Burned Bones, Mysterious Timber Circles & the Rites of the Ancients - Adena Culture in Mason County
Mason County, West Virginia is a place rich in history. Founded in 1804, the county is named after George Mason, who was a delegate at the American Constitutional Convention of 1787. In October of 1774, Colonel Andrew Lewis successfully lead the Virginia militia against a confederation of Algonquian Shawnee and Mingo forces led by Chief Cornstalk in the “Battle of Point Pleasant”. Lewis’ camp was named “camp Point Pleasant”, which became a permanent settlement and gradually grew into the modern town and County Seat of Mason County.
Illustration of Battle of Point Pleasant. 1854 (Public Domain)
Following the Battle of Point Pleasant, Chief Cornstalk (Hokoleskwa or Kokolesqua in Shawnee) became a diplomat and peace advocate who secured working relations between his Shawnee kinsmen and Revolutionary Americans.
Illustration; one of the earliest depictions of Chief Cornstalk. From Frost's pictorial history of Indian wars and captivities from the earliest record of American history to the present time. 1872. (Public Domain)
Disturbing Death and Injustice
In the fall of 1777, Cornstalk and his son, Elinipsico, were wrongly detained at Fort Randolph while attempting to engage in peaceful relations with the Virginia militia, and both were murdered on November 10th. By the time of his death, Chief Cornstalk had become a renowned figure throughout the American colonies, and there was outrage over his wrongful end.
Replica of Fort Randolph, where Cornstalk was murdered. (Kevin Myers/CC BY-SA 3.0)
None other than Patrick Henry (governor of Virginia at the time) attempted to bring justice upon Cornstalk’s killers, but the militiamen refused to testify against one another, and the murderers walked free.
