PARK AND CEMETERY. 
25‘ 
this now contains the remains of 105 Clark County 
soldiers. The lot was donated for that purpose by 
the association to the G. A. R. In excavations in 
other parts of the cemetery Indian remains have 
been found, leading to the conclusion that the 
grounds must have been used as a burying place 
long years ago. 
The flora of Ferncliff consists of nearly all of the 
native trees, shrubs, vines and wild flowers, some of 
which are rarely found in any other part of the 
country. This affords many opportunities for 
studied effects. 
On a knoll in the cemetery now called Sylvan 
Hill, are to be found the remnants of what once 
must have been a botanical garden, wherein was 
planted a great variety of such herbs and roots as 
the Indians used for remedies. It is not known to 
have been planted specially for this purpose, but 
from the great number of different botanical speci- 
mens on so small an area, coupled with the fact of 
HANGING ROCK, LOOKING WEST. 
the well-known medicinal character of some of 
them, points to this conclusion as a plausible one. 
The water supply comes from a spring which 
issues from an aperture in the solid rock. 
Ferncliff Cemetery is carried out on the lawn 
plan, and its business is conducted with a view to 
perpetual care. The development of this feature is 
receiving particular attention from its importance. 
There are a number of attractive monuments 
distributed over the grounds, as is suggested by the 
views. The association is now contemplating the 
erection of a chapel and an office building. 
GRAVES OF THE WINNEBAGO INDIANS. 
During the days of the early settlement of northern- 
central Iowa, by the whites, the region was occupied 
mainly by the Winnebago Indians. Their home it had 
been for a long peiiod of time; and it continued to be 
so to a greater or less extent, for a considerable period 
after. For a long time after their final removal to their 
reservation in southern Minnesota, by the United States 
government, these Indians made frequent visits to the 
scenes of their childhood and visited the graves of tleir 
dead. 
These people, like most other Indians, venerated the 
burial places of their dead, and would protect them at 
any cost from desecration. At least five different 
methods of burial are known by the writer to have been 
practised by these Indians in the region named; but 
only one of the more common methods will be here 
spoken of. 
Just to the right and slightly above where the Little 
Cedar joins the Big Cedar river, in Iowa, is a little vil- 
lage called Bradford, said to have been named in honor 
of Captain Bradford, a commanding chief of the Winne- 
bagoes in the early days. Bradford was a good man, 
and was always trusted and beloved by the whites. 
Along the Cedars, near Bradford, was one of the 
principal camps of the Winnebagoes, and had been long 
before the whites made their settlements there. Bor- 
dering the Little Cedar at Bradford, and extending for 
many miles to the north, forming in fact the eastern val- 
ley side of the stream, is a high and most beautiful belt 
of country. No timber occurs on this elevated area 
near Bradford; but all is open prairie, or was before the 
settlement of the whites. On this elevated ridge, over- 
look ng their camping ground below, was one of the 
Winnebago burial grounds. Here more than twelve In- 
dians had been buried. 
After death their bodies were carefully wrapped in 
their blankets, and then carried to this burial place, and 
laid on the prairie sod. A quantity of provisions, their 
guns, and other things, supposed to be needed in the 
“happy hunting ground,” were placed at their side. Over 
the body then an inclosure was formed by driving split- 
out staves or slabs into the ground obliquely on each 
side, meeting at the top in an inverted V-shaped form. 
As their graves were located on the prairie, no log 
crib was built around the inclosures, as was often done 
in the groves; but, instead, clods of earth were arranged 
all around the outside, completely covering the slabs 
from view, save a slight portion at the top. The ends 
of the structure were closed by a wall of sods, and the 
whole had the shape of the roof of a house, built on the 
ground. 
The Indians in passing up and down the streams 
during the summer and fall placed wisps of June grass 
on the graves of their dead. Clement L. Webster in 
Popular Science News. 
Mr. William Falconer says of the late Mr. Charles A. 
Dana: “We never knew a private gentleman who knew 
trees and plants generally better than did Mr. Dana; he 
knew their geography, history, adaptability and use, and 
there was an exceedingly warm place in his heart for in- 
telligent horticulturists. In his death America has lost 
one of her greatest and noblest men, and horticulture a 
founder of what is most refined in gardening.” 
