Destruction of Sacra Via

 

Drawing from "Ancient Mound at Marietta," by Samuel P. Hildreth, 

The American Pioneer, Volume 1, No. 10, October 1842, page 73.

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The Marietta Intelligencer, January 30, 1855:

The Ancient Works

Dear Mr. Editor . . .

One of the pleasantest walks about Marietta is that which takes you to across the elevated square and past the mounds in its neighborhood; but it almost makes me angry to attempt it, for I am compelled to witness the spoilations which are continually going on among our ancient works - the covered way especially. I do really wonder if the spirit of reverence has died out entirely among our citizens! One would surely think so. I don't know how I should feel if I was a bit influential MAN - but as it is, I am ready to blush whenever these things are mentioned, as they invariably are by strangers visiting the place as the objects most note-worthy about here. And I have noticed in all the letters from and about Marietta, either in this paper or others, that with but one exception The Ancient Works have burnished a prominent topic.

Those mounds, the relics of those once mighty Indians now no more, and the Campus Martius - the covered way - which we should cherish as almost sacred monuments of the perils of our brave forefathers - all "passing away" and there is a road cut through the covered way in one place while the rest is being dug away to be made into brick, I believe! Oh Young America!

M. Ellen Winthrope.

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The Marietta Intelligencer, August 11, 1858:

Governor Greiner, of Columbus, was down here some ten days ago and spent the Sabbath. On looking into his paper of last Friday, which did not reach us until last night, we find a two column article headed "A Trip to Marietta." . . . We have room to-day for but a few extracts from his article:

Vandalism

Returning, we passed over the ancient works, the location of which being within its boundaries, has given to Marietta much of its celebrity.

What was our surprise and mortification to find a brick yard upon the Covered Way, and about a dozen laborers busily employed with a pick axe and shovel in digging away the ancient embankments for the purpose of making brick. This sacrilegious outrage, this almost unheard of species of modern vandalism is permitted by the authorities of Marietta, because the contractor promises to pay to the city five cents a yard for the clay to make brick of. Shade of General Rufus Putnam! Only think of it! Digging down these celebrated ancient works to make brick! the inducement five cents a yard!!! What ought to be done with a City Council that would tolerate such an outrage?

A thousand thanks for that, Mr. Greiner. Not very complimentary to the Council, to be sure, but richly deserved. Will you be so kind as to suggest what ought to be done with men who would be guilty of such sacrilege. We can think of nothing bad enough.

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The Marietta Intelligencer, September 29, 1858:

The Marietta Mound and Earthworks

In the New York Christian Inquirer we find a letter from this place, which we judge from the initials to have been written by a gentleman at present a temporary resident here. He writes upon the ancient works of Marietta. From his letter we make the following extracts:

Marietta - remarkable for its beautiful situation among the hills, at the confluence of the Ohio and the Muskingum, and for its college, the best in Ohio, and its Unitarian church, the most perfect, perhaps, as a work of art, in the West - is not less remarkable for its vestiges of a race of men of whom the most vague traditions is lost, the ancient mound-builders. The relics here are, with one exception, as remarkable as any in the Mississippi Valley. They are numerous and extensive, far more so than I had ever supposed.

I knew that in coming to Marietta I was going to the very hear of the mound region, but I cannot picture to you my surprise and bewilderment when last week, on turning a corner, I came in sight of the burying-ground and saw rising in the very midst of the city of the dead, with faultless symmetry, one of the largest mounds of the West. I do not think I could have been more impressed with an unexpected view of the Egyptian Pyramids. In the midst of fresh graves it rises, the grave of the buried Past, a perfect cone, to the height of thirty feet. Some dozen of the largest Western trees are growing upon it, one an oak of great antiquity; but older yet are a few decaying trunks where trees of an unknown age once flourished and died.

When Marietta was settled, all the earthworks were covered with a dense forest; now the trees remain but upon two. I shall have something to say by-and-by of the desecration to which they have been subjected.

A detailed account of the Mound and Elevated Square follows, and the letter thus concludes:

All these works lie on a plateau above the valley of the Muskingum, a fair and grassy plain. There is one other work which to me was as marked as any. I mean the Sacra Via, or Covered Way, as the people generally term it.

From the larger square on the plateau there leads to the river's banks one of the most imposing of roads. It is about seven hundred feet long and lies between two artificial banks, which are in the highest place some twenty feet high. The centre of this road is raised and gracefully rounded. At the foot of the banks this Sacra Via is one hundred and fifty feet wide; from the top of the banks across it is two hundred and thirty feet. Probably nowhere in the world can a finer relic of ancient roadmaking be found.

As I stood on the banks of the Muskingum and let my eye run up this masterly ancient road, and in my mind saw it thronged with the men of an ancient civilization, passing to and from their religious rites on the plateau above, and saw the altars smoking with the victims, and the mound overshadowed with the Divine presence which they adored, I felt that this communing with the Spirit of the Past had richly paid me for my visit West; for the desire to be for a time among these scenes had been one motive in inducing me to spend a few months in Ohio.

