EARLY NATIVE AMERICAN INDIAN BURIAL MOUNDS IN HANCOCK COUNTY , INDIANA
Indiana Geology and Natural History (15th Annual Report),1885-1886
Archaeology
The Mound Builders have left but few traces of their occupancy of the territory embraced in Hancock County. Spear-heads, arrow-points, axes, and other stone implements, are occasionally picked up in cultivated fields, but I saw no mounds or tumuli in the county that I was reasonably certain were not of natural origin. There is, however, in section 11, township 16, range 7, some curious earthworks that probably belong to the age of the Mound Builders. These are located on the farm of Mr. H.F. Braddock, and lie on the south side of Brandywine, at the extreme point of a very abrupt bend of that creek. A ridge of clay land some ten feet above the creek bottom, and covered with oak timber, projects sharply into a piece of marshy land to within three hundred feet of the creek. From this point a levee, three feet high and ten feet wide, has been constructed to the ancient bed of the stream. The excavation which furnished the earth for this embankment is distinctly seen in the projecting point of high ground, and immediately back of this are three pits about eight feet in diameter and six feet deep, and east of these, about ten feet, are two other pits of the same dimensions, but not quite so deep. These works are evidently artificial and ancient, for large trees are now growing on the sides of these pits and on the embankment. About fifty yards east of these pits was formerly a small lake or pond, which may have been an excavation, but probably was natural. It is now drained. When, by what people, or for what purpose these works were made, we venture no conjecture.
