Caleb Atwater
Encyclopedia
Caleb Atwater was an American archaeologist, historian, and politician whose career is associated with the state of Ohio
.
, Massachusetts
, the son of a carpenter, and educated at Williams College
. After failing as a schoolmaster in New York City, he studied theology and became a Presbyterian minister. Unsatisfied with that profession, after the death of his first wife (Diana Lawrence, with whom he had a child) he studied law with a judge in Marcellus, New York, and was admitted to the bar. Instead of practicing, he entered into business and promptly went bankrupt. As a result of this failure, in 1815 he moved with his new wife (Belinda Butler) to Circleville
on the Ohio frontier, where he did practice law for six years, later had an assured income as postmaster of the town, and served in the state legislature. He and his second wife had nine children. Circleville, founded only five years before the Atwaters arrived there, took its name from the circular Hopewell earthworks on which it was sited.
with the Winnebago Indians
after he lost his seat in the state legislature. These interests led to two of his books, the Remarks Made on a Tour to Prairie du Chien (1831), which includes an interview with the infamous Sauk leader Quashquame
, and An Essay on Education (1841), which contained his most mature thoughts on the subject. During the nineteenth century he was best known for his History of the State of Ohio (1838), the first attempt at a history of that state. Both the Tour to Prairie du Chien and the History of Ohio
contain a great deal of natural history lore as well, an area in which he also contributed a number of articles to the American Journal of Science
.
Like others of the time, Atwater was not content merely to describe; he felt a necessity to speculate on who had built the mounds and about what had happened to those people, for contemporary Indians had no knowledge of the mounds’ origin. It happens that working about the same time from a base in Lexington, Kentucky, were two other investigators: the merchant John D. Clifford and his friend C.S. Rafinesque, naturalist and professor at Transylvania University. In the university’s well-stocked library as well as the town’s reading room he had founded, Clifford uncovered documentation supporting his own theory about the origin of the earthworks, while Rafinesque went about measuring and mapping those near Lexington. Clifford’s publication of “Indian Antiquities,” eight long letters in Lexington’s short-lived Western Review and Miscellaneous Magazine, became the source—more widely circulated by Atwater—of the notion that the mounds were the work of Hindus who originated in India, came by sea to North America, and had been driven south into Mexico by the more warlike Indians who followed them. Rafinesque added that it was the ancestors of such contemporary Indians as the Lenape who were among those latter-day Indians, and that they had crossed over the frozen Bering Strait from Asia.
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
.
Early years
Caleb Atwater was born in North AdamsNorth Adams, Massachusetts
North Adams is a city in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 13,708 as of the 2010 census, making it the least populous city in the state...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, the son of a carpenter, and educated at Williams College
Williams College
Williams College is a private liberal arts college located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams. Originally a men's college, Williams became co-educational in 1970. Fraternities were also phased out during this...
. After failing as a schoolmaster in New York City, he studied theology and became a Presbyterian minister. Unsatisfied with that profession, after the death of his first wife (Diana Lawrence, with whom he had a child) he studied law with a judge in Marcellus, New York, and was admitted to the bar. Instead of practicing, he entered into business and promptly went bankrupt. As a result of this failure, in 1815 he moved with his new wife (Belinda Butler) to Circleville
Circleville, Ohio
Circleville is a city in and the county seat of Pickaway County, Ohio, United States, along the Scioto River. The population was 13,485 at the 2000 census.-History:...
on the Ohio frontier, where he did practice law for six years, later had an assured income as postmaster of the town, and served in the state legislature. He and his second wife had nine children. Circleville, founded only five years before the Atwaters arrived there, took its name from the circular Hopewell earthworks on which it was sited.
Political career
Elected to the state’s house of representatives in 1821, Atwater supported “internal improvements” including legislation that eventually made possible the Ohio and Erie Canal, and he called for tax-supported public schools, equal education for boys and girls, and better teachers’ pay. An enthusiastic Jacksonian Democrat, he was appointed by President Andrew Jackson in 1829 as one of three commissioners to negotiate a treatyTreaty of Prairie du Chien
The Treaty of Prairie du Chien may refer to any of several treaties made and signed in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin between the United States, representatives from the Sioux, Sac and Fox, Menominee, Ioway, Winnebago and the Anishinaabeg Native American peoples.-1825:The first treaty of Prairie du...
with the Winnebago Indians
Ho-Chunk
The Ho-Chunk, also known as Winnebago, are a tribe of Native Americans, native to what is now Wisconsin and Illinois. There are two federally recognized Ho-Chunk tribes, the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin and Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska....
after he lost his seat in the state legislature. These interests led to two of his books, the Remarks Made on a Tour to Prairie du Chien (1831), which includes an interview with the infamous Sauk leader Quashquame
Quashquame
Quashquame was a Sauk chief; he was the principal signer of the 1804 treaty that ceded Sauk land to the United States government...
, and An Essay on Education (1841), which contained his most mature thoughts on the subject. During the nineteenth century he was best known for his History of the State of Ohio (1838), the first attempt at a history of that state. Both the Tour to Prairie du Chien and the History of Ohio
History of Ohio
The history of Ohio includes many thousands of years of human activity. What is now Ohio was probably first settled by Paleo-Indian peoples, who lived in the area as early as 13,000 BCE. Later ancestors of Native Americans were known as the Archaic peoples...
contain a great deal of natural history lore as well, an area in which he also contributed a number of articles to the American Journal of Science
American Journal of Science
The American Journal of Science is the United States of America's longest-running scientific journal, having been published continuously since its conception in 1818 by Professor Benjamin Silliman, who edited and financed it himself...
.
Archeological career
Today, however, he is chiefly known as one of the first to undertake a serious study of the prehistoric Adena and Hopewell earthworks and their associated artifacts of human manufacture found throughout the Ohio Valley. The result of this work was the 160 page report he published in 1820 in the first volume of the Transactions of the American Antiquarian Society under the title “Description of the Antiquities Discovered in the State of Ohio and Other Western States.” The account is well illustrated with woodcuts of artifacts and with engraved maps of prehistoric sites, including one of Circleville itself (Plate v) where the earthworks have long since been obliterated. Although the maps were stylized and probably none too accurate, they preserve all that is known today of other sites that also were destroyed by advancing civilization. Some of the maps of other sites as well as their descriptions were contributed by Atwater’s acquaintances.Like others of the time, Atwater was not content merely to describe; he felt a necessity to speculate on who had built the mounds and about what had happened to those people, for contemporary Indians had no knowledge of the mounds’ origin. It happens that working about the same time from a base in Lexington, Kentucky, were two other investigators: the merchant John D. Clifford and his friend C.S. Rafinesque, naturalist and professor at Transylvania University. In the university’s well-stocked library as well as the town’s reading room he had founded, Clifford uncovered documentation supporting his own theory about the origin of the earthworks, while Rafinesque went about measuring and mapping those near Lexington. Clifford’s publication of “Indian Antiquities,” eight long letters in Lexington’s short-lived Western Review and Miscellaneous Magazine, became the source—more widely circulated by Atwater—of the notion that the mounds were the work of Hindus who originated in India, came by sea to North America, and had been driven south into Mexico by the more warlike Indians who followed them. Rafinesque added that it was the ancestors of such contemporary Indians as the Lenape who were among those latter-day Indians, and that they had crossed over the frozen Bering Strait from Asia.