153 



The Paleolithic, Neolithic, Coppee and Ieon Ages of 

 Shelby County, Indiana. 



By F. W. Gottlieb. 



Exact date, I know not; but we will saj' at least 1,000 years ago. 1 

 will treat espeeiallj^ upon the mounds of HanoveT township, known as Hog 

 Back and Kinsley mounds. The former is 250 yards long, over 100 yards 

 wide and was G5 feet at its highest point. As I study this prehistoric 

 burial place I become convinced that it is a great deal of Nature's handi- 

 work, dating back to the drift period, because of tlie large boulders im- 

 bedded in the great mass of choicest gravel. A valley between this mound 

 and another very high ridge shows how the earth was taken therefrom 

 and placed on top of the mound ridge, thereby forming a surface which 

 caused the earlier white settlers to give it the name of Hog Back, much 

 i"epresenting the razorback species. Old historic Big Blue River flows grace- 

 fully past the east side of the mound, which rises abruptly to the height 

 of 65 feet. On the north eiid flows a spring of sparkling water, which has 

 quenched the thirst of countless ages ; even in this progressive period it is 

 the camping and picnic ground for numerous persons each summer season. 



The land where this mound is located was entered by a Mr. Chadwick 

 in Freeport, a small isolated village near Morristown, where the South 

 Illinois Indian trail crossed Big Blue River. There was at one time an 

 appropriation made by the Indiana State Legislature for the improvement 

 of Blue River up to this point, and on the opposite side of the river and a 

 little below is a spot marked by the State Geologist where gold has been 

 piclved up, the retreat for manj^ summers of Indiana's most famous author 

 and poet, James Whitcomb Riley, and immortalized by him. 



Some distance above the squat and burial-place of our pre-Columbian 

 lirethren wliich so ))eautifully overloolcs the village lived a settler of pio- 

 neer fame by tlie name of Pouge, who is supposed to have been killed by 

 the Indians that liad stolen liis liorses, wlien lie with his gnu followed the 

 trail northeast of ludianapolis to a stream which took its name after the 



