Springfield had dug down to a depth of about six feet when his spade struck against some hard substance. Scraping away the dirt Springfield was surprised to find that he had unearthed a portion of a human skeleton. Continuing his work, he soon had the entire skeleton unearthed. The skeleton, which was intact and in excellent state of preservation lay on its back, with both arms extended out at right angles with the body, showing that it had never been enclosed in a coffin. In order to unearth the bones of the arms and hands and legs it was necessary to dig into the sides and one end of the grave for quite a distance.
When the skeleton was finally entirely uncovered it was seen to be that of a giant man, which when measured, proved to be about eight feet in length. Springfield is a man of average height, but the hip bones of the skeleton were found to be fully six inches longer than his are. The other bones of the skeleton were proportionately long. The teeth were in sound condition. The cheek bones were wide, and the skull tapered up to a peak, the forehead slanting upward.
After the skeleton of the giant had been removed from the grave Springfield continued has work of digging, and had reached the depth of about eight inches more when he unearthed another skeleton that had been lying directly underneath that of the first. The second skeleton was not as long as the first, being between five and six feet in height.
There is no doubt that the two bodies were buried years before the land there was begun to be used as a modern cemetery, and from the immense size of the skeletons that was first unearthed and the shape of the skull, it is thought that the skeleton must be those of prehistoric human beings.
History of Seneca County, Ohio, 1911
“There were several mounds on the Culver place, form which have from time to time been plowed up
bones and ancient crockery. In 1850 one of these mounds was opened and in it was a large skeleton,
with a full shaped skull. And among other things a stone pitcher, which seemed to have been made of
sand and clay, and smaller vessels filled with clam shells were found therein. These seemed as strange
to the Indians as they did to the whites.”
History of Madison County, Ohio, 1915
“Another burial mound is located on the north bank of Big Darby, about one mile northwest of Plain
City, and as this territory originally belonged to Madison county it will be proper to mention it briefly
here. It was originally about the same size of the larger mound in Jefferson Township, but is much
smaller today. In 1848, a society called ‘the Rectifiers” was organized in Plain City, the object at
which was the improvements of morals, the advancement of education, benevolence and institutions of
charity, and the development of archaeological history. In 1850, the society opened this mound from
which they took the remains of some skeletons. The thigh bones were very massive, while the jaw
bones were sufficiently large to slip over the face of the ordinary man, demonstrating that the beings to
whom they belonged must have been of extraordinary size and proportions.”
A Twentieth Century History of Hardin County, Ohio, 1916
“The most important evidences that the Mound Builders once occupied this region are the mounds
that they left here and there throughout the county. One of the most important of these lies in Hale
Township between Mt. Victory and Ridgeway, and from which hundreds of loads of gravel have been
taken to build pikes. This mound covered an area of about one and one-half acres, and the first settlers
of that part of the county said it was covered with a very heavy growth of timber when they came. At
first it was thought the Indians had it for a burying ground, but the Indians knew nothing of the bodies
there buried. In 1856 when a railroad was built through the southern part of the county connecting
Cleveland with Cincinnati, this mound was ruthlessly torn to pieces for the purpose of furnishing
ballast for the track. While the excavation was going on more than three hundred skeletons were dug
up, most of which were dumped with the gravel on the railroad track. A few of the bones were saved,
some of them being gigantic in size. Many of the bodies had been buried in sitting posture, and all
about them were evidences of fire and the remains of various articles… As the Indians knew nothing of
the fact of who was buried there, it is safe to say the bodies must have been placed there many years
before the white man knew anything about the country.”
A Standard History of Ross County, Ohio, Vol., I, 1917
“It is worthy of note that one of the most perfect skulls ever found in the mounds, and one which
incontestably belonged to the race who built the earthworks, was discovered in a singularly constructed
mound upon the summit of High Hill, which overlooks the Valley of Scioto, and is situated four miles
below Chillicothe upon the west side of the river. This skull, described by Professor Morton in his
elaborate work, “Crania America,” was of unusually large size, and exhibited a facial angle of eightyone degrees. The internal capacity of the skull was ninety cubic inches-seven inches greater than the
mean capacity of the Mongolian skull, three inches greater than the Caucasian, and eight inches greater
than that of the American Indian.”
