This war club is of the nature of those used by the Shawnee Indians in the Ohio country during the Indian wars of 1774-1800. The handle is a tightly rolled piece of soft leather (apparently elkhide) which is hand-stitched into a tube that is 5/8" in diameter and 12-1/2" long. The head portion of the club is a smooth slightly oval-shaped rock over which stretched wet elkhide had been sewn and allowed to dry tightly, with the "neck of that stone container attaching to the rolled leather handle and securely sewn together. From the other end of this stone-holding pouch hang four strands of leather, two of which have metal cones (shaped sheet tin, perhaps) and it looks as if there may have once been four of these, but two are missing. The pouched stone measures 2-3/4" long by 2-1/4" wide by 1-3/8" thick at its thickest. Thus, the full, outstretched length of the war club is 15-1/4" long, exclusive of the four rawhide strands.
The war club was offered for sale at a farm auction in May, 1957 just outside Miamisburg (Montgomery Co.), Ohio, and was purchased by Allan W. Eckert (then of Dayton, Ohio), who has no doubt of the weapon's authenticity, nor that it is of Shawnee origin. He estimates that it was likely made and in use around 1780 -- about the time the Kentucky Militia under General George Rogers Clark crossed the Ohio River and invaded Shawnee territory on a mission of destruction against the Shawnee principal village of Chalahgawtha (Chillicothe), 3 miles north of present Xenia, Green Co., Ohio.
