PREHISTORIC MAN IN LAFAYETTE COUNTY. 405 



ARCHEOLOGY. 



PREHISTORIC MAN IN LAFAYETTE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 



BY PROFESSOR H. A. REID.* 



The relics of the mound-building race, found in this county, are not so num- 

 erous nor so rare as the remains of the same people which have been found in a 

 few other counties ; yet they are enough to show that the site of the city of Lex- 

 ington and its vicinity was occupied by the ancient people, probably for a long 

 period of time and in considerable numbers. 



Mounds. — Mr. George Wilson, of the Lafayette county bank, informed me 

 that* when he was a small boy there were three mounds on a part of the premises 

 now owned by the Elizabeth AuU Female Seminary; two of them were dug away 

 when the foundation was made for the house now occupied by President J. A. 

 Quarles of that institution, but nothing was found except a few decayed bones, 

 some beads, and small trinkets of no special significance. One mound still re- 

 mains in Prof. Quarles' back yard, which I examined. It is a low, weatherworn 

 knoll on the brow of the bluff overlooking the Missouri River, and so nearlv 

 obliterated that it would scarcely be noticed except by persons who had some 

 knowledge of or special interest in this class of remains. 



In company with Mr. Charles Teubner, of Lexington, I visited two mounds 

 on T. R. E. Harvey's land, about two miles northeast of the city. They were 

 the usual form of oblong knolls, perhaps twenty rods apart, on the brow of the 

 bluff, and commanding a magnificent view of the river and country beyond. 

 One of these mounds is still six feet high and has a recent grave on top of it, but 

 neither of them have ever been opened. At another time, in company with Mr. 

 Teubner and Dr. Sanford Smith, I visited a mound two or three miles southwest 

 of the city on t^e Odell place. This mound was about seven feet high, and old 

 Mr. George Odell had dug into it from top to bottom some twenty or twenty-five 

 years ago, but found nothing except some crumbly human bones, and that a 

 layer of flat stones had been arranged on the original surface of the ground before 

 the mound was built. These stones we detected in situ at one side of the mound 

 where the earth had been washed away by many rains. The stones had been 

 brought from a shelving ledge perhaps a hundred rods distant and part way down 

 the bluffs ; but the mound was on the highest point of land in that vicinity, and 

 from its top we could see objects which Dr. Smith, who has lived there about 

 forty years, assured me were twenty-five miles distant up the river, and it is prob- 

 able that this mound had been used as a signal tower. 



* I have been engaged for about four months in preparing a history of Lafayette county for the Missouri 

 Historical Company ; and this article is prepared from advance sheets of that forthcoming work. 