Large Dinaric skull with flattened occipant and protruding brow ridge. Skull was uncovered in Ross County, Ohio and presented in Crania America. History of Chillicothe County , 1946
“Near Plainfield, about 1840, Mr. J. D. Workman opened a small earthen mound on his place. He
found nothing except several stone relics. Another about two miles below was excavated some ten
years later by Wesley Patrick. It contained a few bones belonging to the human skeleton, including the
skull, jaw bone and thigh. These were of an unusually large size and indicated the skeleton to be fully
seven feet in length.”
Many of the mounds around Chillicothe were destroyed by early archaeologist, save this large mound north of the city. The Nephilim Chronicles, A Travel Guide to the Ancient Ruins in the Ohio Valley, 2010.
History of Knox County, Ohio
“In Liberty Township, on the farm once owned by Joseph Beeney, was once a mound of considerable
dimensions. It was leveled for a building spot. In it was found a skull of immense size, so large that
the largest man in the county could put his head into the cavity with great ease, still leaving unoccupied
space.”
History of Chillicothe County , 1946
“Fifty-four years ago a stone mound was opened on a hilltop near the Colonel’s house [Colonel Pren
Methams] A rock pile eighteen feet square and five feet deep, composed of sandstone layers, was
removed, revealing a sepulcher floored with a large, flat sandstone, and walled with sandstone slabs.
On the floor lay part of a skull, a thigh bone, teeth and a few other fragments of a skeleton. The thigh
bone indicated the dead to have been of unusual height, more than seven feet.”
Athens Messenger, August 5, 1970
Beware of the Super-Size Indian Let's hope the men who are building highways around Athens aren't superstitious because they just might upsent the resting place of a long dead super-size Indian. And as anyone knows who believes in spirits, there's nothing as nasty as a sleeping sachem, roused from his grave by a bunch of palefaces.
The fellow rests under Harmony Road where he curves eastward near the United Dairy. That's in the
area where the Appalachian Highway will join Route 33 and the Stimson Avenue extension will cross the Hocking River over the structure that will replace the old East Mill Bridge.
Now we really don't know if the guys with bulldoz
ers and drag lines and earthmovers are going to dig up that part of Harmony Road, but if they do, then let them be warned. Resting under the curve is believed to be an Indian whose companions were eight feet long, and he might be larger.
Back in 1905 a county highway crew was working on Harmony Raod when a large mound stood in their way, so they began excavating the obstacle and soon uncovered a burial place containing 32 skeletons. Thurman Knox was the foreman and he related the story years later to the late C. H. Harris of The Messenger, telling him the skeletons were more than eight feet tall.
Over the entire mound was a foot thick layer of plastic clay in which gravel was mixed. This formed a protective covering over the entire mound, making it impervious to rainfall. Supporting the roof were clay columns of the diameter of a barrel and made in sections about as long as a barrel and set on top of each other.
Knox told Harris that when thew bones of the 32 men were uncovered all but one disintegrated to dust when exposed to air. One skeleton of a man between eight and nine feet tall was recovered almost intact. The bones of the forearm, partially eaten away, were still several inches longer than those of a larger man. The jawbone filled with perfect teeth was so large it fitted over the jaw of a large man like a mask.
The excavation at East Mill went down 15 feet and in the center of the skeleton group was found a hard clay box-like structure about six feet wide and 12 feet long. It was never opened and now lies under the center of the road near the dairy. [...]
Oregon
Hammond Times, (Indiana) June 30, 1939
DISCOVER INDIAN RELICS ON FARM Salem, O.-(I N S)- Discovery of ancient skeletons and priceless relics in an Indian mound at North Benton, northwest of Salem, by two Alliance, O. mail carriers, has brought hundreds of visitors to the scene and attracted the attention of expert archaeologist.
