Henderson County KyArchives History - Books .....Chapter II Aboriginal 1887
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Book Title: History Of Henderson County, KY

CHAPTER II.
ABORIGINAL.

IF Mr. Collins is correct in his excellent History of Kentucky, modern Indians
never inhabited Henderson County; yet, all along the river front, and in many
other interior localities of this county, the remains of some race of people are
found in great numbers. The entire river front from First Street up five or six
squares, seems to have been one vast burial ground, as hundreds of skeletons,
bones and relics have been taken therefrom by excavators in the employ of the
city. It is generally conceded, however, that the Indians were not the
aborigines of Kentucky, but that there was, prior to their coming, a class of
white people known as "Mound Builders," who inhabited the country lying between
the Alleghany and Mississippi Rivers. Historians and learned antiquaries have
proved, so far as traditionary and scientific evidence is to be taken, that
before the Indians were those strange, mysterious people of the mounds, who left
no literature and no monuments except forest-covered earth and stone works. As a
race they have vanished utterly in the past, but the comparatively slight traces
they have left behind tend to conclusions of deep interest and importance, not
only highly probable, but rapidly approaching certainty.

    Correspondences in the manufacture of pottery, and in the rude sculptures
found; the use of the serpent symbol; the likelihood that they were all
sun-worshipers and practiced the rite of human sacrifice; and the tokens of
commercial intercourse manifested by the presence of Mexican porphyry and
obsidian in the Ohio Valley mounds, satisfactorially demonstrate in the minds of
antiquaries the racial alliance, if not the identity of our Mound Builders, with
the ancient Mexicans. Their wars were fierce and doubtless long and bloody. They
met the savages with a determined and skilled resistance, but the attacks of
their ferocious enemies continued, perhaps throughout centuries, at last
expelling the more civilized, and the Mound Builders vanished from this part of
the great country.

    Often, especially for the works devoted to religious purposes, the earth has
not been taken from the surrounding soil, but has been transported from a
distance. The civilization of the Mound Builders, as a theme, has furnished a
vast field for speculation, and theorists have pushed into a wilderness of
visionary conjectures. It is generally agreed by learned theorists that Prof.
Short's conclusions may be safely accepted-that they came into the country in
comparatively small numbers at first, and during their residence in the
territory occupied, became extremely populous. They mined copper, which they
wrought into implements of war, also into ornaments and articles of domestic
use. They quarried mica for mirrors and worked flint arid salt mines. Their
trade extended from the Lakes to the Gulf.

    Among all nations, in a simple and rude state, stories will be found current
which pass from mouth to mouth without the least suspicion that they are not
absolutely true. They are not written, because they date from a time when
writing was unknown, and the mere fact of their being repeated by word of mouth
causes a perpetual variation in the narratives. In this, however, traditionary
evidence respecting the aborigines of Kentucky, is so well founded in fact, and
so well corroborated by historical evidence of a scientific nature, as to
preclude the indulgence of historical skepticism.

MOUND BUILDERS.

    It is undoubtedly true that the Mound Builders at one time inhabited
Henderson County. Dr. ____ Stinson, an old resident of this county, and one who
has devoted a great part of his life to the study of archaeology and
archaeological investigations, in a letter written in 1876, says: "Having
examined the camping grounds and graves of the Mound Builders of Posey and
Vanderburgh Counties in Indiana, and learning the peculiarities of burying their
dead and disposing of their estates, etc., I became anxious to learn whether or
not the aborigines of Henderson were of the same tribe and habits of those of
the above-named counties across the river. Therefore I came into Henderson
County and have examined the southwestern portion of it with the following
results: I find that their mounds are similar, the mode of depositing or burying
their dead do not differ materially. I visited twenty mounds, some of which I
dug into, where I found some fine relics, and got in possession of some
excellent historical facts."

    The beautiful mound upon which is situated Henderson's Temple of Justice,
has been the subject of debate for many years, a number claiming that it is a
natural mound, while many others claim it to be the work of the Mound Builders
Tradition has it that this hill or mound in its originality was perfectly
shaped, gently and gracefully sloping from its apex to its base, but that the
rude hand of the contractor, under the supervision of cruelly tasteless
engineers, caused its symmetry to be butchered on two sides. This mound at one
time, undoubtedly, sloped in every direction from its summit, as it does now in
the direction of Main Street. It is well known, also, that there were a great
number of ponds in close proximity to this place, as well as in other parts of
the town. Couple this, then, with the historical fact that the Mound Builders
did not confine themselves to the taking of dirt from the surrounding soil, but
in the building of what they termed their sacred mounds, transported the soil
from a long distance, one must at least become reasonably impressed with the
belief that this most beautiful spot was the handiwork of that strange people,
who have long since lost their identity, and not the work of Noah's waters, or
any subsequent upheaving of the elements. It is, perhaps, quite true that our
"Justice Hall" stands upon ground once consecrated to the peculiar worship of
the aborigines.

