Lake Maxinkuckee Its Intrigue History & Genealogy Culver, Marshall, Indiana

One Township's Yesterdays Chapter IV  



TRACES OF VERY EARLY SETTLERS.


    "But on the shores of Time . each leaves some trace of its passage."
    Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
     


SOME OF THE VERY EARLY SETTLERS of this region were so huge and unique that their remains, when found, are apt to become museum pieces. That certain species of so-called prehistoric animals existed in the Union Township area in the days of long ago is apparent; in fact, it may safely be said that, beyond the shadow of a doubt, such creatures frequented this region eons ago. They left traces; in truth, they left more readable vestiges than did the earliest man in these parts.

Fortunately for those people s interested in the history of very ancient times, the animals of the post-glacial period were larger than the ordinary animals of today. Their bodies were portly and their skeletons big and quite a sight to behold. They died, too, at a period, and in localities or under circumstances, it seems, favorable to the preservation of their remains.

Reminiscences bear out the belief that certain kinds of prehistoric animals roamed this immediate region. CLARENCE BEHMER recalls seeing the bones of a large animal which were uncovered about fifty-five years back, in the north central part of the township. Some DITCHING WAS BEING DONE ON WHAT WAS THEN HIS FATHER'S FARM AND IS STILL THE BEHMER farm, north of Hibbard. The ditch was being dug 'across low, flat marsh land, where the soil was muck and marl. The bones were found about three feet down, which was, it seems, the depth of the upper layer of muck, for the parts of the skeleton uncovered apparently were lying at the top of the marl bed. A part of the backbone, or sections of vertebrae, comprised the find. The bones belonged to an animal that must have been considerably larger than a cow. Surely, there was no such animal ever bred or used for domestic purposes in those days, over half a century ago.

Those bones found on the BEHMER farm were unusual, because the memory of the discovery has survived to the present day. They were a puzzle to those who saw them, and the animal they belonged to, at some time or other, was nameless.

In 1934, as these lines are being written, another discovery of old animal bones is puzzling a few people interested in such antiques. This is another Union Township find. Men were working with a large motor-driven shovel, building a runway for an airport, a Civil Works Administration project, on a hill northeast of Lake Maxinkuckee, when the scoop disturbed the bones that had been lying some six or eight feet below the surface for no one knows how long. One tooth was saved as a curiosity. Other bones of a skeleton were uncovered, but in the grading workmen turned them under again.

Found on High Land.


These relics were found in yellow clay. They were surrounded by it. Above the clay was a layer of sandy loam. The discovery was made on high ground, where evidently no drainage, at least in recent times, could affect the character and contents of the underlying clay deposit. The bones were on a high point of land, overlooking the lake and evidently part of a morainic [moronic] ridge. The discovery of the bones in such a locality makes especially interesting the nature of the ground. There were very few boulders found during the construction work, not more than a dozen all told, but all of them were good sized ones.

Among them was a great big one buried about eight to ten feet deep. It was in this association of boulders, buried in the glacial drift of a high ridge, that the bones were found. There may be some significance in this, but since the writer is by no means a geologist, he can only advance the supposition that, like the boulders, the carcass or perhaps only the skeleton of the deceased creature may have been carried to this spot by the glacial lee or by the waters after the glacier drew back.

The fact that these bones were found on high ground and not in muck or marl, as have been the others reported in Marshall County, is intriguing, and brings up several questions: Did the animal die on this spot? if so, how did the skeleton become buried so deeply? Could the creature have been overtaken by the glacier? Or did it succumb !o death before the glacier came? Is it possible as before suggested, that the animal died elsewhere and its remains were transported here, perhaps by flood or by ice floes? And what sort of creature was it, anyway?

After all the supposing, there remains but one definite thing to be done, and that is to consult some authority who knows infinitely more than we do about such relics of the past ages. Action has been taken to solve, if possible, the mystery;, some of the foremost authorities of the country have been asked for their opinions. And before we hear their verdict, let us proceed with a recital of the evidence already before us.

