Prehistoris Mounds of Grant County,
While this county is not rich in the relics of this prehistoric race, yet
there are abundant evidences that this section was once inhabited by them. they left no
forts, military or sacred enclosures, nor any of those classes that are most interesting
to the antiquarian. the mounds found in various parts of the county are oval shaped, but
a few feet in height with diameters varying from ten to sixty feet. the largest was in
the court house square, upon which the first court house was built. This was ten feet
high and sixty feet in diametor, and when excavated revealed layers of gravel, burnt clay
and charcoal, beneath which was found a human skeleton, which is said to have been between
seven and eight feet in length. Several other well defined mounds were found near the
residence of David Overman, and two near the entrance to the old Quaker Cemetery, bones,
charcoal, burnt clay and small pieces of pottery were found. In some instances the bones
showed traces!
of the fire which evidently consumed the flesh. On the bluff east of the city another
has been excavated, but nothing of interest found. three well preserved mounds were found
on the farm of William Leverich, another on the farm of Milton Camblin. Near the lake in
Fairmount twp., which is supposed to be in the course of the old glacial river, numerous
evidences still remain.
A close inspection of the mounds of this county will lead to the conclusion
that these were either sepulchral or sacrificial mounds, and if, as many authors believe,
cremation was practiced by them, it is difficult to make a distinction between the two
classes. Those in which cinder, charcoal, burnt clay and calcined human bones were found,
as in the case of one of the mounds near the entrance to the Quaker's cemetery, were
the bones of a human sacrifice or the remains of the cremated dead. It is not improbable
that some of the sesupposed remainsremains of the prehistoric races were, in fact, the
burial places of the Indians.
History of Grant County
Published in 1886
page 268
JCT