HENDERSON COUNTY MOUNDS.

    There are other mounds in the county and from them have been gathered many
interesting relics of antiquity. Upon the lands of the late Colonel A. H. Major,
several miles above the city, is a mound of which the following notice was made
several years ago.

    "In digging upon these lands numerous skeletons, supposed to have been
aborigines, were found. Colonel Major and D. R. Burbank, conducting the search,
are quite of the opinion that this was never an Indian burial ground, but of a
people who inhabited the country prior to the coming of the Indians. Many
articles of peculiar beauty and marked curiosity have been found, among the
number pipes, bowls, cooking utensils, weapons of war, and evidences of military
and official rank. In one grave was found three skeletons, the two smaller ones,
supposed to have been females, sitting upon the larger one, supposed to have
been a male, and in the mouth of each was found a pipe. This place must have
been the burial ground of a populous race of people, for the quantity of teeth
found has never before been equaled,"

    On the farm of A. J. Anderson, in Diamond Island Bend, are many mounds, four
of which stood above the high water of 1883, the highest ever known. The ground
upon which his house stands is a mound, and in 1854, when digging for clay for
the purpose of making brick, thousands of bones were found and many remarkable
relics, including glass trinkets handsomely carved. In addition to this, a lump
of lead three inches square was found. Mr. Anderson is satisfied in his own mind
that his place was never an Indian burial ground, but that the bones and relics
belonged to a race of people living here long before the Indians.

EARLY OUTLAWS.

    The first white people of whose history anything is known, connected with
the prestine settlement of Henderson County, were a set of graceless outlaws
noted for their wicked deeds and incomparable attrocities. It cannot be said
that they claimed the "Red Banks" as a permanent home, for their lives were
devoted to wild adventure, thievery and murder in all their manifold sins and
wickedness. These men were the Mays, Masons and Wilsons, headed by the notorious
John A. Murrell and Samuel May. Their rendezvous was on the bank of the river,
and while here made it their business to rob boats floating upon the river, and,
frequently, murdering the crews. This was their headquarters, and robbing boats
their occupation up to the time Captain Young and his company (who had organized
for the purpose of driving them out of the country) appeared in the
neighborhood. For a number of years John A. Murrell camped at times upon the
identical spot where the residence of A. J. Anderson now stands, opposite.
Diamond Island, and gave to that place the poetic name it yet retains -"Forest
Home." After the appearance of Captain Young, the clan then located at or near
Cave-in-Rock, Ill., where they continued to pursue their nefarious avocation.

EARLY SETTLERS.

    Prior to the formation of Henderson as the thirty-eighth county in 1798,
there were but few settlers south of Green River. The first permanent
settlement, of which any knowledge is had, was made above the Red Banks-now
Henderson-on Richard Henderson & Co.'s land in the year 1791. These settlers, or
a majority of them, were Germans, therefore to that people may be accorded the
credit of the beginning of Henderson. During the fall of 1791 two or three
families located above the now City of Henderson, on the ground which has borne
for years the historic name of Hughes' Field. Finding this ground to be low and
marshy, they packed up and removed here as a better site for building a village.
Immediately after landing they commenced, with what tools were then at their
command, chopping from the immediate forests surrounding the river bank, logs
suitable for building such huts as would protect them from weather and make them
comfortable. When a sufficient number of logs had been gotten together, they
commenced the building of a row of block-houses, or cabins, after the primitive
style, on the river bank, extending from the present site of Clore's Mill, at
the foot of Sixth Street, down to the residence of Dr. A. Dixon, at the foot of
Powell Street. At that time there was a strip of territory one hundred and fifty
feet in width lying beyond the present northwestern boundary of Water Street,
and on this ground is where the first buildings in Henderson were located. From
the gradual washing of the river most of that territory has disappeared. That
part of it between Second and Third Streets was removed in building the present
wharf.