Find Largo Tooth.


At this point, the story of what may prove to be the first authenticated discovery -of prehistoric animal bones 3n Union Township, apparently simmers down to the tale of a tooth. From the bones that were uncovered, one lone tooth was selected and taken as a curiosity to Culver Military Academy, where in due time it found its way to Dr. R. O. LEONARD, dental surgeon. Gauging the tooth with understanding eyes, the doctor expressed the professional opinion that it belonged to a prehistoric beast. Furthermore, he asserted that he could not conscientiously perform any dental mechanics on the specimen, simply because he found it to be in an excellent state of preservation and not really in need of any filling or other tampering. The tooth evidently came from a healthy animal; the tooth itself was in a healthy condition.

As compared with the tooth of a full-grown horse, or even a Mule old enough to vote the Democratic ticket, this specimen proved to be much larger and longer and somewhat differently formed. The comparison, of course, is of teeth similarly located in the mouth. Besides, the specimen was found to differ from the teeth of most animals in that the chewing surface is square. Sergeant JAMES RICH, of the Black Horse Troop, who is familiar with the structure of the jaws of horses and various other animals, expressed the opinion, after (seeing the tooth, that the chewing device of the average horse, similarly placed in the skull, would be decidedly smaller and lighter. This specimen weighs, free of all foreign matter, a little over one quarter of a pound. This dental specimen of ancient vintage has several marked pecularities [peculiarities]: The entire tooth is rectangular in shape. The crown or chewing surface is almost precisely one inch square, and one and one quarter inches, measured diagonally across the crown. The length of the tooth, from the crown to the root tips where broken off, is nearly 31/2 inches on the long side and 2 3/4 inches on the short side. The chewing surface is abraded, the enamel having been almost completely worn off, evidently 'by grinding. The surface has a corrugated or "ripple-marked" appearance.

Only about one third of the crown is left: two thirds at least is abraded. There are two ways for this loss of crown; erosion and abrasion. Surely, in this specimen, Dr. LEONARD believes, it is a case of abrasion.

The sides of the specimen are deeply creased. It is a four-rooted tooth, with denuded root ends. All of the ends have been broken or stripped off. The tooth is of a yellowish ivory color, with a ring of umber brown around it at the gum margin.

Teeth Differ.


Comparing the 1934 tooth with the mastodon teeth found near Walnut in 1874, one finds that they differ considerably. Two of the mastodon teeth were almost exactly alike, each weighing six pounds and measuring eight inches long, seven inches high from the paint of the root to the upper surface, and four inches wide. They were further described as having five divisions or separate grinders. The enamel was composed of a mixture of black, white and brownish gray. A third tooth was 4 1/2 inches long, 3 1/2 inches wide, and three inches high, the roots having been broken off. The weight was about two pounds. But the creature that those teeth evidently belonged to, according to a newspaper account of the time, was "certainly a huge old monster for among other things it had several ribs "almost like the ribs of a mammoth man-of-war ship in size."

The attention of Professor E. S. RIGGS of the Department of Geology of Field Museum in Chicago was called to the 1934 discovery, and finally, on the request of Dr. S. C. SIMMS, Director of the museum, the tooth was sent there for examination and identification.

So ends a chapter dealing to a large extent with the tale of the landing field tooth. The tale does not get very far. The tooth remains a curiosity and an object of wonderment. And if the readers will agree to leave the beaten path for a few moments and pay a visit to the Wonderland of the well-known Alice, perhaps by listening intently they may hear that adventurous child inquiring:

    Is it possible that this is a thesis on dental surgery?"
    "No," replies the March Hare, frowning, "it is nothing of the kind, merely the tale of a tooth."
    "I didn't know teeth had tails," says Alice, with some severity.
    "I always say what I mean," says the March Hare, emphatically.
    "Then mean what you say," replies Alice. "I never was good at riddles."