The two amateur archaeologist, Roy Saltsman and Willis Magrath, made the excavation on the farm of John Malmsberry.
After examining the mound, Richard G. Morgan, state archaeologist, declared that the work of the two Alliance men was the most important archaeological discovery in this section of the state in recent years.
Morgan said that the remains were those of the Hopewell Indians, who supposedly migrated to America across the Bering Straights long before the advent of the white man. He estimated the age of the findings at more than 2,000 years old.
One skeleton uncovered was that of a man, apparently a chief, estimated to have been nearly seven feet tall. Whose skull was 25 inches in circumference.
Other findings included flint arrows, the stones of three sacrificial alters, spear heads, flake knives and beautifully wrought objects of copper.
Pennsylvania
Smithsonian Institutions Bureau of Ethnology, 1898-99 On the upper terrace, within the corporate limits of Monongahela City, are situated the garden and greenhouse of Mr. I. S. Crall. Two ravines on the east and west sides open directly south into Pigeon Creek, and their erosion has lowered the ground until it is surrounded by higher land on every side except along the bluff next to the creek. The further side of the creek being bounded by a high hill, the view from the level land between the ravines is shut off in every direction, except through a narrow pass looking up the river, thus the tract is surrounded on every side by hills close at hand, ranging from 40 to 250 feet above its level. In excavating for foundation walls and other purposes, Mr. Crall has, at different times, unearthed skeletons, some of large size; the ground is strewn with mussel shells, flint chips, etc.
Pg. 495 On the eastern side of this level, near the break of the ravine, and close to a never-failing spring, stands the largest mound above the one at McKees rocks, measuring 9 feet in height by 60 feet in diameter… At the center a hole measuring 3 feet across the top and 2 feet into the original soil. In this were fragments of human bones too soft to be preserved. They indicated an adult of large size. The gray clay was unbroken over this hole. Directly over this, above the clay and resting upon it, were portions of another large skeleton, with which was found part of an unburned clay tube or pipe.
Rock Valley, Iowa Bee, January 7, 1921
UNEARTH SKELETON OF GIANT
Bones of Supposed Mound Builder
Those of Man Eight or Nine Feet High
Dr. W. J. Holland, curator of the Carnegie museum, Pittsburgh, and his assistant, Dr,. Peterson, a few days ago opened up a mound of the ancient race that inhabited this section and secured the skeleton of a man who when in the flesh was between eight and nine feet in height, says a Greensburg (Pa) dispatch to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
This mound, which was originally about 100 feet long and more than 12 feet high, has been somewhat worn down by time. It is on the J. B. Secrist farm in South Huntington township. This farm has been in the Secrist name for more than a century.
The most interesting feature in the recent excavation was the mummified torso of the human body, which the experts figured was laid to rest at least 400 years ago. Portions of the bones dug up and the bones in the legs, Prof. Peterson declares, are those of a person between eight and nine feet in height. The scientist figures that the skeleton was the framework of a person of the prehistoric race that inhabited this section before the American Indians.
The torso and the portions of the big skeleton were shipped to the Carnegie museum. Drs Holland and Peterson supervised the explorations on the Secrist mound with the greatest of care. The curators believe the man whose skeleton they secured belonged to the mound builder class.
Tennessee
The Natural and Aboriginal History of Tennessee, John Haywood, 1768
On the farm of Mr. John Miller of White County are a number of small graves, and also many large ones. The bones in which show that the bodies to which they belonged, when alive, must have been seven feet high and upwards.
About the year 1814 Mr. Lawrence found, in Scarborough’s Cave, which is on the Calf-killer River, a branch of Cany Fork, about 12 or 15 miles from Sparta, in a little room in the cave, many human bones of monstrous size. He took a jawbone and applied it to his own face, and when his chin touched the concave of the chin bone, the hinder ends of the jawbone did not touch the skin of his face on either side. He took a thighbone, and applied the upper end of it to his own hip joint, and the lower end reached four inches below the knee joint.