THE FIRST SETTLERS

here were Michael Sprinkle, John Upp, William Smith, father of William Finely
Smith, John Husbands, John Haussman, Jacob Sprinkle, John Kurkendall, Eneas
McCallister and John Dunn. During the year 1792 Captain John Dunn was appointed
Constable for this territory. Eneas McCallister, grandfather of the late John E.
McCallister, was detained here with his family by the ice, while enroute from
the Cumberland River country to Pittsburgh, Penn. There were not more than half
a dozen little log cabins on the bank, and two of these found vacant by Mr.
McCallister were taken possession of and occupied by him and his family.

    There were no Indians at that time to be seen on this side of the Ohio, but
on the Indiana side were to be found several tribes, among the number were the
Shawnees, from whom Shawneetown derived its name. They were very troublesome at
times, and as heartless as troublesome. A party of young boys, of whom were
Michael and Jake Sprinkle and John Upp, armed for the purpose of hunting,
crossed the river in canoes, never once suspecting that Indians were in that
vicinity, and upon landing were surprised by a party in ambush, two of them
captured, one shot down, the fourth being an expert swimmer, and under
providential favors, made his escape back to Kentucky. The two captives were
tortured in many ways-they were made to walk forced marches, then beaten with
many stripes, and finally, after having undergone a terrible journey,
bare-footed and almost naked, marched into Sandusky, on Lake Erie, from whence,
after having lived a most frightful life, they escaped, and some time afterward
arrived at the Red Banks, to the joy of their kin and comrades.

FACE OF THE COUNTRY.

    Among the traditions of the country we are told that many years anterior to
the advent of the surveyors employed by Richard Henderson & Co., and even until
the cessation of the annual fires, which used to sweep the earth fore and aft,
this country, from the beginning of the low lands which encircle the city, was a
vast prairie or barren, extending as far as the eye could reach. Indeed, many
settlers now living, who came to this county long since the advent of the
present century, remember when the greater part of the county was a barren
territory. There was no timber only along the creeks, water courses and marshy
places. This continued for many years until a swamp of scrubby oak took
possession of the land, and from this beginning a magnificent growth of timber,
including the hickory, ash, gum, elm, maple, poplar, sugar, sugar maple, oak,
catalpa, walnut and sycamore grew up luxuriantly over the entire, country.
During these early times the whole face of the country was covered with hazelnut
bushes, pea-vines, wild strawberries, blackberries, and a variety of other kinds
of wild fruits. Above and below the then villiage [sic] of Henderson, the
country was one dense cane-brake, affording an abundance of the best food for
cattle, which were driven on in large numbers. There were no Indians to be seen
except a few friendly ones passing through.

WILD GAME, BIRDS AND ANIMALS.

    The hillsides and valleys were thickly populated with wild animals, such as
wolves, wild cats, panthers, deer, and very frequently a large bear would be
seen. Turkeys, geese, ducks, pheasants, squirrels, rabbits and other wild game
of the smaller species were here in, seemingly inexhaustible numbers. Mr. Payne
Dixon, who came to Kentucky and located near Henderson in 1805, in a most
interesting conversation with the writer, indirectly mentioned the fact of
having seen, a short time after his arrival, a set of elk horns remarkable for
their size and length. These horns, when placed with their tip ends down, would
admit a man five feet in height walking between the prongs and underneath the
skull, without touching it or bending his body. Among the winged birds, found at
that time in great numbers, were those which are at this time total strangers to
his country. They were the paroquet, a species of parrot, but of much handsomer
plumage, the raven, a bird made famous by Edgar A. Poe, and many others, noted
for the peculiarities of their plumage. As the country gradually developed and
became populated the birds migrated to wilder lands.

    In those days game was very plentiful, a large buck of fine flesh could be
purchased for the small sum of fifty cents, while turkeys were given away. No
apprehension was felt concerning a knawing stomach, for the abundance of wild
game insured a week's supply at any time in a half hour's walk from the door of
the cabin home. As long as there was powder in the house and lead in the pouch,
the pioneer little worried or thought of hunger ever staring him in the face,
but kept his shanty stocked with meats which now command fabulous prices.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

HISTORY OF HENDERSON COUNTY, KENTUCKY,
BY
EDMUND L. STARLING,

COMPRISING HISTORY OF COUNTY AND CITY, PRECINCTS, EDUCATION, CHURCHES, SECRET
SOCIETIES, LEADING ENTERPRISES, SKETCHES AND RECOLLECTIONS, AND BIOGRAPHIES OF
THE LIVING AND DEAD.

ILLUSTRATED.

HENDERSON, KY, 1887.


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