Indians and Revolutionary Soldiers

A couple of weekends ago I drove across the nearby Ohio River to Marietta, Ohio. It is only about a forty-five minute drive from where I live. While there I visited the Conus Mound at the center of Mound Cemetery. This mound is said to have been built between 800BC and 100AD. When you begin to realize it more than likely was built before the birth of Christ it becomes a little overwhelming as you stand in its presence. This mound was supposedly built to be the burial place of Chieftains. It is encircled by a dry moat that seperates it from the surrounding cemetery.

This is a Revolutionary War Soldiers' Memorial near the foot of the mound. The soldiers are noted with Memorial Metal Stars. There are more than 25 Revolutionary War Soldiers buried in Mound Cemetery which is reportedly home to the largest number of American Revolutionary War officers buried in one location. The earliest of these soldiers was buried in 1739.

One soldier buried was Commodore Abraham Whipple - an American revolutionary naval commander. He sunk the first British ship of the American Revolution, the British schooner HMS Gaspee. After the war, it was Whipple who, as a merchant marine commander, first unfurled our American flag in London.

There is also a monument erected by the Daughters of the American Revolution in honor of those unknown soldiers buried in the cemetery.

Ancient Indians, pioneers, and modern Americans rest peacefully side-by-side.

My World : Grave Creek Indian Mound

Last week I showed you the gothic structure of the West Virginia Penitentiary in Moundsville, West Virginia. (Here) I thought we would continue our tour there with the Grave Creek Indian Mound which sits directly across from the middle section of the prison. It is one of the largest conical Indian mounds in the USA.

The first native settlers along the Ohio River in the area of present-day Marshall County were the Mound Builders, also known as the Adena people. The Grave Creek Indian Mound, located in the center of Moundsville, is one of West Virginia's most famous historic landmarks. More than 2,000 years old, it stands 69 feet high and 295 feet in diameter.

The mound contains approximately 57,000 tons of dirt and originally stood nearly 70 feet high. The digging of so much earth left a sizeable moat or ditch surrounding the mound but it is no longer in existence. By testing the soil, archaeologists estimate the mound was built between 250 and 150 BCE by the Adena culture, which occupied the area from about 1000 BCE to 200 CE. The mound and two forts were the essential features of an Adena village in the shape of a triangle.

The mound was discovered by James Tomlinson and was opened in 1838. He discovered a vault 111 feet from the northern side containing the skeletal remains of two Indians, one of them surrounded with 650 ivory beads and wearing an ivory ornament about six inches long. The mound also contained ashes and bits of bones that are believed to be the remnants of Indians burned prior to their internment in the mound. Another vault was discovered near the top of the mound, containing a skeleton wearing beads, seashells and copper bracelets. An inscribed stone was removed from the vault and is on display at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.

The mound was listed on the Natural History of Historic Places in 1966.

Indian Mound Cemetery

We saw this roadside marker standing in the middle of a beautiful flowerbed and stopped to read it and then turned around and went back to find the cemetery.

This is the entrance to the cemetery that was incorporated in 1859. I'm not sure why 1860 is on the arch. Just to the left of the tower you can see a tall white monument surrounded by bushes. (Enlarge for a better view.) This is believed to be the Nation's first known Confederate monument dedicated in 1867.

"Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair."

I originally took this for Jeremiah's From The Ground Up project. I was impressed with the stone of this bell tower. They were probably gathered from the nearby river. The tower was built in 1925.

Looking out through the windows towards the mountains.

Looking out toward the front door. If you enlarge the photo you can see plaques on the wall. The tower is called the Parsons Bell Tower and Parsons is on the plaques. There were no visible signs of any remains having been buried inside the tower.

This is the Indian Mound.

I have some Native American ancestry so this was a special find for me.

The age of the mound is astonishing to me.

The Smithsonian suggests it was built between 500 and 1000 AD. To stand there on that ground and imagine how long it had been there was very humbling.

Confederate Grave Marker

I saw quite a few of these scattered around the cemetery. This side of the marker stands for Confederate States of America. The backside states "God is our vindicator." The cemetery is also the final resting place of a number of unknown dead both Union and Confederate.

Standing there at the Mound I looked up. These tall pines stood towering over the Mound reaching toward the heavens marking the final resting place for all buried below their branches.