U.S. Data Repository -- USGenNet Inc. -- Please read the U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on the following page: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (pages 39-49) Chapter II The Native Races Deem ye that Nature lovelh less These bronze forms of the wilderness She foldelh in her long caress? Yet heaven hath angels watching round, The Indian's lowliest forest mound, And they have made it holy ground. 覧Whillier. It is the spot I came to seek覧 My fathers' ancient burial place. Ere from these vales, ashamed and weak. Withdrew our wasted race. It is the spot覧I know it well覧 Of which our old traditions tell. 覧Bryant. Jefferson's "Notes" state that one of the four great branches of the Algonquin Indians, the Massawomees, occupied western Virginia. Probably the Massawomees were the Dela- wares, Shawnees and Mingoes, who were ten- ants of the Iroquois, the owners of the Monon- gahela Valley. These three tribes had their homes in the territory near the junction of the Alleghany and Monongahela Rivers, but as the region drained by the Monongahela abounded in fish and game, often a whole tribe would camp in this valley during the summer, while the men hunted, it being considered neutral ground. The walls of the Indian's wigwam were made by sewing together deer skins. A number of poles were tied together at one end, and then spread out in circular fashion, the free ends resting on the ground; the deer skins were spread around the poles, being tied at the apex and pegged to the ground. Sometimes pictures were painted on the outside of the wigwam, which added greatly to its attractiveness. The Indian villages were situated with refer- ence to good water, plenty of fuel, good drain- age, and protection from storms and hostile neighbors. Evidence of these villages may be found in several places in Marion County: on the B rummage farm on Ice's Run, near Pleas- ant Point; at Boothsville, on Booth's Creek; at Mill Fall Run, near Monongah; and on the Hood and Arnett farms near Rivesville. Inter- esting relics have been found in all these places. An Indian burial ground, near the village on Mill Fall Run, was dug up, and bones, orna- ments, tools and weapons were unearthed. The villages near Rivesville, which were circular in form and about a hundred and fifty yards in diameter, were located about a mile apart. Near the one on the Arnett farm is a large rock on which is cut the crude outline of a bear. In a ledge of rocks near Pleasant Point is a cave evidently used as a place of refuge, the interior of which is quite large enough to protect a num- ber of people, being 21 feet long, 8 feet wide and 7 feet high. A favorite playground of the school children of sixty years ago was a small cave near the Powell residence on Fair- mont Avenue, where they dug up darts of all kinds. Fort Hill, opposite the S. L. Watson home- stead, was evidently used as a fortification by Indians whose trail led along the crest of a low range of hills to the Monongahela River. In- dian weapons and mussel shells have been found on the summit of this hill, which has acquired an added interest to the writers of this book from the fact that it was here that the J. O. Watson Class raised a flag pole on the day that they dedicated themselves to the work of com- piling a history of Marion County. The Indians, like the white men, had their factories, or camps, where they worked in flint, stone, rocks and wood. Here they learned, in a crude way, to make their implements of war- fare, and those for hunting and for home use, such as darts, arrows, bows, stone mills, scrapers and needles. Skill and labor were required in the making of these implements, and the Indian became an expert in his work. Some excelled in making bows and arrows and some in making stone axes, while others were very skillful in constructing canoes. The Indian made his favorite implement and traded it to others for articles which he was not able to make success- fully himself. Large pieces of flint, probably brought from Wood County or from Kentucky, to manufac- ture into various articles, have been found scat- tered over Marion County. One method of bringing pieces of flint to the desired shape was that of heating them in a hot fire and placing small drops of water on the parts from which scales were to be removed. The place so treated was then tapped gently with a stone, and the proper curve and shape thus definitely given to the article. Arrow heads were very hard to make, and Indians who were skilled in the art of making them were popular among the men of their tribe. Three kinds were made: the first, a small, rough piece of flint, more blunt than sharp, was used for killing small birds and ani- mals; the second, long and sharp and well shaped, was used for killing deer, bear and other large game; the third, made of the best flint, either white or red, was used to kill man. The darts last mentioned were better shaped than the others, and the smoothness of some of them is surprising when one considers the tools with which they were made. The curve in them was the all-important thing, as it gave the arrow a whirling motion, which sent it in a straight direction. Excellent specimens of these arrow heads have been found in all parts of the county. The war hatchet, or tomahawk, was made of flint, stone or granite, carved and polished until it assumed the desired shape, which was similar to that of a steel ax of to-day. It was some- times sharp at both ends, being shaped down to an edge from the center. Usually the hatchet was grooved in order that it could be more se- curely fastened to a handle, which was made of well seasoned hickory. Warriors and squaws alike carried bows and arrows. The bows were usually made of hick- ory or of sassafras, but other varieties of wood were used when these were not to be obtained. The warriors had two kinds of bows, a short one for convenience in wooded districts as well as a long one for fighting purposes. The ar- rows were from 25 to 30 inches