There is one great drawback here, just as there is wherever the Present comes in contact with the Past. The utilitarian spirit of the day is here before me and is doing its customary work. It does seem a sacrilege to see a miserable modern Warren Street, running up and down the middle of the magnificent Sacra Via, and to see a road cut directly through the banks which form the sides of it, in order to accommodate the wants of a tannery.

A German colony, too, has located itself on the site of the smaller square, and with making cellars and ploughing gardens and laying out streets, the day is close at hand when not a vestige of it will be seen. The Sacra Via is already harmed beyond telling by the roads which I have mentioned. The top of the large altar is a cow pasture.

But thanks to a few wise souls, the smaller altar is fenced, and the mound is in the cemetery, and they are safe. No, not quite safe. Some are discussing seriously the expediency of excavating the sides of the latter and putting tombs therein. It makes me almost provoked, that is to day, it carries me about as far as Paul would have me go, in "being angry and sinning not," to see this utilitarian spirit wreaking its dollar-and-cent spite upon these mysterious remains. The intention of the first settlers of Marietta was to have them sacredly preserved.

In the frontispiece of the Smithsonian volume of Squier and Davis, you have a good colored view of the Marietta remains. The last picture in the work is a colored engraving of the great mound. In the body of the book is a chart and a full description. I suppose the volume is in most good libraries. That gives a better account than I can give, for I feel the need, of engraving to tell the whole story in a worthy way. But no view equals the seeing. When you look at that mound and stand on the altars, and throw your glance up the Covered Way, you are in the very presence of the past, and the spirit of that gray, dim, mysterious Past oppresses you with its vague and uncertain shadows, but delights you with the bewilderment which it awakes.

W. L. G.

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The Marietta Republican, March 29, 1861:

Sacra Via Destroyed

Sacra Via has been destroyed; several thousand yards of earth have been cut away and made into brick by the retiring member of the Council from the Second Ward. It is pretty generally understood that he has never paid or offered to pay therefore. If this be true would it not be well for voters to ponder the matter well before consenting to return him again?

One of the most beautiful spots in our City has been destroyed by our iconoclastic Councilman, and though he cannot restore the view, he should be compelled to make some recompense for his vandalism. Think of this, voters of the Second Ward.

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History of Marietta and Washington County, Ohio, and Representative Citizens, Martin Register Andrews (1902), page 367:

St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church 

[Old church building on lower Fourth Street, demolished in 1917.]

The church was begun in 1850 and after three years completed. The greatest amount subscribed by any one individual was $100, and that amount was given by but three persons, i.e., Father Perry, Hugh Brennan and John Burke.

What may be of interest to state is the fact that the clay our of which the bricks for the new building were made was taken from an old Indian mound - supposed to be an old prehistoric fortification, situated about where now passes Sacra Via street.

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The Marietta Times, May 20, 1869:

John Greiner Song

The following original song was sung by Governor Greiner at a gathering of the Odd Fellows, in this place, on Wednesday night, 12th inst.

Floating down the blue Muskingum,
     In the merry month of May;
Forests filled with sweetest music,
     Fields with flowers in bright array,
Coming all, with hearts as lightly
     As the dancing waters flow;
On the way to Marietta,
     On the river Ohio.

Nestling homesteads, blooming orchards,
     "Cattle on a thousand hills;"
Sparkling through the fragrant meadows,
     Murmuring brooks, and crystal rills;
Valley of the happy Elk-Eye,
     Richer landscapes who can show!
Journeying on to Marietta,
     On the river Ohio.

Odd Fellows of the Ancient Order
     Built the mystic Covered Way;
"Campus Martius," "Sacra Via,"
     Mounds and Plain, their skill display.
Good old fellows - funny fellows,
     Did a heap of work to show
Our Grand Lodge in Marietta,
     On the river Ohio.

Proudly thought the ancient builders
     Of these Mounds and Way and Plain,
Monuments of skill and labor
     Should forever here remain.
Vain! - for hands so sacrilegious,
     Clay upheaved so long ago,
Make the bricks for Marietta,
     On the river Ohio.

Now, strange fellows, queer good fellows,
     All Odd Fellows, here we see,
The White - the Pink - the Blue - the Green
     And the scarleted degree.
Boasting nigh four hundred Lodges,
     Thirty thousand members true,
All like these, in Marietta,
     On the river Ohio.

They feed the hungry, clothe the naked,
     Stand by those who stand in need;
Fear the Lord and love your neighbor,
     Is the true Odd Fellows' creed.
Aid the Daughters of Rebecca;
     Then, when you to Heaven will go,
You'll remember Marietta,
     On the river Ohio.

When our Order it shall govern,
     Men no more will be deceivin',
Wives no longer will be scolding,
     Odd Fellows will then be even.
Every maid shall have a sweetheart,
     Every widow have a beau,
And a home in Marietta,
     On the river Ohio.

Daughters of Rebecca, blooming,
     Brethren, they are something slow,
Don't get home till nearly midnight,
     Dearest Becky's - is that so?
Ridin' a goat is rather tiresome,
     Sad experience tells us so;
Prove it we can in Marietta,
     On the river Ohio!