This cut represents one of the largest of these mounds. It is situated at the junction of Grave Creek and the Ohio River, twelve miles below Wheeling, in West Virginia. It measures seventy feet in height, and its base is nearly one thousand feet in circumference. An excavation made from the top downward, and from one side of the base to the center, disclosed the fact that the mound contained two sepulchral chambers, one at the base and one near the center of the mound. These chambers had been constructed of logs, and covered with stone. The lower chamber contained two skeletons, one of which is supposed to have been a female. The upper chamber contained but one skeleton. In addition to these, there were found a great number of shell beads, ornaments of mica, and bracelets of copper.26
A moment’s thought will show us what a great work such a mound must have been for a people destitute of metallic tools and domestic animals. The earth for its construction was probably scraped up from the surface and brought thither in baskets. A people capable of erecting such a monument as this, with only such scanty means at their command, must have possessed those qualities which would sooner or later have brought them civilization.
Another very interesting mound of this class once stood in the city of St. Louis. The rapidly growing city demanded its removal in 1869. It was an oblong mound, one hundred and fifty feet long by thirty in height. In its removal it was shown that it contained a burial chamber seventy-five feet long, from eight to twelve feet wide, and from eight to ten feet high, in which about thirty burials had taken place. The surface of the ground had first been leveled, then the walls raised to the desired height, made firm and solid, and plastered with clay. Timbers formed the roof, over which the mound had been raised to the desired height.
In process of time the roof decayed and fell in, thus giving a sunken appearance to the top of the mound. This view is a cross section of the mound as it was revealed by the workmen. We notice where the roof has fallen in, and the outline of the interior chamber. This burial chamber was perhaps an exact model of the cabins in which the people lived. Can it be that this mound was the final resting place of some renowned chief, and that the other bodies were those of his attendants sent to accompany him to the other world? This is perhaps as reasonable a conjecture as any. Certain it is that this tumulus and that at Grave Creek were fit pyramids for the Pharaohs of the New World.
It is not to be supposed that the mounds were the sole cemeteries of the people who built them. Like the barrows of Europe, they were probably erected only over the bodies of the chiefs and priests, the wise men, and warriors of the tribe. The amount of work required for the erection of a mound was too great to provide one for every person. The greater number of the dead were deposited elsewhere than in mounds, but it is doubtful whether we can always distinguish the prehistoric burial places from those of the later Indians. An ancient cemetery, discovered near Madisonville, Ohio, proved to be a most interesting find, as it was thought to be a burial place of the Mound Builders,27 but it seems there is strong doubt on this point. One writer thinks this was a cemetery of the Erie tribe of Indians, and not very ancient in date.28
In Tennessee are to be found numerous burial places known as the stone-grave cemeteries. Stone graves of a similar character are found in Kentucky, Ohio, and Missouri. These are as yet but few facts which can be used as indicating that all the stone graves are of one people. Many of these cemeteries are of great antiquity, while similar stone graves are of quite recent date. In some places the cemeteries cover very large areas.