Mr. Andrew Bryan saw a grave opened about 4 miles northwardly from Sparta, on the Calf-killer Fork. He took a thighbone, and raising up his knee, he applied the knee-joint of the bone to the extreme length of his own knee, and the upper end of the bone passed out behind him as far as the width of his body. Mr. Lawrence is about 5 feet 10 inches high, and Mr. Bryan about 5 feet 9.
Mr. Sharp Whitley was in a cave near the place where Mr. Bryan says the graves opened. In it were many of these bones. The skulls lie plentifully in it, and all the other bones of the human body; all in proportion, and of monstrous size.
Human bones were taken out of a mound on Tennessee River, below Kingston, which Mr. Brown saw measured by Mr. Simms. The thighbones of those skeletons, when applied to Mr. Simms thigh, were an inch and a half longer than his, form the point of his hip to his knee; supposing the whole frame to have been in the same proportion, the body it belonged to must have been seven feet high or upwards.
Colonel William Sheppard, late of North Carolina, in the year 1807 dug up, on the plantation of Col. Joel Lewis, 20 miles form Nashville, the jawbone of a man, which easily covered the whole chin and jaw of colonel Lewis, a man of large size.
Mr. Cassady dug up a skeleton from under a small mound near the large one at Bledgoe’s Lick in Sumner County, which measured little short of seven feet in length.
Human bones have been dug up at the plantation where Judge Overton now lives, in Davidson County; four miles south westwardly form Nashville, in making a cellar. These bones were of extraordinary size. The under jawbone of one skeleton very easily slipped over the jaw of Mr. Childress, a stout man, full fleshed, very robust and considerably ov
er the common size. These bones were dug up within traces of ancient walls, in the form of a square of two or three hundred yards in length, situated near an excellent, never failing spring of pure and well tasted water. The spring was enclosed within the walls. A great number of skeletons were found within the enclosure, a few feet below the surface of the earth. On the outer side were the traces of an old ditch and rampart, thrown up on the inside. Some small mounds were also within the enclosure.
At the plantation of Mr. William Sheppard, in the county of Giles seven and a half miles north of Pulaski, on the east side of the creek, is a cave with several rooms. The first is 15 feet wide, and 27 long, 4 feet deep; the upper part of solid and even rock. Into this cave was a passage, which had been so artfully covered that it escaped detection till lately. A flat stone, three feet wide and four feet long, rested upon the ground, and inclining against the cave, closed part of the mouth. At the end of this, and on the side of the mouth left open, is another stone rolled, which filling this also, closed the whole mouth. When these rocks were removed and the cave opened, on the inside of the cave were found several bones-the jawbone of a child, the arm bone of a man, the skulls and thighbones of men. The whole bottom of the cave was covered with flat stones of a bluish hue, being closely joined together, and of different forms and sizes. They formed the floor of the cave. Upon the floor the bones were laid. The hat of Mr. Egbert Sheppard, seven inched wide and eight inches long, but just covered and slipped over one of the skulls.
About ten miles form Sparta, in White county, a conical mound was lately opened, and in the center of it was found a skeleton eight feet in length. With it was found a stone of the flint kind.
At Fort Chartres was found a human skull of astonishing magnitude. A jawbone was taken form the mound near Natchez, which the gentleman who saw it could with ease put over his face; also a leg bone, which from the ground reached three inches above the knee. Many other instances might be enumerated to establish the position that a race of men of much larger bulk than any in America of this day, formerly resided upon the Cumberland River and its waters, and upon the Tennessee and its waters, and below them upon the Mississippi, as well as upon the rivers of north of Cumberland and in some parts of Virginia.
The Nephilim Chronicles: Fallen Angels in the Ohio Valley Page 39