long and were of straight, seasoned timber of any kind. The idea was that any piece of wood was good enough for a bow, but few pieces were straight enough for an arrow. After a shaft was se- lected it was well dried and scraped into shape with flint, sandstone, or a volcanic glass scraper. One end of it was then split, and an arrow head inserted and tied in securely with hide strings. To the other end of the shaft were tied two or three halves of wild turkey or goose feathers, to insure a straight course. An- other implement of warfare was the spear, which was longer than the arrow, although similar in shape and carrying a dart, but had no feathers in the handle end. Like the bow, it was made short enough for convenience in traveling. An instrument for removing the skins of ani- mals was made of flint, or smooth oblong stone. By the aid of sandstone, grooves were cut in this skinning tool so that it could be held firmly when the hand was greasy with animal fat. The Indian used small pieces of flint to cut the skin of the animal, then held a piece of hide in one hand and the skinner in the other, tapping with the implement the membranes holding the flesh and skin together. Clam shells were made into hatchet-shaped tools by drilling holes through them with a sharp pointed sandstone, and binding them to handles with rawhide thongs. An implement of this sort had a sharp edge, and was used as a weapon and to cut wood and tent poles, be- sides being the principal tool used in the con- struction of canoes. Circular pieces of flint and clam and mussel shells were also used to scrape skins that were being prepared for cloth- ing. Quantities of such shells have been found on an elevation about one half mile from Trac- tion Park, and on the B rummage farms near Boothsville, far from the beds of the West Fork and Monongahela Rivers. The needles used in making this skin clothing were very crude覧thorns and sharp pieces of flint an inch wide at the larger end and pointed at the other usually answering the purpose. The needles were used merely to punch holes, through which rawhide strings were run. The Indian "firing- stone" was merely a rock containing a cavity in which fires were started. A toilet article of greater necessity than my lady's powder box was the turtle shell bowl in which the warrior kept the different colored clays which, powdered and mixed with animal fat, made his war paint. There was no dearth of this clay in Marion County, large beds of it being found in different sections. The Indians always located their villages near a large rock where mortars could be made for grinding corn into meal. These mortars, or "Indian mills," may still be found. Some years ago there were six of them in a ledge of rock near Pleasant Point, but at present there are only four small ones left, the two larger mortars having been destroyed by blasting in the construction of a bridge abutment. These range in capacity from a half bushel to a quart. Judging from the number and size of the mills, a large village must have been in that vicinity for many years. On Ice's Run is a mortar between 3 and 4 feet high, having notches cut in the sides for steps. The cavity in the center of this stone is 1 inches deep, and 5 inches in diameter at the top. There is also a mortar in a rock near a cave at Jamison's crossing, below Basnettsville. The corn was placed in the mortar and ground into meal by turning a large stone or pestle that fitted into the hole. On the Harrison Manley farm was found a round stone pestle about 1 inches long, somewhat larger at one end than at the other. The stone is almost perfect in slant and finish, and is a good example of Indian skill. Hominy was made in much the same way in which meal was made, the corn being removed before it was ground fine. The squaws always did this work. An interesting story is told of one who, while being held a prisoner here in 1792, made hominy by tapping the corn, one grain at a time, with a hammer, one tap being sufficient to remove the husk. The kernels rolled with amazing rapidity from the stone she held in her lap to a blanket spread at her feet, so adept was she in the performance of her task. Sacred stones have been ploughed up in dif- ferent parts of the county. They were used in certain ceremonies of the Indians, and were from 5 to 7-1/2 inches in diameter, and 1-1/2 to 2-1/2 inches thick. They were always finely finished, the outer edges being slightly convex and perfectly smooth. There was a small mar- gin about a quarter of an inch wide at the edge of the stone, from which it gently sloped toward a hole half an inch in diameter, bored through the center. The Indian to whom this article was entrusted always buried it in the earth, a custom which accounts for the fact that some of the stones were badly damaged when they were ploughed up. Mr. Thomas Leeper, of Monon- gah, has in his possession a very fine specimen of these ceremonial stones. The Indian traveled in a canoe made by hollowing out a log, or of birch bark. The birch bark was readily peeled from the tree in May or June. One ring was cut around the lower part of the birch tree, and another around the trunk just below the first branches. A slit was then cut from one ring to the other, and, after it had been well pounded in order to loosen it, the bark was gradually removed. The ends of the bark were then sewed together, and rosined to keep out the water. When braced, the craft was ready for use. The log canoes, commonly called "dugouts," were harder to make, requiring much time and labor. After the tree was cut down and hewed to the desired length, a fire was built on the top of the log and let burn until the wood was almost half consumed, when the charred part was re- moved by the aid of a tomahawk or scraper. This process of alternately burning and scrap- ing was carried on until the canoe was fashioned to its owner's liking, a task it sometimes re- quired three weeks to accomplish. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -