though probably once much higher. In this a
number of bones of deer and other animals were found, several pieces of pottery,
a number of shells and a few human bones. The other three mounds, one of which
is not over ten or twelve feet in diameter and situated the furthest to the
north, were not examined internally.

INTRUSIVE GRAVES.

     4i The position of all the mounds within the inclosure is such as to
suggest that they were used as observatories, and it may yet be questioned
whether the human and other remains found in them were placed there by the
occupants of the fort, or are to be considered under the head of intrusive
burials by a later race. Perhaps a further study of the bones may settle the
point. That two races have buried their dead within the inclosure is made
probable by the finding of an entirely different class of burials, at the
extreme western point of the fortification. At this point. Dr. Harper, the year
previous, had discovered three stone graves, in which he found portions of the
skeletons of two adults and one child. These graves, the stones of one being
still in place, were found to be made by placing thin slabs of stone on end,
forming the sides and ends, the tops being covered by other slabs, making a
rough stone coffin in which the bodies had been placed. There was no indication
of any mound having been erected, and they were placed slightly on the slope of
the bank. This kind of burial is so distinct from that of the burials in the
mound, that it is possible that the acts may be referred to two distinct races,
who have occupied the territory successively, though they may prove to be of the
same time, and simply indicate a special mode adopted for distinctive purposes."

OTHER EVIDENCES OF PRE-HISTORIC OCCUPANCY.

   In this county, are frequently found other evidences of the existence of a
now extinct race of people, viz., stone axes, flint arrow and spear heads, and
other stone implements of various forms and sizes. Having sent some of these to
the Smithsonian Institution at Washington City, I was requested to make some
explorations in the mounds of this county, by the Secretary, Prof. Joseph Henry,
but only examined a few; went to those on the Hunt farm, but was not permitted
by the owner to open them; and those on the Drake farm I found to be too large,
and thought best to obtain some assistance. Examined one on Turman's farm, but
did not complete the excavation of a ditch across the largest one. A thorough
examination of one of the 'pit-holes' resulted in finding a wonderful bank of
ashes, in which were a great quantity of fish bones, broken bones of various
animals, such as deer, buffalo; the teeth, claws and bones of the bear: the
bones of the raccoon, opossum, turkey bones in abundance: the bones of the
squirrel and a few of the skulls of squirrels were found whole, but were
generally broken; the bones and teeth of the beaver; many pieces of the bones
and shells of turtles. There was a quantity of mussel shells of various kinds,
some varieties of which were not found in several miles' travel along the Wabash
or any other streams in this county, but were found in abundance on White River,
in Greene County. Fish bones seemed to be in the greatest abundance,
particularly in certain places. A great many pieces of pottery were found, and
seemed to have been made of clay, sand and mussel shells pounded fine, and
forming a cement that had been dried in the sun or baked. The most of the pieces
found showed that the heat applied in their preparation was not sufficient to
effect the sand, or in any manner injure the shells, or the original condition
of the vessels. No glazing appeared on the pottery, and yet it was a very hard,
firm and durable substance, impervious to water. Some pieces were four or five
inches long, and two or three inches wide, and some were of an irregular shape;
at one point they seemed to show that they were parts of a wide-mouthed vessel,
and evidently about two inches less in diameter at the neck than at the top.
Judging from the arc described by some of those pieces, the neck of those
vessels must have been at least eighteen inches in diameter, though the
curvature of many pieces showed that they were parts of vessels of much smaller
diameter. Several pieces showed a nice little ear, with a hole through it, about
a quarter or half inch in diameter, and the edges being notched, showed that
they were pieces of the rim of the vessels to which they belonged. There were
also parallel lines running about in an oblique direction to their curvature;
but in some of the pieces, the lines were horizontal or parallel with the tops
of the vessels, when whole, which had, evidently, been made by some blunt
instrument pressed into the clay, leaving little ridges between each impression
of the instrument, probably about the eighth or sixteenth of an inch thick. In
some of those pieces the little ridges seemed to have been crossed at right
angles, with a sharper or smaller instrument.

POTTERY.

    Some pieces showed that the rim above was quite flaring, and the rim was
ornamented by diamond shaped figures, made by those lines or ridges crossing
each other obliquely. From the smoked and blacked appearance of the curved or
concave sides of those pieces, and the fact that no signs of lire-marks were to
be seen on the outside or convex sides, it may be readily inferred that those
vessels were used for holding fire for some purpose, or little fires were made
in them for a purpose which will be presented shortly. Those 'pit-holes' and the
rectilinear excavation were, probably, shallow excavations, with a bank around
their edges and covered, by standing poles around them fastened in the center,
and then covering those frames thus made with the bark of trees or the skins of
animals, such as the deer or buffalo. It is a well-known fact that gnats and
mosquitoes are very troublesome on the streams, especially the Wabash, in the
spring at the fishing time; and that those insects are easily driven away by
smoke. I only give it as my opinion, that those people, probably, lived in those
'pit holes' and had those vessels of pottery to make fires in, and thus smoking
or driving those insect pests away. Why should those vessels be ornamented on
the outside? How else came those fire marks on the inside and not on the
outside, evidently, of those vessels?

SANITARY CONSIDERATIONS.

   Another peculiarity of these pit-holes, the refuse or shell heaps as
described above, were generally found on the southeast side. The inference may
be made that those heaps were thus placed on account of a sanitary regulation,
as those people did not wear boots or shoes as we do. Those pit-holes when I saw
them, were nearly plowed level with the field. Mr. L. Turman says: "There were
thirty of those "pit holes" and one large pit hole about thirty feet long and
twelve feet wide."

   There were, at first, nine mounds, but in 1858, some parties, he had
forgotten their names, came with teams, plowed and scraped down nearly to the
bottom the highest, largest, and most eastern mound, 'searching for treasure,'
which they supposed it contained. When they had plowed and scraped off about
three feet in depth, they came to a layer of human bones, mostly skulls; after
they were moved out of the way, and they had taken down about eighteen inches
more of dirt, they came to another layer of bones, but they did not move them
all away; they quit and went away without finding any treasure. Bones have since
been found where they were at work on that mound. A few years ago, some young
men and boys came one Sunday and dug into the top of the most southern mound,
and came to a large flate stone and, breaking it, they found that it was the
cover of a stone vault, in which they found human bones, and they became so
frightened on their discovery of the contents, that they went away. Shortly
after they left, Mr. Turman went to the mound and found it as they had
described; he took out a shin bone (tibia) and standing it up by him, as seated
on a chair, it reached from the floor above his knee. He found another vault on
the south side of that vault, but it has not been opened.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

HISTORY OF GREENE AND SULLIVAN COUNTIES,
STATE OF INDIANA,
FROM THE EARLIEST TIME TO THE PRESENT; TOGETHER WITH INTERESTING BIOGRAPHICAL
SKETCHES, REMINISCENCES, NOTES, ETC.

ILLUSTRATED.

CHICAGO: GOODSPEED BROS. & CO., PUBLISHERS.
1884.




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